“Without joy that person is not a true believer?”
Notorious grim catholic dissident Garry Wills continues his celebratory Pope Francis book tour, having fun like liberals do by attacking the Faithful and gloating.
At a recent I talk I gave about Pope Francis, a man asked me, “Why do more non-Catholics like the pope than Catholics do?” He was wrong, of course. A Pew poll two months ago found that 90 percent of Catholics like what the pope is doing—and the number is even higher (95 percent) among the most observant, Mass attending Catholics. The percentage of non-Catholics who view the pope favorably does not get above the 70s.
If any orthodox Catholics out there like Pope Francis and what he’s doing, here’s news. He doesn’t like you.
Yet the question was understandable. There is a perception of great resistance to the pope in his own church. This is largely the product of noise. Extremists get more press coverage than blander types, and some Catholic bloggers have suggested that the pope is not truly Catholic. They are right to be in a panic. They are not used to having a pope who is a Christian. They call Francis a radical because he deplores the sequestration of great wealth for a rich few and deprivation of the many poor. But Francis is a moderate. Jesus was the radical: “How hard it will be for the wealthy man to enter the kingdom of God…. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:23, 26). In the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31), when the rich man (Dives) calls for succor from hell, Abraham, holding the poor man (Lazarus) in his bosom, answers: “All the good things fell to you while you were alive, and all the bad to Lazarus; now he has his consolation here, and it is you who are in agony.”
You ‘extremists’ and your noise! How dare you suggest the Pope doesn’t believe all Catholic doctrines. It’s not like he’s given you any reason to doubt!
You don’t like him because you’re greedy and he loves the poor. You’re just not used to a Pope who is a Christian?!
It took 2,000 years to get one who is, right Garry?