Francis to America: Christ-like hugs all around!
In commenting on the generally tragic movement of the anti-Christian bar in Indiana and Arkansas recently, D.C. Cd. Donald Wuerl opens with a glowing discussion of the Pope’s Christlike openness and outreach.
When Pope Francis comes to the United States in September, his message will be that “God loves all of us the way we are” and “God asks us to love one another,” said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.
“We see in him not just the message, but how you do it,” the cardinal said in an interview with Fox News on Easter. “The way in which he lives, treats people, responds to people says, I think, to many people … he sounds and looks a lot like what Jesus would have sounded like.”
Cardinal Wuerl said that “a beautiful part of his ministry” and why people find Pope Francis “so inviting” is that “he keeps saying, ‘Go out, meet people where they are, and accompany them on their journey,’ so that perhaps all of us could get a little closer to where we all need to be.”
I find this kind of thing ugly. Why do we always have to be treated to some kind of verbal embrace when we hear about the Pope? Don’t worry sinner. Here, have a hug! I know you can’t help it. You’re just that way!
It’s not love. It’s just warmth, and it’s not what Jesus would have sounded like at all.
Jesus sounded like He did in the Bible. Those are His words, yes? If Jesus sounded like Pope Francis they never would have killed him. They would have begged him to come visit and praised him in the Temple.
In the Fox interview, Cardinal Wuerl discussed the ongoing debate on religious freedom and discrimination, saying that people involved in that debate need to realize there is strong discrimination against the Catholic Church.
“If we talk about discrimination, then we also have to talk about discriminating against the Catholic Church, its teachings and its ability to carry out its mission,” he said.
“No one should be forced to follow the actions of another and accept the actions of another. … Our schools should be free to teach. We don’t believe in abortion, and we need to be free to teach that,” the cardinal told Fox News.
He also talked about, for instance, the situation of a Christian baker being forced to make a cake for a same-sex wedding when the baker is morally opposed to such marriages.
Cardinal Wuerl asked whether the use of anti-discrimination laws is seen as one-way street.
“I wonder if across the board we’re not seeing different measuring rods being used when it comes to issues that we’re facing here, for example,” he said. “Why would it be discrimination for a Catholic university to say we’re not going to allow a gay rights or an abortion rights group to have their program on our campus, and it not be discrimination for that group to insist that the Catholic school change its teaching?”
In one case, the Christian owners of a bakery in Oregon face a fine of $150,000 after being found guilty of violating a state anti-discrimination law for declining to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.
Cardinal Wuerl said he believes there must be a way to “recognize the dignity of everyone and at the same time recognize the freedom and the rights, especially religious liberty, of everyone.”
It’s encouraging and appropriate to hear the powerful American cardinal make an eloquent defense of Christians, but does it really matter now that we’ve lost this battle and our side wants to pretend we’re still negotiating?