{"id":1556,"date":"2015-04-08T15:34:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T19:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=1556"},"modified":"2015-04-09T11:28:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T15:28:38","slug":"jeb-bush-pope-francis-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=1556","title":{"rendered":"Jeb Bush: Pope Francis Republican"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cardinal<\/a>

Cardinal Dolan meditates on another Bush presidency<\/p><\/div>\n

I get the impression that Jeb Bush is so far removed from any consciousness of GOP voters that he’s become a completely technical politician.\u00a0 Every phrase out of his mouth is some kind of arrow shot at a target.<\/p>\n

NRO’s Kathryn Lopez phoned <\/a>GOP Presidential heir-designate Jeb Bush recently, and right away they’re talking about Francis, their mutual pope, and his ‘way with words’.<\/p>\n

I’m so jealous.\u00a0 If only I knew how to say those ‘simple things’ that draw people toward me.<\/p>\n

What does Jeb Bush think of Pope Francis? The pope must be \u201cthe envy of a lot of people in public life,\u201d Bush says. He has a \u201cremarkable\u201d way of \u201csaying the simplest things that draws people towards his beliefs.\u201dIt slipped my mind in my new busy-ness but I forgot those fond memories of my becoming Catholic.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago this Easter, at a vigil Mass in 1995, Bush was received into the Catholic Church. We talked by phone briefly on Easter Monday afternoon about the anniversary of his conversion to Catholicism \u2014 which had actually slipped his mind. In the busy-ness of my \u201cnew work,\u201d he says, \u201cI had totally forgotten it was the 20th anniversary last Saturday. It brought back fond memories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201dWhen the subject turns to the new FrancisChurch we get a hyper-canned version of the frozen Catholic right:<\/p>\n

\n

Asked if he\u2019s experienced change in the Church in the 20 years since his conversion, he points to the stability of Catholicism, but then immediately notes the \u201cobvious\u201d change in the Church the \u201ctone and emphasis\u201d of Pope Francis has brought.<\/p>\n

He notes that the media may be missing the whole story when the pope gets into \u201cspecifics.\u201d Bush predicts that there might \u201cturn out to be a real disappointment\u201d for people, especially non-Catholics, \u201cwho think this guy is really cool\u201d and expect \u201cbig changes\u201d in terms of doctrine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How could they possibly be disappointed when they’ve already been thrilled?<\/p>\n

Does Bush imagine we should expect ‘small’ changes in doctrine, or that we should be pleased when they don’t turn out to be big?\u00a0 What does the Governor think is Catholic?<\/p>\n

We talk a little bit about the pope\u2019s upcoming visit to the United States this fall. The mere fact that Philadelphia could be expecting in the range of 2 million people, he says, is \u201ca powerful statement in and of itself \u2014 that this many people would want to come and hear the pope and participate in communion with him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are there any statistics on the Pope’s appearances today that aren’t inflated<\/a>?\u00a0 With whom does Jeb Bush think people ‘participate in communion’?\u00a0 Is he talking about Holy Communion or communion with Francis?\u00a0 This phrasing is odd, isn’t it? It reminds me of when Obama praises “His Holiness’s pronouncements.”\u00a0 These politicians seem to think we’re all Children of the Corn.<\/p>\n

Can an attitude like Pope Francis\u2019s help Catholics in public life, especially in situations like last week\u2019s unpleasant upheaval over religious-freedom laws? \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d says Governor Bush.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think he can help change the conversation. Because right now, it\u2019s just full of landmines.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A minefield.\u00a0 That’s America to Jeb.\u00a0 A more elitist characterization could not be made, or a more frightened one.<\/p>\n

On the topic of Indiana and related controversies, he adds: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine a country with our tradition of tolerance where now it\u2019s \u2018either\/or.\u2019 . . . A country as big and noble as our country doesn\u2019t have space to be able to allow people of conscience to act on their faith and people not be discriminated against? I think we can figure this out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the Bishops’ position, those conservative lions.\u00a0 Keep trying!\u00a0 There must be a way to force bakers to bake gay wedding cakes and still call it freedom.\u00a0 Endeavor to persevere!<\/p>\n

Making clear he\u2019s not mistaking himself for pope or pastor, Bush suggests that \u201cin politics, we really need to focus on language that cuts through that gets beyond them vs. us, the divide that always seems to prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

He readily admits he doesn\u2019t get it right all the time. \u201cI think about . . . how I can improve how I express my views,\u201d he says. People\u2019s beliefs on a lot of hot-button issues like religious liberty, life, among others, may be \u201cinformed by faith, your life\u2019s journey, the thousands of interactions you have with people,\u201d and are matters \u201cway beyond politics,\u201d he says. At the same time, discussing them is not only unavoidable, but necessary. So how to do so compellingly, convincingly, in such a way as to invite collaboration and even conversion (of the political sort)?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, it seems following that Pope Francis model is the key here.\u00a0 It’s about finding that special language which unites.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis\u2019s lesson may just be, Bush suggests, \u201cWhere you say it, how you say, it is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to figure out a way that gets beyond being pushed into a position where you sound like you\u2019re intolerant of people who may not agree,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you have to say what you believe as well,\u201d surmising that in the case of Francis the media, in search of sound bites, may have glossed over some of the pope\u2019s more inconvenient underlying beliefs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the fact Pope Francis is a liberal, he is not a Bush.\u00a0 His position is more akin to Obama because he represents the dissident Left within<\/em> the Church.\u00a0 From Bush’s disinterested American perspective, Francis looks like a smooth talker skillfully manning a faithful conservative post, but that’s only catholic media spin.\u00a0 Francis isn’t protecting faithful positions.\u00a0 They are his targets.<\/p>\n

Saying things well is not the Pope’s priority.\u00a0 He demonstrates daily that it doesn’t matter what he says, he can get away with it.\u00a0 The media will always support Pope Francis so long as he keeps doing their work in Rome, but they won’t treat Jeb Bush that way if he takes the primaries.\u00a0 In that case, just like a bishop, it will be his job to pretend, capitulate, and lose – but there won’t be anybody praising his words while he does it.<\/p>\n

If I were the governor I’d reconsider my humble and gushing esteem for Pope Francis and his ‘tone’.\u00a0 They both don’t play for the same team and the Pope plays to win.\u00a0 It’s not like Jeb would get his vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I get the impression that Jeb Bush is so far removed from any consciousness of GOP voters that he’s become a completely technical politician.\u00a0 Every phrase out of his mouth is some kind of arrow shot at a target. NRO’s Kathryn Lopez phoned GOP Presidential heir-designate Jeb Bush recently, and right away they’re talking about …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,52,144,143],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-become-catholic","tag-jeb-bush","tag-kathryn-lopez","tag-way-of-speaking"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1580,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}