Cardinal Wuerl Is Complaining About Us

That actually is a good thing.  He isn't playing the aloof stoic any longer.  If he's trying to poo-poo us, we must be having some beneficial effect.  He gave an interview to America magazine (that should say a lot right there) from which Joan Desmond of National Catholic Register draws.  I won't pick the whole thing apart, but will focus a bit one one very telling tidbit, a "Freudian slip", if you will.  Read the following.

"Pope Francis is calling for a church that, to my mind, is much more in contact with the Gospel, with the living out of the Gospel. Not just the articulation of the Gospel, the voicing of the Gospel, the proclaiming of the Gospel, but the personal living of it, and that seems to be what is the most attractive part of this pope, why so many people find him inviting, who so many people follow him, why so many people are coming back to the practice of the faith."

This "much more in contact with the Gospel" bit is, uh..intriguing!  "Much more" in comparison with what, pray tell?  "Much more" than:

• The Fathers and Doctors of the Church who helped crystalize and expound the teachings of Our Lord?
• Those missionaries who spread the Faith to pagans, often at the cost of martyrdom?
• Those parents of today who sacrifice to teach their children at home lest they lose their Faith in public and yes, diocesan schools?
• Those Christians who suffer for upholding the teachings of Jesus Christ in the face of opposition? Kim Davis, Linda Gibbons and (pay attention, Your Eminence!) Father Marcel Guarnizo are among that number.

My heavens!  How bereft we Catholics have been during these last 20 centuries of "contact with the Gospel"!  Now we have a pope whom many "find inviting"!  Yes indeedee!  Just ask Elton John!  As far as having lots of followers, that is no measure of anything.  Read John 6.  Many people followed Jesus - until He taught of the nature of the Eucharist.  Then they up and left.  Jesus kept proclaiming the truth of Who He is.  These truths of the Church are eternal and immutable, regardless of the number of "followers".   I will make no statement whatsoever regarding the pope's personal "living of the gospel", be it "yay" or "nay".  I wonder how the Cardinal dares to do so.

He also said that those who question the synodal process "just don't like this pope".  I suppose that would include his brother Cardinals Pell, Burke and now Arinze?  See here and here.

I do consider this braying by Cardinal Wuerl to be a good sign.  We bloggers must be doing something right to arouse their ire and to cause them to squint their eyes at the light of truth.  Let's keep it up.