Ladies and gentlemen, at best the papal visit was an abysmal disappointment. More troubling is that progressives of many stripes were allowed to use the visit as bully pulpits to promote their anti-God agendas: from the gay-rights theatrics in New York and Philadelphia to the staged anchor-baby stunt during the DC parade. Michael Hichborn of Lepanto Institute put up some commentary on the debacles of last week, noting that these things did not occur in vacuums. Indeed, they could only have occurred with the connivance of the prelates of the respective venues in which they occurred.
In the first paragraph, I touched upon the various issues upon which the pope dwelt. Nowhere did he deal with abortion and same-sex #mowwidge with the same treatment as he did the others. In fact, I don't think he even mentioned them by name. Speaking of name, one name that was curiously absent from his lips was that of Jesus Christ (with the obvious exception of his Mass celebrations).
When I pointed this out to some other faithful Catholics, they contorted themselves into pretzels trying to justify this glaring negligence. They said things like:
- "he's being gentle"
- "he didn't come here to argue"
- "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar"
- "he refrained out of deference to the Jews and Muslims"
- "it's not the time nor the place"
Mind you, all these came from faithful Catholics!
Ladies and gentlemen, since when is it considered argumentative to acknowledge - by name - Jesus Christ, the God Whom we serve and adore? As far as not being the time nor place, we are exhorted to preach the gospel "in season and out of season". All the excuses above have a common theme - being "nice". As we all know, "nice" is not a virtue. Have you noticed that the enemies of the faith are most astute and diligent in seizing every opportunity to promulgate their falsehoods? By and large, the mainstream culture applauds them, and we stand still for it in pseudo-respectful silence. When we dare lift our voices, that same culture shouts us down and too often we comply with their demands for our silence, for we "want to catch flies with honey and not vinegar". In other words, they define the terms and language of social conversation and debate and we acquiesce to it. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not legitimate kindness or deference. It is cowardice, rooted in an inordinate desire to be liked.
Speaking of being liked, Jesus had some things to say about that. From Luke 6:26 we read "Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets." Pope Francis was treated like a rock star in the mainstream culture whereas Jesus Christ was crucified. Think about it. More importantly, pray. If this past week is any harbinger of things to come, the upcoming Ordinary Synod on the Family could be disastrous.
