Thursday, May 25, 2017

Catholics Respond to Pope Francis' 'One-Sided, Misleading' Message to Donald Trump


"On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump met with Pope Francis. Francis gave the president three gifts: a sculpture of an olive tree, his message "Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace," and a copy of his encyclical on climate change, Laudato SiReuters reported. Trump promised to read them.

"But American Catholics expressed skepticism about just how well these messages represent a Catholic approach to governance.

" 'Pope Francis' peace message, like so much of what he says, is one-sided and misleading," John Zmirak, senior editor of The Stream and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism, told PJ Media in an interview Wednesday. "It's a failure of Christian charity, even of courage, to blather about non-violence with ISIS, al Qaeda, or others who believe that murder can land them in Paradise."

"Before the Trump-Francis meeting, Zmirak penned a defense of President Trump's immigration policy, correcting common misconceptions about Catholic social teaching. In that article, he quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says, "Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to insist in carrying civic burdens."

"Zmirak called Pope Francis out for a June 2015 speech in which the pontiff claimed that arms manufacturers aren't really Christians and then went on to denounce the Allies in World War II for not bombing Nazi death camps. "Where were they supposed to get the bombs? From all the wicked non-Christians who risked their souls by making them?" Zmirak asked.

" 'As I show at length in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism, it’s incoherent, utopian blather. So is the pope’s demand for open borders to Islam. Suicide by virtue-signaling," the Stream editor added." . . .

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