Reuters: Pope a 'Conservative Whose Papacy was Dogged by Scandal'

Reuters: Pope a 'Conservative Whose Papacy was Dogged by Scandal'

You have to read this Reuters piece to believe it. The determination to put the worst possible spin on everything this brilliant and compassionate uniter accomplished during his short tenure as Pope is breathtaking. Most ridiculous is Reuters’ premise that holding to Church doctrine is a de facto bad thing:

Ratzinger issued a firm Vatican denunciation of homosexuality and gay marriage in 1986.

He brought pressure in the 1990s against theologians, mostly in Asia, who saw non-Christian religions as part of God’s plan for humanity.

A 2004 document sternly denounced “radical feminism” as an ideology that undermined the family and obscured the natural differences between men and women.

His combative side came out in 2000 in a dispute over a CDF document entitled Dominus Iesus. Aimed at restating the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church against the more inclusive views in Asia, it branded other Christian denominations as deficient or not quite real churches.

Anglican, Lutheran and other Protestant churches which had been in ecumenical dialogue with Rome for years were shocked. They were further upset when Ratzinger dismissed protests from Lutherans as “absurd”.

Contrast Reuters’ hostile write-up to the words of New York’s Cardinal Dolan:

Though 78 when he elected pope in 2005, he set out to meet his people – and they were of all faiths – all over the world. He visited the religiously threatened – Jews, Muslims and Christians in the war-torn Middle East, the desperately poor in Africa, and the world’s youth gathered to meet him in Australia, Germany, Spain and Brazil.

He delighted our beloved United States of America when he visited Washington and New York in 2008. As a favored statesman he greeted notables at the White House. As a spiritual leader he led the Catholic community in prayer at Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As a pastor feeling pain in a stirring, private meeting at the Vatican nunciature in Washington, he brought a listening heart to victims of sexual abuse by clerics.

Pope Benedict often cited the significance of eternal truths and he warned of a dictatorship of relativism. Some values, such as human life, stand out above all others, he taught again and again. It is a message for eternity.

He unified Catholics and reached out to schismatic groups in hopes of drawing them back to the church. More unites us than divides us, he said by word and deed. That message is for eternity.

This is the second time in my adult life that my Church has gone through the process of electing a new Pope, and it looks as though this is the second time America’s left-wing media will attempt to pressure the Church into choosing a Barack Obama as Pope; a left-winger who will destroy the Church from within through the act of accepting and/or accommodating sin, especially when it comes to sexuality.

It’s likely Benedict had his retirement in mind when he elected a number of new Cardinals. These are the men who will choose our next Pope. That’s bad news for the anti-Catholic American media. Benedict’s already ten steps ahead of them.

When it comes to forcing its values on others, the over-bearing, moralistic, left-wing media are the most obnoxious “evangelicals” ever. When it comes to hurling shame, name-calling, peer pressure, and intolerance, no one tops the American media.

In this respect, the media makes the Catholic Church look like libertines. 

 

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC

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