JORGE BERGOGLIO, the man whose credentials for the papal throne do not include being a Catholic, has done it again. He has once again delivered a rhetorical detonation. This time he tells us that all that stuff about hell and damnation was exaggeration. Novus Ordo Watch has the gory details of  his homily this Wednesday, in which he stated, according to a reliable English translation:

Do not be afraid of the final judgment of God, when the good will be separated from the bad, because Jesus will always be at our side, because we can rely on the intercession and the benevolence of the saints and because God “did not send his Son to condemn, but to save” and “he who believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned,” and in this sense “the judgment has already begun”.

Unsurprisingly, Time magazine has chosen Francis as “Man of the Year”  — oops, make that “Person of the Year.” The magazine, which we know has the highest of standards, calls Bergoglio the “People’s Pope.” There you have it. When a pope is popular in the modern world, that’s a sure sign he is not Catholic.

— Comments —

Karl D. writes:

I am not a Catholic, but even I knew it was getting bad when all of my liberal friends and lapsed Catholics started going absolutely gaga over Pope Francis. These are people who have no use for religion at all or were raised Catholic and became hostile to the church to begin with. The whole vibe is eerily similar to the mass hysteria and adulation that liberals had for Obama prior to his election.

Wanda Sherratt writes:

“[W]hoever does not believe is already condemned,” and in this sense “the judgment has already begun”.

Then I guess the worst is already over, then, eh?  “If you like your damnation, you can keep your damnation.  Period.”

Kimberly writes:

Time’s top ten finalists were:

Bashar Assad, President of Syria
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
Ted Cruz, Texas Senator
Miley Cyrus, Singer
Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Edward Snowden, N.S.A. Leaker
Edith Windsor, Gay rights activist

I sure as, um, hell, wouldn’t want to be on that list, let alone “win”! I’ll have to read all of what Pope Francis said to really understand what you mean, because I could see it going both ways from the quote you used. At the same time, this award is not at all what I imagine a truth-preaching Pope would win.

Laura writes:

I suggest the full commentary at Novus Ordo Watch. I have not explained here why his homily, which advised people not to fear God’s judgment, was so contrary to Catholic teaching.

Michael S. writes:

Every time I read, hear, or think of ““he who believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned,” here’s what I hear:

“He who believes in Him is not condemned [YET]…”

Lack of faith dooms you from the beginning. But faith without works is dead. Indeed, without certain works, you lose your faith too.

The most important thing in life is sanctifying grace. Without it, nothing else matters.

Jewel writes:

When I was 18, I attended our Church of Christ Family Bible Camp for the last time, after having attended more charismatic churches for a few years. The difference in the doctrines among the two different Protestant sects were pretty extreme, and the deacons, sensing heresy in me quarantined me to living in a cabin isolated from the other kids.  They were told that I’d embraced Satanic heresies (believing that God still does miracles and speaking in tongues and the whole bolt of charismatic cloth). The CoC teaches that denominations are all bad, but that theirs is the true Church of Christ, and that the Holy Spirit no longer works the miraculous because the KJV is the inspired true word of God complete, and is not revelatin’ no more.

Looking into the faces of children who believe, because they were told by adults that I was demonic is painful. I was their friend, and I considered them mine. Now they thought I was evil. I asked one elder how it is that God is so inactive but that the devil is quite busy. No good answers forthcoming.

It’s awful when you are persecuted, but even worse when your own church persecutes you for following what for two millennia has been the truth.

I would quake in my shoes, fearing the persecution to come, but for this teachable moment in my youth. I look back in sadness at those close-minded people. I was as wrong as I could be about big things when I was a charismatic, but I was on a path that ultimately wound up in the Roman Catholic Church.

But the persecution by the Vatican and the POPE of the Franciscans of the Immaculate…it leaves me speechless. I will pray earnestly for this situation to be resolved peacefully. And I will fear God.

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