Pope Francis tweeted out a message yesterday.
I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers. May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable
MSNBC reported it this way:
The annual march marks the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, and also coincides with the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in D.C.
Despite the labels of “progressive” and “liberal” the pope have been given by some, his tweet reflects his past position on abortion, and is in line with the teachings of the Catholic church. Last year, the pope criticized those who saw abortion as “progressive” and, earlier this month, Francis compared abortion to the discarding of “dispensible objects.”
OK. Firstly, what in goodness’ name does the RNC’s winter meeting have to do with the March for Life?
And you’ve got to love how they say this tweet reflects the pope “past position on abortion.” Ha. You’ve got to understand, MSNBC was heartbroken today to learn the pope was Catholic.
January 23, 2014 at 3:28 am
I never thought I'd defend MSNBC, but here goes.
At least MSNBC covered the march. Granted, it was the seventh of ten articles on the home page and they have the aforementioned liberal bias. But they did have a large color photo of a young girl, praying and wearing a March for Life knit cap, right there on the home page. And the article repeatedly spoke of the marchers as "prolife" instead of "antiabortion." Plus there was a separate mention of the Holy Father's tweet at he top of the home page and that, too, said "prolife."
I couldn't even find a mention of the march on CNN's page.
January 23, 2014 at 12:59 pm
MSNBC and CNN can take comfort in knowing that American bishops are still President Obama's obedient housepets.
January 23, 2014 at 5:35 pm
The RNC winter meeting was scheduled to start on 1/22. They postponed the start so that it would not conflict with the March. This was denounce by the Dems in congress as "revolting."
January 23, 2014 at 5:36 pm
The RNC winter meeting was scheduled to start on 1/22. They postponed the start so that it would not conflict with the March. This was denounce by the Dems in congress as "revolting."
January 23, 2014 at 5:53 pm
Sorry for the double post. Don't know what happened.
January 23, 2014 at 9:48 pm
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January 24, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Sheesh, now even Catholics are misquoting the Pope! Elizabeth, the Pope never said a word about "obsessing about abortion." That was made up by the media. He did say some Catholics who were evangelizing were obsessing about presenting doctrine in general, rather than presenting the love of Christ first and foremost. He was speaking about evangelizing, not the Church's teaching of the faith in general. Much less was he dissing pro-life work. The "obsession" quote was 2 or 3 paragraphs away from his words about abortion. It's a made-up quote.
You can read his entire interview at America magazine in English – it's online. Please get yourselves informed!
January 24, 2014 at 2:52 pm
@Lori: He said "We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.…it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."
He also said “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.”
Those are direct quotes, Lori. I'm not misquoting him and however the mainstream media splashed it, he did say those things. Whether or not he was speaking about evangelizing has nothing to do with it, as far as I can see.
January 24, 2014 at 10:57 pm
Elizabeth, do you actually know what a direct quotation is? You quoted Francis as saying "obsessing about abortion." He never said those words. That was my point. While the words "abortion" and "obsession" do happen to appear in the same paragraph (I remembered that wrong) he did not say the words as you yourself put them into quote marks.
Perhaps in some people's mind "speaking about it all the time" might equate to "obsessing" about, but I honestly don't see it that way.
Nor, I'm sure, was his meaning in regard to abortion what you imply. He simply meant that we can't lead our presentation of the Gospel with it, that sometimes we have to step back. This is in the context of evangelization, not of pro-life activism, where the need is different.
At any rate, he never implied that we shouldn't speak abut boldly about abortion when necessary, and when necessary, he has done so. I also think he has learned not to let the press take advantage of his quotes. So there is no need to go on and on with the sarcasm. There are many other things we need to pay attention to as Catholics.