Pope Francis again interviews with an Atheist.

So the Pope once again opened himself up to an atheist reporter. You can read all about how he is "assaulting Vatican traditions" or "criticizes the Vatican's narcisism", whatever. Fact is, if you want to find something said about anything, you can and you will. 

 

Like I said before in this post, parts of the media are on a honeymoon with Francis. They want to believe and convince themselves and others that there is finally a Pope or Catholic leader who has a Liberal agenda, who supports atheism, abortion, gay rights, and women priests. But that last one, women preists, that one will always stump me. How can people even imagine that happening? That is like fighting for the right for a man to be a Nun or a Mother of a monastery.

 

So he spoke again to an athiest and this time he is being twisted to say that the Vatican is egotistical, and that anyone can and should choose their own "truth" as it apeals to their intellect. The Washington Post is the one I read first, which has the Holy See quoted saying, “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good . . . Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.” You can read that article here. I havent found the full interview. This is what becomes of cut-and-paste reporting. The unassuming reader would be convinced the interview took a mere two minutes, and this was the apex of the conversation.

 

Understandably, this quote on its own would make the educated Catholic weary. Pope Leo XIII called for the battle against philosophical relativism in his encyclical Aeterni Patris and was followed up by John Paul II in Fides et Ratio nearly a century later, but nobody has made as strong a case against relativism as Cardinal Ratzinger did at his April 18, 2005 homily widely knows as the "Dictatorship of Relativism" homily. Check that out here.

 

But is our Francis saying anything different? Did the first Pope not say "... but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:35)? But taken as its own, this can mean any number of things and anyone can make a case for relativism.

 

What is even more interesting is the comments I found on the Washington Post last night. The comments do not appear for me on the regular website, but only on the mobile site, so I took a screenshot with my phone. Now, I cannot speak for the commentors, as to whether they are in favor of or think the Pope is in support of atheism, or relativist or what have you. The thing that speaks to me is the pebble in their shoe, that is, this Pope is gathering some to listen futher, which is better than a populus that wishes nothing to do with religious rhetoric.