Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II was Pope from 1978 to 2005. He was the first Polish Pope and was instrumental, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U. S. President Ronald Reagan, in orchestrating the demise of the Communist Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Pope John Paul was a holy man whose deep faith permeated everything he undertook. He was not a politician but singularly, and solely, God’s highest representative on earth.
His continual support for the Christian family unit was one of Pope John Paul’s resounding legacies. He routinely expressed the need to reinforce the family as it was the primary entity responsible for the protection of the innocent children those marriages produced.
Here is one of Pope John Paul’s lovely prayers for the family.
For the Family
Lord God, from You every family in heaven, and on earth, takes its name.
Father, You are love and life.Through Your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy Spirit, the fountain of divine charity,
grant that every family on earth may become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.Grant that Your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and wives
for the good of their families and of all families in the world.Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human dignity
and for their growth in truth and love.Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of marriage,
may prove mightier than all the weaknesses and trials through which our families sometimes pass.Through the intercession of the Holy Family,
grant that the Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family, and through the family.We ask this of you, who is life, truth and love with the Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Pope Francis
How disturbing is it, that in just 10 years, our current Pope’s support for the family has eroded to the point where the ideology of radical feminism supersedes the tenets of Christianity when he responds, “Who am I to judge” when questioned about homosexual behavior.
I’ll take Pope John Paul II, over Pope Francis, any day of the week.
It's the Women, Not the Men! 
I was staying on point. You called the Supreme Pontiff a liar and said the “entire encyclical” was a lie. I offered several quotes from the encyclical and asked if they were indeed lies. Now you’ve changed the topic to ‘the genius of man’ and suggested I don’t have faith in it. First of all, I’m not aware of “the genius of man” being a part of the Profession of Faith but, even if it were, I know of no teaching that calls it God’s “problem solving instrument”.
I also don’t know who is being “hysterical” about anything here. And as far as what I want for humanity–I pray often for Christ to save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven.
My alternative plan? To work towards being pleasing to God that I might see His Kingdom. Is that what you’re calling delusional?
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“How disturbing is it, that in just 10 years, our current Pope’s support for the family has eroded to the point where the ideology of radical feminism supersedes the tenets of Christianity…”
I’m not Catholic, but I have really felt that erosion of support for the family and the changes within Christianity, within many churches. My former church, we used to have premarital classes, marriage seminars, parenting classes and a huge program for children. Now that church literally flies the rainbow flag where a cross used to be.
I’ve blogged a bit about what that abandonment of families has been like, the impact it has had on our community. Sometimes it really makes me mad, families are rather universal, we all have one, where as issues like gay marriage or radical feminism belong to such a small percent of the population. For some churches to basically abandon families in a quest to appeal to a small but vocal minority is just appalling.
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I couldn’t agree more! It’s beyond disturbing. It’s infuriating! What is wrong with these church “leaders?” How could people at the top of the hierarchy of their churches be so easily and naively swayed to abandon the very essence of Christianity, the family, in favor of people who take part in perverted, pointless, painful, disease-ridden, self absorbed sexual behavior? Are they all on drugs!!?? Maybe.
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Reblogged this on Biblical Gender Roles and commented:
Kathy – I have many Catholic friends including you. I know that some believe you have to follow the teachings of the Pope wherever he leads no matter what he says, but I must respectfully disagree with those friends. I am glad that there are Catholics like you that recognize the Pope is actually capable of being wrong on certain things.
I really see this issue of homosexuality as one that has the potential to tear both Protestantism and Catholicism apart.
In both the Catholic and Protestant churches we have those who think Christianity needs to come to an acceptance of homosexuality and then those who believe that God’s moral law does not change even societies morals do.
For us a Protestants – we can leave those Protestant churches that have left the Word of God – but where does that leave Catholics since you Christian denomination does not allow you to question your church leadership? I say this with all due respect to your Catholic faith. But I am curious?
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Many Catholics left the Church after Vatican II and joined the Episcopal church. Now, with its acceptance of female priests and homosexual marriage I often wonder how the old-time converts feel. As far as the Pope’s infallibility, he is very, very limited on the ecclesiastical dogma he can address. Global warming is NOT included within this purview but homosexuality, as it is addressed by the Bible, is. This Pope has not redefined homosexuality as no longer sinful but he as certainly skirted around it, which is very disturbing to traditional Catholics. So, yes, Pope Francis has shown himself to be more a leftist politician than a traditional Pope, and I could join another church in disgust. But, can you name another church that hasn’t gone farther down the rabbit hole of political correctness than the Catholic Church has up to this point? No. They have ALL been radically feminized, away from the true teachings of the Bible and Christ, by “liberated” women, and wimpy men, who are both feminists first, and Christians second. Rather than leave the faith we love, our family has chosen to stay and fight it out. What we’ve done is become very vocal with our parish priest about these disturbing issues, most of which concerned him too. But, beyond that, we have also chosen to protest both the ludicrous global warming encyclical, the Pope’s irrational views on “unfettered” capitalism and his cowardly stance on homosexuality AND communion for those who support abortion and are divorced, by writing a letter to our local Bishop, expressing our deep concerns about the Pope’s continued leftist commentary and withdrew our substantial finance commitment to the diocese for the next 5 years.
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You do realize that with regard to unfettered capitalism Pope St. John Paul II, among others, affirmed the very same position as Pope Francis, yes?
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Pope John Paul II simply expressed his opposition to greed on the part of companies. He did not, unilaterally, condemn capitalism. And more importantly, unlike Pope Francis, he vocally condemned Marxism.
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” In spite of the great changes which have taken place in the more advanced societies, the human inadequacies of capitalism and the resulting domination of things over people are far from disappearing. In fact, for the poor, to the lack of material goods has been added a lack of knowledge and training which prevents them from escaping their state of humiliating subjection.” –Pope St. John Paul II, 1991
“The Marxist ideology is wrong.” –Pope Francis, 2013
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This first quote from Pope John Paul is hardly a condemnation of “unfettered” capitalism.
And, as for the second, Pope Francis’ actions speak louder than words. There is simply no more room to give him the benefit of the doubt. Chronic duplicity has plagued his public commentary causing many to legitimately question his veracity on many topics.
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I can’t find Pope Francis saying anything about “unfettered capitalism”, where should I look?
What actions has he taken that support Marxism? And what comments are duplicitous? I try to keep up with the Holy Father’s schedule and writings but it would seem I’m not as diligent as I should be. What has he done or said that gives legitimate cause to call him a liar?
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For one, Breitbart.com. Just Google, “Pope Francis unfettered capitalism” for long list.
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I did that, but none of those articles actually cite anything Pope Francis said about “unfettered capitalism” or, in most cases, about capitalism at all. So, did he say it, or not?
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Come on. Do you honestly think that all of the articles arbitrarily chose to include the rarely used words “unfettered capitalism” just by happenstance? Read the Breitbart article.
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Well, I googled the phrase and went to Brietbart, and Breitbart.com says: “the Pope didn’t say it” and “the Pope never even uttered the word “capitalism” at all” and “This is hardly the condemnation of a particular form of free market economics. It is the description of personal vice becoming a systemic problem, with capital being idolized and greed presiding over the economy.” [All in the article ‘NOT SATISFIED WITH POPE’S ECONOMIC CRITIQUE, THE LEFT INVENTS MORE’]
So I guess you’ll have to be more specific, since even the source you point me to says that the Pope didn’t say the things you say he did.
Have you considered the possibility that it’s not the Pope who’s a liar but the reporters whose articles you’ve been reading? Because it seems you don’t actually have any accurate information about what the Pope has said and done.
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Since you can’t seem to find “unfettered capitalism” maybe you’ll have better luck looking up the following references to capitalism used by the Pope, “the dung of the devil”, “the new tyranny” or a “subtle dictatorship.” I don’t think there is ANY doubt about his irrational hatred for the one economical system, which was created by the Christian Protestant work ethic, that provides SO much good for SO many people world wide. Maybe he’s jealous that we Catholics didn’t come up with the idea first.
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Googled “dung of the devil”: In that statement, Pope Francis never says “capitalism”.
Googled “new tyranny”: It’s from Evangelii Gaudium and the word “capitalism” never appears.
Googled “subtle dictatorship”: same source as “dung”, no mention of “capitalism” in the entire text of the speech.
So I have to ask you again: have you considered that the problem isn’t the Pope but, rather, your sources for what he says?
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You are obviously a very committed Catholic and I commend, although will never understand, your devotion to this current Pope. Perhaps it is your youth. It is obvious that we will never agree on this Pope’s commentary. Since this conversation is now going in circles, let’s leave it at that. God bless and good luck.
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I hadn’t thought of my mid-40s as a youthful time but perhaps my zealotry keeps me young.
Misericordia tibi et pax et caritas adimpleatur,
your brother in Christ,
dfxc
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And as for lying, to repeat, Pope Francis’ entire encyclical on global warming is a lie. In fact, since its publication, his disapproval ratings have nearly doubled from 9% to 16%.
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The entire encyclical is a lie? ” My predecessor Benedict XVI likewise proposed “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment”.” Is a lie? ” Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’”.” Is a lie? ” Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources.” Is a lie? ” The Bible teaches that every man and woman is created out of love and made in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26).” Is a lie? ” A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable. That is how we end up worshipping earthly powers, or ourselves usurping the place of God, even to the point of claiming an unlimited right to trample his creation underfoot.” Is a lie? ” The ultimate destiny of the universe is in the fullness of God, which has already been attained by the risen Christ, the measure of the maturity of all things.” Is a lie? ” I would recall the balanced position of Saint John Paul II, who stressed the benefits of scientific and technological progress as evidence of “the nobility of the human vocation to participate responsibly in God’s creative action”, while also noting that “we cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention to the consequences of such interference in other areas”.” Is a lie? ” Believers themselves must constantly feel challenged to live in a way consonant with their faith and not to contradict it by their actions. They need to be encouraged to be ever open to God’s grace and to draw constantly from their deepest convictions about love, justice and peace.” Is a lie? ” It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures.” Is a lie?
If those words are lies, what is truth?
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Let’s try and stay on point. We are not talking about Pope Benedict. And it appears from your commentary that you have no faith in the genius, which God has specifically invested in his greatest creature, man, to act as His problem-solving instrument. Christian men have always risen to the challenges posed by their God-given dominion over the earth. Tunnel vision distorts the truth. To view any of the temporary, or imaginary, problems through the narrow lens of immediacy, fails to acknowledge the incredible successes, advances, and the highest standards of living for more people, than at anytime in history. It also fails to give credit where credit is due. Re read Mosher’s article above to refresh your memory on these truths. Hysterically over reacting to these “problems” fails to view the situations rationally. I.e. without the inexpensive energy generated by nuclear power plants, half the people on earth would be thrown back into the dark ages. Is this what you want for humanity? Radioactive waste, which man is perfectly capable of storing, is well worth dealing with considering the enormity of the benefits the power plants provide to mankind. There has, and always will be waste in any culture, which man can deal with as well. Again, what is your alternative plan? Utopia? Sorry, but that is a delusional unattainable daydream.
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I have no regard for Francis at all. He’s a heretical Marxist, plain and simple. I say he’s an apostate, an enemy of Christ. That’s what he is. Make no mistake about it. His Court is full of these vipers now. He’s thrown in with the monsters of the Mathusian pseudoscience of overpopulation and overconsumption, the idiocy of depleting resources. This nonsense has been falsified for decades. I say that he knows that. I say that he’s a liar!
The agenda thereof is the emasculating, genocidal madness of eugenics, euthanasia, forced sterilization and abortion on demand, as well as all of the other attending horrors of feminazism and homofascism.
All of history is this: Satan seducing the weaker vessel of the rebellious tyranny of matriarchy which incessantly vies to overthrow the rugged individualism of patriarchy that will not bow the knee to the idolatry of statism! Feminism is the BIG LIE that obscures the respective curses of Genesis 3:16.
She is the same rotting corpse of old under a new name, the spiritual Concubine of that effeminate, limp-wristed fop whom the Archangel Michael cast out, and we will look upon him and wonder: “This is the man who trouble the nations?!”
She’s Eve deceived and Adam, who knows better, emasculated, just going along to get along. Pathetic. She’s Mankind, wretched and naked, shaking its fist at God.
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You are so articulate in your fervor to save our faith from evil. I commend you.
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