Pat Buchanan questions Pope's stance in the culture wars

To judge by his public pronouncements, Pope Francis wants to be neutral in the so-called "culture wars" over issues such as abortion, same-sex "marriage" and the moral degradation of the West. "Who am I to judge [homosexuals]" said the pope who Msgr Patrick Perez denounced publicly as "a disgrace".

"Who am I to judge?" Walt answered the Holy Father's question on July 29th. And now Pat Buchanan -- perhaps a reader of WWW? -- says, "Well, he is pope. And even the lowliest parish priest has to deliver moral judgments in a confessional."

In "Papal Neutrality in the Culture War?", Mr. Buchanan accuses Pope Francis of bordering on moral relativism by refusing to condemn atheists and LGBT individuals. The Pope, he writes, is attempting to move the Catholic Church "to a stance of non-belligerence, if not neutrality, in the culture war for the soul of the West."

Strong stuff! The sound you hear is Walt applauding. Here's more of what Mr. Buchanan has to say about the Pope's astonishing departure lack of leadership on some of the most important cultural and moral issues of our day. The emphasis is Walt's.

"There is a small problem with neutrality. As Trotsky observed, 'You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” For the church to absent itself from the culture war is to not to end that war, but to lose it.'

"What would that entail? Can we not already see? In America, the family has disintegrated. 40% of working-class white children are born out of wedlock, as are 53% of Hispanic children, and 73% of black children. Kids from broken homes are many times more likely to drop out of school, take drugs, join gangs, commit crimes, end up in prison, lose their souls, and produce yet another generation of lost souls.

"[Laurie] Goodstein [of the New York Times] quotes the Holy Father as listing among the 'most serious of the evils' today 'youth unemployment'. And he calls upon Catholics not to be 'obsessed' with abortion or same-sex marriage. But is teenage unemployment really a graver moral evil than the slaughter of 3,500 unborn every day in a land we used to call 'God’s Country'?

"Papal encyclicals like Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno have much to teach about social justice in an industrial society. But what is the special expertise of the church in coping with teenage unemployment? Has the Curia done good scholarly work on the economic impact of the minimum wage?

"The cultural revolution preached by Marxist Antonio Gramsci is continuing its “long march” through the institutions of the West and succeeding where the violent revolutions of Lenin and Mao failed. It is effecting a transvaluation of all values. And it is not interested in a truce with the church of Pope Francis, but a triumph over that church which it reviles as the great enemy in its struggle.

"Indeed, after decades of culture war waged against Christianity, the Vatican might consider the state of the Faith. Our civilization is being de-Christianized. Popular culture is a running sewer. Promiscuity and pornography are pandemic. In Europe, the churches empty out as the mosques fill up. In America, Bible reading and prayer are outlawed in schools, as Christian displays are purged from public squares. Officially, Christmas and Easter do not exist.

"The pope, says Goodstein, refers to proselytizing as 'solemn nonsense'. But to proselytize is to convert nonbelievers. And when Christ admonished his apostles, 'Go forth and teach all nations', and ten of his twelve were martyred doing so, were they not engaged in the Church’s true commission — to bring souls to Christ....

"An Italian atheist quotes the pope as saying, 'Everyone has his own idea of good and evil,' and everyone should 'follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them.' Does this not reflect the moral relativism of Prince Hamlet when he said to Rosencrantz, 'there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so?' Yet, is it not the church’s mission to differentiate good and evil and condemn the latter?

"'Since he became pope,' writes Goodstein, Francis’ 'approval numbers are skyrocketing. Even atheists are applauding.' Especially the atheists, one imagines. While Pope Francis has not altered any Catholic doctrines in his interviews and disquisitions, he is sowing seeds of confusion among the faithful, a high price to pay, even for 'skyrocketing' poll numbers."

Further reading: "Why don't we proselytize?" by James Bannister, in Fatima Perspectives.