Pope Francis has beef with some members of the Catholic Church in the U.S., and he didn’t mince words in a private meeting this month.
A newly published transcript of remarks he made at a private meeting with Portuguese Catholics revealed the pope railed against conservative Catholics in the U.S., who he says have replaced their faith with political ideology.
As the Catholic National Reporter noted in March, conservative Catholics in the U.S. have attacked Francis over the last decade for what they deem to be a lack of clarity in “articulating church doctrines on homosexuality, abortion and the indissolubility of marriage.” Francis’ statements opposing capitalist exploitation have drawn conservative criticism, too.
The pope summarized all this anger toward him in his private meeting:
"You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” he said. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
Francis said being backward-looking “is useless and we need to understand that there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals,” noting that concepts of morality change over time.
“In other words, doctrine also progresses, expands and consolidates with time and becomes firmer, but is always progressing,” he added.
He gave a few examples:
Let us get to specifics. Today it is a sin to possess atomic bombs; the death penalty is a sin. You cannot employ it, but it was not so before. As for slavery, some pontiffs before me tolerated it, but things are different today. So you change, you change, but with the criteria just mentioned.
And he went on to issue a warning to U.S. conservatives:
Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war.
It’s not the first time Francis — who has openly criticized American politicians like Donald Trump — has rebutted attacks from right-wingers in the U.S. In 2019, he responded to opposition from conservative Catholics in the U.S. by saying, “It’s an honor that the Americans attack me.”
I anticipate conservative Catholics won’t take kindly to these recent remarks, either.
The pope is basically calling them out, saying they don’t have dominion over the word of God, and imploring them to simply be more humane people.