Pope Francis said the “reactionary attitude” among some American Catholics is “useless” in the face of doctrinal progress, according to remarks published Monday.
Francis, 86, commented at a meeting with Jesuits in Lisbon, Portugal, on Aug. 5 as part of his visit for the 2023 World Youth Day event. His remarks appeared in La Civiltà Cattolica (Catholic Civilization), a magazine often featuring the pope’s candid statements in meetings with his fellow Jesuits.
Of his opponents, Francis said, “Those American groups you speak of … are isolating themselves. And instead of living on doctrine, on the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live on ideologies. But when in life you abandon the doctrine to replace it with an ideology, you lose, you’ve lost as in [a] war.”
Those who are part of “a closing climate,” he said, “lose the true tradition” of the church “and turn to ideologies. … In other words, ideology replaces faith, [and] belonging to a sector of the church replaces belonging to the church.”
In recent years, American Catholics — including some bishops — have criticized the Argentine-born pontiff as being too liberal in his attitudes on divorced people, gays and transgender individuals and for restricting use of the Traditional Latin Mass, something his predecessor Benedict XVI allowed more widely.
A few months after his 2013 election as spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, Francis‘ statement about homosexuals in the priesthood — “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” — set off a controversy that has only continued.
Answering a questioner in Portugal, Francis said those who are gay and not celibate are welcome. He said, “The door is open to all, everyone has their own space in the Church. How will everyone experience it? We help people live so they can occupy that place with maturity, which applies to every type of person.”
The pope said, “What I don’t like at all, in general, is that you look at the so-called ‘sins of the flesh’ with a magnifying glass, as has been done for a long time.” He said the exploitation of labor, lying or cheating “didn’t count” in many instances, but only “sins below the belt were relevant.”
This isn’t the first time Francis has called out American critics, nor is it the first time La Civiltà Cattolica, a 173-year-old semimonthly, has been the vehicle reporting such criticism.
In September 2021, the Jesuit magazine released remarks Francis made in Bratislava, Slovakia, answering a priest who said some Catholics view the pontiff “with suspicion.” Francis‘ answer appeared to single out Alabama-based EWTN, a Catholic cable and satellite television network that often features those critical of the current pontificate.
The pope replied, “There is, for example, a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope. I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the [Catholic Church] does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil. I have also said this to some of them.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.