I had, actually, read about Pope Francis' homily which is being peddled as an endorsement of atheism. What it was was a condemnation of Catholics who make a pose and show of Christianity while leading lives that are the exact opposite of it. Here is the paragraph that is being clipped is taken from:
But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life: ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I don’t pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money…’ A double life. And so many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others. How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere – ‘but to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.’ It is that, scandal. You destroy. You beat down. And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers. In the papers there are so many scandals, and there is also the great publicity of the scandals. And with the scandals there is destruction.
I don't think pointing out that Catholics that are hypocrites, doing injustice which leads to "scandal" do more harm to the reputation of the Catholic church than atheists is exactly an endorsement of atheism, it is slamming hypocrites in the church as being worse than atheists.
I might be reading too much into the statement but wonder if this has something to do with the scandal of the war that a clique of cardinals, especially the putrid Raymond Cardinal Burke, have all but declared against Pope Francis but, considering the role that Burke has had in the scandals surrounding the Knights of Malta, which came to a head last month, it's a good example of that kind of scandal. I haven't found the entire homily but these two excerpts given in the Vatican report of it are worth reading.
Jesus talks, in the Gospel, about those who commit scandal, without saying the world ‘scandal,’ but it’s understood: But you will arrive in heaven and you will knock at the gate: ‘Here I am, Lord!’ – ‘But don’t you remember? I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this… Don’t you remember all the offerings I made?’ ‘Yes, I remember. The offerings, I remember them: All dirty. All stolen from the poor. I don’t know you.’ That will be Jesus’ response to these scandalous people who live a double life.
“It would be good for all of us, each one of us, today, to consider if there is something of a double life within us, of appearing just, of seeming to be good believers, good Catholics, but underneath doing something else; if there is something of a double life, if there is an excessive confidence: ‘But, sure, the Lord will eventually forgive everything, but I’ll keep going as I have been…’ If there is something saying, “Sure, this is not going well, I will convert, but not today: tomorrow.’ Let’s think about that. And let us profit from the Word of the Lord and consider the fact that on this point, the Lord is very strict. Scandal destroys.”
Leave it to the American media and the illiterates of blog babble to pull out one clause which they distort because they're really not interested in the rest of the homily that gives that clause its meaning. We've got a literate Pope addressing a post-literate world.
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