Friday 20 September 2013

Steve Jalsevac is Puzzled by Pope Francis

Pope Francis certainly has a way of stirring things up

Apparently the Pope has stirred up a hornets nest with his recent interview published in English in the Jesuit journal America. In his article in LifeSiteNews, Steve Jalsevac immediately warns us 

"That magazine, by the way, has for over 30 years been the intellectual flagship of the leftist dissident movement within the Catholic Church, especially on issues related to Church teachings on sexual morality."

Really? I was blissfully unaware of the magazine until the pope's interview appeared in it. Presumably this is to warn me that anything appearing in the magazine is suspicious by association. Sounds like a fallacy to me. He goes on to say
 
"I am however puzzled by his comment that “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods." Exactly who in Church institutions is actually doing that?"

You are and all your associates at LifeSiteNews. You persistently ignore life issues when they do not fall into your rather narrow purview. Innocent babies must be protected but crazy kids in streetcars can be shot down without a murmur from the pro-life movement? If Pope Francis is stirring things up and that bothers you, then good... you need to be stirred up. You might want to look at a previous post Is LifeSiteNews Pro All Life? for more on this topic. Mr. Jalsevac goes on to make the pope's argument for him by pointing out the crying need for evangelization.
 
"They do not know that these are all teachings of a loving Father to protect us all rather than restrictions to prevent enjoyment and freedom. They do not know that Catholic moral teachings are about charity and deep concern for the good of every person and are based on millennia of human experience and reason, as well as on the the teachings of Christ."

They do not know Jesus Christ so they have no reason to follow the moral teaching of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is not denigrating the need to speak out clearly and forcefully on pro-life issues. He has done so any number of times including his letter to Vladimir Putin during the recent G20 meeting. This time, Mr. Jalsevac, he is speaking to you. No doubt he knows you and your organization are firmly committed to pro-life issues but he wishes you to take a wider view.

Thanks to The Heresy Hunter for pointing out this article

7 comments:

Barona said...

Pope Francis' point is that morality comes from conviction, not the hammer. We are in the catastrophic situation because the Gospel - the Person of Jesus Christ - has not, and is not being preached.


Two further points: notice the SILENCE by the "progressive Catholics" on the Pope's condemnation of civil servant bishops etc.?

And finally: the reaction by the neo-con pro-life movement only proves the Pope's point.

Vox Cantoris said...

I am shocked by the arrogance of your attitude towards Mr. Jalsevac and LifeSiteNews.

How dare you!

I am disgusted with you Freyr and I call on you to remove this trash.

You are blissfully ignorant while you do the work with Gravel of slagging these good people.

Barona said...

I firmly believe this post is meant to recall pro-life groups to the totality of the pro-life message. It is not meant - in any way - as an ad hominem attack.

As mentioned in the referenced post of August 11th, it is a question about presenting the pro-life message in its entirely.

TH2 said...

Tried to post comment earlier, but seems to have been lost in the mix...

Freyr, thank you for the mention. However, I will respectfully disagree with your points made in this post.

Unknown said...

Trashing Lifesite and Jalsevac, surely represents a new low for this blog. Very poor judgment.

Freyr said...

LifeSiteNews is sacrosanct and above criticism but Pope Francis isn't? The pope had a legitimate criticism that applied to LifeSiteNews. Why the assumption that the pope is wrong but LifeSiteNews is right?

Barona said...

Neither posts were trashing Lifesitenews. Both posts were suggesting that lifesitenews broaden its understanding of the culture of death as outlined by the Church. To suggest that Lifesitenews has a newsfeed that contains unhelpful nonsense and neo-con tripe deserves refutation; not dismissal. Links to the activities of the eminent American thinker, Sarah Palin or the equally thought-provoking theologian, Desmond Tutu, surely could be balanced with at least minimal coverage of a culture of life issue that is in Lifesitenews' own backyard: namely, the monstrous murder of Sammy Yatim. Lifesitenews should be especially sensitive to the abuse of police power, given so many instances of police abuse of same towards pro-lifers. With specific regards to Pope Francis' interview: if Reuters could get it right over the Pope, surely so could Jalsavec.