Reform and Catholicism

The election of Father Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis marks what I hope is the beginning of a final set of reforms of the Catholic church.  I am a Protestant, raised in the Lutheran church and schooled in the history of Martin Luther's break from Catholicism over not just doctrinal issues, but more over the abuse of power by the medieval church.  Those abuses are long past, but it took a long time for the Catholic Church to eventually change its focus.  George Weigel argues that the outward focus of the Church, an evangelical focus if you will, started under Pope Leo XIII at the turn of the last century.  Pope Francis completes this cycle.  According to the WSJ, in a speech given a week before the Cardinals met for the papal election, he gave a decisive speech on the need for the church to shift its focus outwards.

"He spoke of the need for catechesis and the need to address the poor…the question of justice and the dignity of the human person," said a voting U.S. cardinal.

Peggy Noonan writes that the Pope must repair the church from the twin ills of the sexual abuse scandals and infighting at the Vatican.  His real humility caught her I.  My friend Jesse noted it as well right after his election.  His emphases on both helping the poor but keeping to the traditional teachings of the church should better unite Catholic believers.

Fellow SLOBs, Leslie Eastman, shares her thoughts on College Insurrection and KT Cat on The Scratching Post.

For my part, I think this is all good news.  The Catholic church is capable of being a powerful force for good in the world.  Even though I am a Protestant, I do not feel a sense of competition with the Roman church, because we are all Christians carrying out the great commission.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

A footnote from my Pastor: the language here might be better interpreted as "as you go" make disciples, indicating that regardless of where we go, we are to be making disciples for Christ.

More on the Democrat War Against Religion - UPDATE

Female Democratic Senators Shaheen, Boxer and Murray signed an op-ed in yesterday's WSJ that gives the rationale for forcing Catholic hospitals to provide contraception coverage to their employees against their consciences of their leaders and members. After babbling for most of the article about the benefits of covering contraception, which is wholly beside the point we get to the key paragraph.

Catholic hospitals and charities are woven into the fabric of our broader society. They serve the public, receive government funds, and get special tax benefits. We have a long history of asking these institutions to play by the same rules as all our other public institutions.

There you have it in black and white from Democrat politicians, the underlying fascist mentality of their war on religion. If you want to participate in the "fabric of our broader society" you have to check your principles and knuckle under to the state's version of morality. Any effort by a group to ameliorate the difficulties of the less fortunate is subject to the imposition of government standards of religion. The authors have the gall to call this outcome freedom of religion in the article.

I have seen nothing more revealing of the lack of understanding of what freedom of conscious or indeed freedom of any type means to progressives than that quote. Read it carefully if you value your freedom.

UPDATE

I removed some inflammatory language from the post. You can read Calivancouver's comment to see why.

More Loss of Liberty and Freedom of Conscience

Of course it did. The Obama administration is not going to allow Catholic organizations freedom of choice in whether or not to fund insurance coverage of contraception. From the NYTimes.

Federal officials said they would give such church-affiliated organizations one additional year — until Aug. 1, 2013 — to comply with the requirement. Most other employers and insurers must comply by this Aug. 1.
. . .
“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
. . .
The rule includes an exemption for certain “religious employers,” including houses of worship. But church groups said the exemption was so narrow that it was almost meaningless. A religious employer cannot qualify for the exemption if it employs or serves large numbers of people of a different faith, as many Catholic hospitals, universities and social service agencies do.

Even beyond religious conscience, this limits everyone's choice. What if I want a plan that costs a lot less? Cutting back on mandated services like contraception that have no co-pay could reduce the cost of insurance. Why isn't that a consumer choice? The assault on freedom from the health care law is so vast, that it sometimes helps to just think about one assault at a time.

Those who argue otherwise just hate me as an individual and hate the whole concept of consumer choice. They are called leftists or statists and they have decided to regulate everyone's lives, individual choice and conscience be damned.