You’ve probably already heard. Pope Francis is prone to harsh remarks aimed at conservative American Catholics. “For me, it’s an honor that Americans are attacking me,” Francis told La Croix‘s Nicolas Seneze, author of How America Wanted to Change the Pope.
The “Ecumenism of Hate”
Well, that same warmth and apostolic outreach continues to flow from Rome. Breitbart reports:
Pope Francis has publicly endorsed an essay that appeared in 2017 criticizing relations between Evangelicals and Catholics in the United States as an “ecumenism of hate.”
On Thursday, La Civiltà Cattolica journal released the transcript … in which the pope suggested that certain Evangelical Protestants in the United States “cannot really be defined as Christian. … [T]here are sects that cannot really be defined as Christian. They preach Christ, yes, but their message is not Christian,” the pope said. “It has nothing to do with the preaching of a Lutheran or any other serious evangelical Christianity.”
Smearing Pro-Lifers as Racists
Pope Francis recommended the article by Rev. Antonio Spadoro, S.J. and (liberal Protestant) Rev. Marcelo Figueroa. (Go read it yourself.) The Stream reported on the article when it came out. As I wrote in 2017, the essay targeted many:
- The worldwide pro-life movement (the authors sneer at “values voters”).
- Conservative U.S. Protestants.
- Patriotic citizens worried about Islamic colonization, terrorism, and sharia.
- Catholics who voted for Donald Trump.
- Catholics and Protestants who work together defend innocent life, the natural law, and religious liberty. ….