Commentary on Pope Francis' lack of appeal

[Barbara]

" The monastery's resident artist, Sister Mary Grace Thul, painted two portraits of the Holy Father to raffle off at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. The nuns paid $1,500 to rent a booth in the exhibition hall, hoping to raise the profile of the Dominican Order and attract younger novices. Collectively, the Benincasa trio has belonged to the order for more than 150 years.

In all, the auction for both of Thul's pastel art works — the larger one featured a half-dozen depictions of Pope Francis; the smaller one depicted him surrounded by swirls of light — raised less than $500. "

Notice the TITLE of the article. That is what snagged my attention. Underneath was an advertisement featuring a large cobra coiled, reading to strike.

Regard too how the Sister's last name is used like she is a secular. Lack of regard for monastics by the mainstream media, not to mention a certain disdain.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /73628658/

[Barbara]

Another slight was that the Monastery was oddly named in the article as "Catarina Benincasa", when it obviously was St. Catarina [ better known as St Catherine of Siena ].

Then, too, the rave review accorded to Pope Francis by one of the 3 nuns rings a strange note :

"Sister Mary Columba Brienza ... marveled at how he quieted the crowd with a message of tolerance and economic justice that crosses all faiths.

"I saw these people fixed on that man in white and it was so beautiful," she said. "He brings people together and makes us realize that we're brothers and sisters."

"That man" ?? Why would a faithful religious address the Pope as "that man in white" ? Her message sounds saccharine and sculpted by a left-liberal approach. This does not mesh with the elderly appearance of the nun in the picture. The article states that the 3 sisters have 150 years in the Convent between them. Even if one nun has only 40 years, that still puts the youngest nun back into the reign of Pope Pius XII.

The media coverage surely leaves a lot to be desired as to truthfulness and accuracy....

[Cyprian]

Barbara, I am curious why you seem to have a particular animus towards anything and everything relating to Francis, yet you seem to have an affinity for his predecessor, and much else that is Roman Catholic. Do you confess what the Orthodox Church has confessed for many centuries, that the Roman church has been in schism and heresy for approximately a thousand years?

[Archimandrit Nilos]

Write never "Francis" and "Pope". Write always Bergoglio alias Francis ist the leader of an apostate organization from a l l Christian Faith, also his predecessors as Ratzinger, Woytila, etc. are such godless persons.

[Archimandrit Nilos]

http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/arch ... -2015.html. Here some examples !

[Barbara]

Well, I thought we had a concensus here that even leaders whom we dislike must be accorded their titles.
Archimandrite, I DID HESITATE LONG before I wrote "Pope" Francis. I wanted to write only the name. But I thought I better be polite and keep to our conventions here.

I also think it's important for some of us to keep an eye on what's going on in the Catholic world, because the persecution of Catholic monastics by the media is a precursor to persecution of Orthodox monastics and the entire Orthodox world view.
Thank God that no one knows about Orthodoxy - not many in the mainstream media do - or they would latch into major figures - ESPECIALLY True Orthodox ones - with the same vitriol and subtly snide remarks.

[Archimandrit Nilos]

I cannot agree.