Picture: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP
“Rain on parched land.”
“A bold new course.”
“Revolutionary.”
That’s how liberal Catholics responded to the stunning interview published Thursday in which Pope Francis bluntly said the church shouldn’t be “obsessed” with culture war issues like abortion and gay marriage.
“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” the pope said, warning that the church's moral foundations will fall "like a house of cards" unless it strikes a "new balance" between preaching the gospel and taking stands on divisive issues.
How did conservative Catholics, the church’s most ardent culture warriors, react?
“I’ll be honest; I was disturbed,” writes Matthew Archbold in the conservative National Catholic Register.
“While it's clear that the pope is not changing church teaching, he is clearly changing the emphasis. The pope with a few words has unsettled so much.”
Archbold said that he’s concerned that the pope's words will be used against anti-abortion activists and opponents of gay marriage in the United States.
But after thinking and praying about the pope's remarks, Archbold said, he decided that being unsettled may not be "such a terrible thing."
"I think the pope was reminding us that we're a religion of 'yes.'"
Full Story: Conservatives 'disturbed' by pope's remarks
Source:CNN Belief Blog