Lex Anteinternet: Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLIV. Pope Francis writes Fr. James Martin, S.J.

I recently posted this:

Lex Anteinternet: Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLIII. Doomsday? Me'h.: The doomsday clock gets a big yawn. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientist moved the hands on their doomsday clock from 100 seconds to midnight to...

Which contained this:

The Pope says things that aren't really new, and aren't really shocking.

For years and years, one of the favorite things for the Press to do is to misreport Papal news.  Nearly anything the Pope says is shocking to the press.

By the same token, nearly everything he says is misinterpreted by Protestants, who don't grasp what the Pope's actual role is, and any more by Catholics who are looking for a reason to be mad.

The AP just interviewed Pope Francis, and he said a bunch of things that were to be expected and frankly aren't, in some instances, even all that interesting.

One is that he said homosexuality shouldn't be illegal, but homosexual conduct is sinful.

This isn't news.  This isn't even new.  More specifically, he stated:

Being homosexual is not a crime. It's not a crime. Yes, it's a sin. Well, yes, but let's make the distinction first between sin and crime

Frankly, even that is more conservative than the regular Catholic thought on this.  Most thoughtful Catholics would say that being a homosexual isn't sinful at all, but engaging in sex outside of marriage, and marriage can only occur between a man and a woman, is sinful.

Lots of stuff work like this.  For Catholics, divorce and remarriage is sinful, but nobody proposes to criminalize it. Sex outside of marriage is sinful, but Catholics aren't proposing to re-criminalize it.  You get the point. 

The Pope also lamented on the resort to firearms for self-protection, going beyond that and becoming habitual with people. Frankly, that is a real risk and we see it going on here.  It used to be the case in Wyoming that you had the common law defenses on the use of force, but then the legislature saw fit to codify it, and now its expanded to the point where if I declare myself threatened while car camping I can gun somebody down.  The current state legislature has a bunch of bills right now that would pretty much make Tom Horn thing we'd gone nuts in this area.

Pope Francis lamented that the use of guns by civilians to defend themselves is becoming a “habit.”

What the Pope actually said was:

I say when you have to defend yourself, all that’s left is to have the elements to defend yourself. Another thing is how that need to defend oneself lengthens, lengthens, and becomes a habit. Instead of making the effort to help us live, we make the effort to help us kill.

Based on the current state of the law and legislature, I'd have to say that's right. 

Now, we read this:

Pope Francis has written a letter to clarify his comments on sin and homosexuality from a recent interview with the Associated Press.

“When I said it is a sin, I was simply referring to Catholic moral teaching, which says that every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin,” the Pope wrote to Jesuit Father James Martin, in response to a request for clarification.

National Catholic Register.

Frankly, that was clear from the onset.  Pope Francis was speaking of it not being wise to have homosexuality defined as a crime.  He's completely correct on that.  Sex outside of marriage, which includes homosexual sex, is a mortal sin.

That really didn't require clarification.

That does bring up the topic of Father James Martin, SJ.  The Pope never replied to the Dubia, but he replied to Fr. Martin, which is distressing.  Moreover, Fr. Martin remains a distraction in the Catholic world of the type that gives rise to conservative concerns, much like the German Bishops do.  Perhaps the Pope, who is often misunderstood in interviews, thought he needed to clear this up right away, but having Fr. Martin make an appearance so quickly is unfortunate.

As Catholic observers know, there's a lot going on in terms of conservative criticism of the current Pope.  Stuff like this is bound to be mispreported.