By Tim Rohr
The public mess between Trump and the Pope is, as usual, largely a media fabrication, except in this case, the main culprit is the Catholic media. It's pathetic to see these news agencies anxious for clicks. It's also funny to see the mainstream media running to the defense of the Pope. Let's try that with abortion, contraception, or same-sex relations. LOL!
Unfortunately, Bishop Robert Barron, who had just begun to gain some credibility (in my eyes, anyway), didn't stay above it, but jumped into the middle, demanding that Trump apologize to the Pope.
Stupid move. Trump doesn't apologize to anybody. That's who he is, and, by the way, that's why he's the president for the second time.
Apparently, Barron caught his mistake and tried to clean it up with a post on X, wherein he makes a distinction that he failed to make before:
"The role of the Church, therefore, is to call for peace and to urge that any conflict be strictly circumscribed by the moral constraints of the just war criteria. But it is not the role of the Church to evaluate whether a particular war is just or unjust. That appraisal belongs to the civil authorities, who, one presumes, have requisite knowledge of conditions on the ground."
So, in other words, Barron backs out of the mess he stepped into by saying they're both right. He is right about that, and he backs up his new position by referencing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is our compendium of all that the Catholic Church teaches on faith and morals:
"The Pope has said, on numerous occasions, that he is not a politician and that his role is not the determination of any nation's foreign policy. But he has just as clearly said that he will continue to speak for peace and for moral constraint. In making both of these claims, he is operating perfectly within the framework of paragraph 2309 of the Catechism. If we understand that the Pope and the President have qualitatively different roles to play in the determination of moral action in regard to war, we can, I hope, extricate ourselves from the completely unhelpful narrative of “Pope vs. President.”
Barron's reference to the Catechism opened up an old wound with me: my absolute head-shaking dismay as to why our Catholic clergy, for the most part, and even the Pope, when engaging issues on faith and morals, refuse to quote the Catechism "chapter and verse," or in the case of our Catechism, the paragraph number, and instead pronounce things like it's their personal opinion.
I cannot recall a Sunday sermon (or any other day for that matter) where I have ever heard a priest quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church with the paragraph number that tells the people who are listening two things: 1) This is the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and NOT "my" personal opinioin; and 2) Where they can find it for themselves so they can grow in knowledge and wisdom of the Catholic faith like our clergy says we are supposed to.
Protestant and Evangelical pastors cannot get through a sermon without quoting chapter and verse, usually of the Bible, but often other sources, multiple times. But us?
How much damage in this Trump v Pope thing could have been avoided had the Pope simply quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "chapter and verse," relative to the "just war" matter, and maybe added a bit about how his job is to uphold the teaching of the Catholic Church? But no, instead, he made some new-sounding quip about those who "wage war," and then, when confronted about it, instead of referencing authentic Catholic teaching on the matter (quoting the Catechism), he responds, "I'm not afraid of Trump."
Geez.
