Letter to Pope Francis

Dear Holy Father, With filial reverence and loyalty and the spirit of fraternal candor with which you exhorted the recent synod on the family I write to tell you of my sadness, disappointment and sense of betrayal because of your confused teaching. I admire and emulate your freedom of spirit and especially your pastoral passion for the poor and alienated. I appreciate the urgency of your desire to show God’s love to those who feel condemned and rejected by the Church. And I believe that your intention is to give a fresh, new approach or attitude while protecting the integrity of our faith. This evangelical purpose is praiseworthy…but perilous and risks polluting the truth by a feel-good, ambiguous open-mindedness. We are directed by Scripture to always “speak the truth in love” and we fall short of this when we speak truth without love, but also if we try to love while compromising the truth. I am saddened that: ----- You are critical rather than supportive of those of us who, in the face of a hostile culture, defend the innocent and helpless, the meaning of sexuality and family and religious freedom. We need a father, a leader to encourage and support us. We look to you for this. Do not betray us! ----- You referred to the active homosexual lifestyle with the words: “Who am I to judge?” We are well aware that none of us can judge the heart and soul of another: we love the sinner but hate the sin. That hatred requires a judgment. On this earth the first and foremost judge of right and wrong, for us Catholics, is our father and teacher, yourself. These words from your mouth would be like the same words coming from a policeman, judge or jury if faced with a heinous case of child abuse. As children of our heavenly Father it is our responsibility and honor to “judge”…to make decisions based on the truth, about right and wrong. To take action to defend the most vulnerable and violated. But it is above all your role, my Father, to guide us all. I understand your motive in speaking these words: to express love for those who feel condemned and alienated. But you cannot betray the truth! ----- Your exemplary love for the poor is corrupted by resentment: a Maoist-like contempt for the powerful and privileged. This is understandable from one who identifies with the poor…but is not Christ-like. While the media sees you as humble, I sense a harsh, arrogant, judgmental tone in your remarks to and about capitalists, clergy, cultural-warriors, and even the pious (e.g. your disparagement of the spiritual bouquet you received at the beginning of your pontificate.) These also need to hear the truth, the Good News, in a spirit of love. And so, if you offend truth in your ambiguous outreach to the margins, you offend love in your harshness to those closest to you and the Church. ----- Perhaps worse than anything you have said is that, in your appointments to date, you seem to be re-constituting the Church in reaction against the dual-pontificate of your immediate predecessors in favor of a hierarchy that identifies more deeply with the poor but accommodates to the corrupt values of liberalism and is bereft of the backbone and fortitude to wage cultural warfare on behalf of our most precious values. We understand the difficulty of your mission: to communicate God’s love to the distant and alienated. It is an impossible task: in speaking the truth you are seen as condemnatory; in expressing love, without clarity, you risk confusion and misguidance. You…and all of us…The Church…need, desperately need, the guidance of the Counselor! Come Holy Spirit!