Openness to beauty leads soul to God, says Catholic thinker

By Matt Hadro

Philadelphia, Pa., Jul 22, 2014 / 04:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The senses are the “road to God”, who speaks to us through beauty, said Bill Donaghy, who holds a master's in systematic theology, at the recent Theology of the Body Congress held in Philadelphia.

God “is trying to break into our minds and hearts through beauty,” said Donaghy who, using the image of a leaf open to sunlight, said, “we need to be as receptive to God’s
beauty as this leaf.”

Donaghy was addressing an audience on the role of beauty in the new evangelization at a conference about the more than 100 catecheses delivered by St. John Paul II on “Theology of the Body” early in his pontificate.

Part of John Paul II's thought is his sacramental vision of creation, through which we can see God, Donaghy explained.
The senses “are a road to God,” he said, imploring the audience, “don’t shrink from the gift of the senses.”

Quoting Fr. Robert Barron, Donaghy called beauty the “arrowhead of the new evangelization” because, although it is not an end in itself, it catches the heart and points it towards the true and the good, adding that it is “the point with which the evangelist pierces the minds and hearts of those he evangelizes.”

When asked what Catholics should do to bring beauty into everyday life, Donaghy called for “'lectio divina' in the visual realm.”

“It means that you get good books. That your coffee table books are rich sacred art. That you give yourself opportunities to wander in the woods, that you read the book of creation more deliberately and you spend time before the 2,000 years of history of sacred art.”

“I think that our homes, our schools, our offices, should be places of beauty, too. There should be beautiful things all around us.”

All good works of art can lead us to God, Donaghy explained. “Create a treasure chest of sacred art, of photographs, of poems, of movie clips and songs,” he told the audience. “God is speaking to us through all of it.”

However, he warned that beauty can be abused. We must “reverence” it and not try to grasp it and bottle it for our own selfish desires.

“Don’t try to bottle beauty. Don’t try to capture it. If you do, it stagnates,” he warned. He contrasted Mary and Eve, noting how Mary was open and receptive to
God’s grace, but Eve tried to grasp God’s nature for her own selfish desires.

As Mary was, so must we be, he urged.

“Beauty can be a terrible thing. God and the devil are fighting, and the battlefield is the human heart,” he admitted.

But if we are open and receptive to God, we can see beauty as we were meant to see it, he added.

“We listen, we’re attuned to the transcendent, to God, and beauty leads us to God. Keep your head and your heart open to God, and beauty will lead you to God.”

 

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Taken from: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/openness-to-beauty-leads-soul-to-god-says-catholic-thinker-15472/

Doomsday pope warns man’s greed will destroy world

Pope Francis says man’s greed will destroy world, urges world leaders to help the hungry

Posted Fri at 8:05amFri 21 Nov 2014, 8:05am

Pope Francis has warned that planet Earth will not forgive the abuse of its resources for profit, urging the world’s leaders to rein in their greed and help the hungry.

He said if action was not taken the world risked a doomsday scenario in which nature would exact revenge.

“God always forgives, but the earth does not,” the Argentine Pope told representatives from 190 countries gathered for the Second International Conference on Nutrition in Rome.

“Take care of the earth so it does not respond with destruction.”

Photo: Pope Francis has warned world leaders to rein in their greed. (Reuters: Jack Guez)

Related Story: Pope turns Santa with Christmas giveaway for homeless

Related Story: Pope to install showers at St Peter’s Square for homeless

Map: Italy

Pope Francis has warned that planet Earth will not forgive the abuse of its resources for profit, urging the world’s leaders to rein in their greed and help the hungry.

He said if action was not taken the world risked a doomsday scenario in which nature would exact revenge.

“God always forgives, but the earth does not,” the Argentine Pope told representatives from 190 countries gathered for the Second International Conference on Nutrition in Rome.

“Take care of the earth so it does not respond with destruction.”

Pope Francis, a staunch defender of the poor, said the world “paid too little heed to those who are hungry”.

While the number of undernourished people dropped by over half in the past 20 years, some 805 million people were still affected in 2014.

“It is also painful to see the struggle against hunger and malnutrition hindered by market priorities, the primacy of profit, which reduce foodstuffs to a commodity like any other, subject to speculation and financial speculation in particular,” Pope Francis said.

“The hungry remain at the street corner… and ask for a healthy diet.

“We ask for dignity, not for charity.”

The Pope has in the past launched several scathing attacks on those who get rich through market speculation, particularly the practice of betting on the price of food commodities which can inflate prices and see poor families go hungry.

He urged the world’s population to have “mutual respect, instead of fighting between themselves, damaging and impoverishing the planet”.

Pope Francis praised the work of the UN food agency and the World Health Organisation for getting delegates at the conference to adopt a “Rome Declaration on Nutrition” and “Framework for Action”.

But he called on those drawing up “rules and technical measures” not to lose sight of the hungry man “fighting for survival”.

“Feed the hungry, save life on the planet,” Pope Francis said at the end of his speech which was met with a standing ovation.

The declaration focused on improving access to healthy food but also the growing problem of inactive over-eaters.

Two billion people suffer from deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc – a condition known as “hidden hunger” by experts – while 42 million children and 500 million adults are overweight or obese.

AFP

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Taken from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-21/doomsday-pope-warns-greed-will-destroy-world/5908034

“Family an anthropological fact”. Pope Francis.

 

Pope Francis declares union between man and woman 'at root of marriage' in blow to gay rights

 

Adam Withnall

 

Tuesday 18 November 2014

 

Pope Francis has apparently spoken out in defence of marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, hurting the hopes of those who see him as a liberal driving force in the Catholic Church.

Last month the Pope warned Catholics not to fear change following an angry synod backlash against a softening of the Church’s stance towards homosexuality.
But in his address at the opening of a three-day conference on traditional marriage hosted at the Vatican yesterday, Francis called family “an anthropological fact… that cannot be qualified based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history”.
The Humanum conference invites people of different religions to come together and celebrate “complementarity between man and woman in marriage” – the idea that men and women have different but complementary roles that they say are essential to building a strong family.
And though he did not refer to gay unions directly, the Pope said: “It is fitting that you have gathered here to explore the complementarity of man and woman. This complementarity is at the root of marriage and family.”

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In just a year, Pope Francis has managed to change the public perception of the Catholic Church, and the stance it takes on civil issues, like gay rights. Despite originally protesting the legalisation of gay marriage in his native Argentina some years ago, he told reporters this year: “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?”

Francis said: “Children have the right to grow up in a family with a father and mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's development and emotional maturity.
“Today marriage and the family are in crisis,” he continued. “We now live in a culture of the temporary, in which more and more people are simply giving up on marriage as a public commitment.
“The revolution in mores and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Pope Francis's comments were interpreted by those in the audience as a declaration in support of traditional marriage. Russell Moore of the US's Southern Baptist Convention said: “Pope Francis made clear that male/female complementarity is essential to marriage and cannot be revised by contemporary ideologies.”

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Read more: Pope Francis' top 10 tips for happiness
Pope says he 'believes in guardian angels'
Francis makes exorcisms official Catholic practice
One in 50 Anglican priests 'doesn't believe in God'

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Taken from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-union-between-man-and-woman-at-root-of-marriage-in-blow-to-gay-rights-9867561.html

Pope denounces euthanasia as ‘sin against God and creation’

November 16, 2014

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has denounced the right to die movement, saying it’s a “false sense of compassion” to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity when it’s a sin against God and creation.

 

Pope Francis made the comments to the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors on Saturday.

 

 

Earlier this month, the Vatican’s top bioethics official condemned as “reprehensible” the assisted suicide of an American woman, Brittany Maynard, who was suffering terminal brain cancer and said she wanted to die with dignity.

 

Pope Francis didn’t refer to the Maynard case specifically.

 

While denouncing euthanasia in general, he also condemned abortion, in vitro fertilisation (or “the scientific production of a child”) and embryonic stem cell research (or “using human beings as laboratory experiments to presumably save others.”)

 

“This is playing with life,” he said.

 

“Beware, because this is a sin against the creator, against God the creator.”

 

While shying away from hot-button, culture war issues such as abortion, Pope Francis has spoken out frequently about euthanasia.

 

He considers the assisted suicide movement as a symptom of today’s “throw-away culture” that views the sick and elderly as useless drains on society.

 

Pope Francis urged doctors to take “courageous and against-the-grain” decisions to uphold church teaching on the dignity of life, even if it requires resorting to conscientious objection.

 

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Taken from: http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-denounces-euthanasia-as-sin-against-god-and-creation-20141115-11nkn4.html

Opinion: Pope Francis’s ‘holy war’ on capitalism and toxic inequality

                         

 By Paul B. Farrell

Columnist

                                                   

Published: Nov 14, 2014 10:48 a.m. ET

Big first-year anniversary for anticapitalist, anticonservative, socialist Pope Francis. Fortune magazine ranks him first among the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.” Tenure unlimited. Now he’s in an ideological war with U.S. Senate Majority boss Mitch McConnell’s Big Oil backed GOP as well as conservative ideologues. At war in America’s unstable, endlessly fickle, myopic, rigged political arena.

At least till 2016. Then another twist. Warren Buffett predicts Hillary Clinton is next, probably till 2024. In a long war.

Big picture: Economics trumps the political soap opera. Lurking in the shadows, a new crash. Inevitable. And like 2000, nobody will hear it coming ... hidden under irrational exuberance, dot-com mania, millennium celebrations ... followed by a 30-month bear recession ... later the 2008 crash ... Alan Greenspan, Henry Paulson clueless ... two crashes already this century ... $10 trillion losses each ... next one coming in 2016 election cycle, with echoes of the McCain/Palin loss ... yes, a bigger badder bear than 2000 and 2008 ... because once again bulls and optimists, traders and leaders fall into denialism ... blinded by a new wave of irrational exuberance.

What about the promise of big political changes? House Speaker John Boehner and McConnell talk a good game, but their anxious, conservative GOP base is sitting on the shifting tar sands of Big Oil cash threatened by higher costs, long-term risks. Yes, talk is cheap, but once partisan conflicts blow up, climate disasters will bury the GOP’s aggressive energy agenda, support will fade.

Yes, Pope Francis is celebrating his one-year anniversary since laying down his anticapitalism manifesto for his army of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. He’s also been removing conservative cardinals and bishops from leadership roles. He’s hell-bent on changing the world fast. And his mandate is unwavering and unequivocal. He’s drawing clear moral and political battle lines against repressive capitalism, excessive consumerism, rigid conservatism. Listen:

“Inequality is the root of social ills ... as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.” Yes, it sure sounds like a declaration of war: The anticapitalist Pope Francis versus America’s self-destructive amoral capitalism. Bet on Mitch?

New ‘Holy War:’ Pope’s anticapitalism values beating capitalist atheism

Pope Francis’s target is clear: economic inequality is the world’s No. 1 problem. Capitalism is at the center of all problems of inequality. And he speaks with a powerful moral authority — something totally missing from American political leaders who are ideologically guided by atheist Ayn Rand, patron saint of the GOP’s capitalism agenda in this moral war. Without moral grounding, the GOP is no match for Francis’ vision, his principled mandate, his long-game strategy to raise the world’s billions out of poverty, to eliminate inequality, to attack the myopic capitalism driving today’s economy, markets and political system.

Moreover, the pope has the resources: As commander-in-chief of the world’s largest army: 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide who are now motivated to defeat capitalism’s grip on inequality. His army includes 78 million Americans in 17,645 parishes, plus a huge officer corps of 213 cardinals, over 5,000 bishops, 450,000 priests and deacons worldwide, all sworn to carry out his vision. He needs no legislative approvals; popes have authority to act unilaterally, with speed, a dictator whose word is law, commanding allegiance, obedience and action.

Pope’s 10 commandments in war against Inequality and capitalism

So welcome to his first-anniversary celebration: Yes, it was just one year ago Pope Francis laid down his anticapitalism agenda as a battle plan for Catholics. One short year. Mitch McConnell probably hasn’t even read it yet. Every American should. So here’s an edited version of Francis’s 10 economic commandments. They define the specific strategies guiding his economic war against inequality and capitalism.

Here are Pope Francis’s 10 strategies, in his own words directly from his “Apostolic Exhortation,” a 67-page manifesto published by the Vatican before Thanksgiving last year. Listen to how driven Pope Francis is to changing the world. He really is a radical anticapitalist, socialist, revolutionary leader that American conservatives and capitalists worldwide, especially GOP leaders, will face for years, long after McConnell’s tenure. Listen:

1. Solve economic inequality fast ... or capitalism dooms whole world

Pope: “Inequality is the root of social ills ... as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”

2. Never trust the greedy Invisible Hand of free-market capitalists

Pope: “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth ... a better distribution of income ... The economy can no longer turn to remedies ... such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded.”

3. Trickle-down economic ideology of the Super Rich is massive hoax

Pope: Some “continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. ... a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power ... the culture of prosperity deadens us.”

4. New tyranny of capitalism gets rich stealing from the public

Pope: “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation, and reject the right of states charged with vigilance for the common good. ... A new tyranny ... unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.”

5. The new Golden Calf Idolatry is capitalism’s worship of money

Pope: “Money must serve, not rule ... The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! ... The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money ... lacking a truly human purpose.”

6. Capitalism fuels excessive consumerism, undermining social morals

Pope: “Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. ... Inequality eventually engenders a violence ... new and more serious conflicts. Some ... blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their troubles ... more exasperating ... widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries ... businesses ... institutions.”

7. Obsessive competition to amass personal wealth destroys democracy

Pope: “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless ... masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape. ... Such an economy kills ... it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

8. Capitalists treats humans as leftovers in their throwaway world

Pope: “Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a ‘throw away’ culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. ... those excluded are no longer society’s underside ... no longer even a part of it. ... but the outcast, the ‘leftovers’.”

9. Extreme conservative individualism is killing democracy worldwide

Pope: “In a culture where each person wants to be bearer of his or her own subjective truth, it becomes difficult for citizens to devise a common plan which transcends individual gain and personal ambitions. ... freed from those unworthy chains and to attain a way of living and thinking which is more humane, noble and fruitful, and which will bring dignity to their presence on this earth.”

10. Capitalism rejects God, morality, ethics ... loves total anarchy of money

Pope: “Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. ... condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. ... ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. ... makes it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order.”

Yes, it’s the pope’s first anniversary: You can’t afford to stand by passively. Join the dialogue, tell your friends about Pope Francis’s radical plan to save the world from itself. Inequality impacts everyone. You, your kids, grandkids, everyone. Nobody’s on the sidelines in this new “Holy War.”’ Pass this on. Post the 10 new economic commandments on social media, tweet, retweet, let others know where you stand. The pope’s 10 economic commandments can save the world, save capitalists, save conservatives, save democracy ... yes, hope does spring eternal.


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Taken from: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-ways-pope-franciss-anticapitalism-will-save-the-world-2014-11-13?page=2

Pope Francis to install showers for Homeless

Next Monday, work will begin to renovate Vatican restrooms for pilgrims, but Pope Francis has also given instructions for showers to be installed where Rome’s homeless can wash.

Bishop Konrad Krajewski, or “Don Conrado” as he is familiarly known, is the Pope’s “almoner,” the person in charge of distributing alms on the Pope’s behalf. He recounts that it was a Sardinian homeless man named Franco who brought home the need for washing facilities.

 

Franco explained to the bishop that the greatest need for Rome’s homeless is a place to wash. “Nobody dies of hunger,” he said, “you can always find a sandwich to get by. But there are no places to go to the bathroom and wash.” This was a revelation for Don Conrado, who had always assumed that food was the number one concern.

 

So on November 17, three showers dedicated to the local homeless will be added to the restrooms for pilgrims under the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica. They can wash and change their bedding under the windows of the Apostolic Palace. The good idea is spreading, and at Don Conrado’s instigation a dozen parishes in the Roman neighborhoods most frequented by homeless people are also adding showers, paid for by the Pope.

 

Pope Francis chose Don Corrado for this exact task: to be the Pope’s feet on the ground in personally helping the local poor.

 

To be sure, there are other initiatives as well. The Sant’Egidio Community, for instance, has published an updated handbook titled “Where to eat, sleep, wash.” But the Pope’s man makes his presence felt.

 

Don Conrado is accustomed to immediate action for the poor rather than organizing major projects or fundraisers that can take months. “In the Gospel,” he says, “Jesus always uses the word ‘today,’ and it is ‘today’ when we have to respond to people’s needs.”

 

“It isn’t easy,” the bishop says, “because it is simpler to make sandwiches than take care of a shower service. We need volunteers, towels, linens.”

 

Don Conrado says that it is appropriate to be installing the showers beneath Rome’s most iconic church, under the imposing colonnade of Bernini. “The church exists,” he says, “because the Body of Christ is there. In the poor we serve the suffering body of Jesus. In all of Rome’s history, the poor have gathered around this basilica.”

 

For the Vatican showers there will be no sign outside. The service is designed to assist those who already live in the area, who will be familiar with the set-up. According to the bishop, being able to wash and keep clean makes the homeless less vulnerable to diseases that are transmitted with dirt.

 

Don Conrado is also trying to involve students of a local school for hairdressers, to provide an occasional haircut to go with the showers.

 

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Taken from: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/11/13/Pope-Francis-to-Install-Showers-for-Homeless

Pope Francis to venerate famed Shroud of Turin



 

By Inés San Martín

Vatican correspondent November 5, 2014

 

ROME — Walking in the footsteps of both Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis will travel to the Italian city of Turin on June 21 to venerate its famous shroud, traditionally regarded as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

The shroud will be placed on display in the Turin cathedral from April 19 to June 24, marking one of the rare occasions when the revered but controversial cloth will be available for public viewing.

On the same trip, Francis also will pay tribute to Italian St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesian religious order, on the bicentennial of his birth. “Don Bosco,” as he was known, dedicated his life to helping and educating street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth.

 

The Shroud of Turin is a piece of linen cloth that, according to Catholic tradition, was used to wrap the body of Christ after his death on the Cross. It contains a full-length photo-negative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion.

To date there’s no scientific consensus on how the image was created. Skeptics regard it as a later forgery, while devotees believe it was burned into the cloth at the time of Christ’s resurrection.

All three recent popes have been careful not to pronounce definitively on the authenticity of the shroud, generally referring to it as an “icon” that inspires genuine faith regardless of its historical origins.

 

“The pope comes as a pilgrim of faith and of love,” said Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin, papal custodian of the Shroud, during a Vatican news conference Wednesday to announce the pope’s trip next June.

“Like his predecessors did, Pope Francis confirms the devotion to the shroud that millions of pilgrims recognize as a sign of the mystery of the passion and death of the Lord,” Nosiglia said.

In 1978, a detailed examination carried out by a team of American scientists found no evidence of how the image was produced.

A radiocarbon dating test performed in 1988 over small samples of the icon by three laboratories, at the universities of Oxford and Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, concurred that the samples they tested dated from the Middle Ages, between 1260 and 1390.

Other scientists, however, believe those results could be off by centuries, pointing to the possibility of bacterial contamination of the cloth. They note, for instance, that burial shrouds for Egyptian pharaohs sometimes test to centuries later than their known age for precisely that reason.

Despite the controversies, Pope Benedict XVI visited the shroud during its last public exhibition in 2010, and St. John Paul II did so three times: in 1998, in 1980, and in 1978, months before the conclave that elected him pope.
 

More from Crux

• Pope to go to Turin to view burial shroud icon



• The never-ending debate about the Shroud of Turin continues in St. Louis

More

 

During the first days of his pontificate, Francis referred to the disfigured face depicted in the Holy Shroud as “all those faces of men and women marred by a life which does not respect their dignity, by war and violence which afflict the weakest …”

The message was made public on March 30, 2013, hours before footage of the icon was shown on TV for the first time in four decades.

During the press conference, organizers of the exhibition announced that more than 1 million people from all over the world are expected in Turin to venerate the icon.

The visit to the display in the city’s cathedral will be free, but to regulate the massive flow of visitors, mandatory reservations should be made through the official website.

Inés San Martín

 ines@cruxnow.comE-mail the author @inesanmaFollow author on twitter

Inés San Martín is the Vatican correspondent for Crux, stationed in Rome. More

 

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Taken from: http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/11/05/pope-francis-to-venerate-famed-shroud-of-turin-in-2015/

Creationists Criticise Pope Francis’ Backing Of Big Bang And Evolution Theories

For AMAIC'S views on Creationists, see e.g. our:

http://genesisflood-amaic.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/for-part-one-see-httpscienceagesamaic.html

 

 

 

The following has been taken from: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/571662/20141104/pope-francis-criticsm-big-bang-theory-evolution.htm#.VFlHh2aKB9B

 

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By Athena Yenko | November 4, 2014 4:50 PM EST

Some creationists expressed their strong opinions about Pope Francis' declaration that Big Bang and Evolution theories "are not incompatible" with the existence of a Creator.  John Ransom, a Finance Editor for Townhall Finance, likened the Pope to a drunk driver. Kent Ham, the leader of the Christian group Answers in Genesis alleged Pope Francis is putting man's words above God's words. Michael Snyder from Right Side news said Pope just wants to recruit new people to the Catholic faith by embracing a progressive view of how the Earth was created.

 

View Full Image

REUTERS/Alessandro BianchiPope Francis sprinkles holy water with an aspergillum as a blessing during the Palm Sunday mass at Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican April 13, 2014.

 

 

Pope Francis, "lane-wise, seems like a drunk driver," Ransom wrote. He said he agrees with the Pope saying that the scientific theories of creation are not incompatible with how it was written in the Bible. However, with Pope Francis' "desperation to be relevant," he made use of words that "will hurt Catholics" who had been loyal to the faith, Ransom stated.

 

In Ransom's opinion, the Pope's statement that "God is not a magician" is tantamount in saying that God is not divine. "I don't know how I can support a pope - or church- that says that God is not divine," Ransom highlighted.

Ransom thinks Pope Francis is bargaining too much to balance the scientific beliefs of men and the teachings of the church. With this, he is sacrificing the divinity of "our Creator" and succumbing to the worldly caprices of men, Ransom said. He noted that Pope Francis has the same attitude in handling homosexuality and other moral issues. If the Pope continues to adopt this approach, "those on the Left will seize upon the Pope's words to demoralize and degrade believers in the Christina Church," Ransom believes.

 

For Ham, Pope Francis makes no difference with many religious leaders who is putting man's word above the words of God. He found it particularly shocking that Pope Francis compares God to a magician with a magic wand. He said the comparison is tantamount in saying that only a man with the capacity of a magician had created the universe. For Ham, the Pope's statement shows he does not understand "who Scripture claims God is." Ham is appealing for people to pray that church leaders, including Pope Francis, repent for their unacceptable views about God.

 

" I encourage you to pray that church leaders like these will realise that they are placing man's opinions above God's Word and that they will repent and trust God's Word, beginning in Genesis," Ham wrote.

 

For Snyder, Pope Francis's has an agenda when he made his controversial speech. It seemed that the Pope wants to create "a religion that almost everyone would love." He said the changes that Pope Francis is bringing to the table are aimed at drawing lots of new people to the Catholic faith. In his interpretation, Pope's statement made it obvious that he "does not believe what the Bible literally says about the how the world was created and about how humanity came to be."