St. Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of the Left?

[G_j]

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/182/story_18213_1.html#cont


St. Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of the Left?

By Stacy Meichtry
Religion News Service

Assisi, Italy - He is a champion of animal rights to some and a hero of anti-globalism to others. There are even those who consider him heaven's first vegetarian.

<snip>
Although the saint's legacy of bonhomie has long made him a standout in the Roman Catholic establishment, lately the contrast has become excessively glaring. With national elections approaching in predominantly Catholic Italy and a new papacy well under way in Rome, a push to tone down Francis' public image is taking shape.

The contours of this makeover came into focus after Pope Benedict XVI issued a November decree tightening ecclesial control over the saint's tomb. In recent decades the semi-autonomous shrine had become a staging ground for unorthodox interfaith prayer sessions and massive anti-war protests.

In an apostolic letter known as a Motu Proprio, Benedict placed the Basilica of St. Francis, where the saint is buried, and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which marks the site of his early sermons, under the authority of the local bishop, an unnamed Vatican cardinal and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the deeply conservative head of the Italian bishops conference.

..more..

[sasha031]

1. I don't get it

what are they doing giving St Francis a sword?

[TexasProgresive]

6. Francis tried to be a soldier and

was miserable at it. He spent time incarcerated by the neighboring enemy city state until ransomed.

[sasha031]

8. that would make sense

I good kind man who loved all things, are they turning him into a Holy Warrior?

[Joe for Clark]

2. Good post.

You grow up Catholic, in my experience, and three things are true:

1) there is only one true god,

2) You grew up with ST Francis pictures in your home and,

3) you say something bad about FDR or the party and those are fighting words.


Truely, I understand what you mean.

[hlthe2b]

3. ARE they TRYING to drive every sane moderate Catholic

out of the church?!!!!!!!


This Ratzinger is one "promoted" Cardinal that I will never accept as a Pope. In fact, if I truly believed in the Nostradamus and all the various appocalyptical prophesies, I would wonder if he were not the anti-Christ.

[Joe for Clark]

4. Neither do I.

I think there is an American Catholic church, and the rest of the church - and we just do not agree anymore.

No, Benedict is just another problem for us. He really was someone my father would have killed in 1945. But, I remember, from my poor CCD lessons, the two things Jesus really did teach us - accept no false God and (more importantly) that you treat all men as your brothers.

There was that song, in CCD, "What-so-ever-you do, to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."

Remember??

Most of us really did believe it (on a bell curve, at least).

Only thing I really remember from CCD is that damn song.

And I do believe it.

Joe

[catbert836]

9. What Ratzinger said

He said that he would rather have just a core following of fanatical zealots than a church of 1 billion plus people who don't take his every word as gospel.

[DanCa]

5. Rumour has it that they want to make John Paul as the saint of Parkinsons

While I respect the man for being ill and running a church I dont know how he could be the saint of a disease when the majority of the people afflicted with it want/need stem cell research as a cure. A therapy which PJP2 was against.

[sasha031]

7. these are fighting words

His strongest criticism, however, was directed at the public's perception of the saint. The Franciscans have turned their founder into a "romanticized little saint" and "a village idiot who goes around talking to wolves and birds and patting everyone on the back," Messori said. Messori also questioned Francis' legacy of pacifism, noting that the "historical Francis, in fact, belongs to the church of the Crusades."

I grew up Catholic, St Francis is my favorite saint,
So they are turning him into a Crusader, in other words,
Lord make me a channel of thy war, that where there is hatred, I may bring more, that where there is wrong, I may bring terror,that where there is error, I may bring more lies,that where there is doubt, I may bring despair, that where there are shadows, I may bring complete darkness,that where there is sorrow,I shall bring chaos,Lord grant that I may comfort from the uncomfortable, to despise rather that to love, for it is by forgetting that one finds. It is by never forgiving that one is forgiven. it is by living it up, that one awakens to eternal greed and lust.

that sound about right for the new right wing church



.

[G_j]

10. that is frightening

to hear those passages turned on their head.

"God" forbid people have heroes that are non-violent and loving.

[sasha031]

11. St Francis if he was alive today

would start his own church. The world has been turned upside down right in front of our eyes.