Fr. Z's Blog

A few days back the Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, gave an interview to Il Messaggero.

There wasn’t much of interest in it. The Pope is becoming a little bit more careful, it seems. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Sean Winters were momentarily excited about his mention of Communism.  Ho hum. The only thing noteworthy in the interview was the additional blow Francis gave to the now-stale hopes of radical feminists everywhere.

The interviewer, a woman, raising the specter of misogyny, asked the Pope questions about the role of women in the Church.  The Pope essentially dodged them and made a couple jokes. I wrote about it HERE.

Liberals and feminists are not amused.

Remember, the holy grail of liberals and feminists is the ordination of women, something Pope Francis has firmly rejected.  ”That door is closed,” quoth he.

His Holiness also warned women religious about “female machismo”, using with them the less-than-sweet Italian word “zitelle”.

Francis isn’t letting feminists run over him.  He isn’t knuckling under.  Their games of intimidation, to which they inevitably resort, won’t work with him.  Il Messaggero‘s interviewer surely expected Francis to quail at the mention of “misogyny”.

Instead, he laughed.

Liberals and feminists are, therefore, now turning on Pope Francis, both inside the Church (e.g., HERE … sort of inside, that is) and outside (e.g., HERE and, more recently, HERE).

At Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), the featured female writers are openly turning on Francis (e.g., HERE and HERE).

Another example of the great liberal turning against Francis comes from another of the Fishwrap’s featured columnists, our old pal Phyllis Zagano.  She read a translation of the interview in Il Messaggero and had a bit of a meltdown.  Not sharing Pope Francis’ sense of humor, she took time off from her MOOS for the ordination of women, to tell the world about how benighted the poor, old male cleric is:

I’m sure Pope Francis did not mean to insult half the human race the other day. [In other words, she thinks he did.] In his first-ever interview with a woman journalist, he “joked” that women are taken from Adam’s rib and that women have power as rectory housekeepers.

OK, so he’s old, he’s tired, and he’s got a million things on his mind. But, hello, Holy Father — the world is watching.

[...]

And she continues with another one of her obsessive attacks on males, especially clerics.

I will always happily give Phyllis props for her solid pro-life position, but when it comes to clerics, she seems to have a vindictive streak that never ends.  Not even the Pope is exempt.

In the final analysis, her shot at Christ’s Vicar is insignificant in that it is cliché: poor old man, tisk tisk, another woman-hating priest.  Ho hum.

The more important point is that this is yet another example of how the catholic Left is starting to turn on the Pope.

They are so predictable.  The word “misogyny” raised in the interview is feminist catnip.

Pope Francis, whose style is out of step with his predecessors, is not going to overturn doctrine.  And, just watch, he is not going to approve of Holy Communion for Catholics in objectively irregular marriages.  He is not going to distribute condoms or approve of abortions.  He is not going to open a door to the ordination of women.

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