Pope Francis and the Pharisee's prayer

So he really said it.  I started to post on this when I saw the first story, but then I thought charity demands I wait to verify.  After all, something so arrogant and divisive and Pharisaical as this should be verified before commenting.

Well, the secular press is loving it,  left leaning pro-life Catholics are ecstatic, and I've seen nobody invoke the Francis-Era "it's a problem with the translation!' qualifier.  Nope.  It seems he said it, and the majority of people, Christian or otherwise, are thrilled.  That's because they assume he means 'those American Christians over there.'  Or if you're not American, you're off the hook altogether.

But this is par for the course for Pope Francis. There are three basic themes of the pope's entire ministry: The political and social theories of the Marxist Left are where we need to look to fix the world's problems; one's relationship to Christ is only incidental to the righteousness gained by cleaving unto the aforesaid political and social theories of the Marxist Left: and we have seen the enemy, and it's those traditionalist Christians, mostly in the Western Democracies, clinging to their Truth and their rigidness.

Never one to drop the first person plural, Pope Francis has told the world that their contempt for the Gospel is understood, because of those believers over there. As far as I know, he has never spent much time including himself in that category.  Naturally, his devoted followers are more than happy to cheer and rejoice with the knowledge that Pope Francis obviously does not mean them. Apart from a few hardcore fundamentalists I knew back in my ministry days, he's the only major Christian leader in my time who has made dividing the flock between us awesome sheep and those rotten goats a crux of his ministry.

Perhaps it might be time for the pope to peruse the Gospel of Luke, maybe even chapter 18.  As much as the World loves how he seems to be twisting and turning the Gospel to fit its secular culture of death designs, and how it bestows much praise and adoration on him, it might be worth thinking twice before standing up in front of the microphones again and saying that it's a great thing to know God did't make him like them believers over there.

Here, let me help:

Also Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”   Luke 18.9-14