I'm going out on a limb and suggest that it ain't easy being Pope Francis. For some Roman Catholics he is akin to the anti-Christ with conservative priests dissing him in homilies and certain cardinals and bishops challenging his authority in the shadows. Everything he says goes through the sausage grinder in his own denomination...and then there are the Protestants and Orthodox and atheists, ad naseum.
I admire Francis but I wondered about the value of his comments in his final audience of 2017 about the "false respect" being shown to other religious traditions which undermines the true meaning of Christmas:
“In our times, especially in Europe, we’re seeing a ‘distortion’ of Christmas. In the name of a false respect for non-Christians, which often hides a desire to marginalize the faith, every reference to the birth of Christ is being eliminated from the holiday, but in reality, this event is the one true Christmas! “Without Jesus, there is no Christmas.”
I do think that Christmas has become a rather bloated, maudlin, "home for the holidays" extravaganza, but I figure it has much more to do with commercialism and secularism than other faiths. Maybe that is what Francis is referring to, and I don't live in Europe, so I don't have an immediate read on his circumstances. Maybe its because of President Voldemort's phoney "I'm gonna make Christmas great again" claptrap still turning my stomach.
Here's what I know. I said "merry Christmas" to a lot of people this year, and they said it back, with warmth. I attended a Christmas Eve service with my family and we had dozens of congregations to choose from. There were Nativity scenes here, there and everywhere, and while they weren't in the public square, Christian individuals and churches displayed them reverently.
I do lament how commercial Christmas has become. So I avoided malls and Ruth, my beloved spouse, and I decided to dial right back on the presents except for grandkids and the household in our family draw. Nobody told us to do this -- it was our choice in a country where I have the freedom to do what I damn well please in any season of the year.
I know from history that Christians were on the margins for centuries and they continued to worship and gather, although often secretively. There were no papal audiences or cathedrals or church structures of any kind. Celebrating Christ's birth at the end of December was not something that happened for a long time.
Perhaps we should just get on with loving Jesus and loving one another, including those with other outlooks. Isn't that the respect we're hoping for? Pope Francis is actually committed to doing this, so we should give him the benefit of the doubt. I can't do the same for Trump.
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