Phil Lawler Comes Clean
fter a spirited and public defense of Pope Francis, the editor of the well-
regarded Catholic World News pens a highly critical book about the Argentine pontiff. Here, he speaks with REGINA about why.
REGINA: You were at one time a vocal defender of Pope Francis; what inspired you to write 'Lost Shepherd'?
LAWLER: As time passed, I found that many of the Pope’s public statements were difficult to reconcile with the established teachings of the Church. For months I did my best to reconcile them, assuming that the difficulties were due to problems of translation or interpretation— or perhaps simply bad wording.
But as time passed, and the number of problematical statements increased, I found that I could no longer make a realistic claim that the Pope’s statements were consistent with what the Church has always taught. There were too many conflicts, too many points of tension.
REGINA: Yes, we had about the same experience.
LAWLER: Moreover, Pope Francis began to make very harsh statements about people who held to the old beliefs, so that it was clear to me the HE saw a conflict there.
REGINA: It became quite clear.
LAWLER: I was reluctant to criticize the Pope— any Pope— openly. But I found that when I did make some cautious criticism, many of my readers thanked me, and told me that I had helped them to understand the situation. In fact, rather than being discouraged by what I wrote, these readers reported that they actually found my criticism encouraging.
REGINA: Why was that?
A
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