Pope rips rightwing American Catholics as useless idealogues who have lost the faith

Far-right Catholic leaders and believers in the American church have gone “backwards” in their “understanding of questions of faith and morals,” according to the church leader.

Pope Francis blasted them as reactionary ideologues during a meeting, insisting that American conservatives have lost their way.

Related Stories Pope Francis sends another signal to US Catholic bishops to lay off the anti-LGBTQ attacks

In two letters to New Ways Ministry, a group persecuted for decades for its outreach to LGBTQ Catholics, the pontiff praised its “neighborly approach.”

Francis met with Portuguese members of his Jesuit order and consoled a man who said he had suffered during a sabbatical year in the United States. During his sabbatical, the man said he dealt with rightwing rhetoric that he knew wasn’t an accurate understanding of church doctrine.

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The Pope said there was “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” in the American church, which he called “backward.”

“Doing this, you lose the true tradition and you turn to ideologies to have support. In other words, ideologies replace faith,” he said.

“The vision of the doctrine of the church as a monolith is wrong,” he added. “When you go backward, you make something closed off, disconnected from the roots of the church,” which then has devastating effects on morality.

“I want to remind these people that backwardness is useless, and they must understand that there’s a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals,” the pope added.

Several U.S. bishops have blasted the pontiff over the years as too liberal and kind, but he has said the criticism is “an honor.”

Francis has a mixed bag of positions on matters of sexuality. He has called laws criminalizing homosexuality “unjust” and insisted that God loves all his children just as they are. He called on Catholic bishops to welcome LGBTQ+ people into the church and he also supports civil unions.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in certain parts of the world support anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said. He urged bishops to apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” Francis said.

To be sure, Francis is hardly going to deserve a spot as grand marshall in the next pride parade. He continues to uphold Church teaching that homosexuality is intrinsically “disordered” and has spoken out forcefully against marriage equality.

A Vatican statement dated December 8, 2016 advised against ordaining gay priests. The statement, entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, says, “[T]he Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to seminary or holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’ Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.”