Pope Francis Joins The Left

     Sometimes the influence of Leftism on our culture is sublime and sometimes it is explicitly axiomatic, as was the case with a recent statement from the Pope of the Catholic church. Pope Francis recently bemoaned the fact that the church has placed moral doctrine over serving the poor, a more politically correct statement can not be imagined or expressed in or out of religious life. The founder of the Catholic church, Jesus of Nazareth, was explicit in reminding his followers that service to their heavenly father via living a moral life, was the only path to salvation. Helping the poor and disadvantaged is just one brick in the edifice of morality, not its foundation.
     But in this politically correct world driven by Leftist ideology, even the Pope of the church that Jesus built has succumbed to the notion that helping the poor is the primary function of faith-based and non faith-based organizations such as governments. If, as the Pope suggests, one only needs to serve the poor to gain entrance to heaven, and all that morality stuff is just fluff, then Adolf Hitler is a resident of paradise because he gave health care to millions of poor Germans who did not previously have it. Additionally, serving the physical needs of the poor without the slightest moral judgment of how their choices and behavior may have lead them to their current predicament, is not the basis of Christianity. High expectations for improving one's life through living a moral doctrine is the cornerstone of not only the Christian faith, but many others as well.
     I would recommend that Pope Francis needs a refresher course at Divinity School to remind him that the basis of the Catholic Church, as well as most other faiths, is the teaching and safekeeping of moral doctrine. If the main function of any faith-based organization is simply to serve the poor, it makes them no better than politicians in government who use serving the poor to increase their own power, influence and wealth. And if the Church does not have the preservation of God's morality as their core mission, then modern mores (if there are any) replace morality. Modern mores would have the Church softening their moral doctrine in favor of approval by the secular world. They forget that Jesus said, "If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first." Church leaders like Pope Francis are so afraid of that hate that they have all but abandon strict adherence to the moral doctrine that built the Church.  
     Of course, the goal of Leftism is to eliminate all absolutes, morality is an absolute and contemporary mores are fluid and change with the times. This is why one will hear Leftists in and out of the Church complain that it must "change with the times." Jesus did not preach his message, die on the cross for it and resurrect to give it and us eternal life, only to have that message changed and corrupted by modern values, whatever those modern values represent. Certitude of moral doctrine is the basis of the Church given birth by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Pope Francis would do well to reconnect himself to that moral doctrine, for the sake of the Catholic Church and the world that needs it more than ever.