Pope Francis Controversy Shouldn’t Be Controversial

Let’s begin this conversation with a quick disclaimer. The opinions of Pope Francis, as aired on 60 Minutes, are, in fact, his opinions. Pope Francis, like any man, can err in his opinions. That being said, he is a man who occupies a divinely instituted office. That office does not preclude him from error, but it does prevent him from erroneously declaring something a Dogma (notice the capital D) of the Catholic Church. If you want to know what a dogmatic declaration looks like, check out Ineffabilis Deus, and if you want to know more about papal infallibility, study the documents published by Vatican I. (READ MORE: In Today’s America, Catholicism Is the Most Persecuted Religion)

Now that that is clarified, let’s talk about some of the controversies.

The first had to do with immigration. Pope Francis informed O’Donnell (who is descended from Irish immigrants) that migrants must be “received” while commenting on the Texas government’s attempt to shut down a Catholic charity in Texas. “To close the border and leave them there? That is madness. The migrant has to be received,” Francis said. The angry conservative hordes on X left the interview there. Why, they wanted to know, if the migrant must be received, does the Vatican State not accept migrants?

Francis, of course, had a bit more to say: “Thereafter, you see how you’re going to deal with them. Maybe you have to send them back, I don’t know. But each case ought to be considered humanely.” Hmmm, sending them back. That kinda sounds like deporting them.

Pope Francis then managed to anger progressives when he clarified that the Catholic Church cannot bless homosexual unions because “that cannot be done.” He didn’t stop there either. When asked if a little Catholic girl could ever hope to be a priest or a deacon in the Catholic Church, his answer was an unequivocal no. He also, as he has done before, condemned surrogacy and the “purchasing” of human life.

That being said, Pope Francis also labeled the conservative attitude “suicidal.” As the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles has pointed out, this is a good time to remember that popes are rarely infallible, and, when they are, it’s in the context of making proclamations about faith and dogma, not about political theories.

Most Catholic conservatives already knew that Pope Francis wasn’t a big fan of them. “A conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude,” he told O’Donnell. Left-wing media has been running with that line ever since.

To be perfectly honest, if Francis is referring here to the conservatism of Louis-Gabriel-Ambroise de Bonald (the kind that glorifies the past without recognizing its faults), it’s a fair critique. My personal hunch (based on his adherence to Catholic dogma on marriage and female ordinations in the same interview) is that he isn’t referring to the Catholic conservatism inspired by Burkian political theory, which praises the past but still recognizes that reform was (and is) necessary. Unfortunately, Pope Francis doesn’t give us the benefit of nuance by clearly making that distinction. (READ MORE: The Bogeyman: The Leftists’ Hatred of the Catholic Church)

Perhaps the most serious controversy (and the hardest one to delve into) centered around the comments Francis made on human dignity. There are a few things to say here, the first — and most important — being the translation issue. In the interview, Francis is speaking in Spanish — his native language — and his comments are translated by 60 Minutes. Here’s the quote, as translated by 60 Minutes, that caused the controversy: “People want to live; people forge ahead; and people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.”

Before we talk about the creation of man, it’s worth noting that the community note attached to the clip of this video on X clarifies that the specific words the pontiff used are: “Somos un poco pícaros y pecadores,” which actually translates to: “We are a little bit rogue and sinners.” “This is not the same as saying ‘there are some rogues and sinners,’” readers on X pointed out. That’s an important clarification to make.

Why? Because Pope Francis isn’t wrong. God created man and “saw that he was good” because our all-good God is incapable of creating anything evil. Man has a fallen nature, yes. Original sin corrupted us. But when God created us, he created us as fundamentally good creatures. He could not have done otherwise. Don’t believe me? Read Thomas Aquinas or even John Paul II. For those of us who struggle to parse Aquinas’ thought, Fr. Dwight Longenecker provided a great clarification on X.

And, of course, translating Pope Francis’ words correctly completely changes the way we should understand his statement. He accepts that people can (and do) sin. He just happens not to be a Calvinist. Fair enough. He is the Catholic pontiff, after all. (READ MORE: Shrinking Church, Thriving Church)

Here’s the thing with this interview, as with most news about Pope Francis: The headlines are generally misleading. Both conservatives and progressives inside and outside the Catholic Church like to make a bigger deal out of these kinds of events than is warranted. They cherry-pick from these interviews, and you quickly find that when you delve into the issues, many of the “controversies” simply melt away. I’ll readily admit that Pope Francis frequently makes unfortunate statements that are confusing, but let’s be honest — they’re made even more so by the angry digital tirade that accompanies them.