Barking up the wrong tree

“Oh Lord, why?” Then again, I suppose the Lord must in His turn ask, “Oh people, why?” Why do Catholics in the public eye continue to embarrass the faith and give us what seem to be self-parodies or satires, thus playing into the hands of those who would condemn us and our faith as being irrelevant or even absurd?

Recently a piece appeared in the National Catholic Register headlined, “Did Pope Francis say animals go to Heaven?” I must confess I don’t read this newspaper but saw a link to it on Facebook and couldn’t resist. It continued, “The news networks are abuzz with stories saying that Pope Francis has said pets go to Heaven. They’ve even ‘helpfully’ noted how this contrasts with the position of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. But the thing is the whole story is false. Here are seven things to know and share...”

Well, thank goodness for that! Not only was the story false but that fact had to be emphasized in italics! Ok, let’s analyse a little. “News networks abuzz”? I saw one brief report in a Canadian newspaper, written as if the whole subject was slightly flippant and I suppose it was mentioned elsewhere but for the life of me I wasn’t aware of it. This was the week when the media certainly was abuzz — with reports about the CIA and torture, which surely is a genuinely Catholic issue and one that the Catholic media and Catholic pundits commented on far too seldom.

The media “noted how this contrasts with the position of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.” Well yes sometimes it did comment that Pope Benedict apparently dared to say that animals do not enjoy an afterlife but I am not sure if this matters very much. It was probably part of the Benedict Nasty, Francis Cuddly syndrome but they’ve done far worse in the past and will surely do far worse in the future.

“But the thing is the whole story is false. Here are seven things to know and share...” I am not sure if the whole thing is false actually, but it’s more the spirit than the substance that matters here. Pope Francis is very good at presenting a softer, humble, more approachable version of the Church than many if not most of those who have gone before him. As for “seven things to know and share” — not five you notice, not eight, but seven — this is positively hilarious.

Share the Gospel, share the love of Christ, share the absolute truth of the Christian story, share forgiveness, compassion, humanity, love, joy, peace, self-
control, empathy, the embrace of the outsider and all of those other nasty, challenging things Jesus kept going on about. But the truth about the Pope, dogs and Heaven? Truth, reason and common sense scream out to be heard.

I’m not sure but I may have drunk a few pints at the Pope and Horses, or was is the Dog and Pontiff? British pubs can be confusing after a night out. That explains my foggy memory, but I don’t think ale explains this latest nonsense from the National Catholic Register. It’s not the silly article but the spirit it represents that irks. As Catholics we have to get things in perspective and have to realize what promotes the faith and empowers the faithful, and also what makes it and us look positively ridiculous.

Sometimes we seem to be looking at the world through the wrong end of a theological telescope. We obsess about the relatively trivial, the definitely obscure, the personal made political and the political made religious. We muddy what is clear, we cloud what is bright and visible. The world is calling out for a new truth, one that was actually given by Christ 2,000 years ago.

I don’t know what the Prince of Peace and the Son of God thought of dogs and I’m not sure I really care. I do, however, know what He thought about the important things, the permanent things, the essential things. Let’s try to discuss those in the coming year and not indulge in the fatuous. Barking up the wrong tree, as they say, barking up the wrong tree.

(Coren’s new book is Hatred: Islam’s War on Christianity. His web site is www.michaelcoren.com.)