Anti-Catholic Protestant James White and Catholic Reactionary Steve Skojec Echo Each Other’s Gigantic Whoppers
Exodus 20:16 (RSV) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (cf. other verses on “false witness”)
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Revelation 21:8 But as for . . . murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.
Many times we make comments that set off a small daily lynching. May the Lord help us to be righteous in our judgments and not to begin or follow gossip that provokes an undeserved condemnation. (Pope Francis, tweet from 4-28-20)
Steve Skojec, the extremist Catholic reactionary repeatedly condemns Pope Francis for supposedly caring nothing about the saving of souls (note how six of these are just from seven hours’ time in one day):
[replying directly to one of the pope’s tweets] Try being rooted in Christ. We’re all rooting for you. (Twitter, 1-10-18)
When was the last time the man talked about saving souls instead of plants and animals? (5-22-20, 12:21 PM)
. . . a pope who, by every appearance, gives not a single damn about souls, and who is obsessed with class warfare, the distribution of material goods, ecology, etc. (5-22-20, 4:50 PM)
[I]n this pontificate, . . . salvation is rarely discussed, but social issues frequently are. (5-22-20, 7:35 PM)
The job of the pope is to help poor schlubs like us understand what God wants of us for the purposes of our salvation. . . . He’s deeply into leftist political ideology, not faith. (5-22-20, 7:42 PM)
I’ve only been documenting the irreligious themes of this papacy for seven years . . . (5-22-20, 7:45 PM)
But for bonus points, did his tweet today give even a hint that it was concerned about the salvation of souls? I’m guessing it did not. It never does. (5-22-20, 7:46 PM)
Likewise, anti-Catholic luminary and apologist / polemicist James White echoes the thought of Catholic reactionaries (who are almost as anti-Catholic and anti-pope as he is):
I just did a scan down through the “Papal feed.” Constant verbiage consistent with the left, but I simply could not find terms such as “gospel” or “repentance”. Old-style RC’s must be wondering what happened. (Twitter, 5-24-20)
These are serious, world-class lies; outright whoppers, the very opposite of the truth: worthy of the old Soviet Union, Communist China, or the Nazi propaganda machine. Where do people get off lying like this? It’s mortal, soul-endangering sin. And when a Catholic commits it against the pope, it’s also blasphemy (yes, blasphemy is more than just lying about God).
Now, what I did was simply search Pope Francis’ Twitter page (since both men above made reference to it), using Google advanced search, for any of the following terms: gospel, good news, salvation, save[d], repent[ant], preach[ing], evangel[ize] [-ism], and faith[ful]. We’ll see how often — as a matter of fact — the Holy Father stresses these things, and some other related ones as well. And the more he does (actually, far more than any of us stress and proclaim them), the more Skojec and White are seen to be damnable, blasphemous liars in this respect. Here are the results, categorized by terms, and in chronological order. You be the judge.
***
Gospel / Good News [39]
Let us not forget: if we are to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, our lives must bear witness to what we preach. (4-14-13)
To live according to the Gospel is to fight against selfishness. The Gospel is forgiveness and peace; it is love that comes from God. (5-22-13)
Christians are ready to proclaim the Gospel because they can’t hide the joy that comes from knowing Christ. (6-19-13)
Dear young people, put your talents at the service of the Gospel, with creativity and boundless charity. (12-7-13)
he Church is ever on a journey, seeking new ways to announce the Gospel. (11-8-14)
We can bring the Gospel to others only if it has made a deep impact in our lives. (4-10-15)
If God is present in our life, the joy of bringing the Gospel will be our strength and our happiness. (6-28-16)
Today the Lord repeats to all pastors: follow me despite the difficulties, follow me by proclaiming the Gospel to all. (6-29-16)
May people see the Gospel in our lives: in our generous and faithful love for Christ and our brothers and sisters. (8-13-16)
Let us offer the men and women of our time stories marked by the logic of the “good news”. (1-24-17)
Proclaiming to all the love and tenderness of Jesus, we become apostles of the joy of the Gospel. And joy is contagious! (2-25-17)
The Gospel is Good News filled with contagious joy, for it contains and offers new life. (8-2-17)
The Church needs faithful people who proclaim the Gospel with enthusiasm and wisdom, instilling hope and faith. (11-4-17)
I encourage all of you to live the joy of your mission by witnessing to the Gospel wherever you are called to live and work. (12-14-17)
The Gospel message is a source of joy: a joy that spreads from generation to generation and which we inherit. (1-18-18)
The Church is young because the Gospel is its lifeblood and regenerates it constantly. (4-15-18)
In a decisive moment of his youth, Saint Francis of Assisi read the Gospel. Still today the Gospel lets you know the living Jesus, it speaks to your heart and it changes your life. (10-4-18)
The newness of the Gospel transfigures us inside and out: spirit, soul, body, and everyday life. (10-10-18)
May the Lord help us understand the logic of the Gospel, that of mercy with bearing witness. (11-8-18)
Lord, focus our gaze on what is essential, make us strip ourselves of everything that does not help to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ transparent. (2-23-19)
Let yourself be transformed and renewed by the Holy Spirit, in order to bring Christ into every environment and to give witness to the joy and youthfulness of the Gospel! (5-17-19)
The feast of the Ascension urges us to raise our eyes to Heaven, to fulfil, with the grace of our risen Lord, the mission He has entrusted to us: to announce the Gospel to everyone. (6-2-19)
Holy Spirit, breathe into our hearts and let us inhale the tenderness of the Father. Breathe upon the Church, so that she may spread the Gospel with joy. Breathe upon the world the fresh restoration of hope. (6-8-19)
[T]he Church . . . lives joyfully proclaiming the Good News . . . (9-8-19)
May the memorial of our #HolyGuardianAngels strengthen in us the certainty that we are not alone. May it sustain us in proclaiming and living Christ’s Gospel for a world renewed in God’s love. (10-2-19)
I ask you to accompany this important ecclesial event with prayers, so that it may be experienced in fraternal communion and docility to the Holy Spirit, who always shows the ways for bearing witness to the Gospel. (10-7-19)
I encourage you to bring the light of the Gospel to our contemporaries. May you be witnesses of freedom and mercy, allowing fraternity and dialogue to prevail over divisions. (10-19-19)
As we celebrate the #ExtraordinaryMissionaryMonth, we ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to open the doors of the Gospel to all peoples and to be authentic witnesses of divine love. (10-23-19)
The Gospel is full of questions that attempt to unsettle, to stir and to invite the disciples to set out, to discover the truth that is capable of giving and generating life. (11-21-19)
Protecting all life and proclaiming the Gospel are not separate or opposed; rather each appeals to, and requires, the other. (11-23-19)
The nativity scene is like a living Gospel: it brings the Gospel into homes, schools, workplaces and meeting spaces, hospitals and nursing homes, prisons and town squares. (12-24-19)
In the #GospelOfTheDay (Mt 5:13-16), Jesus calls His disciples to be salt and light in the world. The person who lives and spreads the grace of Christ is salt. The person who lets the Gospel shine with good deeds is light. (2-9-20)
The Amazonian peoples have a right to hear the Gospel: the proclamation of God who infinitely loves every man and woman, and has revealed this love fully in Jesus Christ, crucified for us and risen in our lives. (2-12-20)
I wish you may all learn to look at life from above, from the perspective of heaven, to see things with God’s eyes, through the prism of the Gospel. (2-24-20)
We will be judged on our relationship with the poor. When Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you”, he is saying, “I will always be with you in the poor; I will be present there”. This is at the center of the Gospel, so much so that we will be judged on it. (4-6-20)
In this night, the Church’s voice rings out: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”. This is a different “contagion”, a message transmitted from heart to heart – for every human heart awaits this Good News. It is the contagion of hope: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”. (4-12-20)
The #GospelOfTheDay contains the Lord’s final greeting: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel” (Mk 16:15). Faith always carries us out of ourselves. The faith needs to be transmitted and offered above all with witness. Go out so that people might see how you live. (4-25-20)
Receiving the joy of the Spirit is a grace. Moreover, it is the only force that enables us to preach the Gospel and to confess our faith in the Lord. Faith means bearing witness to the joy that the Lord gives to us. A joy such as this cannot be the result of our own efforts. (5-21-20)
The joy of proclaiming the Gospel always shines brightly against the backdrop of a grateful memory. To be “in a state of mission” is a reflection of gratitude. It is the response of one who by gratitude is made docile to the Spirit and is therefore free. (5-21-20)
Salvation [16]
The whole of salvation history is the story of God looking for us: he offers us love and welcomes us with tenderness. (5-31-13)
Jesus is the gate opening up to salvation, a gate open to everyone. (8-27-13)
Before the spiritual and moral abysses of mankind, only God’s infinite mercy can bring us salvation. (4-28-16)
Jesus conquered evil at the root: he is the Door of Salvation, open wide so that each person may find mercy. (4-29-16)
Open your heart and let the Lord’s grace enter in. Salvation is a gift, not a way of presenting yourself outwardly. (10-16-18)
Baptism is the best gift we have received. Through it, we belong to God and we possess the joy of salvation. (1-13-19)
Let us journey together, allowing the Gospel to be the leaven that permeates everything and fills our peoples with the joy of salvation! (6-1-19)
We are called to be witnesses and messengers of God’s mercy, to offer the world light where there is darkness, hope where despair reigns, salvation where sin abounds. (9-23-19)
St Michael, help us to fight for our salvation. St Gabriel, bring us the Good News that gives hope. St Raphael, protect us on our journey. (9-29-18)
In these days before #Christmas we praise the Lord for the gratuitousness of salvation, for the gratuitousness of life, for everything he gives us for free. Everything is grace. (12-19-19)
Salvation is in the name of Jesus. We must testify to this: He is the only Saviour. (1-3-20)
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The “earth” to conquer is the salvation of our brother and sister. (2-19-20)
On the feast of the #ChairOfSaintPeter, we give thanks to God for the mission entrusted to the apostle Peter and his successors: to gather His people from among the nations and guide them in charity and truth along the path of salvation. (2-22-20)
The people of God have a sense of knowing where the Spirit is, of knowing the paths of salvation. The people of God follow Jesus. They can’t explain why, but they follow Him. And they never tire. (3-28-20)
Peter’s secret weapon is Jesus’s prayer. Jesus prays for Peter that his faith might not fail. What He did with Peter He does for all of us. Jesus prays for us before the Father, showing His wounds, the price of our salvation. (4-23-20)
To be Christian is to belong to a people freely chosen by God, and to remember those who have preceded us on the journey to salvation. Let us ask the Lord for the awareness of belonging to the people of God which, in its totality, has the sense of the faith. (5-7-20)
Save[d] [7]
Jesus is our hope. Nothing – not even evil or death – is able to separate us from the saving power of his love. (3-22-14)
The Gospel invites us first of all to answer to God, who loves us and saves us, and to recognize Him in our neighbor. (9-22-17)
Look at the open arms of Christ crucified, and let Him save you. Contemplate His blood shed out of love and let yourself be purified by it. In this way you can be reborn. (4-19-19)
God saved us by serving us. We often think we are the ones who serve God. No, he is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first. (4-5-20)
This astonishes us: God saved us by taking upon himself all the punishment of our sins. Without complaining, but with the humility, patience and obedience of a servant, and purely out of love. (4-5-20)
It is not easy to live in the light. The light makes us see many ugly things within us: vices, pride, the worldly spirit. But Jesus tells us: “Take courage; let yourself be enlightened, because I save you”. Let us not be afraid of Jesus’s light! (5-6-20)
In the midst of isolation when we are suffering from a lack of tenderness and chances to meet up, and we experience the loss of so many things, let us once again listen to the proclamation that saves us: Christ is risen and is living by our side. (5-7-20)
Faith[ful] [9]
We need courage if we are to be faithful to the Gospel. (11-5-13)
Only faith can transform the end of our earthly life into the beginning of eternal life. (11-8-17)
The beginning of faith is feeling the need for salvation: this is the way that prepares us to meet Jesus. (12-5-18)
Faith grows when we invoke the Lord with confidence, bringing to Jesus who we are, with open hearts, without hiding our sufferings. (2-10-20)
The first requirement for prayer is faith, the second is perseverance, and the third is courage. In these days when we need to pray more, let us ask ourselves if we pray like this. The Lord never deludes! He makes us wait, but He never deludes. (3-23-20)
In the #GospelOfTheDay (John 11:1-45), Jesus tells us: “I am the resurrection and the life… have faith. Amid grief, continue to have faith, even when it seems that death has won. Let the Word of God restore life where there is death”. (3-29-20)
May our Christian existence be like that of our father Abraham: aware of having been chosen, joyful in moving toward a promise, and faithful in fulfilling the covenant. (4-2-20)
#Prayer is the breath of faith. It is like a cry that comes forth from the heart of the believer and is entrusted to God. Faith is having two raised hands and a voice that cries out to implore the gift of salvation. (5-6-20)
In the #GospelOfTheDay (John 14:1-12), Jesus indicates two remedies for being troubled in heart. First: to not depend on ourselves but to have faith in Him. Second: to remember that here we are passing through and that Jesus has reserved us a place in Heaven. (5-10-20)
Repent[ant] [5]
The greater the sin, the greater the love that must be shown by the Church to those who repent. (3-18-16)
God is always moved to compassion whenever we repent. (9-7-16)
Nothing of what a repentant sinner places before God’s mercy can be excluded from the embrace of his forgiveness. (12-19-16)
“Repent”, in other words, “Change your life” (Mt 4:17), for a new way of living has begun. The time when you lived for yourself is over; now is the time for living with and for God, with and for others, with and for love. (3-16-20)
To repent means returning to faithfulness. Today let us ask for the grace to look beyond our own security, and to be faithful even before the tomb and the collapse of so many illusions. Remaining faithful is not easy. May the Lord keep us faithful. (4-14-20)
Preach[ing] [2]
I love to repeat that Christian unity is achieved by walking together, by encounter, prayer and preaching the Gospel. (1-25-17)
Today we give glory to God for the work of Saint Dominic in the service of the Gospel which he preached with his words and his life. (8-8-17)
Evangelism [4]
The principal mission of the Church is evangelization, bringing the Good News to everyone. (10-30-14)
Practicing charity is the best way to evangelize. (1-24-15)
May the Holy Spirit revive in each of us the call to be courageous and joyful evangelizers. (1-15-20)
The Gospel will not go forward with boring, bitter evangelizers. No. It will only go forward with joyful evangelizers, full of life. (1-28-20)
Misc. Related [23]
To men and women missionaries, and to all those who, by virtue of their baptism, share in any way in the mission of the Church, I send my heartfelt blessing. (6-9-19)
God’s mercy is our liberation and our happiness. We need to forgive, because we ourselves need to be forgiven. (3-18-20)
The fire of God’s love consumes the ashes of our sin. The embrace of the Father renews us from inside and purifies our heart. (3-20-20)
If you find it hard to pray, don’t give up. Be still; make space for God to come in; let Him look at you, and He will fill you with His peace. (3-26-20)
During #Lent I invite you to halt in contemplation before the crucified Lord and repeat: “Jesus, you love me, transform me…”. (3-28-20)
The Lord frees and heals the heart, if we call on Him with humility and trust. (3-31-20)
“If you remain in my Word, you will indeed be my disciples” (Jn 8:31). The disciple is someone who is free because he or she remains in the Lord. To remain in the Lord means allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit. (4-1-20)
In these holy days let us stand before the Crucified One and let us ask for the grace to live in order to serve. May we reach out to those who are suffering and those most in need. May we not be concerned about what we lack, but what good we can do for others. (4-7-20)
From the open heart of the Crucified one, God’s love reaches each one of us. Let us allow His gaze to rest on us. We will understand that we are not alone, but loved, for the Lord does not abandon us and He never, ever forgets us. (4-8-20)
The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8:10). The joy of the Lord is the great strength we possess which drives us to continue being witnesses of life. Today let us ask for the grace of this joy, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. (4-16-20)
To be Christian is not only to fulfill the Commandments, but “to be born again” and allow the Spirit to enter in us and carry us wherever He wants. This is the freedom of the Spirit. May the Lord help us always to be docile to the Spirit. (4-20-20)
We need the Lord, who sees an irrepressible beauty beyond that frailty. With Him we rediscover how precious we are, even in our vulnerability. (4-21-20)
Let us allow the love of God – who sent His Son Jesus – to enter into us, and help us see with the light of the Spirit. Let us ask ourselves: Do I walk in the light or in darkness? Am I a child of God? Or have I ended up like a poor “bat”? (4-22-20)
Contemplating together the face of Christ with the heart of Mary,as we pray the #Rosary, will make us more united as a spiritual family and will help us to overcome this trial. (4-25-20)
At times in life we distance ourselves from the Lord and lose the freshness of the first call. Let us ask for the grace to always go back to that first encounter, in which He looked at us, spoke to us, and placed in us the desire to follow Him. (4-27-20)
Our witness opens the way for others. Our prayer opens the door to the Father’s heart. Let us ask the Lord that we might live our work with witness and prayer, so that the Father might draw people to Jesus. (4-30-20)
Christianity is not only a doctrine, a way of behaving, a culture. Yes, it is also these things. But the core of Christianity is an encounter: the encounter with Jesus. A Christian is a person who has encountered Jesus Christ, and was open to that encounter. (4-30-20)
Let us rediscover the beauty of praying the #Rosary at home during May! At the end of each Rosary, we can recite a prayer asking for Mary’s intercession, that the Lord might free us from this pandemic and life might serenely resume its normal course. (5-1-20)
If one follows Jesus, happy to be attracted by Him, others will take notice. They may even be astonished. The joy that radiates from those attracted by Christ and by his Spirit is what can make any missionary initiative fruitful. (5-21-20)
Jesus told his disciples that he would send them the Spirit, the Comforter, prior to his departure. In this way, he also entrusted the apostolic work of the Church to the Spirit for all time, until his return. (5-21-20)
God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight. Praise be to you! (5-24-20)
The Feast of the #Ascension tells us that Jesus ascended to Heaven to dwell gloriously at the right hand of the Father and remains always among us. This is the source of our strength, perseverance and joy. (5-24-20)
Jesus bore our humanity and brought it beyond death to a new place, to Heaven, so that there where He is, we might also be. (5-25-20)
***
Any more questions?
***
Related Reading
Is Pope Francis Against Apologetics & Defending the Faith? [11-26-19]
Debate: Pope Francis on Doctrine, Truth, & Evangelizing (vs. Dr. Eduardo Echeverria) [12-16-19]
Pope Francis Condemns Evangelism? Absolutely Not! [1-1-20]
Dialogue: Pope Francis vs. Gospel Preaching & Converts? No! (vs. Eric Giunta) [1-3-20]
Abp. Viganò Whopper #289: Pope Forbids All Evangelism (?) [4-8-20]
Pope, Peter, & Paul: Evangelize; Don’t Proselytize [4-28-20]
***
Photo credit: Steve Skojec: Facebook profile picture from 2-7-14.
***
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In