Well, some are critical of Pope Francis' address to Super Bowl LI and while some of their reasoning is justified, and while I don't agree with the manner in which this pope speaks some of the time - I find it a bit scandalous for "faithful Catholics" to be making their dissatisfaction public over what he didn't say or could have said.
Could he have addressed sex trafficking which allegedly hits a high on the night of the Super Bowl? Could he have specifically mentioned "Jesus" in his talk? Could he have talked about the dubia or other matters of concern for the faithful? Sure, but in this 50 second vlog he chose to focus upon the symbolism of coming together in solidarity and peace. He spoke of sacrifices to be made. He spoke of putting others before ourselves. Could I find fault with Pope Francis' message? If I chose to, yes. Could I find positives with his message? Yes, and that is what I chose to do.
The Super Bowl is an opportunity for us to come together and discuss things civilly and perhaps discuss the morality - or lack thereof - in the commercials and the halftime show.
Well... Pope Francis had some nice words about peace and solidarity - but did not mention our Lord even once - and Lady Gaga was predicted to make some sort of political or anti-Catholic comment/show - but she actually opened the halftime show with God bless America, and one of her closing songs contained a prayer to the Lord to guide her.
ReplyDeleteUnexpected?
I must say too - one of my brothers took the Falcons, so I took the Patriots - and we had a truly "peaceful encounter" between us. He does owe me steak dinner, but even when it looked like I owed him - we both were/are in a state of solidarity over it. We both agree, it was a great game, and an amazing comeback by the Patriots. From my perspective, Pope Francis gets a "win" on this too.
ReplyDelete