Pope Francis visits America; the aftermath!

By now, Pope Francis has gone back home to Vatican City and in a few short weeks will be preparing for Christmas. So what did Pope Francis accomplish during his visit to the US? Was he treated fairly by the secular news media? Did the Church in the US get a spiritual jolt from his visit?

His visit certainly brought out the good….and the bad….in people, at least on social media. On Facebook, those who hate the Church and its members spewed thousands of demon-possessed, hateful diatribes that came from both sides of the moral and political spectrums. The most common complaint was that he didn’t say enough about their pet issues, making it harder for them to say “see, the Pope is on OUR side!” He also said things that caused both sides to remain silent, because to comment on what Pope Francis said would have undermined their political or ideological position.

For several years now, I suspected some of my Facebook friends were anti-Catholic, though until the Pope’s recent visit to the United States, they were never very explicit about it. These anti-Catholic Facebook friends came from both sides of the moral and political spectrums. Some are not Christian, some are Catholic Christians (though I suspect non-practicing). I’ve met and know several of them personally, and they all know I’m a faithful Catholic if they read my Facebook posts regularly. Two of them live right in Philadelphia, and I suspect both of them are also pro-abortion! It was bad enough knowing the Catholic-hating, secular news media was going to try to put the Pope in the worse possible light with their biased reporting. So to see these Facebook friends either sharing posts containing false information about the Church, the Pope, or Catholics in general, or write their own posts exposing their hatred of the Church and its members, showed a lack of tolerance (some might call it hatred) for the faith of their Facebook friends who are Catholic Christians.

These are people who, in general, share common values with me on many other issues! Most of these people deeply love our nation, are pro-military, support 2^nd Amendment gun rights, oppose evil government agendas like Common Core, and other worthy causes. Many of them are passionate about the causes they support, and that’s good. However, the recent visit by Pope Francis to the U.S. gave them an opportunity to let their anti-Catholic demons out and write freely (though falsely) about what they think the Church and the Pope teach.

My Facebook friend list is a little bit smaller these days due to my defriending many of these people. The way I see it, I just saved them some major embarrassment if any of my faithful Catholic Facebook friends ever decided to call them out on their lies and hatred of the Church and its members. Unfortunately, they’ve let their close-minded political and moral ideologies cloud their thinking, and as a result they exposed themselves as the anti-Catholic people that they are. They’re wonderful people for the most part, but I don’t need their explicit hate and negativity toward the Church displayed for the rest of the internet to see! They chose to be intolerant toward their Catholic Christian Facebook friends. Yes, they have a First Amendment right to spew their hatred of the Church and its members, but I also have the right to cut them out of my life and exclude them from my Facebook friend list. For me, Facebook is not, and never will be, a popularity contest. I’m surprised many of these people didn’t defriend me first; it certainly wouldn’t have bothered me.

And yes, I’ve prayed for them, that one of these days they’ll eventually open their minds and say to themselves, “what was I thinking?”