'Mess': Fox News priest attacks 'woke' Pope Francis after death
After the death of Pope Francis was announced, a priest on Fox News used the opportunity to attack the pontiff as "woke."
Conservatives have used the word "woke" as a pejorative for people who are "very concerned with social and political unfairness." They've bashed people as "woke" for being "too extreme" and having "too much influence in society," according to Collins Dictionary.
Father Gerald Murray, a regular guest on Fox News, joined both "Fox & Friends" and "America's Newsroom," on Monday, but it was the latter in which Murray bashed the social consciousness of the late Pope, the Daily Beast reported.
“Do we want to continue with Pope Francis’ basically leftward radical movement in the church, or do we want to return to John Paul II and Benedict, which was to affirm doctrine in the face of critiques, answer modern questions?” he asked.
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Murray complained he hopes cardinals ask themselves, “Do we want to continue in a basically, sad to say, woke direction in the Catholic Church, or do we want to return to an affirmation of the faith based on what the apostles handed down?"
He went on to object to the ways in which Pope Francis challenged teachings enshrined in the Catholic church. Issues like divorce, remarriage and homosexuality weren't shamed under Francis, the report recalled.
"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" Pope Francis said, speaking to reporters while he was returning from a trip to Brazil.
Pope Francis also advocated for decriminalizing same-sex relationships and welcomed members of the transgender community to the Vatican, the Daily Beast recalled. He was also the first Pope to allow priests to bless same-sex relationships.
"Pope Francis basically, when he came in, said, let’s make a mess," Father Murray said.
He noted how he didn’t want a Christianity that said, “before we read the Bible, read the headline, see what they want,” then figure out how to “accommodate the gospel.”
Father Murray blamed “interesting influences” from Francis' early life that he thinks shaped the "woke" ideology. He cited a woman who was part of the communist party and was close to the Pope in his youth.
"I think that’s one of the reasons why he’s antagonistic to capitalism,” Murray said about the woman. “Why… he took what we would say a leftist political point of view from that perspective.”
During the "Fox & Friends" appearance, he said Pope Francis had a "socialistic" view of economic issues, who supported "free immigration."
Murray complained that as a result of the pope’s actions, there was now increased debate in catholicism, adding: “But in Christianity it’s not disrespectful to disagree with the leader, because what counts is not that he’s a leader, but that he’s representing someone else.”
“The pope is like an ambassador" to the faith, Murray explained. "So, if you think he’s got the message wrong, it’s an act of charity to say ‘Holy Father, reconsider that.'"