Evangelical Luis Palau on Francis

[EcceQuamBonum]

Add to the reports from the Anglicans this little interview with Billy-Graham wannabe Luis Palau on his relationship with his BFF Card. Bergoglio:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/march-web-only/luis-palau-pope-francis-drinks-mate-evangelicals-bergoglio.html

Some of the more salient (and by "salient," I mean "disheartening") passages:

You know he knew God the father personally. The way he prayed, the way he talked to the Lord, was of a man who knows Jesus Christ and was very spiritually intimate with the Lord. It's not an effort [for him] to pray. He didn't do reading prayers; he just prayed to the Lord spontaneously.

Extemporaneous prayer is not, of course, a bad thing in itself.  But when one habitually disregards liturgical formularies in favor of extemporaneous prayer, that's another matter.

With the evangelical community, it was a very big day when we realized that he really was open, that he has great respect for Bible-believing Christians, and that he basically sides with them. ... They work together. That takes courage. That takes respect. It takes conviction. So the leaders of the evangelical church in Argentina have a high regard for him, simply because of his personal lifestyle, his respect, his reaching out and spending time with them privately.

This is extremely troubling.

here's been talk about a new wave of evangelization in the Roman Catholic Church ... and there is a desire for the pure gospel of Jesus to go out around the world. I think this will have an impact, because he definitely knows and is committed to the pure gospel.

Palau uses the term "pure gospel" at least five times in the interview with reference to Bergoglio.  (Granted, the guy is an evangelical, and they tend to use phrases like this.  Problem is Bergoglio uses the term, too.)  One wonders what exactly this could mean?  Whatever it means, I have the hankering suspicion that it is far from the Tradition.  "Pure" anything coming out of the mouth of a Prot generally refers to eliminating anything deemed to be an unnecessary historical accretion.  If Bergoglio buys into evangelical notions of "pure gospel," how is he going to regard the temporal privileges and powers of the papacy?

One day we were on the way to a campaign ... and he and I met for a word of prayer and I asked for a word of counsel. He said, 'Give those young people the gospel. ... They need to hear the pure gospel.' And he knows what he is saying when he says the gospel.

There's that phrase again.  And here he's encouraging this evangelical prot in his preaching!  Would Pope Pius (take your pick) have done this?  Ha!


Just add this to the panoply of other deeply worrying signs about Francis's understanding of ecumenism.  I really think we're going to see a declaration that all Christian denominations are equally valid paths to salvation in this papacy.  (I'd note that neocath New Advent put this article on their front page because they're so proud of it.  Welcome to spin class, everyone; hope your quads are ready for a workout...)

[LouisIX]

"Bible-believing Christians"



What a qualifier.  The funny thing is that it's hogwash anyway.  Ask a Protestant about John 6.