Bp. Morlino: "analogous to the ‘spirit of Vatican II,’ a distorted ‘spirit of Pope Francis’ is being concocted"

[Morlino:] “Given the confusion about Pope Francis' statements that has emerged from the media coverage to date, I think it inopportune to offer extensive observations which will probably be subjected to like misinterpretation,” he said. “I think that, analogous to the ‘spirit of Vatican II,’ a distorted ‘spirit of Pope Francis’ is being concocted which is equally, if not more misleading.”

Sean McNally, president of Badger Catholic, the UW organization for Catholic students, said he interpreted the pope’s remarks as a different approach to bringing new members to the Church, rather than a change of position on controversial social issues.

“Those key issues on abortion and homosexuality, those are important,” he said. “But when you’re evangelizing to people, that’s not necessarily what you lead with.”

McNally says that although students “don’t sit around and obsess” about the hot social issues, he hinted there was still a strong commitment among young Catholics in the student community to traditional rules of Catholic morality.

“I think you’d be surprised by the number of students on campus who don’t support contraception,” he said.

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