The Pope's PR man is a 10-year veteran of Fox News

[GreatGazoo]

Just another fine move from the Pope who keeps on giving. Over the last few months, Pope Francis has nabbed headlines for cold-calling worshippers; launching Vatican sports teams; joking around in a red clown’s nose (and also a firefighter’s helmet); allowing a small child to hug him for the duration of a pilgrims address; and promising to personally baptise the baby of a woman who refused pressure from her partner to have an abortion. Breaking rank with his stiffer-lipped co-workers, Francis has recently suggested that “even the atheists” can be saved – and affirmed that he is totally not about to judge gay and lesbian Catholics. Last month, Pope Francis hit 10 million Twitter followers, which placed him just behind Kanye West.
...
But every modern-day media darling needs a PR machine, and Pope Francis is no exception. Enter Greg Burke: the 53-year-old Fox News correspondent turned Holy See handler (officially, Senior Communications Advisor to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State) who is quietly changing the way things are done in Vatican City.

To some, Burke may have seemed an unlikely candidate for papal spin-doctor. He’s a layman without PR experience: a cheery American with a penchant for sports analogies. He’s also a member of the controversial Catholic order Opus Dei: a traditionalist and a celibate whose spiritual practice reportedly involves self-flagellation. But after a year and a half on the job, Burke is credited with helping to open up and rejuvenate the Holy See. Of course, Burke would say it’s all Francis’s doing. “I’m going to kick the ball to the Pope,” Burke explained at a recent lecture in London. “I mean, the Pope scores goals, you know? The Pope scores goals for us... The people are just eating this stuff up.”
...
In June 2012, the Vatican poached Greg Burke – then a Rome-based reporter for Fox News. Burke’s job would be to manage “communications issues” and to integrate the Vatican’s many media organs, explained a Vatican official. Burke himself said he was hired “to formulate the message and try to make sure everyone remains on message”.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/greg-burke-pope-pr

[Bluenorthwest]

1. The author of this piece, Katie Engelhart, tells lies that harm the LGBT community. This must end.

She falsely claims Francis "affirmed that he is totally not about to judge gay and lesbian Catholics." and that is simply not the case at all. His oft re-bleated 'who am I to judge' quip was about celibate clergy in the Church who abstain not only from sex but from close friendships and community organizing.
These writers who keep saying he is 'totally not about to judge gay and lesbian Catholics' need to explain how one concludes that a minority group should not have equal rights without judging that group. He judges, and does so harshly and people like Katie help him with their yapping which is either malicious or just lazy and mediocre to the point of toxicity.

Katie Engelhart. She don't mind the judging 'cause he ain't judging her.

[GreatGazoo]

2. I was more interested in Greg Burke than in the writer or her opinions.

She seems to have no problem with Burke coming from Fox News and applying the same propaganda techniques to the Papacy that Fox does to everything.

The Pope is quoted as saying:

"When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized. The tendency (to homosexuality) is not the problem ... they're our brothers."

They are selling that as a shift but if celibacy is part of that equation then it would seem no shift at all from the church's position that gay desires are tolerable if not acted upon.

Sometimes I get the impression that when RWers read the Bible they don't think that "Thou" refers to them, only to those that THEY judge. Their God conveniently hates the same people that they do and "Thou shalt not kill" seems never to refer to the death penalty, even as they wear the symbol of our guilt in delivering the death penalty to Christ around their necks.

[rockfordfile]

3. yeah I remember that