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Lisa Duffy: A Million Unheard Souls

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Dory And Pope Francis: Making Waves And Scaring Catholics

Dory And Pope Francis: Making Waves And Scaring Catholics

Last updated on: June 27, 2016 at 7:44 am by Lisa Duffy

Dory And Pope Francis: Making Waves And Scaring Catholics 2016-06-27T07:44:30-04:00 Lisa Duffy

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Pope Francis recently stated the majority of Catholic marriages are null. While I don’t agree “most” are in fact null, based upon my expertise I do believe a huge portion of marriages are. Pope Francis is not really that far off the mark and that’s what is really scary.

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Can I help you?

This question reveals one of the most endearing qualities about Dory the blue tang fish from the popular Disney movie Finding Nemo; her sweet sincerity amid her perpetually crippled short-term memory. Finding Nemo has long been our family’s favorite kid movie and my teenagers were very excited about the release of Finding Dory, so I was naturally upset when I read about the inclusion of a transgender fish character, which was reported as “a stingray [who] will become ‘sting-Rhonda'” and an alleged focus on a gay couple with a baby.

I was pretty worked-up over the fact that such blatant indoctrination of children would be present in the film and I seriously contemplated not taking my kids at all, which was an announcement I wasn’t looking forward to making. But after I calmed down a bit, I decided to do some further investigation.

I looked around to see what the reviews were saying and I didn’t hear anything about “sting-Rhonda.” I absorbed the trustworthy opinions found in Stephen Greydanis’ review of the movie and found no mention of a transgender fish there either, which gave me more confidence. In the end, I took my kids to see the film and was happy I did, because it is a sweet, delightful movie that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Lesson learned: Don’t let sensationalism steer you in the wrong direction; do a little homework and check it out, first.

Pope Francis Scaring Catholics

In the time that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio has been Pope Francis, I’ve come to rely on the fact that the same sort of media-sensationalism follows nearly every statement he makes. Recently, of course, he stated in an interview that the majority of Catholic marriages are null because the engaged couple has little to no understanding of what marriage is about.

The uproar caused by these comments made me stand back and hold my breath until the dust settled, and in the meantime I did some investigation. But while I don’t agree that most marriages are in fact null, I do believe a large portion of marriages are. And I am not just a bystander in this arena, I have some expertise to lend to the conversation, and I can tell you as much as people may not like what he said, Pope Francis is not really that far off the mark.

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