Fears of Misunderstanding

The kindness of our new Pope is evident in his description of media reportage as "occasionally biased". In paragraph 34 the Pope discusses the fear that more orthodox Catholics might have regarding his presentation of the Faith. They fear that his more compassionate and inclusive approach to those who practice behaviors that are not consistent with Catholic beliefs might be conceived as an acceptance of such behaviors. He realizes this may be a problem, but he has full confidence in " what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing" in the Gospel message and in our ability to convey it.. "The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing." Our challenge in conveying the message is that we need not just a knowledge of the Faith, but a natural expression of it born of its full integration into our daily lives.

From Evangelii Gaudium 
34. In today’s world of instant communication and occasionally biased media coverage, the message we preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or reduced to some of its secondary aspects. In this way certain issues which are part of the Church’s moral teaching are taken out of the context which gives them their meaning.  ... We need to be realistic and not assume that our audience understands the full background to what we are saying or is capable of relating what we say to the very heart of the Gospel which gives it meaning, beauty and attractiveness.


35. Pastoral ministry in a missionary style is not obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed.  ... the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing.

36. All revealed truths derive from the same divine source and are to be believed with the same faith, yet some of them are more important for giving direct expression to the heart of the Gospel. ... In this sense, the Second Vatican Council explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith”. This holds true as much for the dogmas of faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral teaching.