Francis equivocates between Catholic evangelizing and muslim conquest?

The semi-official publication of the French episcopal conference, the magazine La Croix, conducted an interview with Francis recently.  There have been two portions of that interview that have caused a good deal of comment.  The first contains some conciliatory, if non-committal, words from Francis regarding the SSPX.  He claims they are working towards full communion.  That’s not exactly explosive to me, but it is a far cry from the cries of “protestant” and “schismatic” directed towards the Society by some in the hierarchy over the past 40 years.

What has caused far more controversy is this statement below, following a question from La Croix regarding islam (I’m sure there will be some argument over translation):

La Croix:  The fear of accepting migrants is partly based on a fear of Islam. In your view, is the fear that this religion sparks in Europe justified?

Pope Francis: Today, I don’t think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.

Who, of any substance, has ever interpreted the Great Commission in such a tawdry manner?  Who has ever drawn comparisons between the almost entirely peaceful spread of Christianity through Europe and much of the world (I know there have been exceptions), with the almost entirely violent spread of islam?  Islam is a religion that has only and ever been spread by conquest.  It has made very few converts, historically, save with the threat of physical violence and other means of repression.  Only very recently, in Europe and other parts of the West, has islam begun to attract more than a handful of disaffected, disillusioned souls, souls who have never known the Truth of Jesus Christ?

One of the most disturbing qualities of Francis is his tendency to believe things which are not.  Yes, many in Europe (and elsewhere) are extremely concerned over the spread of islam, and not just ISIS.  No, there is no reasonable equivocation between Catholic evangelizing and muslim conquest.  No, it is not possible to reconcile those who persist in manifest grave sin with reception of the Blessed Sacrament.  Yes, protestants absolutely should and indeed must convert to the Catholic Faith.  And so on…….

What we are witnessing in so many aspects of this pontificate (including numerous statements in his official, magisterial works) is a fundamental failure of rational thought.  Much of what is posited is not simply contrary to the Faith but an attack on reason itself.  Such thinking is very prevalent among progressives, who at the same time tell us that sexuality is absolutely fixed at birth and utterly immutable (in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary), while sex (as in “gender”) is as fluid as can be, subject to change on a whim, including the whim to watch women undress.  One can see a certain analogy in claiming that what has always been a sin now somehow isn’t, or at least isn’t an impediment to reception of the Blessed Sacrament.  Or that the peaceful spread of Christianity somehow mirrors the spread of islam.

I read at One Peter Five a statement by Steve Skojec that Francis is the most authoritarian pope the Church has seen in decades, but that he is using all that papal authority to destroy it, long term, in a sort of kamikaze fashion.  That is to say, Francis is using, or intends to use, a sort of papal absolutism to drive fundamental change in the Church, in the process, transferring (it hasn’t happened quite yet?) authority from the papacy to new dicasteries (headed by women?) and especially national conferences.  His successor will then be hobbled with an office denuded of much of its authority and unable to change what he hath wrought.  An interesting theory, which I pray does not come to pass.

I’m out of time.  Let me know what you think.