That the United States has embraced such issues once scorned by the Catholic Church as abortion, homosexuality and same-sex marriage is not progress but shows that "in some ways, we’ve turned the world upside down" conservative commentator Pat Buchanan told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"What was wrong then is progress now?" Buchanan, a former adviser to three Republican presidents, said in an interview on "The Daily Wrap" with hosts Joe Concha, Jonathan Gilliam and Rick Ungar. "That's how America has changed and with regard to the Catholic Church.
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"The Catholic Church teachings are consistent down through the ages," he added. "If the pope's infallible, it means what has been decided and been taught and been brought to the faithful before remains true today and you cannot change truth.
"So, this is far more dramatic than simple, say, progress, and desegregation," Buchanan said.
Catholics now are even questioning the permanency of marriage.
"Is it progress that 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce?" Buchanan asked the Newsmax hosts. "Let's get to the Catholic teachings: the Catholic Church has always taught the indissolubility of a valid marriage.
"One man, one wife, as long as it's a valid marriage — and in the church, to which I belong, you're now getting a great deal of discussion as to whether that should be maintained or whether you can be a good Catholic and get divorced and remarried.
"So, that's change in the Catholic Church, which is enormously dramatic for those of us who grew up in the old church."
Buchanan, who has run for the Republican presidential nomination three times, is the author of
"The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority."
Pope Francis has been outspoken on some of these issues, putting him "a lot closer to the left wing in Latin America than … to the basically free-enterprise Democratic republic of the United States," Buchanan said.
They have also brought some consternation within the church itself, he added.
"Inside the church, he's probably lost some folks — because they're traditionalist and they believe that the pope, like Pius XII and John Paul II, stood up for the eternal truth even though they're under fire, and even though … they may be terribly unpopular.
"Traditionalist Catholics, we are very unpopular, but the idea of a one true church is not to be popular."
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