Here is one layman’s reaction…William Tapley.

 

If the Pope was an effective communicator and faithful disciple of Christ in communicating, you would expect something like this logo would never happen, let alone be considered.

Without a doubt the logo is sowing confusion, because being composed of mixed symbols, it is in a word confusing.

The logo by the Jesuit Father — who we believe does not have the artistic talent or appreciation for the achievements of Catholic Art, in past or modern times — departs radically from the Scriptural images used by Our Lord.

First, because to return to the image given us by Our Lord:  to seek the 1 lost sheep, leaving aside the 100, is an image of the love of Our Redeemer, not of His Mercy.  Mercy consists in His deed of dying for us, like a lamb, upon the Cross, while saying, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do!”

The ancient depiction of the aureole about Christ’s Head should contain a clearly visible Cross, normally 3 of the 4 arms. But showing 2, Mr. Tapley takes them as horns.

Others, this time a Brit, have taken scandal.  Here is what End Times News, a protestant source, is saying:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K2I1_l-1s4

 

He has taken scandal, among other things, with the Vatican’s English translation of the accompanying prayer, which by failing to distinguish, as can be done in English, between relative pronouns which refer to God and those which refer to creatures, such as Our Lady, has led him to an awful misunderstanding, or at least given him occasion to be scandalized.

From Rome believes, in addition, that the choice of the logo shows a great insensitivity to the victims of clerical abuse, because it appears to show the abduction of a man by another man, exalted as an act of mercy.

Our Lord did in fact say, “Out of the fullness of one’s heart, does the mouth speak.”  It seems, therefore, that not only the artist but all those involved in choosing the Logo, need to look to their heart and ask how is it, that such a confused and twisted image is recognized by them as an apt symbol for a “Year of Mercy”?

From Rome thinks it has everything to do with the false theology upon which Pope Francis has based the entire year.

For it is a law of the spirit, that no one can exalt anything unto the level of the divine, without committing the sin of idolatry; whereupon, with such a spirit of sin, the entire spiritual life and judgement of the idolater becomes corrupt. — This spiritual principal can be distilled from reading the entirety of Scripture, especially the Old Testament prophets.

For more about the fundamental problem with the Year of mercy, see our campaign, #Y4Tc.