Pope Francis - attempting to cement change

 

The Pope gives blasphemous "artist" Andres Serrano the thumbs up at an audience in the Vatican last week.

From very early on it seemed to me that the main theme of this Pontificate was confusion. There seemed to be a disparity between the words and actions of the Holy Father you could drive a truck through.

Initially this provided a kind of loophole where you could assume the best even if he seemed to be doing the worst. But that didn't last very long. It soon became clear that his actions where either so ignorant of the role and function of the office as to be a complete embarrassment, or that he was deliberately acting in a way that is contrary to the deposit of faith.

The contrast with his predecessors is incredibly stark.

As someone who grew up with JP II and really found his Catholic faith under Benedict XVI, this stark contrast was devastating and incredibly difficult to reconcile. And for good reason. The Pope is the focal point of unity in the Christian Church. The guarantor of orthodoxy. Whenever Pope Saint John Paul II spoke, I listened because I learned something new and profound about Christianity. Whenever Pope Benedict XVI spoke, he blessed me with new insights, revealing greater depths to my understanding of what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Even now when I am stuck reading Sacred Scripture and wondering "what is Jesus asking of us here", it is usually Pope Benedict XVI I turn to. His books are absolutely full of references to saints and scholars/ His teaching a clear synthesis of proven wisdom, distilled and served up in a concentrated elixir of such profundity it can bring one to tears. When there was a moral debate, you could look to the Pope for answers and he would be able to give a lucid exposition of the doctrine consistent with what the Church has always taught. 

This gave the faithful confidence and inspired them to keep trying to follow Catholic teaching which stands in stark contrast to what the world expects.

Pope Francis mostly quotes himself.

Pope Francis seems to disagree with Catholic teaching on many points.

Pope Francis clearly dislikes Catholics who love the Church.

Pope Francis doesn't seem to like the Church very much at all!

It is clear that Jorge Bergoglio's aim all along has been to fundamentally change the Catholic Church from his first mandatum, to "who am I to judge",  to "don't breed like rabbits", the Scalfari interviews where he denied basic tenets of the faith, to Pachamamma (which, irrespective of how you want to try and spin it, was the literal enthronement of a demon in the Vatican and was embraced by many, eg the Italian bishops).

His direction of travel has been somewhat obfuscated by his employment of the Peronist tactic "signal left, turn right". There are many examples of his use of the Peronist play book I could document here but at this stage I think we all recognise that fundamentally he can't be trusted, there is an essential disparity between what he says and what he does and once you see it, you can't un-see it, at least not if you are paying any sort of attention at all. And it's hard when you're a Catholic and you can't trust the Pope.

At the Reformation, we saw a break with the established Catholic order justified by an attempt to usher in a new way of being Christian: What the Reformers saw as a truer, more authentic way of being Christian. A way that did not suffer the form of Christianity that had existed up until that point to exist any longer to the extent where the Reformers tried to extinguish it by bloodshed. The result was doctrinal carnage, further and further division. Ultimately we see looming obscurity for the most progressive Protestant sects and those who are growing are only doing so through increasing fidelity to the Gospel message.

Now the new Reformers are inside the walls of the Vatican, they hold the offices of power. The Reformation they seek to enact on the Catholic Church is one that abandons, to a greater or a lesser extent, the Catholicism that has been taught, lived and breathed for 2,000 years and supplant it with something more compliant with the modern secular age. In short, it seeks to follow the more progressive Protestants into an obscurity which we know from experience is all that can follow from closer alignment to the secular world.

Just objectively, what has always puzzled me is why people want to join institutions that they don't — for whatever reason — like or agree with? We regularly see Catholics seek to change the institution which, objectively can only render the institution no longer that institution. If the Catholic Church is not allowed to have any rules, boundaries, limits or distinctions, then it becomes the same as every other institution, and all language will tend towards an attempt at an inoffensive, inclusive sound, indistinguishable from a scream. Why should anyone be interested in that?

We become salt with no taste.

Perhaps the most painful chapter of all is Traditiones custodes. When Henry VIII requested a papal dispensation to enable him to put aside his wife, Katherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn he was not granted one. He had already requested, and received, one in order to marry Katherine because she was his brother's widow. Pope Clement VII considered that he could not undo what a previous Pope (Pope Julius II) had done (the pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of an impediment previously dispensed). This is a precedent broken by Pope Francis with Traditiones custodes. It undoes a ruling by a previous Pope, undermining the whole authoritative system of the development of Christian doctrine as far as I can see. What makes it worse is that he did it while his predecessor was still alive. It is a move that doesn't further the Pope's agenda beyond anything more than a few years: The structures are in place to allow the Traditionalists to survive this micro-persecution now in a much stronger way than they were when the post Vatican II liturgical reforms banned the Traditional Mass. Moreover it can only weaken any and all of his own actions, providing justification and precedent for the next Pope, or the one after that, to simply throw everything Pope Francis has done in the rubbish bin just as he has done with Summorum pontificum.

The contempt in which these men hold the faith is something they can't help but express. The catalogue of insults directed towards Catholics from Pope Francis is now legendary (Luke 18:11 comes to mind "Lord thank God I am not like these other men"). In his letter of appointment to Archbishop Fernández, Pope Francis was highly critical of the very dicastery he has appointed him to: 

"The Dicastery over which you will preside in other times came to use immoral methods. Those were times when, rather than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were pursued. What I expect from you is certainly something very different." 

How are we to see this, in the context of the constant progressive agitating from the Synod office, if not as a declaration of a clean break with Catholicism? A rejection of the faith of the Popes, of the Saints, and an embrace of a New World Order?

Indeed this seemed obvious even to Fernández himself, so much so that he had to explain that it wasn't the case!

“I am not a Freemason, nor an ally of the New World Order, nor a Soros spy infiltrated in the Church. Those are pure fantasies,” said Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández Pope’s new doctrine watchdog assures. Seems legit 🫢🙄https://t.co/dZ0rY029XT

— Mark (@sitsio) July 7, 2023

Perhaps the most obvious and troubling methodology Pope Francis has employed to achieve these ends is his advancement of compromised and immoral men to high office in order to control outcomes.

We now see that writ large as we approach this Synod on Synodality and the appointment of Fernández as his doctrinal chief, despite his being investigated himself by the CDF previously and having rejected the appointment due to his own questionable record on abuse.

In a 2006 article, written as vice-dean of the Catholic University of Argentina theology faculty, #PopeFrancis’s new doctrinal chief, Archbishop Víctor Fernández, argued that a woman’s “inflexible refusal to use condoms” could, in some cases, contradict the demands of charity. 👇 pic.twitter.com/C8Thtq9pjx

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) July 7, 2023

Just what qualifies Fernández for this role apart from the fact that he is an old friend of the Pope? His involvement in Amoris Laetitia was nothing if not highly controversial, so he has not been a great success or influence in the papacy so far and he has a dodgy record on abuse and in theology. As Dan Hitchens writes in his alarmingly but accurately entitled piece: Archbishop Fernández, Preacher of Chaos:

"Chapter Eight is, deservedly, the most notorious text in modern Catholic history. It amounts to a sustained reflection on the Church’s teaching that the divorced and remarried can only receive Communion if they give up sexual relations with their new partner. Chapter Eight never quite challenges that teaching, but it is written so ambiguously as to open the door to intellectual and pastoral chaos."

Hitchens laments "For such a man to be elevated to such a height is a terrifyingly bad joke, in some ways the culmination of the decade-long tragicomedy of this pontificate." And he is not wrong!

Fernández joins a motley crew of men who have been promoted by Francis because of their ambiguity of teaching and open disdain for Catholic teaching. Despite a few good inclusions in the Synod voting attendees; Bishop Robert Barron, Archbishop John Wilson and Gerhard Cardinal Müller, the vast majority of attendees are the men Pope Francis has promoted to high office. Men who have a well known reputation for having progressive views at odds with Church teaching and strong links to the disgraced ex-cardinal and serial abuser, Theodore McCarrick. No one even seems interested in this though for some reason.

JUST IN: #PopeFrancis has personally appointed as US members of the October 2023 Synod on Synodality: Cardinals Blasé Cupich, Wilton Gregory & Robert McElroy, as well as Fr James Martin. Cardinal O'Malley & +Etienne of Seattle also named. Full list here: https://t.co/J4hQ5hQN6i pic.twitter.com/D9HiDEGUKN

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) July 7, 2023

I am not unaware of the fact that many of us were as downhearted and dismayed as we approached the Amazonian Synod and that our fears were not realised, although there is little doubt that that synod did have a destabilising effect overall on the Church. And in any case, the Pope and his allies seem completely undaunted by that failure, or the fact that only a tiny minority of Catholics engaged in the Synod on Synodality consultation process, and so it seems they're going to have another go at pushing the same agenda and the Synod on Synodality has been building up all the same old tired topics for months and months now. Considering how often we have been told that the Synod is the unfolding of the direction of the Holy Spirit and the gift of "the god of surprises" it is hard to see how talking about these same old & irrelevant issues, things we have been forced to discuss countless times already, is reconcilable with that.

The Pope's odd associations are often defended by comparing these meetings to Jesus dining with tax collectors and prostitutes, but Jesus met with the people and drew them out of their sin, no such luck with Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Andres Serrano or the bizarre trio he met with below last week:

Days after naming +Fernández #Vatican doctrinal chief, #PopeFrancis is visited by Bill Clinton & Alex Soros (Chair of Open Societies Foundations, WEF Young Global Leader, champion for the #LGBT lobby, & son of billionaire George Soros). What could they possibly have to discuss? pic.twitter.com/jGVRDzzHUA

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) July 6, 2023

In fact, with Pope Francis it almost seems such meetings further convince him of the error of the Church he is supposed to be leading!

On June 29th we were treatied to yet another rant against rigidity. Pope Francis said understanding and imitating Jesus is not a matter of following doctrinal formulas or the “rigid observance” of rules and norms. In actuality what we see in practice is this abandonment the Pope models for us leads to an embrace of the worldly, the secular, the immoral. For the Pope to be continually ranting about rigidity at this point in history when there is so much confusion about doctrine, a lack of vocations & respect for the authority of the Church is not just wrong, it is incredibly irresponsible.

And for anyone who prays the office, anyone who has more than a passing acquaintance with sacred Scripture, Pope Francis and what he says and does just does not fit with the Catholic faith at all.

One of the great graces God has bestowed on me since this man was elevated to the papacy is Bible study with my local Baptist group. 

I find praying the office an incredibly valuable gift that re-centres me and my faith in the democracy of the dead. The office so often seems far removed from what is going on in the Church I wonder how many in Rome pray it daily as they promise to do?

I wanted to dedicate more time to studying Scripture with others, it was a great love of mine when I was studying formally and the opportunity to do this with the local Baptists seemed providential. It has been a great blessing.

It is amazing how Scripture so often seems to speak directly to some unsettling thing Pope Francis has done or said. It has also shown me how beautiful our Catholic faith is; how powerfully it overlays the basic Biblical faith of my Baptist brothers and sisters adding colour and richness. It illuminates doctrine.

The paradox of Christianity in some respects is the way that it can be profoundly comprehended by the deepest thinking professor or a young child. How a farm worker can show a saint greater depth in Jesus (thinking specifically of St Jean Vianney here). The lesson I think I am being taught is that although what happens in Rome does cause great fluctuations in the faith of Christians we need to see that our work is much more closely tied to Christ Jesus: Growing closer to Him day by day, coming to know Him and asking that we be continually conformed ever closer to His divine will. This is as much the concern of my Baptist friends as it is ours as Catholics but they are trying to do it without all the great helps of our faith: The Sacraments, the transcendentals, the Saints, etc etc.

So my final words to you today are that what Jorge Bergoglio and his friends are doing to the faith is epically disastrous. It is an old argument rehashed many times that we faithful Catholics are forced to see played out yet again: the faith to be hurt yet again, Jesus wounded by this yet again. But the Catholic faith remains the barque and the inn for the Good Samaritan where all the treasures of the faith are waiting for us to discover them. Let's keep our sight on Christ, remember to pray and fast and make the most of the great Sacramental treasures that we have been so generously given. This too will pass and what will remain is our faith.