Downtown!

Downtown from Laurence England on Vimeo.

As the patron of comedians, it was only fair my holy patron got a slide. It's no longer his feast in England, but for a few hours it still is in Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Honolulu.

May the good God deliver His Church in the USA from such hirelings and false shepherds and deliver His entire Church from the destructive category 5 hurricane that is Pope Francis and his strange erstwhile friends, numbered among whom has long been one now Archbishop Theodore 'Uncle Ted' McCarrick, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who has brought utter disgrace on the Body of Christ, ruined the lives of his victims and dragged his complicit brothers into the state of being utterly unbelievable, totally untrustworthy and, for a half-decent Pope, eminently sackable!

Truly, only a Pope as corrupt and intransigent as Pope Francis would permit these unbelievable clowns to remain and fester in the Hierarchy of the US Church with their half-baked denials of knowledge of 'Uncle Ted' and his career of evil as a priest, bishop and even as a Cardinal. May he be given the grace to repent and his victims, the number of which is currently unknown, find healing in the loving Heart of our God.

May the heel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Americas, crush the head of the serpent who has wrapped himself around the Church in the US and elsewhere, including the Eternal City of Rome, and may her Divine Son liberate His Church from the tyranny of heresy, sin, error and evil.

Pray! Pray! Pray that the false, illusory and counterfeit church now emerging in all its scandalous and blasphemous horror may leave Rome!

Pray for the liberty and exaltation of the Church!

May the false church being erected by stealth under the headship of a false prophet intent upon the overthrow of the indestructible Church of Christ be thrust thoroughly...

'Like a Bridge... '(with Fr James Martin S.J and friends)

Like a Bridge... from Laurence England on Vimeo.

From his latest tweet, I hear Fr James Martin S.J is on a week's holiday. I wonder which Pride Festival he is attending on his break.

Is Pope Francis the Last Hope for Life and Family in Argentina?

A source in Argentina has provided me with some perceptive observations on the recent intervention from Pope Francis timed - to many commentator's bewilderment - after the recent vote in Ireland and the more recent parliamentary vote in Argentina on liberalising abortion laws in these respective countries.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 'our man in Argentina' places the sudden papal defence of the unborn  in the light of politics surrounding the bill approved at the Deputies House and is about to be voted in the Argentinian Senate.

A Little History of Argentinian Politics

Firstly, a brief introduction to the pitfalls of Argentine politics are called for. Argentinian politics are very complicated and while even today's political wranglings must be seen in as expressions of an ebbing and flowing Peronist-Antiperonist dialectic.

"Peronism", he says, "can be anything, can be right and even far right or can be left to even a Marxist level. No matter what political expression it takes, Peronism is essentially a power-building machine. A maurrasian politic d´abord, but sick. The only Peronist principle - a principle observable in this pontificate - is loyalty, in the Mafia sense of the word."

"Sometimes Peronism can achieve the good, like when in 1974 the ideology led the defense against the Malthusian offensive in the UN Bucharest Population Conference. Similarly, it can turn against family and life when it is convenient."

Argentina has been ruled for 12 years (2003-2015) by a Leftist Peronist administration by the late Nestor Kirchner, succeeded by his wife Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The character of that government was almost Marxist, Chavezist-leaning and tyrannical. Back in those days, Jorge Bergoglio was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate Cardinal. Even though he is a Peronist his relationship with the Kirchners was bad, but for entirely unknown reasons.

The Kirchners tended to see him as the main opposition leader. Note, Pope Francis isn't late to Argentinian politics. Even as an Archbishop, he enjoyed the political clout that being a Catholic Cardinal in a Catholic country afforded him. While he has remained a political creature after his ascendency to the Throne of Peter, his publicly poor relationship with the Kirchners dramatically changed, for entirely unknown reasons, when he was elected Pope.

A coalition was built against Kirchnerism, and this coalition finally won the election in 2015. This political alliance (Cambiemos – Let´s Change) was built by all the anti-Peronist forces: liberals, conservatives, socialists and others forming an unlikely mix. Mauricio Macri was the leader of this coalition, now he is the President.

Mauricio Macri was seen by most of the people as quite a conservative culturally and somewhat a free market supporter. But the most important thing for everyone at that time was to drive the Kirchners out. Peronism was divided during the election and many Peronists voted Cambiemos. Catholics were divided too, their vote split between Kirchnerismo (and here we see some Bergoglian influence) and Cambiemos.

Mauricio Macri was quite LGBT agenda leaning (and so are the Kirchnerism) but he said during the campaign that abortion law would not be touched in his government and that he was a strong life supporter. It is important to note here that Cristina Kirchner strongly opposed abortion during her government and that she even thwarted abortionist initiatives presented by her own party in Parliament.

The Reality of the Political Situation in Argentina

Actually, Macri is a postmodern political persona, a product of political-sociological marketing, perhaps taking someone like Tony Blair as his model. He seems as he want to be a Latin American Macron or Justin Trudeau. In short, however, political struggle in Argentina is the struggle between the paleozoic bolivarian Latin American left of the Kirchnerism and the modern global Obamaist leaning left of Cambiemos. Bergoglio represents the first, and Macri the latter. They really detest each other, in fact.

Macri has a touch of the global elite's annointed one in Latin America about him. He has been chosen to host the G20 meeting, he was a special guest of Justin Trudeau at the G7 meeting ten days ago and he has a good relation with him.

Argentina, meanwhile, is facing heavy economic headwinds and called in the IMF for aid one month ago. The deficit is rampant, inflation is about 35% and the country is heavily indebted in dollars in the context of rising international rates.

As readers might know, at the G7 meeting was too Christine Lagarde, president of the IMF. The radical feminist agenda was publicly established there, and it is very unlikely that Macri was not put under a lot of pressure by Trudeau and Lagarde and others. Trump disrupted the meeting and then left without signing the declaration.

Before the G7 meeting, he had put the abortion law in discussion contrary to what he had said in his election campaign. In addition to this, he clarified that he would not veto it in the case of it coming out as approved. That was a slap on the face to the majority of his voters. Despite the Latin American Catholic collapse in faith, people in Argentina are in the majority against abortion. People were not happy and marches against the law were massive. Many (if not most) of the marchers were Cambiemos voters and the abortionists are mostly very young females, extreme left leaning, femen-type activists who would never give their vote to Cambiemos. That can be taken as a sign that he needs the law and he is under pressure for it from some people, somewhere, but not the Argentinian people themselves.

Last Wednesday, then, was the day when the deputies voted. At the beginning of the night, the life campaign was winning by seven votes, according to polls and projections. The Government put a lot of pressure on the deputies, even trading money for the provinces in exchange for votes. That went out in the very morning after and it was a shocking scandal.

People in Argentina are extremely angry about the way this vote has gone. The thing is that many people fear that going against the government would be to favour the Kirchners. And if the Government does not get the votes for the approval, the IMF will not send the money. That would lead the country into further and deeper economic chaos. Of course, those who campaigned against the bill consider this factor to be insignificant compared to the value of the sanctity of life at stake in the bill and would prefer to face anything except the killing of the unborn. They marched last Wednesday and are struggling hard against the law, no matter what consequences come their way.

Despite the horrific setback for life, some positive trends are emerging as a result of the deputies decision. For instance, now that International Planned Parenthood is a household name for everyone in Argentina, many people are talking about the millions they are sending to build up the pro-abortion lobby. Similiarly, people are openly discussing the UN's positions on abortion and its influence over sovereign governments such as that of Argentina. Things that everyone considered conspiracy theories a month ago are becoming a common knowledge and talking points now.

What is Pope Francis playing at?

The morning after the vote, when campaigners were exhausted after the vigil, the night spent in front of the Congress, Pope Francis sent a tweet congratulating the people watching the World Cup. That raised in Argentina a tsunami of fury against him. People felt betrayed by everyone: the political system, the party they had voted, the silent Bishops, and now even the Pope (though Catholics in Argentina had never expected much from him), this was seen as beyond the pale.

Maybe he realized his mistake, maybe he did not, but the remarkable thing now is that he sent a very powerful message against abortion and in support of families. Less widely known is the report that he asked for the list of the abortionist voters in Parliament.

This action could have two meanings:

a) Just another remark and senseless Bergoglian rant to save his own behind in front of the shame of abortion approved in his own country, 

or 

b) He is about to go full swing against Macri and is using this issue as leverage against him. If he does that, he might even topple the Government mounting the Peronist deputies and the people against them. 

Unfortunately, because Jorge Mario Bergoglio has always been a shrewd and obscure political operator, we don´t know for sure the reason he has done it.

In the first case, is very likely that abortion will pass even when the Senate is more conservative than the Deputies Chamber, because if the clergy does not care much, no one will.

In the second case, it would be a case of the Church struggling against the global elites and what is increasingly termed 'the New World Order', and coming out victorious. Argentina may then pay the price in a deeper economic crisis if the IMF and World Bank retire themselves from the table because the political establishment did not play ball.

"That would", in the words of my Argentinian source, "be really painful, but it is better to offer our pain than the innocent blood for money."

With Cardinal Parolin having been to the Bilderberg Meeting recently, it seems an unlikely scenario that we see now Pope Francis vs. the IMF, or Pope Francis vs George Soros or even Pope Francis vs Planned Parenthood, but the idea of Pope Francis saving lives - for frankly any reason - or doing battle against the spirit of the World is and will remain for Catholics appealing. Where he does God's will, he is surely to be commended on that. Hopefully, his salvo in defence of the unborn is sincere If Francis is angling at defeating the abortion bill in Argentina, because of his temperament, then he will need to win. He is, after all, a political animal.

"He is a Jesuit," says our man in Argentina, "so it is impossible to know for sure. The plain truth of the matter is that we need the Church to face the Prince of the World, even with Francis at the helm."

The Remnant

The Remnant from Laurence England on Vimeo.

This was fun to make but its low on humorous content. 

For four minutes and and thirty four seconds I got to pretend to be Bruce Springsteen.

I don't think he's practising the Catholic Faith anymore, is he?

A bit

My Favourite Sins

Pray for Ireland, a land where faithful Catholics now form a minority in a pagan nation, a situation which is analogous to the experience of faithful Catholics in the Church. May God convert their nation and our nation of the United Kingdom to defend human life from conception to natural death.

One Baby Boy, So Many Victims...

As the battle over the life and death of Alfie Evans intensified in the full glare of the onlooking world, I was among those who could not comprehend the unswerving logic of an entire machinery, governmental and ecclesiastical, locked on course for the snuffing out of a precious human life, that of little Alfie, who from his hospital bed lay blissfully unaware of the extraordinary tumult surrounding him, a tumult inside and outside the hospital, in the courts, in the media, around the whole world.

I cannot help but feel that in ages past, Alfie Evans might have lit the blue touchpaper of civil unrest, mass demonstrations, even calls for revolution in a country like the United Kingdom. The sheer powerlessness felt by those following the case of Alfie and his parents, those close to him and those far away, apart from a committed and passionate team surrounding the family, an intense gathering of supporters outside the hospital, manifested itself in cries from the heart on social media, blogs, Facebook and other vents for public anger and frustration. Perhaps because of the rise of social media, things have changed, perhaps not for the better. Perhaps when the release valves of public anger made known through hashtags fail to save the cause of a baby boy, it is time for a rethink.

Clearly, Alfie was a victim of a foul ideology that now dominates public life in Great Britain, a hideous, unreasoning line of repressive eugenic thought reminiscent of 1930s and 40s Germany, one that was already politely embedded in the British Establishment thanks to the rise of social darwinism, one that was never even nearly defeated during the Second World War, an ideology that does not even limit itself to the upper echelons in the British Establishment but finds a welcome in the hearts of British men and women working in myriad fields across the social spectrum in these Isles. It isn't really new. It never really was. For centuries, millennia, human societies have justified the killing of innocents because some human life is deemed 'unworthy' of being called human life. For centuries, we have employed utilitarian justifications for murder. For centuries, we have deemed some lives more or less worthy and that social 'inferiors' possess less inherent worth. What marks causes like that of Alfie Evans out, however, along with the crimes of Nazi Germany, is the tying of this myopic, if common, human error - one to which we are all essentially prone - to the over-wielding, face-crushing apparatus of the modern State.

And what a State it is and what a tyrannical monster it can become when a society becomes detatched from Christ. For differing reasons, we Catholics, we British Catholics, should have seen the killing of Alfie Evans coming, because as other commentators have stated, the State-based assassination of Alfie, a British citizen whose right to life is, unlike the unborn, legally recognised, was entirely legal and 'above board'. While completely contrary to what we know as the natural law, that knowable in the hearts of mankind to be right, just, noble or virtuous, compassionate or kind, Alfie's life could be 'ended' and all 'by the book'. It could even be 'ended' by the withdrawal of basic sustenance and / or by the injection of toxins designed to sedate the patient into silence until even his breathing falls utterly silent. It could be ended because laws have been implanted into the British legal system that recognise, inherently, that in some, most, if not all cases, the life of citizen to State is one of 'owned' to 'owner', if not necessarily 'slave' to 'master'.

With language dressed in solemn medical virtue and medical care, the United Kingdom has reached the tipping point at which all but those without even a rudimentary vision of the limits on State power, could cry, "Murder!", as a judge told a court, a hospital, parents, a nation, yes, the whole world and its Creator, that an NHS patient could essentially be put to death in 'the best interests of the child'. There are, as has been documented, real reasons why the State and those who act in the name of Her Majesty's Government deem the State the possessor of persons, their lives and their deaths, beyond all reasonable limits.

Actual laws, such as the Children's Act of 1989, the Mental Capacity Act of 2005 and those laws which gave rise to the Court of Protection, a kind of super-secretive court that has those kind of powers at which should astonish and horrify British citizens, forsee just these kinds of situations and accord to the State just those kinds of justifications as were used in what Alfie's army could call the killing of Alfie Evans. What was and remains astonishing is that all of these conditions were met in one little boy and the entire weight of the British legal system fell like a tonne of bricks on one little boy and his brave, besieged and embattled parents.

It serves us nothing to say that Alfie Evans is a warning to the British people, since the warnings are long behind us, long before Alfie was born. If Alfie were a warning, he may still be alive in a hospital in Rome receiving treatment, still being caressed by his loving parents, still charming the world with his beautiful face, with his loving vulnerability, with his touching and mysterious interaction with those who loved him, with those who saw in his innocent eyes a glimpse, as so often we do, of something of the mystery of God. No, Alfie was not a warning. A warning is a threat. Evil men carried out an evil plan and succeeded in their evil plan and left a signature of evil across the face of the United Kingdom, confirming that this nation is now under the influence of horrifying evil that will not yield even in the face of the vehement reproach of just men and women around the whole world.

No, the warnings have been many and have gone unheeded. The warnings were the low-income family living on a housing estate deemed by the encroaching State apparatus of social services to be neglecting their child because they couldn't afford or for some reason failed to provide the correct environment for their child, note, to the standards to which social services holds them. Many children, of course not all, are forcibly removed, through the family courts, from those who have been deemed 'unworthy' of parentage. These children are then 'processed' into a care system in which they experience no or little love whatsoever, their links with parents and natural bonds severed.

The warnings were the man or woman with schizophrenia, be it mild or not so mild, who, having been sectioned, and placed under an authority's 'care', is diagnosed and placed on a mental health wing periodically, but is generally left to live an isolated and marginalised life, only to be placed on medication that renders him or her impotent, sterile or both, or unable to function as he or she could without them.

The warnings were the Christian family who, having discovered that their school was providing their child with completely unsuitable material for 'sex education' are informed that they are unable to pull their child from a toxic and highly sexualised learning environment, because wishing to preserve a child's innocence, or wanting to provide more suitable information themselves, is not 'in the child's best interest'. The warnings were the children removed from couples deemed unable to provide enough for their child, only for their children to be handed over by an adoption agency, with all the power of the State behind them, to sexually active 'gay parents' who can never provide children with the moral environment for their growth to maturity, nor the masculine love of a father, combined with the feminine love of a mother.

The warnings were the homeless man who, deemed unsightly to beg around our cities, or even to busk, is given the kind of stringent legal order that inhibits his movement or freedom and means that he cannot beg or even busk in a certain locale without a possible prison sentence being the result of his disobedience. The warnings are there, have been there, wherever an unjust State manned by unjust personnel, rob human beings of their natural and inalienable rights.

But most stridently of all, the warnings were there, already in place, for years, perhaps decades in Great Britain's National Health Service and within care homes, which can stealthily, at a time of their own choosing, place patients on the kind of 'end of life' plan that could render families and loved ones impotent in the face of the State's own medical system, as British citizens with firmly established legal rights, are placed on a well-documented death pathway that necessarily enables doctors and nurses to administer to patients deep sedation-causing drugs, in increasing dosage, while removing the most basic necessities of food and water from these patients, who, unable to speak out for themselves, are rendered entirely helpless as they grow nearer and nearer to death, whose bodily organs slowly succumb to the most agonising end, while families, some aware, some unaware, look on helplessly, because 'experts' have told them that this, the most barbaric, the most inhumane path, is the only path upon which patients can be placed at this stage in their treatment.

In the final analysis, we see in Alfie Evans a whole world, a world that is, a cruel and unjust world, a cold and heartless world, a world in which evil appears to us triumphant, a world which parodies 'care' and 'treatment' in its eugenic analysis that ends that 'life unworthy of being called life'. Those with a Christian vision of human life, however, see something else. We see a little boy, unknowing of all that was surrounding him, a warrior who did not, could not acknowledge the battle in which he was staged, through whom Almighty God has already worked wonders. Through a single baby, God has paraded the wicked for all mankind to see, whose pride and vanity will be recorded one day as legendary.

Little Alfie has paraded the unjust, the wicked and pathetic bishops of England and Wales, unmasked evil present in our own Bishops' Conference, hurled down the reputations of those who, fearing the consequences of conflict with the British Establishment and the British State, sided with Alfie's persecutors and those of his parents, adopting precisely the same sinister and deceitful language as those who felt a baby boy was better off dead. He has revealed the broad, cunning and evil face of the eugenic mindset against which Catholics must once more rise to slay, if necessary with our own blood. He has revealed the true state of our country.

He has also paraded those who fight for true justice, who fight for God's law, who fight against the culture of death, who wish for no earthly reward for their efforts, who pulled resources together to move heaven and earth for this young couple and their child, those who recognise that the State's power, though a necessary presence in the lives of the modern nation, has limits it cannot exceed without crushing human dignity. He has revealed the openness of whole nations to true compassion and true justice, those countries who offered to treat Alfie, who saw a fight for a human life as a fight worth fighting and an expense worth paying.

It is doubtful that Alfie's death will bring about a 'sea-change' in the attitude of the legal and medical establishment that denied Alfie and his parents treatment elsewhere, lest the cherished NHS be seen to be ineffective. No, it was vital that the NHS was seen to be effective, if not in caring and treating the most vulnerable, then in policing and administering death to its its patient. The truth is that what is most feared among the powerful in this country is the 'sea-change' that is yet to take place but that all Catholics who value and cherish human life pray will take place, the 'sea-change' from a country that justifies the taking of innocent human life on entirely subjective grounds, that justifies judicial and medical tyranny in the name of a thinly-veiled form of social darwinism rampant throughout British institutions, into a country that honours Almighty God, that honours the rights of parents, that honours the lives of its citizens from conception to natural death, that honours all that is good, all that is honourable, all that is worthy praise.

Perhaps one day that day will come, perhaps one day Britons will rise from their slumber and demand the respect for human life that they themselves have discovered is sacred and holy. Perhaps that day is coming, but if it does, it won't have come without God's help and the wonders He has already done, through little Alfie Evans, the little warrior prince of Liverpool who, history may yet record, even put the silence of the Royal Family themselves to shame.

Pray for Alfie's parents, pray for our nation, pray for our bishops, pray for the clergy, but Alfie, Alfie must now be safe with God, for all along, his cause, in baptised innocence, was with God. Many people failed Alfie, while many valiantly fought on his side, but our holy Faith tells us God did not fail him. He is faithful. Alfie has been delivered from the pains of death and his enemies who surrounded him, from the fury of his foes, of both men and demons. May God do the same for us, for those who govern us and for our country as well.

The Francis Song

A reader asked me for my response to 'Gaudate et Insultate', I've read some excellent analyses of the document and I don't think I can add much to it, so I thought I might as well sing what we can see is going on, what others have noted, based on The Dentist Song, from the hit musical Little Shop of Horrors. That song's about a brutal, sadistic dentist. Not like our Pope, obviously. He isn't a dentist.

What Qualities Does the Next Pope Need?

The Franciscan pontificate is unpredictable and volatile, as well as risible. From day to day it scandalises and shocks the Church.

The next Pope will have to learn from the many serious mistakes made during this pontificate and should already, while a Cardinal, be examining where Francis has gone wrong, as well as the partial success (if you can call it that) of his extraordinary public relations efforts, efforts which have now led to the most amazing apology in all of human history, the kind of stupendous apology that marks a Pope who called abuse victims liars and slanderers out as a living Saint. Really, he should be canonised now. But, here's what I'll be looking for from the next Pope, should God in His mercy give one to the Church.

1. I hope that the next Pope believes in the Catholic Faith. It's a big one this and I think that the Catholic Church in the next pontificate requires someone who believes the religion into which they were baptised. It really helps people to believe the Catholic Faith if the Pope believes it too.

2. I hope that the next Pope is honest. Again, everybody has their weaknesses, but for the next Pope, an appreciation, at least, for truth, would be a real bonus and such a quality might restore some confidence in the papacy.

3. I hope that if the next Pope is going to insult anyone, or craft insulting expressions directed at certain members of the Church, he aims his barbed arrows at those who show ill-will or malice towards the Church's perennial doctrines and towards the enemies of Christ within the Church. But this isn't essential. He could forego insulting anyone. That might actually be an idea. Let the truth stand on its own merits. If God grants it to us, and let us not presume, we'll need some calm after the hurricane that is Francis.

You may have your own suggestions that you'd like to share of qualities you are looking for in the next Pope. Perhaps you'd like him to love God and the Church, or have a punctilious concern for souls, doctrine, liturgy and worship, but I just thought we'd start off with the basics first.

As I say, feel free to add your own...

Happy Easter, Pope Francis...

Next questions for Scalfari to ask the Pope could be 'Did Jesus exist? Did he rise again?'

A link was shared recently to Haaretz documenting the anti-semitic remarks of Cardinal Maradiaga concerning the 'Jewish media' and the 'whipping up' of the abuse crisis in the Church from early 2013. A little while before ++ Maradiaga's 'it was the Jews' diversion, I recall Cardinal Sodano suggesting, publicly, to Pope Benedict XVI that the abuse crisis was a kind of manufactured phenomenom attended by the 'feigned' outrage of media. I think he had intended these words to be a form of consolation to the then Pope (after all we know what a loyal a creature ++ Sodano is) but one could tell from Benedict XVI's face what he thought of ++Sodano's words: 'You're not helping.' Such were the kind of men hovering around Benedict XVI. I think Cardinal Bertone (what is he up to nowadays?) called the Vatican a nest of 'crows and vipers', or something such like.

 
Many of us, at that time, had no idea what kind of persons were such individuals as ++ Maradiaga. We have a little more insight into, at least, ++Maradiaga's mad-cap world now. What an obsure figure he was before Francis! But then we have more insight into the worlds of many Cardinals now and, of course, that's all thanks to the light-bearer-in-chief, Pope Francis as well, for it is he who has thrust such men as ++Maradiaga into the spotlight, but not only ++Maradiaga. Thanks to Pope Francis, we now know the identities of all the villains and 'wolves' who had little/no interior faith but pretended to do so every now and then so as not to give the game away while the Pope was Catholic and the CDF was a thing. Useful to know should God give us another conclave.

Just think of the figures that Catholics following events now know a great deal more about, those Cardinals and Bishops who are active in supporting the demolition job now under way as well as those who have fallen utterly silent. For this reason, looking at that report from 2013 from Haaretz, the photo-collection of potential 'frontrunners' and candidates for the 2013 conclave is fascinating to view in hindsight - after five years of devastation - and in a way it is consoling to view, because almost all of the men that the website put forth as potential Popes at that time have fully revealed their fidelity, or rather their infidelity or their indifference to, or even hatred for, the divine Faith during the reign of this Pope. Had it not been Pope Francis who had won the conclave, it could well have been one of them and how would that have gone? Better, perhaps, but perhaps not much!

This man helped to draft the Catechism and now rejects it.

Cardinal Maradiaga was listed by Haaretz as a candidate for the 2013 conclave along with ++Schonborn, ++Tagle, and a host of other acolytes for Amoris Laetitia. We didn't know it at the time, but as it turned out ++Maradiaga may have had enough cash in 2013 to buy the papacy for himself or his friend or himself and his friends, just like Cardinals did in the good ol' days!

Perhaps ++Scola would have been a 'safe pair of hands', but really, who knows? Many Cardinals have gone awfully quiet during the time of the devastator. Now that the devastator has, with all his pomp, vanity and empty show turned up to the fanfare of the world, those who still ask for 'clarity' will be waiting for a long time, while those who have eyes to see and ears to hear have all the clarity they could possibly require from Pope Francis. That's as true for Austen Ivereigh as it is for Ann Barnhardt. What is that clarity? It is this: decide now who you shall follow, Jesus Christ or His adversary working stealthily through His unbelieving, dupicitous Vicar on Earth. Choose now who you shall believe, Jesus Christ and His Gospel or Pope Francis and his contradictory secular mush. There. Now that is clarity. It may be apocalyptic clarity, but its still clarity.

Let's not pretend that you and I know more than his long-time friend, Eugenio Scalfari, about Pope Francis's 'real' beliefs, or that Pope Francis has telephoned you or I rather than a strange nun who claims he told her artificial contraception is okay in 'these' circumstances. If the Pope cared for souls he would correct these people himself and if these persons thought the Pope cared for souls, they would not dream of crediting to him words which were not his. They are entitled to their good names. They are only the messengers of the Pope. If they were liars, or if their messages were contrary to the will of the Pope, I think the Pope would call them out on that himself, just like he did (not) Msgr Vigano.

As if to underscore this point, Sandro Magister is now reporting that its likely Pope Francis intimated more to Scalfari on our two possible eternal destinies, including a remark that Purgatory and Heaven 'aren't real either'. As readers are possibly aware, after five years, I'm past reacting indignantly to the Pope's words as if one ought to be "shocked" by Francis's inane / insane ramblings. I've come around to the idea that in a psychological war, it is best to laugh at those bishops, including Francis, who desperately want to enjoy public credibility and be taken terribly seriously while leading their flock into a nonsensical 'new paradigm' in which the only thing that 'disappears' into a vortex is Catholic teaching. If you are still shocked by Pope Francis...

IT IS TIME TO STOP BEING SHOCKED.

For what purpose does our shock and incredulity serve but to give to the innovators the satisfaction of seeing us throwing our arms up in the air helplessly? We have had five years of this insanity. Under Francis, scandal, apostasy, doubt, infidelity, sacrilege, insult, dissembling, ambiguity, confusion, dishonesty, sexual immorality in the Vatican, betrayal, abuse cover-up, corruption, deception, financial scandal, blasphemy and insanity constitute the new normal. These things are now normal. Indeed, these things are the lifeblood of his pontificate, since you cannot achieve Francis's goals while presenting yourself as a WonderPope who is destroying everything (but nothing is really changing, honest!), without many of these things, especially if your pontificate requires evil people to carry out an evil plan, because only evil people carry out evil plans. Those who refuse to co-operate with evil are, in this pontificate, swiftly shown the door or are publicly derided by some minion or other.

Don't shoot the messenger. Eugenio Scalfari.

It is important that we stop being 'shocked' for the sake of our own psychological and spiritual health but that we keep praying for the cleansing and spiritual renewal of the Church, in whatever manner God chooses to do this. Quite frankly, I think that men with such atheist leanings as Pope Francis and Eugenio Scalfari (birds of a feather), friends and collaborators that they clearly are, get off on undermining the Faith of the Catholic Church, the faith of Her members, on Good Friday, at the most sacred time of the year. Can we not just assume, after five years, that if Francis wanted to teach the faith and save souls he would do so and that if he teaches things contrary to the Faith by whatever means he chooses to do so, then that is precisely what he wants to do?

That is not to say that the whole pontificate is not a living nightmare, but if there is one thing more painful than a devastator Pope and that is to endure the utter silence from almost the entire college of Cardinals in the wake of the destruction that the devastator Pope is launching on the Church. Yet, even this is in a sense helpful, because we now know the reality of the situation of the Catholic Church in the 21st century. By now we know who is for Christ and who is against Him. God knows the hearts of those who are silent, but their silence speaks volumes.

The devastator has already revealed the true thoughts of many bad and heretical Cardinals and Bishops and brought them out into the open to be paraded like a float of flamboyant characters at a gay pride parade before the whole Church. We hardly knew anything about these figures until Francis came along and tore off their masks. And yes, many of these characters are, similarly, utterly shameless, even when they are paraded naked. He has also brought out in stark relief the faith and integrity of good Cardinals and Bishops who are loyal to Jesus Christ and to His Gospel. His is a double-edged sword, indeed!

As today's report from Germany tells us, and as the latest Cardinal Burke interview tells us, some prelates will defend the Faith of the Church even when the devastator does his worst. Others will follow the devastator to ruin. All of this is prophecised. Some will be honoured and given eternal glory. Others will enjoy everlasting shame and contempt. Francis is not the Last Judgement, no, but it looks rather like he's going to be a helpful prelude to the real thing when it comes, helping people to decide henceforth whom they shall serve and for whom they will teach, speak and lead others to worship: Christ or Antichrist.

That's the clarity that Francis has brought.



Where Christ and His Gospel will lead us.

Or



Where Pope Francis and his anti-Gospel will lead us.

Of course, we never thought that could happen...

Happy Easter to all readers.

A Blessed Easter to You All

Pope Francis is an Incredibly Stupid Fool: Offended? Read on...

"Okay, let this disappearing thing commence!!"

“They’re not punished. Those who repent obtain forgiveness and enter the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who don’t repent and can’t be forgiven disappear. A Hell doesn’t exist, what exists is the disappearance of sinning souls.”

Well, obviously (cough), there's no way (Hosea!) the Pope said this. Indeed, given that Eugene Scalfari is so 'creative' with the truth and apparently just makes up his own mind what the Pope has said from memory having interviewed him, why should we even believe that this interview even took place. If Scalfari isn't a trustworthy reporter of people's quotations, should we even believe the story that this interview happened?

The comings and goings of Vatican communications and denials whenever the Pope gives a controversial interview to Scalfari aside, and putting aside also whether the Pope said it (personally, I don't take anything Francis says seriously now, anyway) its worth examining what he 'probably / possibly' didn't say just in case he said it. Why? Because its so stupid. And here is why.

Our Lord Jesus Christ (important religious figure - founded something called the Catholic Church) taught on the doctrine of Hell, more than any of His precursers and those who foreshadowed Him, more than any of the prophets or patriarchs. St John the Baptist taught on this doctrine to the brood of vipers he encountered. He told people to repent in order to avoid it. Presumably, he had some choice words for Herod on this subject. The Apostles taught this doctrine. The Popes taught this doctrine. The Fathers of the Church did also. Though private revelation, visionaries and mystics have seen this place of 'encounter'. Our Lady of Fatima came to show the Fatima children Hell and the fate of the damned. There is not a canonised Saint in Heaven who has not believed it.

So...what source would or could a Pope or a simple parish priest cite for this idea that Hell, as taught by Christ, did or does not exist? That is the first question. Oh dear. There isn't any notable figure who has ever taught that. Maybe some Jesuit, somewhere. Maybe the head of the Jesuits, somewhere. He can't even cite Martin Luther for this one. So, this idea is one that he has, shall we say, invented, made up (if he said it)?

Now, here is the bit where it gets very silly indeed. If ever the Faithful were asked to consider the possibility that Hell doesn't exist (don't worry mortal sinners, mafia bosses, genocidal maniacs, cannibalists, pederasts, serial rapists and God-haters), in flat contradiction of 2,000 years of Catholic teaching, then all readers of the above quotation might want to consider why if Jesus Christ (Who according to the Church's Faith, is God Incarnate) cannot or should not be believed, why on earth should a mere man who lays no claim to divinity be believed?

For example, if we're going to suggest that Hell doesn't really exist (poor old Satan, rendered homeless by the Pope with not even the smallest cavernous fiery pit to inhabit) that's an interesting proposition and would make for an interesting new teaching. But then if Hell doesn't really exist, why should anyone (including the Holy Father) believe:

(a) the souls of those who die without repentance 'disappear' (pfft / pop /boing)
(b) those who die without repentance cannot be forgiven
(c) those who repent obtain forgiveness
(d) the souls who repent and obtain forgiveness enter the ranks of those who contemplate him

The idea that the souls of those who die without repentance go 'pfft' / 'pop' / 'boing' (a) is a novel one. Were it to be said by a Pope he alone could claim the citation of it. It's entirely new. But as for statements (b) and (c) and (d) these can be reconciled with Catholic thought and the words of Jesus. So why would any Pope, bishop, or priest, since we've all been to that parish where the priest walks desperately around the edge of the Inferno with a sign saying 'Don't worry, be happy' suddenly wake up one day and maintain that certain parts of the Church's teachings on the afterlife are true but not that part. How do we decide which parts of Christ's teachings we shall keep and which we shall discard? Oh, sorry! That's what Popes are for! To decide which of the Lord's commandments are worthwhile keeping and which are too medieval for us.

If we're going to alter what we Catholics commonly call 'The Truth As Revealed By God' revealed through His Church, the faithful witness, we are going to make things very difficult for ourselves in explaining to the great mass of humanity both inside and outside the Church why we are retaining some parts of 'The Truth As Revealed By God' but shedding other parts of 'The Truth As Revealed By God'. That makes the Church look less than credible.

In fact, it makes Catholics look like incredibly stupid fools, who wake up one morning believing in both Heaven and Hell but the next just inventing some new concept of damnation which is not damnation but disappearance. To where or for how long is not known. What is the nature of this 'non-beingness'. I could do with a nice long lie-in. Is it a bit like that? If the Church is going to alter 'The Truth As Revealed By God' once, twice, three times an apostate, then there is no point believing anything the Church teaches about anything. If the Church is from God and of God and is Holy and Divine then its ALL TRUE. If it is not ALL TRUE then there's not much reason to believe any of it.

98 % of what I write about Pope's interview is not 'fake news'. But you'll have to check with the Vatican Communications Team to be absolutely sure.

Of course, we're all hoping (at least, some of you are) that Eugene Scalfari made up this quote because he is a deaf / incompetent / evil / combination of the three journalist. Even were he to say such a foolish and stupid thing there is no reason for the foolish and stupid Jorge Bergoglio to believe it because he has just made it up. There would be no Catholic who could believe it if the Pope just made it up, because we don't believe in a made up man-made DIY assembled Faith but Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Unless, of course, Jorge Bergoglio is going to say one day: 'Well, God (whatever that is) was wrong and I am right because I am God's Representative on Earth, so there, and God, Whose Teachings I disagree with vehemently, told me to tell you this because being I am a living Saint Pope who has a hotline to Him and George Soros and He wants you to believe that I am the new revelation of His mercy, which you don't really need because there is no Hell, so it would be better to die repentant because Heaven (whatever that is) is nicer than disappearing (whatever that is), but all the same, don't try to convert others because Heaven isn't that great and Hell isn't bad at all.'

Were this seed of Bergoglian (sorry, Scalfarian!) thought to bear fruit in the Church why would anyone want to join that New Religion? The answer is, of course, they wouldn't. They'd go to their local Church of Satan or Humanist Group or Masonic Lodge or Quakers / Unitarians. Or maybe they'd join the Jehovah's Witnesses, because apparently this is precisely what they believe about the afterlife.

Of course, you'll notice that I have dared to call Pope Francis, the Successor of St Peter, the Vicar of Christ, the Visible Head of the Church an incredibly stupid fool. You're going to tell me that this is very, very uncharitable. You're also going to tell me that a very important religious figure whose Death and Resurrection we commemorate and devoutly recall at this time said that it was a very bad thing to call your brother 'a fool', aren't you? You're going to tell me that this very important religious figure, Jesus Christ, said that such a person would be in danger of something, aren't you? You're going to tell me that Jesus Christ said that anyone who calls his brother 'fool' was in danger of the judgement and of Gehanna, which means Hell, and that this is a place of fiery torment and everlasting agony aren't you? Good. As well as the above, you're also going to tell me all of that plus that a man may not do evil that good may result. Good.

I want Pope Francis to tell me that too.

That would clear this latest mess up good and proper. My phone is on and I am waiting for your call, Your Holiness. Please call me urgently and tell me to repent and explain why.
Let's do this on Skype, you rabid old lunatic Jesuit, you!

I will record the conversation and publish it on this blog and then this scandal will be put to bed to the glory of God.

Until the next Scalfari interview.


Of course, I am only jesting. That's a good excuse, isn't it? You should try that one, Your Holiness. You'll have to ask my communications team to double-check, mind. Despite his best efforts, do not let Pope Francis or his erstwhile aged atheist friend and purveyor of 'possibly fake news' spoil the Sacred Triduum and your participation in the central saving mysteries of our glorious and most holy Faith. The latest interview is a clear episode of psychological warfare, timed, as it is for the most sacred time of the Church's year. At Easter, party like its 2012. Or really any year before. It won't be 2013 forever. One day this pontificate will simply 'disappear'.

Boing! Pfft! Pop! Wheeee!

Jesus Christ did not offer His Body, torn and lacerated, nor pour out His Precious Blood upon the Altar of the Cross to save us from 'disappearing'.




He did not rise victor from the tomb to vanquish 'non-beingness' but Death and all of Hell. 



This is the Church's Faith.

This is not.

I can't tell you what Pope Francis's faith is or who it is in.

All I can tell you is that, according to his vague commentary on the afterlife, both before and after this 'interview' you apparently have nothing to fear from excommunication.
There's no Hell, apparently, so its just a political tool, after all.

Boing! Pfft! Pop! Wheeee!

May the Lord Jesus by His most sorrowful sufferings, by His unfathomable Death and His most glorious Resurrection, save us from the man sitting at the summit of His Church on Earth and in His mercy save Pope Francis and the flock entrusted to him, from error, Hell and everlasting death.

The Sweet Caress of FrancisMercy

The above video is the latest footage that has arrived during the  Revolution of Tenderness TM. 

If you can't see the moment of heartmelting tenderness in this video it begins at 1min 45sec in the video below and is over very quickly.

It must be a huge honour to get slapped about and shoved 
around a bit by the Great Reformer.

 

Feel the mercy!



Some people have received the highest honour the Church can accord, that of being mown down by the Pope's vehicle.

Pray for Henry Sire, author of 'The Dictator Pope'.

Pray for his protection and the protection of all those who are determined to stand in the way of the juggernaut of FrancisMercy.

Until Easter Day, I wish you a blessed Holy Week. 

Lord, have mercy!
 

 Dear Lord, deliver us! 

The Pope Embraces the Catholic Faith: What Would That Look Like?

As readers know, I do not, unlike many mainstream Catholic commentators, hello Austen Ivereigh, go along with the idea that the Pope can simply change stuff he doesn't much like, such as God's truth on morality and I do not accept for one moment that what was wrong yesterday is made morally acceptable / fine and dandy today simply by the Pope's awesome openness or even firm 'Yes' to sin.

It is becoming farcically difficult to pretend that this is not what Pope Francis's agenda involves for the Church and so for this reason I daily pray for the conversion of Pope Francis to the Faith into which he was baptised which he gives every impression that he has rejected in favour of what we could call 'his own thing'. I am certain that many, many people are praying for precisely the same outcome because Catholics do not want Popes to meet their Maker without them believing the Faith without which their investment in the sublime Office of the Papacy is rendered confusing, useless, incredibly destructive or all three.

As an elderly man approaching 82 and with a sudden awareness of his own mortality, his own mendacity and the strict accounting a man in his Office will have to undergo before the Throne of God the Franciscan 'turnaround' that conversion to the authentic Catholic Faith - that believed always, everywhere and by all - which Francis would undergo would be dramatic indeed. The interior life of metanoia, however, and the privacy of the soul may mean that, if it happens, Pope Francis may not announce his conversion. After all, that would be a terribly embarrassing thing for a Pope to have to do and would render his entire pontificate prior to his conversion a 5 year period of nothingness or worse.

Incoming, from Germany...

It's all downhill from here, Your Holiness...

So, without a public announcement that suddenly, in response to the torrent of graces amid the divine assistance that come with his Office, Catholics might look for signs of Francis's conversion. Here, should that day come, are some telltale signs of the dramatic turnaround the Pope's religious assent to the Catholic Faith might entail...

• The immediate and unequivocal retraction of Amoris Laetitia due to the widespread confusion caused followed by a thorough reinstatement of the teaching Magisterium of Pope St John Paul II.
• The answering of the Four Cardinals - of whom two died awaiting response - dubia through a document made public for all to see.
• Disciplinary action taken against those high-profile clergy who abuse the Catholic Faith and their positions of influence to endorse the LGBT and other anti-life agendas within the Church.
• The restoration of the sovereignty of the Knights of Malta.
• The restoration of the Pontifical Acadamy for Life and the removal of population control advocate advisers to it.
•  The promotion of reverent and traditional liturgy in-keeping with the Faith of all time.
• The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• The immediate cessation of airplane interviews due to the confusion caused in previous flights.
• The promotion of Cardinal Sarah's liturgical initiatives coinciding with greater papal support, rather than isolation, for his work at the CDW.
• The appointment of Bishop Athanasius Schneider to produce a Syllabus of Errors that will counter the disastrous implementation of the Second Vatican Council.
• The training of all seminarians and clergy in the Latin language and the promotion of the Mass of all ages with a long-term strategy to adopt the ancient rite as the universal norm of the Church.
• The reappointment of Cardinal Burke to the Apostolic Signatura or another high-profile position.
• Papal support and solidarity with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the public honouring of Fr Stefano Manelli.
• The regular revoking of all erroneous 'suggestions' or implied ambiguous statements from Pope Francis in order to restore sanity to his Magisterium, so often expressed through mass media outlets. Pope videos would be a good way of doing this.
• The suppression of the Jesuits.
• The placing of Germany under interdict until the German Bishops Conference unequivocably accept the Petrine authority and authority of Rome over doctrine and liturgy.
• The abolition of the widespread custom of Holy Communion received on the hand and the fostering of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament by a firm insistence that the Lord must be received kneeling and on the tongue unless frailty or injury forbids it.
• The solemn excommunication of the St Gallen Mafia and of all who attempt to rig conclaves.
• A determination to drive the sect of ecclesiastical Freemasonry from the bosom of the Church
• A document restating the need for the separated brethren as well as Jews, Muslims, schismatics, and pagans to embrace the divine Faith for their Salvation
• Cardinal Cupich's red hat to be left on the mantlepiece on his way out of the room.

Many if not most of these ideas for 'signs' of the Pope's conversion are lifted by something I read and thoroughly admired, this 'Letter to Pope Francis from Our Lord Jesus Christ' as given to an anonymous visionary somewhere on Earth. The man who penned it claims to be nothing but a mailboy. Of course, the authenticity of such things would need to be assessed and who better to do that than the Pope? It reads like a wonderful action plan for the restoration of the Holy Catholic Church and who could be a better candidate to do that than the man who tried to destroy Her?

It isn't too late for the Pope to...

I think our love for him as his children demands that we remind him of this. It is not too late if the Pope wants to leave to one side the adulation of heretics and embrace the Cross of the huge responsibility for souls that comes with his Office. Whether the letter is genuine or not, and whether eventually by God's grace Francis renounces his attacks on the Bride of Christ or not, it would be a truly wonderful thing, a beginning of a good and holy work if, quite frankly, the Pope just opened his mail.



'A letter from Jesus Christ, eh? Well, how interesting. I'm sure I'll get around to answering that one day...'









Postscript: I do not doubt some readers will think that linking to a visionary claiming to have a letter from Our Blessed Lord to Pope Francis is a rather imprudent a thing to put on a blog. I already agree with you, but because the times are so desperate and because nowadays Catholics take refuge in a desert with no prophet or prince and certainly no Pope who cares for them or who Shepherds them, but rely only on the Lord Himself and a few of His faithful, besieged and anxiety-ridden pastors, such things are a cause for hope. The Church belongs to Jesus Christ. His victory, with or without this dreadful Pope, is assured. Even to be reminded of this, in these days of darkness and confusion, is a blessing. May your Passiontide and your Holy Week be blessed and may we all seek the bruised, scorned and derided Face of our Beloved Saviour. We hope and we pray, ultimately we know and believe that the Church will rise resplendent in glory one day, all filth washed away, gleaming and pure but in our times, the Passion of the Church is His Passion for He and the Church are one.

Anything for Love

Here is a song about Amoris Laetitia seen through the eyes of the holy martyrs of the Church
and one or two others.

A very happy St Joseph's Day... 

...to all readers of this blog.

And to Benedict XVI

Joseph Ratzinger

(Not that I imagine you read this blog...)

This is What Happens When you Make an Entire Pontificate Hostile to Truth...

Found a couple of gems on Twitter. It would appear that Massimo Faggioli and the Vatican Cleaning Service are united in their concern about the redacted letter fiasco. We have some 'interior continuity' here, I think you'll agree! Benedict XVI also had some mediocre and untrustworthy men hovering around him. Interior continuity is go! Once you've lost the support of the cleaners, though, its all downhill from there, especially when they are responsible for polishing floors.

Then there is the Vatican Post Office, but I guess they lost enthusiasm after the Great Book Heist of 2014 at the officially 'trust us on this' unrigged (thanks for that clarification, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri) Synod on the Family.

Then there's Pope News (not a satirical account apparently, but one does sometimes wonder), who, while having not withdrawn their (whoever 'they' are) vociferous support from Pope Francis the WonderPope TM, have instead just lost it publicly on Twitter.

Oh dear! It appears that one of the wheels has come off...

In all this there's a lesson for the next Pope, if he is watching events unfold. Surround yourself with men of integrity, honesty and moral character and if you must lean on PR at times, as the modern age at times demands, professionalism. It pays dividends in the long run...

A bunch of clowns apply for positions in PR positions in the Vatican.

 'We're no worse than your present guys!', they say...

The Master of Faint Praise and Understatement

Rev, Mons. Dario Edoardo Viganò
Prefect, Secretariat for Communication

Vatican City

February 9, 2018

Rev. Monsignor;

Thank you for your kind letter of 12 January and the attached gift of the eleven small volumes edited by Roberto Repole.

I applaud this initiative that wants to oppose and react to the foolish prejudice in which Pope Francis is just a practical man without particular theological or philosophical formation, while I have been only a theorist of theology with little understanding of the concrete life of a Christian today.

The small volumes show, rightly, that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation, and they therefore help to see the inner continuity between the two pontificates, despite all the differences of style and temperament.

However, I don’t feel like writing a short and dense theological passage on them because throughout my life it has always been clear that I would write and express myself only on books I had read really well. (Read: I don't want to waste my time on this / I am playing the piano).

Unfortunately, if only for physical reasons, I am unable to read the eleven (small!) volumes in the near future, especially as other commitments await me that I have already made. (Read: I don't want to waste my time on this / I have to play with my cats).

I am sure you will understand and cordially greet you. (Read: I'm saying this very politely).




Yours,

Benedict XVI

Now, where was I?

Postscript: The Bones Reviews the Letter

Pope Benedict XVI writes as usual with great subtlety. Some people (myself included) have read certain things into his letter that may not really be there ('I am cargo unequivocably on board Francis's Train Wreak') and missed some things which are there. Benedict XVI is responding to the letter which seems to be asking for some kind of preface /foreword, something Benedict for some reason does not wish to provide (he is a terribly busy retired man!) endorsing the book itself.

Firstly, Benedict does not say that he wants to react against 'foolish prejudice' itself that Francis is X and Benedict is Y. He says he applauds the initiative that wants to react against that. You might think that makes no difference, but a subtle difference it is, because this is not an endorsement of the contents of the book. Obviously, the initiative or rather the collator of Francis's teachings is trying to present some kind of continuity (we haven't seen the book either) between the two men whose pontificates are quite, quite different. Benedict XVI makes his point that crude caricatures of these two pontificates are not necessarily helpful. He knows Pope Francis and where he is coming from. He knows himself and where he is coming from.

He sees the publication of this book (which he has no time to read in its entirety, honest!) as an opportunity to correct something he maintains is a misunderstanding. What is that prejudice? That Francis is only X  and that Benedict is only Y. He sees this as a gross caricature of the reality. That is his opinion and he is entitled to it and from his point of view, an injustice is done towards him if he is presented, as he continually is, as a master theologian with no pastoral insight, sensitivity, compassion or understanding, a how-do-you-say, 'Doctor of the Law'.

Apparently, Benedict has heard it said somewhere that Francis is 'only' a 'practical man' (no brains just does loads of stuff) without 'particular' theological or philosophical formation. Why is a Pope raising the issue that questions surround the theological or philosophical formation of his Successor? Is this precedented? No. Could it have been passed over in silence? Yes. Is there some kind of problem here?

Similarly, why he feels the need to say 'particular' rather than 'Catholic' or 'general' or 'rich' is left to the reader to construe. Clearly, Francis has a very deep-rooted and also a particular (let us call it a Jesuit) theological and philosophical formation. We know how much Benedict XVI admired the modern Jesuit approach to theology and philosophical formation, because he appointed Jesuits everywhere, didn't he? Tee hee. What Benedict XVI is not saying is:

a) Great Pope, love what he is doing.
b) Pope Francis has a deep CATHOLIC formation, the kind that can rattle off Catechism excerpts, or even agree with them or draw upon the ancient Fathers of the Catholic Faith, or the kind of theological and philosophical formation that roots the one formed in the One Faith that must be believed in order to attain Salvation
c) I will willingly write a preface of your book as an endorsement of the contents, most of which are the thoughts of my Successor.

If a Pope wanted to be effusive about his Successor he wouldn't leave his enquirer without:

a) a half-decent explanation as to why he cannot preface the book, at least not without saying 'I'd love to, but...'

b) Praise for the actual pontificate of his Successor, his Magisterium, teachings, his bold announcement of the Gospel, his moral character, integrity etc, etc, the possibilities are endless.

What really sinks in about this letter is how terrifyingly neutral and understated it is. Almost diplomatic. If I wrote a book about Catholicism and Pope Benedict XVI read it and sent me that letter, I'd feel a little let down, wouldn't you? Benedict XVI, draws attention also to the different 'style' of the pontificates. What does he mean? One was faithful, his? One is a PR-led fantasy on steroids, Francis's? We do not know. And as for temperament, we can only hope, or dare to presume that Benedict XVI has not been witness to Pope Francis's episodes in which his Successor has 'boiled with rage'. I expect he saves such outbursts for his most loyal and trusted friends.

Pope Francis is a man of 'profound' (deep-rooted) 'theological and philosophical formation'. Is this formation dissimilar to the Jesuit Superior General who said Satan doesn't really exist and Jesus didn't have a tape recorder? He has a profound theological and philosophical foundation too. Shame his theology and philosophy don't stack up against the actual Catholic Faith he was baptised into and he believes so much that we call error. Ditto Hans Kung. Ditto Martin Luther, the heretic founder of a new religion that rejects perennial Christian doctrine.

The one thing that does leave me puzzled is the phrase 'inner continuity' but even the word 'continuity' has to be qualified by this mysterious preceeding modifier 'inner' or 'interior'...

My Successor also dresses in white?
There are still regular parties at Cocco's place?
The spectre of an ongoing abuse crisis and claims of cover up still loom large?
The decor is an off creamy white, not magnolia but not brilliant white either?
The Vatican finances are still questionable and still being funnelled by money laundering drug / mafia rackets?
Vatican post still goes whereabouts, my Successor can't trust people around him either?
Homoerotic art is everywhere and is utilised for any given purpose?
PR disasters occur despite the best efforts to avoid them?
Archbishop Paglia has a crazy mural, it has to be seen to be believed?
Germans are still pulling the strings?
Morale in the Curia could be better?

Your guess is as good as mine, but what he is most likely not saying is 'my teachings are his teachings and his teachings are my teachings and the two are the same and 2 + 2 = 5'.

Let the reader understand, there has to be some kind of mysterious 'continuity' between these two pontificates, or it has to be said that there is by Benedict XVI because otherwise if there is no continuity at all we have schism be it announced or unannounced. Who knows what Benedict XVI is prepared to do or say to prevent schism in the Church? Hmm...

Whatever this letter is, it was essentially an opportunity for Benedict XVI to endorse a book collating the teachings and 'theology' of his Successor. He praised the initiative, not the contents of the book. To do so would be hard. It is a gathering of Francis's incoherent, self-contradictory ramblings filtered through some FrancisCamp diehards. History will record he was given the chance to preface a book on the theology of his Successor. History will record that he replied. He said, 'Thanks, but I'm busy. I am sure you will understand.' Those of you who think Benedict XVI is watching on while Francis dissolves Christian morality saying, 'This is fine!' are, I consider, very mistaken, but we are all entitled to our informed opinions.

May the Lord come to the aid of his ailing Church and send Her the prelate who will restore all things in Christ. But if this is not to be...Come, Lord Jesus!

Mysterious Identity of ++Tobin Tweet's Intended Recipient is Finally Revealed

Wherever the Bergoglian sun doth shine, 

There's mental hygiene and a shifty paradigm. 

At least I have always found it so, 

That tweet was meant for my sister, you know.

In other news: For the first time in this pontificate, 
Vatican City looks positively immaculate...