I understand that we Catholics should be out on the peripheries serving the poor 24/7, but occasionally Catholics get time to go for a pint and have a chat. If the Holy Father wants to know what some are saying or at least thinking, the video above is a pretty good example. The most troubling aspect of this papacy with regard to the FFI and the message that it is sending around the World to Catholics is that we are now entering into a period of thoughtcrime. That's the 'Francis Effect' currently being felt by many Catholics who are the Holy Father's natural supporters.
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| Guilty as charged! |
Yet, no heretical Bishop has been asked to sign an oath that condemns the 'syllabus of errors' that have swept the Catholic Church in the modern World. How many dreadful, heretical books that have undermined or destroyed faith have been written by Catholics since the 1960s. These still reside in pride of place in many monastery libraries despite the well-observed fact that these destroy or deplete Faith!
No other Order or religious house has experienced the ire currently being suffered by the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Nothing has happened to the heretical and ludicrous LCWR, despite their quite apparent departure from the Holy Faith, the Magisterium and widespread movement 'beyond Jesus'. Every day brings some more news that sends shivers down the spines of those who are, in fact, the Papacy's most loyal supporters. It is only the heretics and unofficial apostates within the Church who have ever viewed the Papacy as something that needs to be overcome, overturned, or seized, so that its power and Office be reduced to something that makes the Office holder of the Papacy just another weak and ineffective Bishop among an empire of weak and ineffective Bishops.
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| Not a Pope's usual 'constituency': The vociferous gay lobby |
If anything comes in a Supreme Pontiff's job specification, one would think that would be it, as he 'strengthens the brethren'. The only people I see being strengthened at the moment are those who hate the institutional Church, whose concept of worship and the Mass is divorced from anything that our forefathers would understand, heretics and Catholics for whom the actual doctrinal content of the Church - the Deposit of Faith - is a massive problem that needs to be removed, or, at least, covered up. Even Obama has heralded His Holiness! When a Pope strengthens these people, who have no interest in converting to the Faith of Jesus Christ, and alienates his natural supporters and most loyal and faithful sons and daughters, it becomes obvious that he is hanging around with the wrong crowd.
If what has happened to the Franciscans of the Immaculate becomes a Soviet clampdown that goes general then one shudders. History has seen many tyrants abuse, destroy and decimate their own people while maintaining sky high opinion poll ratings. It is not the way of Christ but it is the way of the World. One needs no reminding of just how popular these figures were, while the purges and the persecutions of innocent people were going on.
How many Marxists, for instance, good Heavens, have been thought of as 'good people' until the monsters take the apparatus of the State into their hands and begin their diabolical reign of genocide and terror? Most Marxists are 'good people', until, that is they are given any kind of power and authority and the real intent and real agenda of this abhorrent and Godless creed becomes evident. Are the Marxists at the UN and the Bertrand Russell school of Fabian socialists 'good people' while still desiring to eliminate poverty, by eliminating the poor from the face of the Earth? Are the cultural Marxists who promote the breakdown of the natural family and marriage 'good people'? Marxism is not just "wrong", but has such a track-proven record of trampling on all manner of human freedoms that means that this ideology of death warrants greater condemnation than merely "wrong", as if it is merely in someway intellectually deficient, or sociologically mistaken.
Yet - and yet - none of us desire to be Pope, but wish only that the Pope be a true Pastor and Father to us, rather than to the World. Are we to be the children rejected by our Holy Father Pope Francis because since Francis has been placed in authority over us, who are we to reject him? We cannot! Tu es Petrus. Are not those Franciscan friars and nuns his most natural supporters and loyal sons and daughters? Your Holiness, why beat your own children?
Pat Archbold today has an open letter to His Holiness asking, pleading for him to show mercy to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and all who hold fast to the Sacred Tradition of the Church. Protect the Pope, whose natural leaning is to always seek to protect the Pope is evidently concerned that there are good and holy men who need protecting, if not from the Pope himself, then the men of ideology that the Pope has brought in with him to oversee what appears to be, after nine months, the attempted demolition of the Catholic Church from the inside. Do those working or seeking to destroy the Papacy and the Church have no fear of God?
The truly breathtaking thing, is that all of these things are being said by faithful Catholics and we are only nine months into this papacy. Our Lady of Fatima has promised that this story ends well and happily for those will persevere to the end, but that does not make the days in which we live less evil, nor does it mean that we are bound to cease proclaiming Salvation, and nor, indeed, does it mean that silence in the face of injustice is suddenly transformed into something holy and good merely because those who perpetuate it are in great authority over us. No Catholic I know is calling for insurrection or revolution against those placed in authority over the Universal Church. The concern is rather that the real insurrection and the real revolution is taking place in Rome itself and, what is truly incredible is that the revolution is being televised.
"The only danger the church can and should fear is the sin of her members."
~ Pope Benedict XVI
22 comments:
"The only people I see being strengthened at the moment are those who hate the institutional Church," - absolutely not true.
Thank you for this article!
Regarding the “ Soviet clampdown“: A communist clenched fist is already „manifest“ on the Pope´s official birthday card from the Vatican.
http://derkatholikunddiewelt.blogspot.de/2013/12/uber-das-handzeichen-auf-der.html
The Pope made during an exclusive interview in La Stampa’s Vatican Insider this statement :
“The Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”
http://romancatholicworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/the-vatican-francis-trivializes-and-dehumanizes-the-most-massive-genocide-in-human-history/
I wonder if he also thinks the Marxist theory is wrong.
MK: Well quite!
Wait, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum has been revived just for the FFI? Were you being tongue-in-cheek?
The Remnant makes a great point - +Fellay was right to reject the deal, because these weasels simply cannot be trusted. I wonder what will become of the Anglican Ordinariate once it becomes the focus of Rome's "pastoral" attention.
The Remnant report contains innacuracies: the Legionaries were disciplined only because of the foibles of their founder. Are we not a church for sinners? I am not sure why the Fransiscans have been targeted. Aslo the interview bangs on about abuse, of which there have been examples, but to call it a crisis is deeply unjust to the vast number of clergy. Pope Francis has great things to say, as did Pope Benedict. It is not contradictory to support good liturgy, intellectual rigour and culture and at the same time to reach out to the world as did Our Lord. Groups like the Remnant just provide ammunition for the liberals. Don't score own goals Mr Bones!
Robert said: "Aslo the interview bangs on about abuse, of which there have been examples, but to call it a crisis is deeply unjust to the vast number of clergy."
Wow, do people like your goodself really still not get the seriousness of it? I think most of the hierarchy still don't get it either. This is why I am very doubtful that we will see any meaningful reform in this Papacy - tinkering around the edges with structures and ideologies, but staying well clear of the elephant in the room.
Agreed: this Papacy is creating a great deal of confusion…the Pope seems to have a need to display "kindness" regarding those who surely dislike the Church, if not hate it. Now one could say that that is the way of Christ…but is this the kind of "love" Christ asks us to have toward our enemies??? It is in many ways irrelevant that the Pope "likes" Marxists or personally does not "judge" gays when the Church is not going to discontinue recognizing the intrinsic immorality of behaving so. Once they figure that out he will be on their enemy list. I think Christ rather means to say the truth, yes say it in a loving way, recognizing that we are all sinners. Christ never said to sinners…I love you…and that is it…he always also said "and sin no more" - This last phrase is missing from Pope Francis.
In addition, the Pope does not appear to understand or he does not care that in his pursuit of those who "hate" the Church, he is leaving behind those who "love" the Church, i.e., at least those trying to follow the teachings. In that he is not "loving" his own brethren. His statements to the effect that the Church needs to stop focusing on moral issues is in a sense throwing over board all those in the pro-life movement…all those trying to keep the definition of marriage as between the man and a woman…etc. In addition to which, from the pulpit Catholics rarely get any teaching on these issues…in the USA the clergy has been sidestepping these issue for decades - hence his word on this also appear to be quite uninformed! and so being also irrelevant.
Thank you for speaking the truth. How few are doing so!
Excellent article, Lawrence.
Good to see you upsetting all the right people!
Great stuff, and well-written!
Come on publishers. Where are the English translation of Brunero Gheraradini? This could be the publishing coup of 2014. This book is so sensational the Vatican has been compelled to ban its production despite having banned the Index of forbidden books nearly 50 years ago. Not even Dan Brown got this treatment.
The background of this Pope was not Vatican diplomacy but fighting poverty in Argentina. He does not yet realise that as Pope he has to be a diplomat and `off the cuff` statments should be few and far between. He should have known he would be deliberatley misquoted on what he said about not judgin homosexuals and even though the atheist who talked to him has admitted that some quotes from the Pope were not quite what he said the full quote which goes no to say "nevertheless the Church has a right to her `opinion` on the matter. We have to question whether opinion then was the word he said. But then this is sound Catholic Teaching even if opinion was the word. Again why should `mercy` in the context of the divorce and remarried receiving Holy Communion be interpreted as meaning they are going to be allowed to do so. Thee are many good people who go to Church, yes they made a wrong choice and find themselves in a situation with childrfen and they need help and support - I think that is what the Pope was referring to. How do we help them raise their children and keep in touch with Christ. There is in the Church a contest between views of Traditionalists and Modernists on the what the Church should be. Is the answer to come out with all guns blazing on behalf of one group. The Pope has chosen to bring back Jesus to our thoughts. The reason we are baptised is to spread the Good News. Why are we not doing this? There is a lot of thought there.
You can't be serious about those two old farts from the wanderer and the remnant reflecting what ordinary catholics are thinking and talking about? These 2 publications are schismatic off-shoots, hardly typical of anything except extreme traditionalism
Father Mark: Instead of calling people names why not tell us what you objected to in this video which I thought was rather good although showing perhaps too much favour to the SSPX. However I think they do have point about a fear the SSPX might have if they were to be reconciled in view of the treatment of the FFI.
I strongly agree with John in this in the fact that aside from secular press and politicians there are indeed two different two extremist camps in the Church. On the left are the Modernists who are quite obvious. On the right are the Integral Catholics who these men in the video are. St Pope Pius X had no use for either. Just be Catholic.
What's happening is not perhaps so surprising if you recall what the Pope said some months ago about the EF- effectively that it was OK for the small number of (by implication) pathetic people who still hanker after tradition to attend it as long as it was not implicated in 'ideological' opposition to the norm. This is presumably what the FFI is thought guilty of.
On the flip side he has, of course, recently excommunicated a priest in Australia for supporting the ordination of women, something about which liberals have been very quiet.
The point about Francis, I suspect, is that he is authoritarian: that was his reputation in Argentina, but memories are short and people easily sidetracked by group-hugging.He will probably continue to clamp down on challenges to authority from any direction.
But doesn't all this sit curiously alongside a professed desire to devolve power away from the centre?
His Holiness is an enigma. I'd love to be fly on the wall at the Mater Ecclesiae when he visits. I wonder what Pope Benedict makes of him.
When Francis was elected the Church got what is deserved, not what it needed. The only thing standing between me and despair are the promises of Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of Fatima. The smoke of Hell has surely entered the sanctuary of the Church.
All the Faithful are suffering from this Great Apostasy. Let us hold each other up and help each other to endure and deepen in Faith and devotion to God.
Celia -'enigma'? he just seems to me like someone with a neurotic fright of anything more important than himself - even 1900 years of worshipped Truth - but then for people like this it's the year 58AVII.
That's a most troubling aspect of the Franciscan oath, but so too, equally, is the pseudo-revival of the index of banned books for all publications from the FFI.
Pseudo-revival is the word.
Oppressiveness of index without doctrinal responsability of its original judges.
"The only danger the church can and should fear is the sin of her members."
~ Pope Benedict XVI
PLUS circumstances pushing towards sin by provocation.
I ceased hoping he might be the pope and sedevacantist doubts ended, rationally, when he after pardoning Susana Maiolo sent her to mental hospital.
She had been in such hideous things for 18 months in a row prior to the two attempts, it would seem.
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