Posted on 08/22/2015 6:52:18 AM PDT by ebb tide
As of this writing the “Filial Petition” to Francis pleading with him to repair a “breach [that] has been opened within the Church that would accept adultery — by permitting divorced and then civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion — and would virtually accept even homosexual unions” has reached 471,000 signatures, including that of Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
The Petition identifies the “breach” of which it complains with “information published on the last Synod,” meaning the disgraceful “midterm report” calling precisely for “permitting divorced and then civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion” and “virtual[ly] accept[ing] even homosexual unions.”
Of course the authors of the Petition must know what they are really doing: they are petitioning Francis to protect the Church from what Francis wishes to do. For it was Francis who approved the midterm report before he authorized its publication to the world even before the Synod Fathers had seen it. And it was Francis who conceived of the Synod in the first place, and then stacked its secretariat with the radical progressives who created the “breach” represented by the midterm report.
And it was Francis who has approved the Instrumentum Laboris for Synod 2015, which adds some 80 paragraphs to the Final Report of Synod 2014, whose majority did not give Francis what he wanted. Those 80 new paragraphs put back on the table precisely the same agenda the Synod Fathers rejected a year ago, as this devastating study of the document reveals. Every Catholic should read that study page-by-page and make careful notes. Then you will understand what Francis has planned for us. The Synod is just camouflage.
It is time to face reality full square so that we can deal with it: the Church must be protected from Francis, not some nameless “breach” that was actually his own creation. I will let another anguished Catholic — who, like me, was once full of praise for Francis — explain how the evidence finally forced him to do just that:
The Synod last year broke many things. But most particularly, it broke my human faith in the sincerity of the pope. I was prepared up to that point to believe that, somehow, human explanations existed for the calamitous blend of moralising, unilateral rule bending (ultramontanists can remove that snarl from their lips right this minute) and bizarre sponsorship of some of the worst parties to don a cassock.
But the Synod was different. The Synod seemed — to my human eye; dico humane — to show Pope Francis in hyper-cynical mode. He appointed the most appalling specimens to drive the Synod agenda, and drive it forward (or backward, I suppose) they did, to the open fury of many bishops and cardinals. When the most offensive parts of the Instrumentum Laboris failed to secure the right support, the pope insisted on their being kept in the final documentation anyway. All this I could understand, even if I was horrified by it. Horrified, simply horrified. Then came his final address to the Synod... As if the whole world could not see that he himself had poured out the petrol that set this Synod aflame, he delivered a final address (admittedly in his usual finger-wagging style) ticking off everybody on all sides of the debate. Maybe this is thought clever among Jesuits: start a fire, enjoy the conflagration and then reproach those who question whether it should have been bigger, as well as those who thought lighting fires was just plan stupid. I’m afraid I was more horrified by this address than by anything else. It seemed like a stupendous monument to manipulation. It was simply abusive. It was spiritual bullying. Francis looked to be using his power — openly, overtly, with a transparency that shocked me to the core — simply to shut down criticism of his abuse of power.
And this was our father in Christ? My heart closed down.1 Pray for the Pope. But, in prudence, be on your guard against him. It does no good to pretend that this is not necessary. Our Lady of Fatima, enlighten the Pope! And if he will not be enlightened, protect your Church from his intentions!
Note to self: Wipe clean glasses and re-read the “Book of Revelation” and “Daniel”.
Apologies, Ebb. When I posted, I meant to put my screen name in the “to” box.
Best regards.
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