Posted on 06/18/2016 1:52:38 PM PDT by ebb tide
When, minutes after the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope, this venue published the most widely read piece in its history, a forecast of the future pontificate based on past experience, this page was brutally criticized for it. The experience of Cardinal Bergoglio as Archbishop of Buenos Aires had provided more than enough information on his personality, his theological inclinations, his idiosyncrasies. That is, nothing done by him in the past three years has been a surprise to those who knew him. It was all foreseeable: Saul does not become Paul without a Damascene conversion, and it must be admitted even Saul had what any conversion demands -- an overzealous heart, hard, but open to the truth. Many conservative, traditional-minded Catholics are so weary of the weekly, frequently even daily, shocks provided by this Pontificate that they look for easy ways out. Perhaps the Pope is not the Pope. Maybe Benedict XVI is still the Pope. Maybe Benedict XVI never truly resigned: even his Secretary and current Prefect of the Papal Household, Abp. Georg Gänswein, provided some leeway for this theory by implying the existence of a bizarre papal diarchy. Other souls wonder if perhaps private revelations of the past or present might explain this situation. Eminent theologians pronounce the limits of what is bearable have been crossed. The occasional critic even goes so far as to ask for the Pope's resignation. In this specific instance, it must be said once again that this is a vain exercise: based on this Pope's personality, he will never resign. Ever. Not only that: his supporters, the forces that made every possible effort to have him elected (including sabotaging the two previous pontificates), would never allow this to happen. So, yes, Francis is staying in the Vatican -- as "titular" Pope, just to be clear, never as "emeritus" -- until his last gasp, and the faithful should not be surprised if a comatose pope is still creating cardinals many years from now...
***
O somma sapienza, quanta è l’arte
che mostri in cielo, in terra e nel mal mondo,
e quanto giusto tua virtù comparte!
Dante, Commedia (Inferno, c. XIX)
We deserve Francis. What is missing in many souls is a typically Christian attitude: resignation. It was not the Holy Spirit who chose Francis, that is not how conclaves work. But God has certainly allowed it, and he has allowed it to continue, and he will allow it until He deigns it necessary to end his Vicar's time here on earth, as He does to each one of us.
Other than resignation, missing from many spirits is the notion of collective justice -- and collective punishment. We have sinned, we have grievously sinned. So many Catholics have been for long immensely unfaithful to the Apostolic tradition they have received, to the pure doctrine that was passed on: is it surprising that from this soil arise unfaithful hierarchs? What is surprising is not that we have Francis as Pope, but that it took so many centuries for us to have a Pope like him. As we have shown here, the Popes who were considered "bad" and "appalling" in Catholic history never dared touch the deposit of the faith, or to mollify this deposit so it would fit into contemporary mores; they may have been personally immoral, and their example caused great scandal and grievous consequences, but their utterances on matters of faith, moral, sacraments did not themselves cause scandal (the examples of such were so rare as to be counted on a couple of fingers). We deserve Francis. King Josiah was the exception, and Judah was punished before and after him: was there not a single just man in Judah under King Amon? Was not Jeremiah alive and warning of dangers under King Zedekiah? Yet even the just were punished on this earth, collectively, by what God allowed to happen: irreverent kings, leaders who acted as if God did not exist. The just were subjected to upheaval on this earth, but it profited for their eventual eternal life: as Dante wrote in the Inferno, "O Supreme Wisdom, how great is the perfection / that you show in heaven, on earth, and in hell / and how justly you spread your virtue!"
We deserve Francis. The Catholic faithful on earth in this moment in history deserve him -- and deserve worse, so be prepared. We will bear it because we must bear it, because this is what God has prepared for us. If you hope for something better, then the answer is prayer, and fasting, and almsgiving, the personal work of each one for one's own final perseverance, and the teaching of the truth of the Gospel, especially to one's children. One day, a new Josiah will arise to sit on the cathedra of Peter in Rome. Yet even afterwards, new chastisements and exiles will remain part of Catholic life, in this Church founded by "the Just who died for the unjust" (I Pet 3:18).
Maranatha!
Just as in the politics — you get the leader you deserve. Obama is a punishment that the American people gave to themselves. It was years in the making.
That’s who God wanted? right? Get over it.
Are you dense? God also wanted the flood the earth in Noah’s time.
And He did.
“the” = “to”
Idiot, God does what he wants, including in Rome.
That’s right. And that includes what He did to Sodom.
OK I believe the Holy Spirit is guiding His Church until the end of time. Maybe a ‘Francis’ is what was needed as this time.
That was the whole point of the article; yet you called me an “idiot”.
Very charitable in this “Year of Mercy”.
Everyone should read this. The mafia that put Bergoglio in the Papacy knew exactly what they were doing:
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-horror-buenos-aires-journalist.html
Everything Pope Francis has done was predictable, because he was exactly the same in Buenos Aires.
Thanks.
The Catholic Church does NOT teach anything about the Conclave of Cardinals. I.e., the Church does NOT teach that the Conclave has any sort of infallibility. The Catholic Church does NOT teach that “the Holy Spirit picks the Pope.”
Obviously, everything that happens is something that God has permitted to happen—including cancer.
Nevertheless, there is NO basis for the notion that the CORRECT, BEST man for the Papacy is the one who is elected.
Written on 3/13/2013.
Talk about prescient.......
Socialism rules the day.
I look at it as the Holy Spirit is there to guide the Church, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Cardinals listen to Him. And they didn’t.
Perhaps “it cannot be said that his magisterium is heterodox” in Argentina, but it can be said for his magisterium in Rome. Bergoglio loves to push the envelope.
All true. But that’s true of every human being at every moment.
My point is that it is NOT true that “the Holy Spirit picks the Pope” in the sense that each Conclave is guaranteed to pick the “best,” “most qualified,” and “holiest” Cardinal to be Pope. But there are people who believe that.
I agree with you on that.
I suspect that a lot of people, because they believe in Papal Infallibility, and don’t have the definition of it clear in their heads, reason this way: The Pope is infallible, and this must mean the Conclave that picks him is in some way infallible.
Papal Infallibility is not a personal virtue of the Pope.
Look at Paul VI. He set up a commission to study contraception. For three years (and more), confessors were telling people to go ahead and use the Pill. The Pope should have foreseen this.
Then, in HV, the Pope teaches the truth.
Then, he undercuts the ONLY bishop in the U.S. who teaches the truth—Cardinal O’Boyle in Washington.
Paul never lifted a finger to stem the chaos in the Church, or the near-total rejection of HV.
Clearly, in that entire fifteen-year disaster of a Papacy, there is only one MOMENT that can be confidently attributed to Papal Infallibility: the few seconds it took for Paul VI to sign HV.
Francis has repeatedly stated that people to be open to the “spirit” in order to accept his plans for his NewMercyChurch. Only problem is: that “spirit” he’s listening to isn’t holy.
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