Famed German Catholic philosopher makes waves for criticizing Pope Francis’ ‘autocratic’ style

April 27, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In a recent lengthy interview with the German Catholic journal Herder Korrespondenz in an issue especially dedicated to the theme of Pope Francis, the renowned and arguably most prominent Catholic philosopher in Germany, Professor Robert Spaemann, a long-time friend of Pope Benedict, has gone public with a strong criticism of Pope Francis that is being discussed nation-wide.

At the beginning of this interview-discussion that included also another German Catholic philosopher, Professor Hans Joas, Spaemann in a calm and differentiated way first acknowledged Pope Francis' strengths and especially what he calls his “traditional piety”: “He speaks like a Latin-American bishop who is fully rooted in the piety of his people.” Spaemann continues:

“On the other side, in my view, his cult of spontaneity is not helping. In the Vatican, some people are already sighing: 'Today, he has already again another different idea from yesterday.' One does not fully get rid of the impression of chaos. And it is irritating how he prepares the Synod. It is the intention that two parties meet at the synod which the Pope wants to lead into a dialogue whereby he himself plays the role of a moderator. In the same time, however, he takes sides already in advance by favoring the position of Cardinal Walter Kasper, he has excluded the John Paul II Institute for Studies on the Family from the pre-Synod consultations and tries with the help of explicit pressure to influence those consultations.”

And at another place, Spaemann says: “This Pope is one of the most autocratic [popes] that we have had in a long time.”

This is very true. And unfortunately, with modern communications, he can stick his fingers into everything, and he feels he has a right to do so because he's da Boss. Or at least, that seems to be how he (mis)understands his role.

He has constantly stepped on the heads of good, loyal bishops who were trying to do their jobs, insulted anyone who was not in his inner circle of mostly Argentinians, and completely confused everybody by making unilateral, unexpected and unsupported pronouncements to the press.

I think he's a little man with a big ego and a lot of grudges.

He felt he should have been Pope last time around, when BXVI was elected, and he has clearly spent his time since then making a little list and conniving about how to get elected. When that didn't work on the first vote, the vote was thrown out for irregularity, because somebody had mysteriously thrown an extra ballot into the box. Strange, huh?

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