Pope Benedict wearing a saturno.
Posted on 12/11/2016 8:05:03 PM PST by ebb tide
The papal hits just keep on coming. If you are a “rigid” Catholic these days (in other words orthodox and traditional) there’s a bullseye on your cassock and the Holy Father has taken aim. In this morning’s homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis resorted once again to insulting “rigid” Catholics, this time priests.
The Holy Father began by first discussing the need for priests to be mediators rather than intermediaries. Yes, I am aware that those words (largely) have the same connotation, but regardless, Pope Francis classified intermediaries as being those awful “rigid” priests we keep hearing about. One wonders if by rigid he is referring to those unmerciful meanies who get so hung up on things like doctrine, truth, sin, salvation, etc.
Nevertheless, it was then that the pope recounted this odd anecdote:
>>About rigidity and worldliness, it was some time ago that an elderly monsignor of the curia came to me, who works, a normal man, a good man, in love with Jesus – and he told me that he had gone to buy a couple of shirts at Euroclero [the clerical clothing store] and saw a young fellow – he thinks he had not more than 25 years, or a young priest or about to become a priest – before the mirror, with a cape, large, wide, velvet, with a silver chain. He then took the Saturno [wide-brimmed clerical headgear], he put it on and looked himself over. A rigid and worldly one.<<
This has, unfortunately, become classic Francis. Note we have the elderly monsignor, who is both “normal” and “good.” In other words, the Vatican II generation priest is the good guy in our story. He just wants to buy a couple regular shirts.
He then encounters the usual villain in these papal admonitions: the young traditionalist. This one is extra young (not more than 25) and extra traditional (trying on a Saturno!), so we know that he is extra villainous.
For his actions, trying on the cape and Saturno, the young man is called “rigid and worldly”, which seems a bit extreme. After all, who are we to judge him?
Pope Francis went on:
And that priest – he is wise, that monsignor, very wise – was able to overcome the pain, with a line of healthy humor and added: ‘And it is said that the Church does not allow women priests!’. Thus, does the work that the priest does when he becomes a functionary ends in the ridiculous, always.
Ridicule. Always an effective tool for educating your (spiritual) children. As a father of five I can honestly say that insults and ridicules are horrible ways to correct our kids behavior. Of course, there really is nothing to correct here. The villain of the piece is simply a young priest who prefers traditional garb. Period.
This disdain for a certain group of faithful, both clergy and laity, who lean traditional in their preferences is par for the papal course these days. Whatever.
That a younger generation has rejected the scorched earth policy of the post-conciliar generation is beyond comprehension to them. We want ALL the truth and beauty of our faith. That a 25 year old priest might actually want to dress like priests have dressed for centuries confounds them.
As to the “joke” by the normal and good elderly monsignor referencing the young priest behaving as a woman, this is standard fare for the self-loathing Catholic. It’s straight out of the National Catholic Reporter com box. It’s what heterodox Catholics resort to when presented with cassocks, capes, capa magnas, Latin, and lace. Those on the side of error always attack what’s true, good, and beautiful.
We must defend our good priests from this continued effort to demean and demoralize them in their vocation. The continuing insults hurled at so many good and holy men can take a toll. It’s the Saul Alinsky tactics of the Left: isolate and ridicule your opponent.
Many of our very best, orthodox, traditional priests will never ask for our help. They will perceive this papacy as an opportunity to grow in holiness through these insults. They’re not wrong of course.
We the faithful, however, must still defend. We must fortify them through our words of encouragement. We must reassure them in their vocation. And most of all we must support them with our prayers, most particularly to Our Lady.
And let us all consider buying our favorite priest a Saturno to go along with his glorious cassock while we’re at it.
Ping
Pope Benedict wearing a saturno.
Re : Post #3
*Pope Benedict wearing a saturno.*
I love the pic of B XVI, and thank you for posting the thread...
So disgusting to read those scornful, bitter words coming from Bergoglio. “Who am I to judge?” Apparently, he can tell that a young man he has never seen is “rigid” and “worldly.”
This is a “Pope” filled with contempt and hate.
Pope St. John Paul II:
Real men, not women.
The young priest in the hat is an easy Straw Man for the Pope to knock down.
So the lack of clarity says nothing, changes nothing. “Rigidness” based on Scripture and Tradition stand.
“Francis” is right about you conservative Novus Ordo Catholics being rigid, but not in the way that HE means it, and I find your rigid stance offensive as it makes you an accomplice to the attack on the very office of the Papacy itself.
That is to say you are accusing God and the Pope of changing the doctrine when the Pope and God never will. The doctrine of the indefectibility of the Pope and the Church, for example.
The Pope and the Church cannot err in their care for the faithful. In your RIGID position you cling to the idea that the man who makes it a practice to blaspheme and berate the faithful and elevate the perverse could be the Pope, and then you accuse him of harming the faithful.
You are apparently too rigid to imagine that he could be a false pope.
You cannot have it both ways. If “Francis” is a true Pope, then obey and cherish all he teaches, and stop trying to thwart and criticize his words.
Otherwise loosen up and let yourself imagine that the times that we live in are actually more trying than you wanted to believe.
“The Pope and the Church cannot err in their care for the faithful.”
There’s your false premise. That is a rank superstition.
The Pope and the Church (whatever that is) cannot solemnly teach the entire Church an error about a dogma of the faith or morals.
“’The Pope and the Church cannot err in their care for the faithful.’
There’s your false premise. That is a rank superstition.”
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Why don’t we leave the matter in the hands of Popes Pius VI and Pius IX?:
Pope Pius VI declared
“false, rash, scandalous, pernicious, offensive to pious
ears, injurious to the Church and to the Spirit of God, by Whom it is ruled, at least erroneous,” the proposition that the Church could prescribe some discipline which would be false or harmful
(Denz. 1578).
Pope Pius IX excoriated those who would recognize
his authority on the one hand, but ignore his discipline on
the other:
What good is it to proclaim aloud the dogma of the supremacy
of St. Peter and his successors? What good is it to repeat over and over the declarations of faith in the Catholic Church and of obedience to the Apostolic See when actions give the lie to these fine words? Moreover, is not rebellion rendered all the more inexcusable by the fact that obedience is regarded as a duty?
Again, does not the authority of the Holy See extend, as a sanction, to the measures which We have been obliged to take, or is it enough to be in communion of faith with this See without adding the submission of obedience, — a thing which cannot be maintained without damaging the Catholic Faith? In fact, Venerable Brothers and beloved Sons, it is a question of recognizing the power (of this See), even over your churches, not merely in what pertains to faith, but also in what concerns discipline.
He who would deny this is a heretic; he who recognizes
this and obstinately refuses to obey is worthy of anathema.
(Pope Pius IX, Quae in Patriarchatu, Sept. 1, 1876, to the clergy and faithful of the Chaldean rite)
Hat-tip to Bishop Sanborn (http://www.traditionalmass.org/images/articles/Resist-Indefect-P.pdf)
Furthermore, the discipline sanctioned by the Church must never be rejected or branded as contrary to certain principles of the natural law. It must never be called crippled, or imperfect or subject to civil authority. In this discipline the administration of sacred rites, standards of morality, and the reckoning of the Church and her ministers are embraced. - Pope Gregory XVI, Encyclical Mirari Vos)
I didn’t say that the Pope has no authority to govern the Church, which is the proposition Pius VI is condemning.
I said that the notion that Pope and the hierarchy are incapable of imprudent, unwise, or destructive acts in their governance is a superstition.
Absolute nonsense. Just READ what the Pope says, and it does not say what you say it says.
What makes you think that I’m a Novus Ordo Catholic?
"Absolute nonsense"? I think not.
How about YOU read what the Pope says?
Correct me if I'm wrong RepentandBelieve....
Here's the thing. RepentandBelieve wasn't talking about "imprudent" acts. I thought we were ALL talking about Francis' heretical teaching in AL, not "imprudent" acts.
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