Posted on 07/02/2021 6:34:06 AM PDT by ebb tide
VATICAN CITY, June 29, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — In his homily for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope Francis has once again launched an attack on so-called “rigid” Catholics, seemingly comparing them to the way St. Paul acted before his conversion, claiming that Paul was freed by God from his “rigid and inflexible” religious zeal.
Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the Vatican today — with the largest congregation since the start of COVID-19 restrictions. His homily focused on the concept of freedom, as pertaining to Peter and Paul, and provided an opportunity for another attack on those Catholics he describes as “rigid.”
Both Apostles were described by the Pope as having a “Passover experience,” being set free by God, and thus able to lead lives following Christ.
St. Paul was liberated from “the most oppressive form of slavery, which is slavery to self,” stated the Pope. Not only this, but Paul was “set free from the religious fervour that had made him a zealous defender of his ancestral traditions (cf. Gal 1:14) and a cruel persecutor of Christians.”
Francis alluded to St. Paul’s persecution of the early Church, describing it as a defense of tradition which turned him against God: “Formal religious observance and the intransigent defence of tradition, rather than making him open to the love of God and of his brothers and sisters, had hardened him: he was a fundamentalist.”
“God set him free from this,” declared the Pontiff.
Highlighting the importance of the two great saints of the Church, the Pope stated that they could only “set free the power of the Gospel” because they had already been “set free by their encounter with Christ.”
“Jesus did not judge them or humiliate them,” declared Francis. “Instead, he shared their life with affection and closeness.” However, he continued by noting that Christ in fact “reproached them to make them change.”
Such freedom from “formal religious observance and the intransigent defence of tradition” is something the Pope wished to be extended to the whole Catholic Church.
“We too have been touched by the Lord; we too have been set free. Yet we need to be set free time and time again, for only a free Church is a credible Church.”
Addressing the assembled clergy, the Pope urged them “to be set free from a sense of failure before our occasionally disastrous fishing,” which was an imitation of St. Peter, he claimed.
Pope Francis then launched into what has become a regular attack on the “rigid” Catholics, seeming to suggest that “rigid” Catholics are like St. Paul in his anti-Catholic zeal.
“Like Paul, we are called to be set free from hypocritical outward show, free from the temptation to present ourselves with worldly power rather than with the weakness that makes space for God, free from a religiosity that makes us rigid and inflexible; free from dubious associations with power and from the fear of being misunderstood and attacked.”
Dissident Jesuit-run America Magazine highlighted this aspect of the Pope’s homily, reporting that he had issued a call for the Church to be freed from the “intransigent defence of tradition.”
Nevertheless, it was St. Paul himself who wrote: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2:14)
Then, in his letter to Titus, St. Paul stipulated that bishops must faithfully adhere to the doctrine of the Church: “Embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to convince the gainsayers.”
Commenting on the Pope’s interpretation of St. Paul’s theology, popular author Deacon Nick Donnelly wrote: “Pope Bergoglio interprets every page of the Bible through the prism of himself. This is not a St. Paul I recognise, this is Bergoglio Paul.”
Donnelly’s concern was echoed by Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, who took issue with the Pope’s biblical knowledge: “This sounds like the most fundamentalist Protestant interpretation of St. Paul’s life imaginable. I take that back: even fundamentalist Protestants would cringe at this interpretation.”
Pope Francis’ attacks on those he describes as “rigid” have increased in regularity of late, with today’s being the third such attack in as many weeks.
In his general audience last week, the Pope denigrated online preachers he described as “rigid” and who seek “solutions to the crises of today.”
“It is precisely the way of the evil one, of these people who divide, who do not know how to build,” he said.
“Today too there is no shortage of preachers who, especially through the new means of communication, can disturb communities,” continued Pope Francis. “They present themselves not primarily to announce the Gospel of God who loves man in Jesus, Crucified and Risen, but to insist, as true ‘keepers of the truth’ — so they call themselves — on the best way to be Christians.”
Then, in a June 10 address to Italian seminarians, the Pope warned them of the “perversion” of clericalism and “gratifying spiritualism,” which would “lead to closure and rigidity.”
While the Pope regularly returns to the subject of “rigid” Catholics, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, revealed the Pope is concerned about the rise of “traditionalist” ideas creeping into “priestly formation.”
Whether such an anecdote is true will perhaps be seen shortly, as Pope Francis has reportedly finished the third draft of a document which would restrict the use of what is known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. When speaking to the Conference of Italian Bishops in May, the Pope allegedly gave an example of a young “rigid” priest who wished to learn Latin in order to offer the Traditional Mass, and who was told to learn Spanish instead as it would be more useful.
Writing for The Remnant, Vatican journalist Diane Montagna supported the veracity of the rumor, stating that The Remnant had “independently confirmed that a Vatican document restricting Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum is backed by at least two Vatican cardinals, is in its third draft, and threatens to thwart the growth of the Traditional Latin Mass and other sacraments particularly among diocesan clergy.”
The document is reportedly currently under review at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
You might as well ask why you remain a citizen of a country that elects Obama and Biden*.
*Yes, I know. But you can't deny that he's sitting in the White House and shows no sign of leaving.
“He’s just the incompetent custodian of Someone Else’s property.”
Incompetent?
Do not be deceived by a minion (maybe the chief minion) of the greatest deceiver, Satan, the one so deeply jealous of Someone Else.
Satan must be quite happy with this Pope’s performance in tearing apart the RCC, supporting fellow apostates within it and making true Catholics doubtful.
What's really frustrating here is that the persecutor of Christians in the present situation is not traditional/orthodox Catholics. It is those who oppose them and their adherence to Tradition.
What Satan poisons is all a terrible mess.
He appears to be saying that traditionalist Catholics are not Christians. That is totally off the deep end. He’s gone wacko.
I have been told many times by my catholic sister that the roman church is the one true church that Christ founded and stays the true church because of the teachings of the councils and bishops and that any non-catholic church is in error because they are in open rebellion to the popes.
Just having the Bible isn’t enough, apparently the only reason we even have the Bible is because of the generosity of the roman church who gave it to us, the only peoples qualified to understand the Bible are the roman churchmen. And roman church tradition is in perfect harmony with the Bible, even when it is not. Without the roman church, my sister contends that I’m lost because I place my trust in Christ alone based on the simple words of the Bible alone, forsaking taking communion shoulder to shoulder with those super nice pro-choice elected officials.
The biggest question in my sisters mind is when am I going to wake up and swim the Tiber?
Either that same church -- which, in Acts 2, was most certainly not "invisible"! -- has historical continuity to the present day, or it does not.
If it does not, then Christ failed and most of his promises were, at best, fables and, at worst, outright lies. Why would you trust such a person?
If it does, then I invite you to seek it. But it can't be anything founded in the 16th Century or later. It would have to have existed continuously since the time of the Apostles. Only the Catholics and Orthodox can credibly make that claim.
His incompetence may well be the result of malevolence; I'm not ruling it out. In the final analysis, though, it will have the same consequences (for the church and the world, I mean, not for +Francis' soul) whether it's malevolent or merely foolish.
Ignoramus.
Hey Frank, you Argentinian meatball, there is a difference between “tradition” and “dogma.”
Somebody, buy this guy a Dictionary App.
“All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome [except rigid traditional Catholics], all are welcome....”
How about an end to an intransigent ASSAULT on tradition?
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