Posted on 04/23/2025 7:47:25 AM PDT by ebb tide
Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the 266th successor of St. Peter and the head of 1.4 billion Catholics on March 13, 2013. His pontifical persona as Pope Francis, taken in honor of St. Francis of Assisi — the patron saint of ecology and animals — warmed the hearts of both Catholics and Protestant,s and even non-Christians.
But Francis’s honeymoon with faithful Catholics lasted just four months. While flying back from an apostolic visit to Brazil on July 29, 2013, a reporter asked him if there was a “gay lobby” in the Vatican.
Francis’s reply was shocking: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
The newly crowned pope may have been referring to sexual orientation rather than sexual practice, but the five words followed by a question mark — “Who am I to judge?” — became the ominous trademark that would stamp his papacy.
From that point on, conservative Catholics began suspiciously scrutinizing every word that came from the pope’s mouth. Francis had shattered forever the hermeneutic of trust and obedience that had accompanied papal pronouncements over the centuries.
Conservatives accused Francis of subverting theological concepts and freighting them with leftist ideology and heterodox theology.
Jesuit priest and journalist Thomas Reese inadvertently confirmed this when he praised Francis’s first major declaration, titled The Joy of the Gospel: “Look at the title of his latest apostolic exhortation (Evangelii Gaudium, 2013),” he wrote. “It’s ‘the joy of the Gospel,’ not the ‘the truth of the Gospel.’”
Reese’s words were prophetic. Conservative Catholics and non-Catholic Christians pulled up the drawbridge — one couldn’t trust this pope as a custodian of “truth.”
(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...
Ping
How can the Catholic Church return to the Truth when 80% of Cardinals were appointed by the gay commie Frank?
I NEED a strong Catholic Church defending Western Civilization with me.
How do we get there?
I think that what he said was correct in that if a person is caught up in the lust of homosexuality but are of a heart to seek God(which obviously “proud” homosexuals are not), then they will need to be converted through the work Jesus Christ on the Cross and then the Holy Spirit can begin the process. But the Bible is clear on the insidious nature of homosexuality and if the Vatican is indeed corrupted by it, then it is going to take a true man of God at the helm to restore it. Obviously this last Pope was not the man for the job. Hope they choose more wisely this time...
Since Vatican II, which changed the Roman Catholic Church into a cheap imitation of the Nazarenes, many of us suffered under these imitation pontiffs.
They were complicit in the compete change of Christ’s Church on earth.
Francis made a point of de-centralizing the authority of the Vatican. I think he intended it to facilitate liberalizing influences around the world by giving liberal bishops more autonomy. The “synodal” movement.
The Holy Spirit had other ideas, and has inspired a whole new generation of younger people, including a surprising surge of men. Young men who seek and cherish the traditions, the historicity, the grandeur of the Catholic Church, while eschewing leftwing ideology. Call them “conservative,” it fits, and may well be in part a backlash to the impious equivocations of Bergoglio.
Along with this is a diminution of Papal influence. Truth be told, many Catholics have always been skeptical of the Vatican, too much politics and corruption going back centuries, so, paying lip service to the pope while seeking to worship Jesus Christ. You are right, we all need a strong church, but also, the church needs us. The laity will be the salvation of the church because as Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” We don’t follow the pope, a cock crowing in the barnyard,
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
As a Catholic, I feel ashamed I unable to find it in myself to mourn Pope Francis
The man spoke in post-modern, leftist slogans. He seemed to me neither deep nor spiritua. And his writings an pronouncements often caused disquiet, division and confusion among Catholics.
“Pope Francis’s Sharp Left Turn Toward Heresy”
TOWARD????? RU kidding me? The pope was possessed by demons or Satan himself.
Thank God he is GONE!
Perhaps the defining line of this age.
This was the work of Obama.
It’s not just the Pope’s gay-friendly comments that were a concern.
His embrace of environmentalism was frightening.
The rise of Christianity replaced the pagan beliefs of earth worshippers 2,000 years ago and this enthusiastic support by the Papacy of the “Green Movement” is alarmingly regressive.
Christianity is rooted in the advance of the human condition, and focuses on forgiveness, compassion, redemption and ultimate salvation for humanity.
None of these very human needs exist within the environmental movement, whose true ambition is to actually REPLACE Christianity, while getting rid of the very inconvenient Christian beliefs that homosexuality is a sin and abortion is murder.
Casting doubt on ancient and unambiguous Catholic and Christian doctrines at a time when the Liberal World Order has gone into overdrive in their final push for global domination and control has been EXTREMELY unhelpful by the Catholic Church.
It’s time for a return to tradition.
Please, Lord. We need that.
That is like contending that BeijingBiden was mentally/morally OK until he was installed into the WHouse. No, he was a mental midget and corrupt arsehole from the beginning. That applies to both, BTWay.
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