Posted on 06/01/2025 7:33:34 PM PDT by ebb tide
The Francists are playing defense now, fighting a rear-guard action against those who have questioned certain actions, thoughts, and even “teachings” of Pope Francis. There is an odor of desperation among them. After all, we have had a sometimes rocky 12 years. The Francists know this, though they would put all the blame on Taylor Marshall.
Over the length of his papacy, those with even a slight whiff of concern were labeled “anti-Francis,” or having “attacked” Francis, or had even become heretics.
We are told that we had to give religious assent to Francis’ claim in Laudato Si’ that “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” We are told even now that we are obligated as Catholics to believe in catastrophic man-made “climate change.” According to Francists, this scientific claim has become as firmly established in the “magisterium!” as the Triune God. Note that the Francists tend to shout the word “magisterium.”
Over the years, I have publicly parted company with Francis only a few times. I wrote a Crisis column that he was wrong on nationalism. I wrote that J.D. Vance was right about “climate change” and the pope was wrong. I wrote that the pope was misguided in his celebration of the Rainbow Jesuit James Martin, though I gave Francis the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t really know what Martin was up to and that his circle of advisers fooled him. And I do believe that. Would that he had been a regular reader of Crisis.
Like many faithful Catholics, I have been confused about a few things Francis published. I understand how the Church has called for the abolition of the death penalty. Still, I do not understand how the death penalty could be—under certain circumstances—perfectly fine on a Monday afternoon but then becomes a mortal sin, or “inadmissible” or something, on a Tuesday morning. This is literally how fast that changed.
I still don’t understand how it would be a mortal sin for an adulterous couple to receive Holy Communion on a Monday, but then on Tuesday—under certain “accompaniment”—it becomes perfectly fine. And in a footnote, no less!
And then there is the blessing of homosexual unions. How could this be? Of course, the Francists explained it all to us. The priest is not blessing the union. He is only blessing two people who happened to be standing beside each other holding hands. Remember, it was Fr. James Martin who did this almost immediately. In your face, Trad!
Then, there is the insistence that we accept a scientific proposition like “climate change.” These are all part of what Francist Austen Ivereigh shouts is the “Francis Magisterium.” Failing that, we are no better than heretics. As for me, I do believe in global warming; and I believe that it is a good thing. As for the catastrophe? I am old enough to remember when they said we were running out of polar bears and that Wall Street was supposed to be underwater by now.
Francis directed a clampdown on the Traditional Latin Mass, something that seems vindictive against a considerable swath of faithful Catholics. Francists say the Trads had it coming for many reasons, including that guy dunking the Pachamama into the Tiber.
And then there is the personal stuff. Like many faithful Catholics, I have been taken aback about how, well, mean and even vindictive he seemed to be. Many of us had the feeling for years that Francis did not like us. JPII loved everyone. So did Benedict. Francis did not seem to.
We were told by the Francists ad nauseam how kind and merciful he was. We are told even now that he was the Pope of Mercy. Tell that to the Trads. Tell that to Cardinal Burke, who had his Vatican funding pulled. Tell that to Cardinal Sarah and Cardinal Müller, both summarily fired.
Seared into my memory are those images of Francis jerking his hand away from those who wanted to kiss not his ring but the papal ring. How humiliating it must have been for those people treated so unmercifully by our spiritual father.
They told us how humble he was. They usually pointed to Francis eschewing the simple and even humble papal apartments and moving into the Vatican hotel, where he took over an entire floor. People checked into the hotel and were told never to approach the pope. I recall how Pope John Paul II loved to have rollicking lunches, complete with theological arguments. I imagine Francis eating humbly alone in the hotel dining room.
Now that Leo is elevated, the Francists are worried. They are working hard to claim Leo and, at the same time, preserve and protect Francis’ legacy. We shall see if they are successful. I suspect they won’t be, and they know it. One senses a great sense of relief that a new papacy has begun.
Woody Allen said relationships are like sharks; they must keep moving forward or they die. Such are “progressives” in the Church. Not one step backward! Such are the Francists. Others in the Church might say, let the forgetting begin.
Ping
My hope is that, when the history of the Catholic Church for this period becomes conventional wisdom, the Bergoglian pontificate will be regarded as little more than a sort of “asterisk”... a papacy that never should have been... an unfortunate accident of history that came about for no other reason than Ratzinger’s thoroughly wrong-headed decision to resign ... and that virtually nothing that Bergoglio said, did or wrote should be regarded as of any permanent consequence.
I hope pope Leo will be able to undo the worst of the damage Bergoglio did to the Church.
Same electing cardinals, same pope. Tradioniones is still here. Mercy for the unrepentant but mervilousness for those on their knees to Jesus. That’s this Church of the new age.
What made saints before will make saints today: persecution. Embrace the suck.
I disagree with the title. An abused child never forgets, even if he can’t remember each and every blow he received from his father. No. It changes him. He internalizes it. It affects the man he becomes. It can turn him into an abuser himself, or it can make him determined to be a good father. He may forgive his father, but he doesn’t forget.
I think a better title and conclusion would be “Let the healing begin.”
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