Pope Hypocrite? Traditional Catholics repelled by the liberal views of the late Pope Francis are not finding much relief under its new pontiff

Safe to say, traditional Catholics repelled by the liberal views of the late Pope Francis are not finding much relief under its new pontiff.

In October, Pope Leo took yet another sharp-tongued and sarcastic aim at President Donald Trump for ejecting illegal immigrants from America, likening it to abortion and implying he is a hypocrite. "Someone who says I am against abortion but in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don't know if that's pro life," the Bishop of Rome pondered out loud to media from his luxe Castel Gandolfo digs in Italy.

Castel Gandolfo, for the record, is the Pope's summer home. The Apostolic Palace is a sprawling edifice, spanning 1.7 million square feet and boasting 1,000 rooms. To put that in perspective, Pope Leo lives in a building that is about one acre in size.

The palace itself is surrounded by 135 acres that make up Vatican City, which has a small residential population of only 600 permanent residents, resulting in a ton of open space. The luxe property consists of elaborate gardens, an observatory, and tennis courts and would enrapture anyone living there. It is definitely large enough to shelter hundreds if not thousands of illegal immigrants.

Vatican City, as it turns out, emphasizes that it is a sovereign state, much like the United States, and not only doesn't permit open borders and thus open-door policies, but it also has some of the strictest laws against what it calls "illegal entry." They were stepped up in 2023 by Pope Francis under a new doctrine called the "Fundamental Law" and last December, at the peak of the Advent season, were harshened in a new five-page decree issued by the Vatican.

IMHO as a Protestant, what I think the Catholics need to do to give themselves the right checks and balances, but without abandoning Catholicism (in other words without having to believe in the 5 solas, etc. like I do as a Protestant), is:

Ditch apostolic secession. The sharp segregation between clergy and laity is what seems to be the barrier in good minded Catholics telling their hedonist/leftist leaders to pound sand.

Perhaps there's something I'm missing. But how I see it is, a person can still believe all of the other Catholic things without requiring them to be intertwined with clergy. Think about it like this through these questions:

Can you have mass and participate in Communion and believe it's part of the larger Eucharist process (in which the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Christ) even if the elements aren't blessed by someone officially tied to the increasingly leftist led clergy? Can you obtain absolution from Purgatory by confessing your sins to a very devout Catholic that's not necessarily clergy? Are you and/or your loved ones baptized if it's performed by a devout Catholic that's not necessarily clergy?

If the answer is NO to the questions above (and similarly with other sacraments), then IMHO that creates an unhealthy relationship between the church members and the church leaders. Power corrupts. And as long as the masses (laity) believe that they absolutely need the clergy for the sacraments to be real, then the clergy has a kind of absolute power that corrupts absolutely. But if the devout Catholics can encourage a culture change to the point that they can answer YES to the questions above, it flips the script on how far the hedonist promoting leaders can influence people.

In the Protestant world we too get corrupt leaders. But I would argue that it's easier for the righteous minded Protestant members to ditch bad leaders than it is for righteous minded Catholic members to ditch bad leaders because the Protestant members know that our practices aren't so intertwined with our leaders. If you think about it, look at the Protestant leaders who've either engaged in or promoted sexual immorality. Those leaders either repent, or are quickly kicked out, or the local churches leave the denomination altogether (Methodist churches leaving the hedonist UMC and joining the Bible centered GMC), or the members leave the church and join another church more Christ-centered. That's why the hedonist promoting churches have very few attendees and very few local churches left. The few people who still attend those are people who knowingly are being lied to so they can feel better about their leftism/hedonism beliefs. While the devout Protestant Christians are attending church where they're getting Christ centered teaching and leadership (either because they effectively corrected the leaders at their old church or moved to other leaders).

traditional Catholics repelled by the liberal views of the late Pope Francis are not finding much relief under its new pontiff.

But the pope can find a lot of the sectarian or schismatic dissenters, of popes and V2 to varying degrees, with sub-sects.

.
Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) – Founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre; largest irregular traditionalist priestly society. Rome says it has an “irregular canonical status” but has granted faculties for confessions and marriages in certain circumstances.
Fraternité Notre Dame – Small French‑origin group with traditional practice, irregular status.
Servants of the Holy Family – Traditionalist community in Colorado, irregular.
Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat – Ukrainian Greek Catholic traditionalist group with ties to SSPX.
Missionaries of St. John the Baptist (Kentucky) – Small Latin‑Mass group with disputed status.
Sedevacantist / sedeprivationist groups
These hold that recent popes are not true popes (sedevacantism) or only materially so (sedeprivationism), and thus stand outside communion with Rome.
Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI) – One of the largest sedevacantist congregations, with chapels in multiple countries.
Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV) – Split from SSPX in 1983 over liturgical/disciplinary issues; many of its clergy are sedevacantist.
Most Holy Family Monastery (MHFM) – Small, very vocal sedevacantist monastery in New York.
Various smaller sedevacantist entities: Sisters of Mary Immaculate Queen, Religious Congregation of the Mother of God, Sociedad Sacerdotal Trento, St. Gertrude the Great Church, and others listed in Tridentine‑Mass and sedevacantist directories.
Conclavist “micro‑groups” – Tiny movements that have elected their own antipopes; their followings are extremely small.
Lay traditionalist media and apostolates
These are not “sects” in the sense of separate churches, but they are key voices in the traditionalist ecosystem.
The Wanderer – U.S. lay‑run Catholic weekly (since 1867), conservative/traditionalist, independent of diocesan control.
The Remnant – Traditionalist bi‑weekly newspaper founded in 1967 by Walter Matt after splitting from The Wanderer; strongly critical of post‑Vatican II changes, sympathetic to SSPX.
Church Militant (formerly Real Catholic TV) – Online media apostolate with aggressive “militant” rhetoric; traditionalist-leaning, strongly critical of many bishops, but formally professes loyalty to current popes.
Because new small chapels and micro‑groups form and dissolve, no list is absolutely complete,

A web site popular among “RadTrad” RCs who reject Vatican Two is https://novusordowatch.org and which summed up the situation by saying,

In response to the phenomenon of the Vatican II revolution, there are three essential lines of thought that have been proposed as “solutions” to understanding the situation. This is not now the place or time to critique or justify any of them. For now, we want to just describe them: (1) despite appearances, nothing has really substantially changed, and any interpretation of Vatican II that arrives at the conclusion that there has been a substantial change must be incorrect; (2) we must oppose (resist) these substantial changes and stick to the traditional, age-old teaching instead and ignore the Vatican II novelties while recognizing, however, that the authorities in the Vatican are legitimate and genuine Roman Catholic authorities — we just cannot agree with them on these points; (3) because it is impossible for the Catholic Church to change substantially, and because Vatican II constitutes such an impossible substantial change, it is necessary to conclude that the authority which gave us Vatican II is not in fact the legitimate Catholic authority; that is to say, the “Popes” which gave us Vatican II are not true Popes, nor are their successors, who have implemented and expanded this new religion that has its roots in the council. In fact, the entire religion that now occupies the Vatican and the official structures of the Catholic Church throughout the world is false — it is not the Catholic religion at all, and its putative authorities are not Catholics but heretical usurpers.
The first line of thought described above is often termed (not necessarily correctly) “conservative Catholic”, “orthodox Catholic”, “Novus Ordo”, “conservative Novus Ordo”, or “indult”. Prominent organizations and individuals which can be said to promote or be associated with this position would include Catholic Answers, EWTN, Fraternity of St. Peter, Institute of Christ the King, Franciscan University of Steubenville, National Catholic Register, The Wanderer, Latin Mass Magazine, Church Militant, Vericast, Fr. Kenneth Baker, Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, Karl Keating, Scott Hahn, Michael Voris, Tim Staples, Jimmy Akin, Steve Kellmeyer, Dave Armstrong, Mark Shea, and many others.
The second line of thought described above is often termed (not necessarily correctly) “traditionalist”, “traditional”, “resistance”, “recognize-and-resist” (“R&R”), or “SSPX”. Proponents of this position include the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Fatima Network, Tradition In Action, The Remnant, Catholic Family News, TradCatKnight, Bp. Bernard Fellay, Bp. Richard Williamson, Rev. Paul Kramer, Rev. Nicholas Gruner, John Vennari, Michael Matt, Christopher Ferrara, Louie Verrecchio, John Salza, Robert Siscoe, Eric Gajewski, and many more. Here at Novus Ordo Watch we like to refer to this position as “recognize-and-resist”, “neo-traditionalist”, “pseudo-traditionalist”, or “semi-traditionalist”.
The third line of thought is the one we espouse at Novus Ordo Watch, and it is a theological position known as “Sedevacantism”, from the Latin sede vacante, “the chair being empty”, referring to the Chair of St. Peter that is occupied by the Pope — when there is a legitimate Pope reigning. Sedevacantism is by far the least popular position, the “black sheep” no one wants to be “tainted” with. Besides Novus Ordo Watch, other groups or individuals who promote or share this position include True Restoration, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI), Istituto Mater Boni Consilii, Sodalitium, Daily Catholic, The Four Marks newspaper, Bp. Geert Stuyver, Bp. Donald Sanborn, Bp. Mark Pivarunas, Bp. Clarence Kelly, Fr. Anthony Cekada, Fr. Michael Oswalt, Fr. William Jenkins, John Daly, Thomas Droleskey, Stephen Heiner, John Lane, Michael Cain, Mario Derksen, Griff Ruby, Steve Speray, and others.
As for the term “Novus Ordo”, in its most general application it simply refers to the new, pseudo-Catholic religion of Vatican II described above.... To be clear: We adhere fully to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church from her founding in 33 A.D. by the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ through the death of the last known Pope, Pius XII, on October 9, 1958. We are Roman Catholics. - https://novusordowatch.org/start-here/

Actually, what Catholicism needs the most, and critically so, is to abandon their false gospel, with its imagined means of regeneration - that of the act itself of baptism, which renders one good enough to directly be God if they died right then. Until they realize their sinful nature is all too alive. But noi to worry, their lack of holiness and expiration will be taken care of in RC Purgatory. Thus Rome manifestly considers even proabortion, prohomosexual public figures as being members in life and in death, (showing the Vatican's understanding of canon law) due to their baptism, and in their funerals hope is conveyed that as Catholics, they will be in Heaven.

In contrast, souls receive life in themselves and are saved by effectual penitent, heart-purifying ("purifying their hearts by faith"), regenerating, justifying faith in the Sin-bearing, Atoning, Crucified and Risen Divine Son of God, (Acts 10:43-47, 11:13-18, 15:7-9; Titus 3:5) who saves sinners on His merit, (2 Cor. 5:21) thereby being made "accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:6) For which faith is imputed for righteousness, (Romans 4:5) and is confessed/shown by baptism (Acts 2:38, 8:12, 36, 37) and following the Lord according to His word, by His Spirit, (Acts 2:38-47; Jn. 10:27, 28; Romans 8:13, 14) with repentance when convicted by conscience of not doing so. ((2 Samuel 12:7-13; Psalms 32:5, 6, 51:3; Hosea 5:15; 1 John 1:9) Glory and thanks be to God. Which faith is in contrast to those who were never born of the Spiritor who terminally fall away, thereby forfeiting what faith obtained. (Gal. 5:1-4; Heb. 3:12, 10:25-39) - https://peacebyjesus.net/savedorlost.html

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.