Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 04/18/2026 4:29:03 PM PDT by ebb tide
Edited on 04/18/2026 4:31:13 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Senior Vatican Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has said Pope Leo XIV is continuing the legacy of Pope Francis.
On April 13, Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated in an interview given to Italian newspaper Il Giornale that it is inaccurate to claim Pope Leo XIV intends to overturn his predecessor’s pontificate, emphasizing instead continuity through specific initiatives and teachings promoted within the Church. The interview marked the approaching first anniversary of Pope Francis’s death, on April 21.
“Every pope has his own personal style and priorities, but to say that Pope Leo wants to erase what was done during the pontificate of Francis is dishonest,” Fernández said.
READ: Cardinal Müller tells Trump that his ‘attack’ on Pope Leo is ‘unacceptable’
According to the Argentine cardinal, “One year later, Francis is not yet underground,” and his legacy is more relevant than ever. Pope Leo XIV asks the entire Church to “follow the lesson of humility” that Francis would have imparted with his life and his papacy.
When asked about “a decision or a text” by Francis that, according to Fernández, “changed the way of living the Church,” the cardinal replied: “The fact of applying the hierarchy of truth not only to ecumenism, but to all preaching and evangelization.”
The so-called “hierarchy of truth” is a theological interpretation of the Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio of the Second Vatican Council (no. 11), according to which all the truths of the Catholic faith derive from the same divine source, but not all would have the same weight in relation to the core of the Gospel.
Unitatis Redintegratio asserts that “the whole doctrine must be clearly presented in its entirety” and that “nothing is more foreign to ecumenism than that false irenicism, which distorts the purity of Catholic doctrine and obscures its genuine and precise meaning.” Moreover, the decree recalls that, “When comparing doctrines it should be remembered that there exists an order or hierarchy in the truths of Catholic doctrine, by reason of their different relation to the foundation of the Christian faith.”
In the traditional sense, this means that Catholic dogmas proceed from the fundamental articles of the Creed as conclusions proceed from their premises.
In the neo-modernist sense, adopted by Francis, this concept has been interpreted to mean that some truths would be fundamental and necessary, others less so. This interpretation was condemned under the name of “latitudinarianism” by Pope Pius IX in his 1864 encyclical Quanta cura and in the Syllabus of Errors.
According to what Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, the Church should not “be obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines,” but should focus on what is “more beautiful, greater, more necessary”: the kerygma, the Christian proclamation, which – according to the late pope – reduces to the fact that “God loves all men.”
In this sense, Francis extended the concept of the hierarchy of truths, applying it not only to relations with non‑Catholics but also to relations among Catholics themselves.
Amid the interview, Fernández decried “traditionalist groups” who he said “resist” Pope Francis’s “condemnation of the death penalty.” Even with this, regarding the danger of erasing or forgetting what was taught by Francis, the cardinal said there would be no risk under Leo:
Pope Leo has expressed in various ways the need to continue to receive the magisterium of Francis. For example, to us cardinals, before the consistory, he asked us to read Evangelii gaudium again, and then invited us to reflect on its application. Now he has convened the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences to resume the reception of Amoris laetitia. Certainly, for those who rejected all his teaching or for those who received it only in appearance, [Francis’s] pontificate will have been only a bad parenthesis (forgetting the hermeneutic of continuity).
However, the concept of a “hermeneutic of continuity” developed by Pope Benedict XVI serves to avoid a reading of the Second Vatican Council as a rupture with respect to the standing Tradition. Fernández, instead, employed the expression in a different way, that is, to describe a supposedly necessary pastoral continuity and magisterial direction between Francis and Leo.
Again, according to Fernández, the point from which to begin again in order to communicate the faith anew in a secularized society would be “the experience of a friendship with Christ that enlightens, offers meaning, with the certainty of being loved.” The concept of experience and feeling as foundations of religious life, superior to faith and Tradition, are among the fixed points of modernism, as set forth and condemned by Pope Saint Pius X in the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907).
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Ping
Nothing fails like failure. Commies.
You better believe it’s true. Before he died, Pope Francis selected one Cardinal and Bishop after another who fit into his own woke socialist views and his support for Third World countries against the US.
“Pope Francis created 163 cardinals across ten consistories held between 2014 and December 7, 2024. Through these appointments, he has shaped the College of Cardinals, with approximately 80% of the 135 cardinal-electors (those under 80 eligible to vote in a conclave) appointed by him).
As of April 15, 2026, there are 243 total cardinals, with 120 eligible to vote in a conclave.
By focusing on non-European choices, Francis has significantly changed the demographic composition of the body that will elect his successor.
Following the 2024 consistory, 110 of the cardinal electors had been appointed by Francis, 24 by Pope Benedict XVI, and 6 by Pope John Paul II.”
From The Conversation.
Well, duh. He was hand picked by the Cardinals that Francis put into place to reflect his views.
Need a Vatican Coup. You know what that means.
Cardinal Sarah is a conservative.
Frank 2.0. Pretty disappointing. But he’s from chicongo...
It would be nice to have a Catholic pope again
✔️. Very disappointing.
Just reporting. No mention of him in my post because I just set up the story of how the conclave was in place to appoint Pope Leo XIV.
“My job is to inform, not to convince”.
—Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Lourdes, France. 1844-1879.
Imagining how much better the royals could be if the pope were to discover the Bible and stop trying to play politics
” Cardinal Fernández says Pope Leo XIV is continuing Francis’ legacy, not undoing it”
I’ve posted I believed Francis was the world’s first Islamic Pope and Leo was the world’s second Islamic Pope so this statement is not surprising.
i haven’t had time to read the entire article but the headline alone states the problem, or at least a significant problem.... pretty clearly
Isn’t that why he was popiefied?
Sherlock Holmes, right there.
It sure would be.
(P.S. - I enjoyed reading your tagline.)
This pope has been no only miss representing the bible, But actually altering scripture. He is more evil than the last pope.
Giant Cloud Of Dust Emerges From Vatican As Pope Opens His Bible
https://babylonbee.com/news/giant-cloud-of-dust-emerges-from-vatican-as-pope-francis-opens-his-bible
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.