THE HERMENEUTIC OF REFORM IN CONTINUITY WITH THE CHURCH'S TRADITION IS SET IN CONCRETE! DEO GRATIAS!

Yes, we must read Pope Francis through Pope Benedict as the only hermeneutic to understand the papacy of Francis

NOW, LET ME SEE, WHO ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NO EARS TO HEAR, NO EYES TO SEE AND REMAIN WHINERS?

Pope Francis, since day 1, has been in continuity with Pope Benedict XVI on that which counts, THE DEPOSIT OF FAITH which the Second Vatican Council, not as a dogmatic council, but as a pastoral council has the sole mission of doing what Pope John Paul II highlighted from Pope John XXIII:

"... nothing is more enlightening than to recall the exact words which, on the opening day, John XXIII wished to spell out the orientation of this great ecclesial event: 'The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be more effectively guarded and taught'."

Pope John Paul II continues:

"This farseeing vision of Pope John is alive today. It was the only sound basis for an Ecumenical Council aimed at pastoral renewal; it is the only sound basis for all our pastoral endeavors as Bishops of the Church of God. This then is my own deepest hope today for the pastors of the Church in America, as well as for all the pastors of the Church: 'that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be more effectively guarded and taught'."

And Pope John Paul II further commented:

"The sacred deposit of God's word, handed on by the Church, is the joy and strength of our people's lives. It is the only pastoral solution to the many problems of our day."  

So, since day 1, when Pope Francis was elected, let me repeat for the billionth time what he has said, so that those who have ears can hear and eyes can read:

1. He has called for fidelity to the person of the Pope and the larger Magisterium, the pope and bishops in union with him and this includes the Magisterium of the ages!

2. He has called everyone to acknowledge their sin and to go to confession regularly and this has been a constant theme, the acknowledgement of sin (as the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes it in its treatment of the Commandments and precepts of the Church)!

3. He has called for a return to popular piety, especially Marian devotion and in particular praying the Holy Rosary--as the prayer of the laity. He has modeled Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

4. He calls the Church, Holy Mother and Bride of Christ which has implications of upholding the dogmas of the Sacrament of Matrimony as well as the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the distinctive nature of male and female and its complimentarily, both in Marriage and Holy Orders. 

5. He has derided the masculinization of the female in many cultures and in the Church, a sort of machismo for women!

6. He has order the prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to clarify his remarks on marriage and divorce and the nature of a well formed conscience. He has asked him to rebuke the rich, rich, rich German Church and her bishops about allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion and he has rebuked the Cardinal of Honduras, one of the gang of 8 cardinals, for promoting a Protestant ecclesiology concerning not only the Church but in doing so, making the priest more like a protestant pastoral minister. 

7. He has spoken over and over and over and over and over again about the Devil and his influence and the need for deliverance and exorcism and that we don't want to die in the devil and experience and eternity with him at our judgement! 

8. He celebrates the Mass when facing the congregation in an "ad orientem" sort of way and has maintained the Benedictine altar arrangement. He has also celebrated the Ordinary Form ad orientem in St. Peter's Basilica, which Benedict never did except at the papal altar and he has endorsed the Extraordinary Form of the Mass as precisely that, the Extraordinary Form, one of two forms of the one Latin Rite.

9. He excommunicated an Australian heretical priest and laicized him!

10. He endorsed Pope Benedict's interpretation of the documents of the Second Vatican Council within the framework of what is called the "hermeneutic of reform in continuity" with what preceded the Council" a very common sense approach to the Vatican II documents which only changed certain aspects of the Church's discipline and pastoral understanding of her mission--no doctrines were changed and certainly no dogmas of the Church. The morals of the Church are the same!

In all the off-the-cuff remarks the pope has made that has caused rad trads and looney progressives to evaluate him as a modernist, they always seem to forget the above 10 points I have once again illustrated and they seem to forget that Pope Francis always refers us to the Catechism when we are in doubt about something he says and that he is a son of the Church!

Of course the leftist media are having a heyday with the rad trads paranoia and wrong evaluation of the pope and the looney progressives wishful thinking, both of whom must be in damage control over the latest bombshell from the Holy Father in terms of the hermeneutic of continuity.

This pope is different from Pope Benedict in the following ways:

1. His pastoral approach to show mercy to sinners, but calling them sinners nonetheless, including all of you who commit sexual sins, privately or with others.

2. His personal tastes are simple, maybe even banal, he is not into the Baroque. 

3. He wants to dialogue with everyone and make them feel welcome, everyone!

4. He has not sold the Church out to modernism and sees the greatest crisis in the Church not from the neo-Pelagians (traditionalists) but from the neo-gnostics (progressives) who have bought lock, stock and barrel into the enlightenment era and thus modernism and post modernism, this is the greatest threat!