It seems to me that being pope today is a herculean task where no one is always pleased? This is in fact a result of Vatican II being interpreted as a rupture with the past and the "spirit" of Vatican II Catholics who have promoted this rupture and thus fomented schism.
Yes, Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict all experienced push-back from a variety of sources. Paul VI's heartbreak with Vatican II's spirit developed toward the end of his papacy and his depression was palpable. Benedict, the truly humble, was overwhelmed with administrative issues and did not have the best people in important positions. They let him down.
Pope Benedict was vilified by the left in the Church and secularists outside of the Church? Why? Because of his clarity, his orthodoxy and his humility.
But from day one, Pope Francis in a not so humble way, tried to make himself out as the anti- Benedict and the golden boy of the progressives and those who actually believed in Vatican II's spirit. Yet his version of Vatican II is stuck in the 60's and 70's which both John Paul II and Benedict brought about a great deal of healing and proper direction.
The fact that Pope Francis has tried to exterminate the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict has brought us to the brink.
Bishop Bransfield of West Virginia, happily no more, though, blamed everyone else for his exhorbitant spending and lifestyle of the rich and famous. He should have blamed himself.
I would suggest some soul searching by the current pontiff would allow the proper blame to be placed in the proper place.
Humanized Francis speaks as a leader whose movement is falling apart
Pope Francis' blunt assertions about his opponents during his return to Rome from Africa not only marked how swiftly popes have become earthlings but suggest that Francis in particular is under worrisome stress.
From his warning about "ideology" infecting theology and his stunning admission that schism could happen, reported well by NCR Vatican correspondent Joshua J. McElwee, the pope's edgy remarks in response to reporters' questions indicate that the drumbeat of criticisms of his papacy is angering and preoccupying him.
This is not the public side the world has come to know — the compassionate, accepting, amiable face that has earned him a wide following. Rather, these stiff responses to sharp challenges hint at the inner man, the dimension that popes never intentionally displayed until recent decades...
...Starting 60 years ago with Pope John XXIII's casting off of lofty papal symbols, and the pope's enormous popular appeal, that image began to change. Modern media exposed more about John and his successors. Pope John Paul II broke barriers between the Vatican and the press by giving impromptu interviews on airplanes, and gradually the person behind the office began to show itself.
None has taken it so far as Francis, who, from the beginning, opened himself to magazine and television articles and specials, creating a vast audience for his essentially progressive views on things like ecology, human rights and clerical privilege. Holding that back to an immeasurable degree is the ongoing calamity of sex abuse charges against priests and bishops. That has yet to play out.
But as his latest comments show, Francis has at the same time bristled over the attacks from detractors among prominent Catholic writers and clerics who accuse him of selling out aspects of authentic tradition. Though he maintains a warm, gregarious demeanor in his appearances, his direct effort to defend himself and to infer that political (ideological) motives have been employed to discredit the church's, and his, theology, point to a pope who has been deeply affected by those critics and may be suffering considerable inner turmoil.
None has taken it so far as Francis, who, from the beginning, opened himself to magazine and television articles and specials, creating a vast audience for his essentially progressive views on things like ecology, human rights and clerical privilege. Holding that back to an immeasurable degree is the ongoing calamity of sex abuse charges against priests and bishops. That has yet to play out.
But as his latest comments show, Francis has at the same time bristled over the attacks from detractors among prominent Catholic writers and clerics who accuse him of selling out aspects of authentic tradition. Though he maintains a warm, gregarious demeanor in his appearances, his direct effort to defend himself and to infer that political (ideological) motives have been employed to discredit the church's, and his, theology, point to a pope who has been deeply affected by those critics and may be suffering considerable inner turmoil.
It may also disclose painful realization that his best intentions receive nowhere near ready deference from most Catholics.
Francis, in his comments, projects woundedness. He has reached out to address the church's many deep crises and has faced defiant opposition on most fronts. From the start of his papacy, he has had an inclination to couch his hopes in brief clues but provides few if any action plans to back them up.
He shuns autocratic rule and seeks decisions through consultation and consensus.(my comment: this sentence is pure fantasy; he's not called the dictator pope for no reason.) He has received little of that; instead, resistance and confrontation from insiders.
If he is now showing shock and chagrin, and a strain of emotional reaction that becomes far-fetched (whose "ideology" for example?) or overwrought, it could be a sign of serious despair.
Astonishingly, he allows that schism could take place, prays that it doesn't, but says, "I am not afraid." It is that bad. He speaks as a leader whose movement is falling apart. Did Pope Leo X say something similar before Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door?...
Francis, in his comments, projects woundedness. He has reached out to address the church's many deep crises and has faced defiant opposition on most fronts. From the start of his papacy, he has had an inclination to couch his hopes in brief clues but provides few if any action plans to back them up.
He shuns autocratic rule and seeks decisions through consultation and consensus.(my comment: this sentence is pure fantasy; he's not called the dictator pope for no reason.) He has received little of that; instead, resistance and confrontation from insiders.
If he is now showing shock and chagrin, and a strain of emotional reaction that becomes far-fetched (whose "ideology" for example?) or overwrought, it could be a sign of serious despair.
Astonishingly, he allows that schism could take place, prays that it doesn't, but says, "I am not afraid." It is that bad. He speaks as a leader whose movement is falling apart. Did Pope Leo X say something similar before Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door?...
...There is power in mystery and secrecy, misleading as it may be, and Francis has chosen to forsake that. Pope Paul VI said little but looked stricken by the internal wars and massiveness of the job. John Paul II had the confidence and courage to give some of himself while disclosing little of his darker moments. Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, explained his retirement as due to failing health but many observers believe the pressures and conflicts of the job broke him down.
Francis may be on the fringes of something similar, perhaps taking more of the offensive as a means of taking his critics' challenge, or retreating into less risk and quieter initiatives. But his comments on the airplane appear to signal a disquiet and urgency that warrant close attention to the pope's well-being and the politics of the Vatican.
[Ken Briggs reported on religion for Newsday and The New York Times, has contributed articles to many publications, written four books and is an instructor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.]
10 comments:
Bee here:
I am not sure it is true, as Fr. McD often states, that Pope Francis is "stuck in the 60's and 70's which both John Paul II and Benedict brought about a great deal of healing and proper direction."
I think Pope Francis is trying to institutionalize Liberation Theology in the Catholic Church. I think that is exactly what we have been dealing with in the last 50 years or so in the Church here in the U.S. That theology infected seminaries, and many "progressive" priests adopted it as their fundamental truth. And with it, they threw off many restraints against sacrilege within the Mass as well as outside it.
Leonoardo Boff has said the Pope and he communicate through an intermediary. The Pope has met with Gustavo Gutierrez in private in 2013, and that same year the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published an article by Gutierrez that was accompanied by an article by Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, praising Gutierrez.
I don't think the Pope is "stuck" in the past. I think what we are seeing the attempt by the advocates of Liberation Theology, which obviously includes the Pope, to overthrow the doctrines and teachings of the Catholic Church.
And it appears he and they sure don't like to be thwarted.
God bless.
Bee
Just more liberal fantasies. PF is a tyrant who brooks no opposition and respects no opposing points of view.
Bee, all those people were the ones I studied from 1976 to 80. They are the 1970's by and large and those that Francis' adores. It is a time warp. Cardinal Mueller is an expert on Liberation Theology and the correct way to use it but it is not the 1970's version that promotes the rupture you write, perhaps another reason why Pope Francis canned him.
Bee here:
I see what you mean by a "time warp," Father. But apparently this group views Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict as mere blips in history, and seem to be moving full speed ahead to continue where they left off when Pope John Paul II was selected Pope.
I watched a talk Cardinal McCarrick (Mr. Uncle Ted) gave at Villanova University in 2013 where he said an "influential" mystery man supposedly visited him just before the conclave, in Rome, promoting Bergoglio. The man said something on the order of "...[Bergoglio] could turn it around in 5 years. He could put us back on track in 5 years." Back on track. That's what he said.
McCarrick, in the talk seemed, to be very pleased Bergoglio was elected, and seemed to be reassuring his audience all things would be okay from now on.
But this is what we are facing. And there are many, many priests still gung-ho for that theology. And the laity in the pews does not know this is the name of what they are hearing, and cannot even look it up and research it, because no one is naming it for them.
What a scam.
God bless.
Bee
Father
Please look at the US. SSPX website ((ST. THOMAS AQUINAS SEMINARY US stas.org)) and read:
Transmitting What We Have Received: An Interview with the SSPX Superior General.
This interview with the SSPX Superior General is a comprehensive answer to what your current posting represents. I would be really interested to see what you and your readers make of the points made in this interview.
Bee,
The majority of Mass-going Catholics in the English-speaking world do not read the Catholic press and do not visit Catholic blogs. What they know of Pope Francis they get from the secular media. They happily attend chummy vernacular liturgy punctuated by hymns, the words of which they are not particularly interested in. They, or more accurately a chosen few of them, participate in an obvious manner. Not that in most parishes people have a choice, and those to whom this worship style was uncongenial decamped long ago.
I don't denigrate the former at all. They are not required to be historians, liturgical experts, or Vatican-watchers. Most of them were not even born when the Novus Ordo was promulgated. I might deplore the fact that they are (unwittingly) deprived of their heritage, but they would deny it anyway.
What I have noticed is that where people do have a choice, an increasing number of young people, and particularly young families, are gravitating to more traditional forms of worship (which in England at least means a Latin Mass in either form). And younger priests and bishops are more than willing to accommodate them.
This is not simply a consolation of (relatively) old age. Next month I shall be attending a weekend retreat at Douai Abbey (Berkshire, England) organized by young Catholic adults. My contribution will be as a member of the Gregorian Chant schola. Last year a record number of youngsters turned up at the rehearsals and sang for Vespers and Mass. At the party on the Saturday I talked to a young Slovakian girl who assured me that traditional Catholicism was flourishing in her country.
Far from being despondent, I have never been more optimistic about the future of the Church. If PF goes down with the last pervert he has sought to defend, then so be it. But there have been bad popes before, and there will be again.
John Nolan,
I have been to Douai Abbey and it is a lovely place. My son-in-law's late father was an alumni of the school which is now closed. I wish I could be there for that event.
I am seeing the same thing in the US. Younger families with children are attending the EF and the OF (in Latin), They are our future, thank God.
TJM
There is a tendency on this blog to write off European Catholicism. To an extent and for historical reasons the Catholic Church in the British Isles is closer to north America than it is to our Continental neighbours. Yet France is becoming a beacon of revival for tradition, not least in its traditional and flourishing monasteries.
As for Germany, the bishops who are opposed to the Kasper agenda are significant figures. And to attend the Sunday Hochamt in Regensburg cathedral, with its superb music (standing room only) and then repair to the Biergarten opposite for lunch, is a reminder of what Catholicism is all about.
I have been in Austria for Frohnleichnam (Corpus Christi) where it is a public holiday (as it is in Bavaria) and there are spectacular processions of the Blessed Sacrament on the lakes. All the villagers turn out in local costume.
Catholicism survives where it has strong cultural roots; paradoxically the key to its survival can also (as in England) be counter-cultural. But, as St Edmund Campion pointed out: 'It is of God; it cannot be withstood.'
Bee here:
John Nolan: It is heartening that there are younger people who do find life in the Catholic Church, and they are gravitating to the Latin Mass and traditional theology, doctrines and dogmas. I see that at St. John Cantius too, and also saw it up in Wausau, Wisconsin this summer at St. Mary's Oratory administered by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. I was there during the second week of August, and the Mass for the Assumption of Our Lady was packed, mostly with people under 35 and lots of little kids. When the choir came down from the loft (they sang Gregorian chant and I think one hymn) I don't believe anyone was older than 25. There were about 30 of them.
I also know that although the Church has suffered some tremendous blows since Jesus ascended into heaven, even when decimated she continues to sprout new sprouts and grow new forests, just like the landscape after destruction by a volcanic explosion. I am thinking of the Roman persecution for the first 300 years; the devastation caused by the Moors as they invaded and ruled the Holy Land and southern Europe; The Protestant Revolution; the French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon; the Communist Revolution in Russia and establishment of the Soviet Union. From all these, and more, I see even though the Church is persecuted and appears near extinction, it survives and eventually thrives.
My concern this time, however, is that the enemy is inside, running the very structures of the Church. As an example, it is unfathomable to me that the Church has made a deal with the Chinese and has contributed to the persecution of faithful Roman Catholics there. The German bishops are rattling their sabres, defiant of guidance from Rome, and the documents being prepared for the Amazon Synod are disturbing, at best.
I guess every age must prove themselves faithful to God, and face challenges to the true Faith, and no matter where it happens, it is never easy.
God bless.
Bee
John Nolan,
I know what you are saying is true. I have been to France, Germany and Austria and see the phenomena you are describing. I am sure you probably look at the New Liturgical Movement website, which regularly hosts stories on the rebirth of traditional Catholicism in those countries. Not a lot of grey hairs in the pictures!
Deus Vult!
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