In a word, YES! As I have mused over the years on this blog, the recovery of the ecclesial mindset of progressives from the 1960's and 70's under this pontificate is showing us now as this papacy will soon come to its conclusion, what a failure that mindset was in the 1960's and 70's and what a failure it is now. This is especially true now, that there are processes being set loose in the Germanic countries where Cardinals and other bishops may well lead an actual schism, similar to the Great Schism or the Protestant Reformation which will make the SSPX movement and its founder attempt at true reform look like peanuts. This will not reflect well at all on Pope Francis' legacy in Church history.
What is good about this, as I have mused over the years, is that a whole new generation of Catholics, completely clueless about the schismatic tendencies of "spirit of Vatican II elitist progressives" now know exactly what happened then as it is happening again. That's the formula and the formula produces the same results.
Pope Francis' papacy has been very much like Pope Paul VI's papacy, except Pope Paul VI while trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube had become very depressed, visibly shaken and aged by the events in the Church and very weak toward the end of his papacy. Pope Francis, producing and fomenting many of the same results that alarmed Pope Paul seems immune from experiencing psychological, physical and spiritual symptoms. In fact, he seems to relish the chaos.
It will take a charismatic figure who is a combination of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, to recover the sanity that both popes heroics attempted.
Who will that figure be? Right now, only God knows.
1 comment:
Well, to go from revolutionary times and catastrophic breakdown, to inspirational, stable and orthodox, back to even more revolutionary, unstable, and even more breakdown, has certainly been an eye-opener, as is seeing just how weak the episcopy after even all the years of stability and unwilling/unable to address the crises, them mainly busy entrenching and consolidating admin powers in beaurocracies of which they totally lost control.
And in recent times have certainly smoked out a lot of snakes, and towers of jello, making it more obvious as to who is a friend, and finding precious few of them. And not even many of those friends showing much in the way of true spiritual example and leadership, but mainly reactionary admin/political creatures.
And meanwhile local churches die by the bushel-full leaving the faithful nowhere to turn, and totally on their own even in a more orthodox parish "family" through all the travails of life and death. Meanwhile, the social justice warriors out there caring for everybody BUT their own parishoners while parishoners die from lack of health care and die alone.
And zero game plan to establish Catholic communities who take care of their own and then take care of others out of any surplus.
The old Army terms SNAFU and FUBAR come to mind.
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