CAN I START A CONSPIRACY THEORY? IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE CATHOLIC FICTION BOOK I HOPE TO WRITE, CLAIRVOYANT THAT I AM

I've always had this hunch that when Pope John Paul II was pope that the "shadow pope" of that papacy was none other than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. His fingerprints are all over that papacy especially in the waning day of the Holy Father, now known as Blessed John Paul II. It is easier being the pope of the Church if there is a "front man" to take all the heat.

And God knows that once the "front man" was gone and the shadow pope came out of the shadows and was elected the visible pope, that he took heat galore from the post-Catholics in the Church, especially the ultra-clericalist academics, be they clergy or not. The most clericalist, who think they are a privileged class about not being "sanctified, ruled and taught" by the bishops of the Church, be that a normal diocesan bishop or the Bishop of Rome, would be the LCWR. Or it could be the renegade Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland or the schismatic group of priests in Austria. There are many groups in the Church vying for the most schismatic, be they those promoting ordination of women, the use of artificial contraception without guilt or being pro-choice without shame or promoting unnatural sex through acceptance of same sex marriage.

The new Holy Father, Francis, upholds the accountability that members of the Church have to their local bishop who is a successor of the apostles and charged to "teach, rule and sanctify" the Church in a way that no other group has the authority to do so and when the bishops act in unison with the Bishop of Rome, who models for all other Bishops the orthodoxy that is needed in "teaching, ruling and sanctifying," we have a powerhouse to confront the extremists in the Church and out of the Church, some of whom I list above.

Pope Benedict, now Shadow Benedict, also took heat from the secular media and secular governments. Even his own staff betrayed him in not protecting him from their silly mistakes, either unintentional or worse yet, intentional. Pope Ratzinger had/has many enemies in the Church and out of the Church because he is so opposed to the dictatorship of relativism which liberal Catholics revel in as do their secular counterparts.

So how novel, that Pope Ratzinger would once again become the shadow pope and now there is a new "front man" very similar in personality and style to Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II. The image of the papacy changes with Pope Francis and is much more outgoing and gregarious compared to the hermit-like academic Pope Benedict, returning to the shadows of the papacy but pulling all the strings. Read Sandro Magister's take on Pope Francis that great and powerful "front man" living in the shadow of the shadow pope Ratzinger, supposedly emeritus! PRESS HERE FOR THAT WONDERFUL STORY OF MAGISTER, "THE SPELL OF POPE FRANCIS!" IT IS DELICIOUS TO SAY THE LEAST!

That's the synopsis of my new and thrilling soon to be best seller, the Catholic Fiction author that I am and his concoction "Shadow Pope!" Will it be made into a movie and who will play my part? Robert Vaughn?

I think this version of Robert Vaughn is closest to what I look like now:

And me:

But unfortunately he looks like this now, much older than me and nothing like me:

and I don't know who the heck this is: