The late great and sainted George Cardinal Pell proclaimed that the papacy of Pope Francis, meaning the polarization, confusion and incoherence of his leadership, has been a catastrophe for the Church.
I have written that the victims of all of this, you and me and everyone who loves the Catholic Faith of the Ages, are not the culprits. Victim blaming has to cease and Cardinal Pell names the one who is the source of it, the sitting pope.
Now, open warfare has ensued. And the knives are out! The pope’s confusing words in yet another interview to a reporter has exacerbated the confusion he has sown so much so that even dissident Father James Martin demands a clarification (although it won’t please him, but he got it immediately)! And even Vatican News prints the so-called clarification on its website so serious is what the pope misspoke to the Vatican’s gay lobby promoting what Martin promotes along with the German synodal way and Cardinals Hollerich and McElroy!
The article I post below by Edward Pentin shows the extent of the open warfare between cardinals, archbishops and bishops. Folks this is quite serious and as serious if not more so than the politics of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. It is more serious than what led to the Great Schism between the West and the East in 1054. 2023 may be go down in history as an infamous date for the Church!
Read Edward Pentin’s commentary on Pope Francis’ handpicked Jesuit to be a cardinal and regulator of the synod on synodality and perhaps pope one day, the dissident Cardinal Hollerich. Here are the first few paragraphs, but read the entire article by pressing the title below this money byte:
VATICAN CITY — One of Pope Francis’ closest aides and a leading figure of the Synod on Synodality has singled out critics of the process, calling them afraid of a “Church on the move” and saying they “know they won’t be able to stop” the synodal experiment.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, the general relator of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality, also issued other bold statements this week including asserting that the idea of a Christian Europe is a “thing of the past,” that people should be accepted and not judged, and that Benedict XVI’s former personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein had betrayed the former pope by not staying in Benedict’s “shadow.”
The Jesuit cardinal, who last year called for a revision of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, told Quotidiano Nazionale Jan. 26 that he believes “those who want Pope Francis to resign do not want a Church on the road.”
The Pope’s mind “is still clear, thankfully,” he said, but he acknowledged that there are some in the Church, including bishops and cardinals, who would like him to resign. “They are the same circles as those who are afraid of the Synod and of a Church on the move, no longer stuck in the past,” he said. “In truth, they know that they will not be able to stop it.”
12 comments:
Keep in mind, that "Cardinal: McElroy, whose looney views are well known was named a Cardinal by Pope Francis. Maybe stuff like this is what continues to drive normal people out of the Church. The Church is shrinking and these loons (who are probably talking about themselves) are consumed with this nonsense.
"One of McElroy’s premises deserves special recognition. He will go on to claim that those who hate homosexual acts that a sinful really hate the sinners, not the sins. That’s, of course, a plain lie that we reject with scorn. Here’s McElroy:
It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities. The church’s primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation. The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus for such a pastoral embrace because it inevitably suggests dividing the L.G.B.T. community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not. Rather, the dignity of every person as a child of God struggling in this world, and the loving outreach of God, must be the heart, soul, face and substance of the church’s stance and pastoral action.
It is a “demonic mystery”. Since McElroy brought up demonic, which he pins on those who think homosexual acts are sinful, let’s bring in another voice.
In her Dialogues (ch 124), St. Catherine of Siena’s conversations with God, the Doctrix of the Church writes that the Enemy, demons, incite people to unnatural sins (homosexual acts) but that they don’t stick around to see it happen, because those acts are too repulsive even for them."
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich is correct: The Synod's detractors are unable to stop the Synod.
The Apostolic See has assured us that the Holy Ghost is the Synod's driving force. Therefore, the Synod is unstoppable.
Why would anybody wish to "stop" the Holy Ghost?
The good news is that the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, or otherwise, will oversee the Synod to the Synod's conclusion. The Bishop of Rome's Magisterium is under Jesus Christ's protection. That, in turn, will guarantee the Synod's orthodoxy.
Much ado about nothing from the Synod's detractors.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
TJM,
If I am reading you and the cardinal correctly, he seems to be suggesting that hating the sin and loving the sinner ultimately leads to hating the sin AND the sinner. Please, dear Lord, let us be wrong about this!
On a larger scale, it is more than mildly disturbing that our Church has an ongoing problem with sexual abuse. Our Church has an ongoing and rising problem with members who no longer accept the Real Presence of the Eucharist. Our Church has an ongoing problem with bishops who punish good priests and promote the bad ones. Our Church has an ongoing problem with hating its past and dividing the faithful by insisting that some sort of "New Improved" Church was created by Vatican II and those who hold to its once immutable teachings are now the bad guys. Our Church has an ongoing problem with young people who are baptized and, by high school, can't even explain the basics of the catechism. Our Church has an ongoing problem of "Catholic" politicians who love to post photos of themselves smiling with the pope or their local bishop, yet they do all they can to promote abortion and homosexuality and every other perversion that flies in the face of the creative gift God gave us. Our Church has an ongoing problem with promoting political objectives that, when taken to their logical end, lead to socialism, which is utterly incompatible with being Catholic.
And in the midst of all this, what are our bishops, our shepherds apparently most concerned with? No, what are they OBSESSED with? Apparently how "welcome" we make homosexuals feel.
So the sexually disordered (who are less than 5 percent of our population, by the most generous estimates) and pleasing them and making sure that they never, ever have to feel uncomfortable about their sinful lifestyles is apparently the top priority of a LOT of bishops, maybe even the majority of them.
I'm sorry, but this begs--no it SCREAMS the question: Why is mainstreaming and consecrating disordered sexual sin so incredibly important to these prelates?
I'll never leave the Church, but I seriously doubt that, in what's left of my lifetime, I'll ever have a Church whose leadership deserves my respect.
Jerome, you said the very words I world have said but just said them much better than I ever could.
Jerome Merwick,
Perhaps because they themselves are homosexuals...?
Let's pray that orthodox views dominate the hierarchy again and the heterodox don't continue to state views that will lead people to hell. After some soul searching, I can only say much of the hierarchy is in apostasy to the Catholic faith handed down to us. If ever my diocesan parish preaches heresy then I'll need to find an underground church.
Fr. Mark Goring recently discussed such an event that happened when St. John Vianney was a young man in France following the French Revolution and how so many clergy acquiesced to the secular government thus necessitating an underground church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-IEBIUv1E
Father McDonald said..."The late great and sainted George Cardinal Pell proclaimed that the papacy of Pope Francis, meaning the polarization, confusion and incoherence of his leadership, has been a catastrophe for the Church."
Father McDonald, it is interesting that you linked to Edward Pentin.
The reason is that a week, or so, ago, Edwin Pentin had cast doubt upon your above comment.
Edwin Pentin's sources (folks who had been very close to Cardinal Pell) had called into question the Cardinal-Pell-was-Demos narrative.
Anyway, what proof do we have that Cardinal Pell had labeled as a "catastrophe" Pope Francis' Pontificate.
Father McDonald, in complete contradiction to your above-mentioned comment, we have the following known public declaration from Cardinal Pell:
"Francis said he’s a loyal son of the Church, and his record shows that. He’s a completely faithful exponent of Christ’s teaching and the Church’s tradition."
To believe that Cardinal Pell was Demos, we are, in turn, forced to concluded that Cardinal Pell was two-faced...gutless to have spoken his mind publicly about Pope Francis...and enabled Pope Francis to have wrecked the Church as Cardinal Pell had lacked the guts to have warned the Faithful about Pope Francis.
Sorry, but I do not believe that Cardinal Pell had been such a man. But again, if he had posed as Demos, then he was such a man.
The Cardinal-Pell-was-Demos claim makes Cardinal Pell appear horrific.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark, so much has changed in a week and Pentin keeps up with the news and now accepts, as does Pope Francis, that Pell was Demos. Pope Francis has agreed that it is good for Pell and others to criticize him so he can grow. Pell, as Demos, called this papacy a catastrophe. Others agree. The pope appreciates the criticism. I hand it to Pope Francis for encouraging criticism even from the great man, as Pope Francis said in his interview on Friday with AP, Pell is a great guy and he appreciates his critique. Perhaps the pope even agrees that he is leaving the Church in a disaster and a catastrophic state? I invite you, Mark, to join Pope Francis in praising Demos, aka, Cardinal Pell, a great guy!
Father McDonald,
You are very kind and tolerant. Maybe it will rub off on Mark Thomas
Father McDonald said..."I invite you, Mark, to join Pope Francis in praising Demos, aka, Cardinal Pell, a great guy!"
Father McDonald, I am pleased to have accepted your invitation to join Pope Francis in having praised Cardinal Pell as "a great guy." I have long viewed Cardinal Pell as a great guy.
I have every reason to believe that Cardinal Pell was a fine, holy man.
Father McDonald, in turn, let us join Cardinal Pell in his having praised Pope Francis as follows: "He’s a very good man!"
Pope Francis, as well as Cardinal Pell, have blessed us abundantly.
Father McDonald, not that my opinion would interest you, as I am a nobody, but I praise you as I have done many times. You are a great man. You are God's holy priest.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Father McDonald said..."Mark, so much has changed in a week and Pentin keeps up with the news and now accepts...that Pell was Demos."
Father McDonald, please correct me if I am wrong.
I have searched the internet, as well as twitter, and have not found anything about Edward Pentin having this week rescinded his recent article that had cast doubt upon the claim that Cardinal Pell was Demos.
I also just visited National Catholic Register to check each of Edward Pentin's articles that were published recently.
I did not find any article from Edward Pentin that contradicted his recent article that had cast doubt upon the claim that Cardinal Pell was Demos.
Again, Father McDonald, I will accept correction in regard to the above.
Thank you.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Father McDonald said..."Mark, so much has changed in a week and Pentin keeps up with the news and now accepts, as does Pope Francis, that Pell was Demos."
Did Pope Francis identify Cardinal Pell as Demos?
Pope Francis said of Cardinal Pell that "...they say he criticized me..."
That is not in any way a claim by Pope Francis that Cardinal Pell was Demos.
I am not aware that anybody has produced a shred of proof that Cardinal Pell was Demos.
Anyway, Pope Francis did not identify Cardinal Pell as Demos.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
In addressing an earlier interview question on needed changes in the Church, Cardinal Hollerich said that “we cannot give the answers of the past to the questions of tomorrow.”
That's unnerving to hear from a Cardinal.
The Catholic Church as an amoeba morphing into whatever society currently demands.
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