MY PRIVATE AUDIENCE WITH POPE FRANCIS AND ALL THE THINGS I HEARD HIM SAY IN MY HEAD ABOUT MY WIDELY READ SOUTHERN ORDERS…

Yes, your eyes are deceiving you. This is not an AI reproduction. Yes, that is me next to Pope Francis. 

I heard him say that I should go forward with my wildly and widely read blog, Southern Orders and His Holiness is thinking of moving forward with changing the name of the Sacrament of Holy Orders to Southern Orders. His Holiness confirmed what I was fantasizing about and thus we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, I asked the Holy Father how he could changed Holy Orders to Southern Orders and he exclaimed that its what I and my readers want and that he would use the smoke and mirrors approach with the bishops by saying he had the authority to change Holy Orders to Southern Orders under the doctrine of the development of names, as the Church has always taught and acted.

The Holy Father went on to exclaim to me why it is dumb of anyone to complain about the name change after all he was thinking about changing the name “Mass” to Divine Meal! What’s the difference! It’s the same thing! Six of one and a half of dozen of the other. Only the backwardists and rigid traditionalists will complain, but to hell with them, he laughed.

My overall take away from my private meeting with Pope Francis, which the Vatican graciously confirmed by posting their photo of me with Pope Francis, is that Pope Francis gets me and my Southern Orders and loves and includes my blog readers in his prayers.  And that’s good news for us as I am hearing that Pope Leo will continue Pope Francis’ inclusivity of my friends and of Southern Orders. 

Oh, he also said to me in my head, that it might take longer than I expect for Holy Orders to be renamed Southern Orders as there is a lot on His Holiness’ plate, like writing Traditionis Custodes and Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia Supplicans. 

Pope Francis also affirmed me in ditching fancy clerical garb and dressing like a lay slob and encouraged me to use liturgical vestments without embellishments and the chasuble is the symbol which doesn’t need symbols placed on it. 

Then before I knew it and before our Holy Father Francis could change Holy Orders to Southern Orders, the Lord called him home to heaven. I know this, because Pope Leo XIV stated that it is so. That saves the Church a heap of money doing away with the expensive canonization process. Everyone knows the Vatican is financially strapped at this time.

I am glad to be in good company with Jesuitical Father James Martin, SJ. He too had the same experience with Pope Leo as I had with Pope Francis.

He heard in his head that Pope Leo would be as welcoming of sinners as Pope Francis was and he would continue that welcome and that Fr. Martin should continue his outreach to sinners, because, after all, he’s an ordained a priest and that’s what priest are supposed to do.  Pope Leo lamented the fact that Pope Francis had not had a chance to change the name of Holy Orders to Southern Orders but that he agrees with Pope Francis on that point and will continue to study changing Holy Orders to Southern Orders.

Then, reflecting on the financial upward mobility of the LGBTQ +++ ideologues and the disproportionate influence they have on world politics and immorality, Fr. Martin, as reported by the Jesuitical America Magazine said this, which is similar to what Pope Francis told me about His Holiness’ busy papacy and priorities. I wonder if, like me, Fr. Martin, SJ will have to wait for the next papacy to fulfill all his fantasies? Time will tell:

So while LGBTQ issues are on his radar, other things may be more pressing for the time being. And even when addressing LGBTQ issues, he may not move as fast as some might like. By the same token, he may move far too fast for others. (In this, he would be like Francis as well.) But my overall sense is that he “gets it” and that he is ready to continue Francis’s legacy of openness, and that is surely good news.