Are you confused?
If you follow Catholic news media, you can’t help but notice the explosion of bewildering innovations being enacted or proposed for the Church on an almost weekly basis.
The Amazon Synod itself was chock full of novel ideas—that the Amazon region is a source of revelation, that pantheism and polytheism are valid forms of religious expression, and that the Catholic Church needs to conform itself to Amazonian spirituality. The Synod organizers seemed to be proposing an entirely new kind of Church with an “Amazonian face.”
The world got a glimpse of what this new kind of Catholicism might look like with the introduction of Pachamama who, depending on the day of the week, was variously described as the Virgin Mary, Mother Earth, or simply a South American souvenir item.
The Amazon Synod came on top of a number of other rapid fire shocks to the Catholic system. It was convened only a little more than a year after the publication of Archbishop Vigano’s letter, which charged Pope Francis with complicity in the cover-up of several sex abuse cases. But so much has happened since then that the Vigano testimony already seems like ancient history.
So many coverup-of-abuse stories have emerged since then that they are losing their ability to shock. And even if one still experiences shock, there’s little time to recover from it before the Vatican administers the next shock. A short list would include the heavy emphasis on the needs of the LGBT community during the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, followed by a synod on youth and vocational discernment which had hardly a word to say about the vocation of marriage, and, then, an amazingly brief summit on sex abuse, which concluded that sex abuse was somehow caused by clericalism. It was also bewildering that Pope Francis kept promoting scandal-plagued prelates to offices for which they possess little or no qualifications.
All these developments, coming as they did in quick succession, have caused quite a bit of confusion among Catholics. And some people think the confusion is deliberate—the Vatican version of the Cloward-Piven Strategy. Devised by Columbia University-trained sociologists Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven—a husband-wife team dedicated to political activism—the strategy advocated a strategic, organized overloading of the public welfare system. This would, as they wrote in a famous 1966 article in The Nation, create “a political crisis … that could lead to legislation for a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.”
The strategy can be used to undermine confidence in any system—the immigration system, the electoral system, or the judicial system. The trick is to overwhelm the system with repeated demands in the hope that the resulting confusion will provide the conditions for implementing radical changes.
At this point, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that key Church leaders have adopted a similar strategy with the intention of discrediting and collapsing what they consider to be the outmoded “rigid” system of tradition-bound Catholicism.
Pope Francis doesn’t seem bothered by the confusion. Indeed, he has often spoken of the merits of “making a mess.” When an Italian journalist claimed that the Pope does not believe Jesus is divine, the matter was left up to the Vatican Press Office to clarify, and spokesmen said that the journalist did not give a “faithful account” of what was said. When the journalist claimed that Pope Francis had denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus, once again, the Holy See Press Office said that the journalist was an unreliable fellow whose words “cannot be considered as a faithful account of what was actually said.”
Hmm. The Pope is alleged to have made heretical statements, and the only response the Vatican can muster is, “That’s not exactly what he said.” One gets the impression that these are not terribly important questions either for the Pope or the Press Office. Yet, for most Catholics, these are the central questions.
A steady stream of innovations and obfuscations serve two purposes for the modernists in the Vatican. On the one hand, in Cloward-Piven fashion, they destabilize the Church, thus paving the way for even more radical change. On the other hand, each new outrage serves to distract attention from the original outrage detailed in Vigano’s August 2018 letter. Francis has never answered those charges, and if his bob and weave strategy continues to work, he never will.
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Sandro Magister posted ‘A Pope with the Myth of a People’ L’Espresso Dec 3. An analysis from Jorge Bergoglio’s Peronist youth to the present reinventing himself thematically on reality, ideas, Church mission. People mythology is a borrowed concept similar to Saul Alinsky’s adaptation of minorities [as the oppressed] as instruments for social conversion. The end always the presumed tendency of Man toward an egalitarian world in which personal belief, rules, do not matter and are employed solely for achieving that end. “There is a thinker that you should read: Rodolfo Kusch, a German who lived in northwestern Argentina, an excellent philosopher and anthropologist. He made one thing clear: that the word ‘people’ is not a logical word. It is a mythical word. It is not possible to speak of people logically. In order to understand a people enter into the myth of its tradition. The people is not a logical category, it is a mythical category” (Pope Francis). “Francis systematically says and does not say, retracts, contradicts himself. Often within a single statement. Memorable is his response to a Protestant woman who asked if she could receive communion with her Catholic husband. The pope said a little of everything to her: yes, no, I don’t know, you work it out. The result was that from then on in the Catholic Church everyone does as he pleases” (Magister). The non response to the Dubia Cardinals also fits People Mythology focus on a generalized tendency toward egalitarianism rather than specificity. People understood as a mythical rather than logical category also compares with William Kilpatrick’s astute observation of “A steady stream of innovations and obfuscations that serve two purposes for the modernists in the Vatican. They destabilize the Church paving the way for even more radical change. Each new outrage serves to distract attention from the original outrage” (Kilpatrick). Radical change however is not toward a pluralistic form of Rodolfo Kusch social anthropology. The Pontiff favors a univocal form of belief focused on the universal or common good [understood as socialist theorem]. Global concern and ecological conversion. That indicated in his strong disfavor of the permanence of Catholic Rules. A world vision in which the specificity of Christian belief is blurred into non existence. Christians have their work cut out though Christ promised standing with us until the end.
Thanks. Good to know there are priests who have the same problem with this Pope that I have. My biggest problem with him is his outreach to Islam, which I consider Satan’s spawn afet 18 years of study since 9/11/2001. The Quran is supposed to be the allah god’s word to Muhammad and in the Quran he says (Muslims believe he says)that Jesus is not divine and that Jesus did not die on the cross, lies against the Gospels written 600 plus years before the Quran, and that he has no sons. He also exhorts Muslims to fight and subjugate Christians and Jews (Sura 9-29). Jesus says in John 8:44 that Satan is the father of all lies. I conclude the being who supposedly gave Muhammad his revelations in the cave in 610 AD was Satan. For the leader of the Church to be reaching out to Satan’s religion is demonic. He should be preaching the Gospel that Jesus Christ is the ONLY WAY to the Father (God).
Conversion is the only viable response not attempt at theological accommodation. Francis of Assisi unlike this ‘Francis’ had it right. There is however the human factor of Man made in God’s image, that Muslims possess an inherent knowledge of Natural Law that reflect Eternal Law. Insofar as relations with Islam we should remain in dialogue [not accommodation as with this pontificate] with eminent Muslim leaders like El Sisi Egypt and the Islamic Center in Cairo who are open to modification of the Koran. When a young soldier a good friend was another US Army infantryman Abdullah Shah. One of the kinder, rational persons I’ve known. He was not ‘intensely’ religious perhaps agnostic. There are many like him who are open to conversion. And many who are although seemingly gentle human beings unfortunately time bombs of ruthless violence against Christians because of their morally demented tenets in the Koran. It’s our inescapable dilemma that only serious prayer and sacrifice will change. We live among them. And needless to say our culture has become increasingly Antichrist with unlimited abortion worldwide within former Christian cultures, the growing moral travesty of same sex behavior which feeds into the Muslim psyche, both moral travesties condemned also by Christian doctrine – as rationale for violence. My hope is that Our Lady’s appearance at Fatima signals that hoped for conversion of Islam.
Thanks for your return comment. I pray daily for Muslims to come to faith in Christ. I also get into conversations with them pointing out that we have the Gospels written by eye witnesses on Christ’s words and miracles that He is One with the Father and the only way to the Father while they have Muhammad’s unwitnessed word that he got revelations from his allah god. I also ask them to read the Gospels. I also state that the violence exhorted in the Quran by the allah god against all unbelievers is a recipe for eternal fighting among mankind. Satan should be pleased with his religion. Per Robert Spencer, in “The Truth About Muhammad”, states that Muhammad at first thought he was possessed by a demon and tried to kill himself but his wife (only one at the time) Khadija convinced him it was from God. There are also the Satanic Verses where the allah god tells Muhammad that Satan fooled him in agreeing to other gods besides the allah god in negotiations with the Meccans. Spencer takes his info from Islamic sources. A good read on Muhammad that I recommend.
Trust, confidence in the Hierarchy diminishing more and more every day among the confused people of God… Nostalgia for Pope John Paul II, a Giant figure of granite, lucid faith in Our Lord and unmistakable, unshakable faithfulness to Him in his words, teaching and deeds in the face of cultural relativism and decay…
I did graduate studies in Rome Bindiana during the latter years of John Paul II’s pontificate and attended his liturgies often. And had the joy of meeting him. I too miss him dearly. He would likely advise us to deepen our faith and trust in Christ during this Dark trial. And be close to the Blessed Mother as he was. A devotion that shaped a great priest.
I miss JPII also.
Mrscracker what impressed me most was not just his great intellectual grasp of truth shown in Veritatis Splendor. That he also significantly alerted the Church not to make mitigation a theological category, which is precisely the mistake of Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia citing the Catholic Catechism 2352 on self abuse to support communion for D&R. “To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability” (2352 CCC). Intrinsic evil like Adultery, fornication, habitual or occasional pornographic indulgence, stealing, homosexual acts cannot be mitigated to a “minimum” as if absolved by habit or circumstances. This is the major component of error devastating morality within the Catholic Church. Aside then from John Paul’s moral vision is that after communion [I offered Mass with him] he exuded a profound sense of compassion in his pained face, lengthy deep silent prayer apparently for the conversion of sinners.
Fr. Morello I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out Jorge Bergoglio. One thing he is not is stupid. He must be aware that the Church is crumbling around him and yet he wont change course. If I wanted to destroy the Church what would I do differently than what Bergoglio is doing now?
I agree Peter. Perhaps assessing his thought doesn’t directly address such motive as you suggest. Although that’s my foremost concern. So I do my best to remain justifiably critical and reasoned.
Pope Bergoglio, for all his pastoral holiness, homilies, gestures and “simpatía” that win over countless people, can’t hold a candle to the razor blade intellect sharpness and theological brilliance of Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI which were highly effective in the service of the Church, because united to a profound spirituality and patent, personal holiness. If Pope Bergoglio seems to be “not stupid”, he is shrewd (or “street-smart”) in pursuing some kind of agenda for the Church that he and his closest advisers are privy to, but that is not totally clear to the rest of us. That agenda may in the long run be for good or for ill, but we can only trust in the Power of the Spirit and the fact they the Church is Christ’s, as so magisterially and refreshingly expounded in Pope Paul VI’s first encyclical, “Ecclesiam Suam”.
Our God knows what Pope Francis is doing and He will have the last word. For us: trust in Him and keep praying. Ask Our Lady, Mother of the Church, every day to help us and our beloved Church. That will do. We will not give up. Never!
Him being the Lord Jesus Christ….definitely NOT this Pope!
I agree with you!
This pope has moved away from the Magisterium and has lost all authority. His duty to confirm bishops in the Faith is impossible. Confusing the people and bishops is seriously sinful and in the case of his anointing also sacrilegious. But he holds the sacred office which while deploring the man we must respect. Pray for his tragic soul
Church is a process, a flow, a movement, a work of the mighty Spirit. Tumult has the potential to put an end to rigidity.
Toying with the lexicon is at the core of sixty years of chaos. Such is the defining characteristic of the Bergoglian debacle. Attributing to the Holy Spirit the work of the adversary is serious business. What some term derisively as rigidity is actually fidelity to the perennial Magisterium. “Church is a process” boldly articulates your truth and indicates disposition at odds with the Apostolic Tradition. Individualist notions at the heart of the Bergoglian conundrum are not the substance of Divine Revelation. Revelation ceased with the death of Saint John. At best our modernist theologians and ecclesiastics are the victims of deception.
…or, as a counter reaction, in the near future the present tumult in the Church has the potential to usher in a (negative) movement toward more rigidity, more than anyone can possibly imagine. That too would be lamentable.
Blather.
This is like saying earthquakes are good for buildings, that they keep them “supple.” Wow!
Who is it that hates the fact that God became incarnate and took on human nature? Who is it that hates Jesus Christ? Who is it that hates the Catholic Church founded by the Incarnate God? It is none other than the Father of Lies.
If we want to name his followers in the Church, we need only identify those who time after time promulgate lies and sow confusion in the Church. Unfortunately, they surround us. The only antidote to the lies and confusion is for the followers of Christ to speak the truth with as much clarity as they can muster.
Pope Francis recently made clear his belief in the divinity of Christ in his
apostolic letter, Admirabile Signum (Dec. 1, 2019), no.8:
“When, at Christmas, we place the statue of the Infant Jesus in the manger, the nativity scene suddenly comes alive. GOD APPEARS AS A CHILD, for us to take into our arms. Beneath weakness and frailty, he conceals his power that creates and transforms all things. It seems impossible, yet it is true: in Jesus, GOD WAS A CHILD, and in this way he wished to reveal the greatness of his love: by smiling and opening his arms to all (emphasis added).”
Paolo Ruffini, the Director of Communications for the Holy See, issued this strong denial of the veracity of Scalfari’s words:
“I would like to reiterate that the Holy Father never said what Scalfari said he said. Both the quoted remarks, and the free reconstruction and interpretation by Dr. Scalfari of the meetings—which go back to more than two years ago—cannot be considered a faithful account of what was said by the Pope. And that will be found throughout the Church’s magisterium and Pope Francis’own on Jesus: true God and true man.”
William Doino, Jr. will be coming out with an article in INSIDE THE VATICAN that supplies clear evidence of Pope Francis’s belief in both the divinity and bodily resurrection of Christ.
This is not surprising. What might reveal itself as surprising is what this pontificate means by what it presents. That is where some find themselves “confused.” Double-speak is a defining characteristic of the post-conciliar theological academy. Bergoglio believes it a feather in his zucchetto to be in that current. One recalls with shame the papal caution that “Amoris Laetitia” should not articulate too directly its broadside against the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. “Things can be clarified later.” The whole act is quite clear right now and has been since 13 March 13.
We will be held responsible before Almighty God if we fail to speak while the very the stones themselves are earsplitting at this moment.
Dear Mr. Fastiggi,
Thank you for the assurances the Pope believes Jesus is both God and Man. Though you may want to reflect on the fact that there was a time when Catholics didn’t need such assurances about a Pope.
Dear Alan,
I don’t think there really is a need to give assurance that Pope Francis believes in Jesus as God and man. I never had any doubts. As William Doino Jr. notes in his November INSIDE THE VATICAN article: “There is an abundance of unassailable evidence that establishes that he [Pope Francis] absolutely believes in the divinity and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and indeed, rejoices in these truths … .”
Only Catholics who give more credibility to an atheist Italian journalist than to the words of the words of Pope Francis himself would have a need for such assurances. We need to remember that St. John Paul II also was accused of endorsing heresies: https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2017/09/26/news/the-document-against-the-pope-s-heresies-it-happened-to-wojtyla-too-1.34426261. The future Pope Benedict XVI has also been accused of being a Neo-Modernist:
https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2018/01/02/news/from-the-accusations-against-francis-to-those-against-ratzinger-1.33962540
For my part, I trust in Vatican I, which teaches that the “charism of truth and of never-failing faith was conferred upon Peter and his successors in this chair” (Denz.-H, 3071). I know of all the alleged cases of prior heretical popes (Honorius I and John XXII) and, as St. Robert Bellarmine shows, none of these cases demonstrate formal heresy on the part of any Roman Pontiff.
Perhaps Pope Francis should have the sense not to hold conversations with an atheist Italian journalist if that journalist misrepresents what he says.
That this Pope deliberately cultivates ambiguity in hs actions and words has been exhaustively documented and scarcely can be denied. Perhaps papal apologist Dr. Fastiggi needs to be reminded that neither Francis nor the Vatican issued forthright refuations of Scalfari’s accounts. That in and of itself is scandalous, iike so many other facets of this deplorable papacy.
Which God does Pope Francis believe in?
Words, declarations, documents, etc. are just totally empty containers when the person’s consistent ideas, behaviors and actions DE FACTO contradict most or everything that person expresses. Indeed, this person’s words, the Pope’s, are just containers full of poison because of this total contradiction against the truth of his real, actual, concrete actions. Words do not magically change a person’s actions or its direct consequences. “Holy words” do not magically make sinful, treasonous, heretical ACTIONS suddenly become holy.
That’s Satan’s very own evil logic and false truth promoted so hard by his children and puppets. To blindly believe just his words, statements, documents, etc. just because he is the Pope is beyond naive, childish and ludicrous. True Catholicism is the absolute opposite of all this. This is strong Catholic Truth: The Pope, as he is right now, is not Catholic. Period. We must pray for God’s Will for his total conversion to Jesus-God or his removal in such a way that he can’t hurt the Church, anyone or anything ever again.
Evil is absolute, unconditional, extreme softness and “compassion” toward sin and leads to the hardest of hardest, most cruel reality: Hell. We must not care when Satan and his servants call us too strict with the Truth, as the REAL God IS. Only Satan is obsessed with “holy” softness. Hell’s doors are wide open, Heaven has walls: “It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel” (Revelation 21:12). Let’s live in Authentic Catholic Truth and reject the rest of “holy” propaganda as despicable waste, and may their accusation and condemnation of us be darned (John 15:18).
Now THAT is reassuring! The Pope actually believes in Christ’s divinity! Will wonders never cease?
It is understandable that some are confused, the spectrum of younger faithful Catholics who only knew the pontificate of John Paul. Those of us who stretch back to Pius XII and saw the tsunami of confusion unleashed by John XXIII, magnified by his stable of conciliar “theologians” and perpetuated by the disorientation of Paul VI aren’t confused. We can tell a “Bergoglio” from a mile away. We knew “Bergoglios” from when we were students – the wet behind ears curates who emerged in the early sixties who regarded themselves channels of Divine Revelation, social and psychological liberation, cutting edge and cool. They were vacuous shells of egoism and absurdity then and they have not aged well. What some might term today geriatric dementia we know to have been in place since their late adolescence. Protracted adolescence has simply petrified the disorientation.
No confusion here. The resignation of 11 February 2013 was the announcement that the deceitfulness of the sixties was back in full throttle. 13 March was anticlimactic. The unmistakable fragrance of fraudulence wafted round the globe. The only surprise has been the gross shamelessness of the star and his supporting cast. I expected sacrilege and doctrinal indifference [at best] but I did not anticipate the betrayal of the Chinese faithful. That has been the defining moment of a pontificate which metastasizes undercover of unintelligible double-speak.
Very well said, James. I too go back to the days of Pius XII, and had to endure all that followed in the 1960s and 1970s. With Bergoglio, everything old is new again.
The most helpful thing for me has been to see and hear the strongest approval and support from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Even more so is to remember the Words of Our Savior that the gates of Hell will not prevail, that if we hear and listen to the Holy Father we are listening to Christ Our Savior Himself, that He will never leave us orphans.
Nothing that Pope Francis ever says confuses me. What confuses me is all the commentary surrounding if. Which as urged me to read Our Holy Father’s works only and stay away from everything else.
God Bless you
Messiah vs Messmaker.
For my family and myself we cling to the church with the hope that a merical by God may restore our faith in the clerics. Turmoil may shake out some dust, but a forseeable hope that the church may be restored to a model of hopw and confidence. Today, we find ourselves unable to trust anybody in the clergy. We have lost so much trust that we may be considered CINOs. However, our ability to pray daily is still in tact. God save the faith.
There is an incredible clear reason for the confusion (which I won’t mention because it is probably best that I don’t get banned). I don’t believe that it is possible for a pope to become a heretic (e.g. a modernist). I will only say that Francis is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
In my opinion, difficult as it might be to imagine, the selection of the NEXT Pope will be more crucial to the future of the Church than Pope Francis is currently.
Think about it.
The Pontiff appears to be a very proud man; proud enough to create his way through chaos – a mess that he encourages.
Regardless of an individual’s praise of “tumult” or of “making a mess,” does not St. Paul himself have the last word? Consider his inspired, infallible statement: “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33).
Those who preach confusion believe in the God of their own image.