Recent events in the Catholic Church have brought analyses of Pope Francis’s psyche to the forefront of discussion. Notably, Francis’ approval of blessings for irregular relationships, including homosexual couplings, has caused many to ask why he is taking these actions and if he is trying to split the church. Even more so, the question is why he thinks he has the authority to do this.
From the time of childhood, many of us learned that the stool upon which the Catholic Church stands is comprised of three legs: Sacred Scripture, the Tradition of the Church and the authority of the Magisterium. It has become clear that Francis and his allies are deluded with the belief that he is the Magisterium. For example, in 2017, a writer for La Stampa, an Italian daily newspaper, wrote not about the Magisterium of the Church, but about his [emphasis added] magisterium. Writer Stephen Walford wrote of his ally Francis, “…then we must accept we defend Pope Francis and his magisterium also.” This is written with the full belief that the Magisterium of the Church was Francis’ possession, or as if he has complete authority and autonomy over it.
To be clear, the Magisterium is the official teaching authority of the Church, constituted by the Pope and the bishops in union with him. However, the hidden or forgotten part is that its authority comes from Christ, not Francis, and its guidance comes from the Holy Spirit, not the spirit of synodality. This stands in contrast to what Francis seems to believe. For over the course of the last eleven years, he seems to have come to believe that the reins are his to do whatever he pleases.
This theory is gusseted by Francis’ shrewd use of the Synodal path. Under the auspices of listening, Francis allows Dioceses from all over the world to come together, voice their opinions, as if the Church were a democracy, and then he emerges from the smoke of ambiguity, picking out what he likes and ignoring what he doesn’t. Francis’ belief is that his synodal Vatican Council III is the new magisterium, just like he considers Vatican II the magisterium. He has said as much.
Further proof of this comes from his enforcers. After his selection as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández let the cat out of the bag, proclaiming that “I am here to enforce the recent magisterium.” Just the recent magisterium, Your Eminence? Not the 2000-year Magisterium of the Church that directly forbids that to which the Francis Church has just given its approval? This move shatters previous doctrine. Amid this confusion between the competing doctrines, how does the laity differentiate what is correct? But what a telling comment this is. He could just have clearly said, I am here to enforce Francis’ magisterium, Francis’ agenda. The use of the word enforce is also intriguing. Enforcement is different than acceptance. In his treatise Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: Author St. Claude de la Colombière, suggests that the reader, the evangelized, fully accept, adopt and adhere to, for their own benefit, the provident teachings of God. No talk about enforcement, as if he were the new sheriff in town enforcing a recent mandate.
And, to be sure, “Tucho” Fernandez chooses his words very carefully. In fact, paragraph 41 of the actual document, Fiducia supplicans, is designed to provide a finality to discussion about the blessing of homosexual unions. “…beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type.” Put simply, this is the law of the land. In the view of this Pope, there is no path to regulate or restrict this. Just do it. And, reading between the lines, it seems to say something approximating “And don’t send me any Dubia, because no further responses should be expected.” In other words, I have written what I have written. The debate is over and he has turned his thoughts to enforcement. And enforcement is what he means. Ask Bishop Joseph Strickland, or Father James Altman, or Frank Pavone. Or Cardinal Burke. For it is clear now, what happens to those who defy or question Francis. Bishops must be careful with their words. And even more careful when they dare to disagree with the Dictator Pope, to steal a phrase from Henry Sire. The options on the table for Francis are laicization, cancelation, termination or eviction.
As Francis believes himself to be the magisterium, we have heard this language before. Consider.
In June of 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci went on an interview and declared himself science incarnate. “Attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science…” The audacity is familiar.
Both men believe themselves above criticism. They believe themselves the embodiment of something far greater than themselves. They are place holders who have become inebriated by their earthly authority and blinded by their dogged pursuit of an agenda. The comparison may seem a stretch, Fauci being a career bureaucrat, and Francis the leader of almost one and a half billion Catholics, but the tie that binds is that they both place themselves over and above that which they are charged to protect.
Both men are small and vindictive. Both men are arrogant. In Fauci’s case, this is evidenced by his casual disobedience and dismissal of US Senator Rand Paul and others after their numerous run ins. His favorite thing in the world to do seems to have been to go on numerous television appearances. Francis’ arrogance is evinced by his termination of Strickland and eviction of Burke. Both men protect their friends, those who share the same goal. Both have mutated or bastardized what they claim to be in pursuit of their agendas. They have bent science and the magisterium into hideous distortions of their true essences. Fauci’s agenda was to usurp the individual freedoms of Americans and to subvert the Trump presidency. It was masks, vaccines, and mail in ballots, not January 6th, that were the true attack on democracy. Francis, on the other hand is desirous of normalizing and legitimizing homosexuality as the next front in the struggle to change Holy Mother Church. Both men have demonstrated their willingness to use mandates, enforcement and punishment to reach their desired end.
The similarities continue. In a recent interview, Dr. Fauci announced that he was born and raised Catholic and he used to “identify” as Catholic. (That word is a bad omen). But that “Practicing Catholicism is something he doesn’t really need to do.”
Fauci went on, interestingly enough, to say that “I think my own personal ethics on life are, I think, enough to keep me going on the right path.” As long as those ethics are in line with Fr. James Martin and not Bishop Joseph Strickland, that statement definitely sounds like something he and Francis would agree on.
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