This quote from comedian Lenny Bruce leaps to the forefront of the mind when sensing the miasma surrounding Jorge Bergoglio, and his acolytes pushing the changes in the Catholic Church. Honestly, despite the comparative levels of philosophical primacy in the Church today, who seems to be more joyful: the traditionalists Frank Pavone, Bishop Joseph Strickland and Raymond Cardinal Burke or the more liberal end of the theological spectrum represented by German Bishops, US Cardinals, and the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Fernandez?
The purveyors of change are limping right now. Consider. First and foremost, due to the worldwide rejection of Fiducia Supplicans, they are backpedaling. Not used to resistance, these progressives are having to modify the earlier instructions of the motu propio. Recall the hubris in the document. Paragraph 41 was clearly designed to head off at the pass any objection to 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.” (emphasis added) Put simply, this was to be the law of the land. In the view of this Pope, there was to be no regulation or restriction of this. And, reading between the lines, it seems to say something approximating “Don’t bother sending me any further Dubia questions, because no further responses shall be forthcoming.”
But something strange happened on the road to apostasy. Cardinals, bishops and priests from all over the world rejected the instruction to bless the union of homosexual couples. All of Africa, bishops of Asia, and individual priests in various dioceses are rejecting this call to bless sin. As a result, what began as a decree to offer heretical blessings has been reduced to a permission slip to commit heresy. Given this development, a logical observer might find it interesting that Francis allows an individual bishop freedom to permit the blessing of sodomy, but those same bishops, are terrified to permit the offering of Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form in their dioceses. This is because they know Francis. And they know who truly is rigid.
The Holy See has been taken aback by this response but is realizing that they cannot cancel everyone. Enraged by this, Team Bergoglio is lashing out where they can, even going so far as to excommunicate those who don’t tow the company line. Keeping in mind that excommunication is the nuclear option for any bishop, and despite the carefully crafted persona of Francis the Merciful, these are the petty and punitive machinations of a seething cabal of dejected mafiosi.
The resignation and subsequent death of his predecessor has brought new opportunities to race toward a new church. The desire to eliminate all reminders of His Holiness, Benedict XVI has been a pattern. To put it quite crudely, one wonders if the death of the emeritus pontiff possibly brought relief to the cabal. His funeral was a shameful and perfunctory exercise in brevity. Notice, also, how they are erasing his legacy. The most egregious example has been the tossing of Summorum Pontificum into the trash can. But Benedict’s allies (Francis calls them enemies) have been purged, the Traditional Latin Mass suppressed, and the transition to a Synodal church denote the latest actions of New Church. Francis has even taken the extraordinary step or ordering the removal of Benedict’s coat of arms from chasubles.
Those currently in charge at the Vatican do not apparently subscribe to the axiom, De Mortuis nihil nisi bonum, “Of the dead, say nothing but good”. Their resentment of Benedict is caused by fear of his legacy. They know that the future of the Church is heterosexual, young and traditional. So, desperate to arrive at New Church, they cancel the TLM, and they liquidate priests, bishops and cardinals. They have at least one archbishop, Viganò, living in hiding out of fear for his life. Despite their efforts, devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass is growing with joyfully young, vibrant families. A frustrating juxtaposition from the Ordinary Form of the Holy Mass exemplified by the pony-tailed priest preaching to the half empty congregation of sleepy Boomers. When Franics talks about his frustration caused by the Church of the West, or bemoans how “rigid” they are, what his is really talking about is those damned conservative traditionalists who are multiplying like bunnies.
They are terrified because the clock is ticking on the pontificate of Francis. The pressure on this feminized church to score points now on issues of homosexuality and women’s role in the Church is getting to Francis, and he is showing signs of stress. They colonizers of an “evolved” church know that Bergoglio is not long for this world and, concerned, they want everything now. Those left to carry the torch question how the recent expression of the sensus fidelium, the heartening sense of the faithful exemplified in the sound rejection of Fiducia Supplicans is going to impact the votes of even those Cardinals who Francis put into red caps. By all calculus, a Francis II should emerge from the next conclave, however there may be a revulsion to his legacy and a Pope may be sought out who will restore sanity to Holy Mother Church.
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