I would contradict Magister on his title for this post: Bergoglio is not at all inscrutable - on the contrary, he is very scrutable, i.e., he will do or say anything to keep his critics 'guessing'. Though any serious critic of this pope would long ago have stopped 'guessing' about him: He is the secular ultraliberal spirit of Vatican II in frightening flesh and blood, so regardless of how many twirls and turns he makes like a weathercock responding to the wind, you cannot doubt what his bedrock position is (if there is anything that can be said to be a bedrock for this most mutable and adaptable slave of the Zeitgeist).
What a joke he makes of the fact that Peter - and his Successors - are meant to be the Rock on which the Church of Christ is built. Just as well that this particularly unworthy and most unsuitable Successor of Peter almost from Day 1 of his pontificate chose deliberately to build his own church on his own shifting sands, the church he touts as his 'improved' version of the one true Church of Christ, the very Lord whose Gospel he has set about corrupting by amending, editing and providing alien exegeses of the Word of God any chance he gets.
And among the many things he chooses to ignore from the Lord's 'Sermon on the Mount' - which in Bergoglio's 'gospel', seems to amount only to the first and incomplete sentence of the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor..." - is that line, "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one." (Mt 5,35). [Which providentially links back to Sister Lucia's words in the preceding post on Satan's modus operandi, which we have seen brilliantly at work on this pope in the past five years!] Matthew 5,35 should be the epitaph for Magister's post, an admonition that Bergoglio blithely ignores!]
Francis the Inscrutable-
Who brakes only to speed up
July 1, 2018
This year there are at least three U-turns that Francis has made on crucial questions, but always without making it clear if these are definitive and sincere, seeing what he has said and done before and after the apparent reversals.
[Aww, stop already about expecting Bergoglio to make anything 'clear' other than his now fullblown anti-Catholicism!]
The first U-turn has to do with the ordination of women to the priesthood. Here, properly speaking, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has not contradicted himself, because every time he has been asked since becoming pope he has always said he is against it personally, for example after his voyage to Sweden, where he had however embraced a female Lutheran bishop.
But at the same time he has long allowed the favorable opinions to run free, especially figures on friendly terms with him, like Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna.
[And still, I believe, disgracefully president of the Munich-based Ratzinger Schuelerkreis Foundation.]
Last May 29, nonetheless, there appeared in
L'Osservatore Romano a note from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Spanish Jesuit Luis Ladaria, who reconfirmed that the NO to women priests is “definitive” and “infallible.”
Ladaria enjoys the esteem of Francis, who a few days ago also made him a cardinal. It must be said, however, that the supporters of women priests have not given up, because meanwhile, Francis has set up a commission to study the ordination of women not to the priesthood but to the diaconate, which is however still a sacrament and is the first of the three steps in Holy Orders that culminate in ordination as bishop.
To judge by the preparatory document of the synod for the Amazon, scheduled for 2019, it is projected that this same region will see the ordination of the first women deacons. And then who knows.
The second U-turn has to do with allowing communion to Protestant spouses who are married to Catholics. When asked about this very question three years ago, while he was visiting the Lutheran church in Rome, Pope Francis leaned heavily toward the favorable side. And in Germany, where mixed couples are numerous, this new practice has spread to such an extent that last February a majority of the German bishops approved a document that justifies it.
Seven bishops including one cardinal, however, appealed to Rome. The pope called them in for consultation, took some time, but then handed the issue back to Cardinal Ladaria, who with a letter dated May 25 written “with the explicit approval of the pope,” blocked both the document and the practice that had entered widely into use, putting everything off until a future reflection “at the level of the universal Church” and of an overall ecumenical accord, meaning a remote and improbable future, since the Orthodox Churches are unshakably against so-called “intercommunion.”
Except that a few days ago, returning from his voyage to Protestant Geneva, Francis once again reopened the question, praising the document made null and void by Ladaria, and asserting that “there has been no braking” on the matter of inter-communion.
The third and most striking U-turn had to do with the bishops of Chile - one in particular, Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid - complicit in the sexual abuses decades ago by his mentor, Fernando Karadima, whow as subsequently tried for his crimes and convicted by the CDF in 2011.
Until a few months ago, Francis had been saying that he was absolutely sure of the innocence of these bishops, and defended them with drawn sword against those who were “calumniating” them.
But then the 2400 pages of the canonical investigation that he finally ordered led him to confess that he had been spectacularly mistaken “through the lack of reliable and balanced information.” Whose fault was that?
Most of the suspicion has fallen on Cardinal Francisco J. Errázuriz, a longtime friend of Bergooglio. But at the origin of the deception is above all a Jesuit, Germán Arana, who shuttles between Rome, Spain, and Chile, and continues to belong, even after the blunder, to the most intimate circle of the pope’s confidants.
It is in this circle of his allies that Francis’s weak spot is to be found.
And seeing what has gone before, it appears altogether unlikely that in the future he will make a real U-turn precisely here, with a drastic housecleaning. [Casa Santa Marta - does the name continue to merit the patronage and protection of that most humble saint? - has apparently turned into a den of rogues led by the biggest rogue of all, Bergoglio, who puts his trust in fellow rogues to do his bidding without question. No housecleaning is possible if the master himself is incapable of allowing anyone but rogues into his magic circle!]
A propos, I must confess to something that always gives me pause at Sunday Mass - the first prayer in the Canon of the Mass, known familiarly by its first two words, "Te igitur"; the prayer translates in English as:
Therefore, most merciful Father, we humbly beg of Thee and entreat Thee through Jesus Christ Thy Son, Our Lord. Hold acceptable and bless + these gifts, these + offerings, these + holy and unspotted oblations which, in the first place, we offer Thee for Thy Holy Catholic Church. Grant her peace and protection, unity and guidance throughout the world, together with Thy servant (name), our Pope, and (name), our Bishop; and all Orthodox believers who cherish the Catholic and Apostolic Faith.
First, I must confess that when I say the prayer, I say 'all the priests of the world' instead of just one particular priest; I add to the words 'our Pope", "our Emeritus Pope"; and instead of just "our Bishop" (Cardinal Dolan, in my case), I say "all the bishops of the world". Fine so far - until I get to the final clause "and all orthodox believers who cherish the Catholic and Apostolic faith" - it gags me to realize that many among the priests and bishops and most of all, the pope, whom I am praying for, are far from being "orthodox believers who cherish the Catholic and Apostolic faith" and far from providing 'unity and guidance' to the Church.
I've already remarked once on the brief prayer said during the incensing of the altar and the offertory gifts:
Let my prayer, O Lord, be directed as incense in Thy sight: the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door round about my lips. May my heart not incline to evil words, to make excuses for sins.
I do not know if there is a similar prayer in the Novus Ordo equivalent of a High Mass when there is some incensing done, but I would not be surprised if there is none, because surely everytime Bergoglio as pope finds he has to say such a prayer, he would surely realize it is a prayer that should accompany him throughout his waking hours!
BTW, a great resource for understanding the why, wherefore, and whence of the prayers and ceremonies said at Holy Mass (the traditional Mass, in this case, but it will also illumine the parts of the Novus Ordo that have not been too Protestantized or dumbed down) may be found online here
sanctamissa.org/en/spirituality/explanation-of-the-prayers-and-ceremonies-guera...
It is an English translation of lectures given by the legendary 19th century Abbot of the great Benedictine Abbey he founded at Solesmes, Dom Prosper Gueranger (1805-1875), liturgist par excellence, a Venerable of the Church as his cause for canonization is underway. He founded the French Benedictine Congregation (now the Solesmes Congregation), which re-established monastic life in France after it had been wiped out by the French Revolution. He wrote The Liturgical Year, which covers every day of the Catholic Church's Liturgical cycle in 15 volumes. He was well regarded by Pope Pius IX, and was a proponent of the dogmas of papal infallibility and the Immaculate Conception.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/07/2018 14:45]