I was peacefully trolling through some sites before calling it a night when I came across this item for Ripley's 'Believe it or not!' Who would have thought this at all?
Is it really wise PR strategy to come out with this piece of utter paranoia about the pitifully few persons they cite (whom nonetheless they describe as a galaxy)
compared to the mega-popularity worldwide of their lord and master, whom they tout as the most popular man who ever walked the earth?
Now JMB is doing a Nixon - with his main propagandists on the staff of LA STAMPA (and therefore principals of VATICAN INSIDER, a 'service' of La Stampa) -
Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi (whom I did not suspect to have gone overboard completely for Bergoglio), compiling an 'enemies list' with the astounding
claim that almost all the disparate elements they list are not just admirers of Vladimir Putin but in fact financed somehow by the Russians!
The main title:
THOSE CATHOLICS AGAINST FRANCIS WHO ADORE PUTIN!
The subhead:
A trip through the galaxy of Bergoglio opponents. A front on the Web that unites followers of Lega Nord (northern Italian
nationalist party), those who are nostalgic for Ratzinger, and enemies of the Council (V-II): "Church in confusion because of
the pope". The Russian leader as a point of reference. Theories on the supposed invalidity of the 2013 Conclave, and polemics
over don George's statements about the 'enlarged ministry' of two popes".
by GIACOMO GALEAZZI and ANDREA TORNIELLI
Translated from
October 16, 2016
[For now, I shall simply translate the introductory paragraphs and the concluding ones:]
Uniting them all is aversion to Francis. The galaxy of dissent against Bergoglio covers the Lefebvrians who have decided to "await a traditional pope" before returning to communion with Rome
[But didn't Mons. Fellay meet with Bergoglio and Mueller just a few days ago, as a sign that things are proceeding apace for the FSSPX to come in from the cold?], to the Catholics of the Lega Nord who contrast Francis with his predecessor Ratzinger and have launched a campaign entitled «Il mio papa è Benedetto» (My pope is Benedict).
There are the ultr-conservatives of the Fondazione Leanto and websites close to sedevacantist positions, who are convinced that writer Antonio Socci is right to maintain the invalidity of Bergoglio's election simply because in March 2013, one balloting was nullified without having been counted. The reason? One balloted to avoid any doubts and without any objection at all from the cardinal electors.
And still, prelates and traditionaist intellectuals are signing appeals or portests against the pastoral openings of the Argentine pope towards communion for remarried divorcees and dialog with the Chinese government.
The dissent against the pope unites persons and groups who are very diverse and hardly assimilable:
- There is the 'soft' distancing taken by the online journal
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and its monthly
Il Timone, both edited by Riccardo Cascioli.
- There is the almost daily scolding online of the Argentine pope by Sandro Magister, emeritus Vaticanista of
L'Espresso.
[Emeritus? I was not aware Magister has been fired or has retired!]
- There are the apocalyptic irredeemable tones of Maria Guarini, who hosts the blogsite "Chiesa e Post-concilio.
- And finally, the harshest criticisms coming from ultra-traditionalist and sedevacantist sites who believe there has been no valid pope since Pius XII.
La Stampa visited the offices and met with the protagonists of this opposition to Francis, which is numerically limited but very much present on the Web, in order to describe an archipelago that traverses the Internet, but even through private meetings with ecclesiastics, mix up their frontal and public attacks on the pope with more articulated strategies.
On the front lines against the pope, the writer Alessandro Gnocci, who writes on the sites
Riscossa Cristiana and
Unavox:
"Bergoglio is carrying out a programmatic surrender to the world, the mundanization of the Church. His papacy is based on the brutal exercise of power. Such a capillary [detailed] debasement of the faith has never been seen before". [AMEN A THOUSAND TIMES!]
....
This composite galaxy of dissent has elected some cardinals and bishops as their reference points.Magister on his blog has launched the papal candidacy of the Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who is currently Francis's minister for liturgy, who is loved by conservatives and traditionalists and very muc cited on their websites and publications.
Among those considered the polestars in this world are above all, the American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta, and the auxiliary Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, Mons. Athanasius Schneider.
But beyond the mediatic amplification offered by the worldwide web, it does not seem that any new schisms are on the horizon, such as that carried out by Mons. Marcel Lefebvre in 1988.
Of this, the sociologist Massimo Introvigne is sure: "There are more than 5000 bishops in the world. The dissent has mobilized maybe about a dozen, many of them retired, which just goes to show how thin it is".
[Hey, Mr. Introvigne, let the church of Bergoglio do as it pleases - it is already in de facto schism - but the Catholics who uphold the deposit of faith as it was before March 13, 2013, will never ever leave the one true Church of Christ. In that sense, the schism will never come from us.]
Introvigne maintains that this dissent
"is present more online than in real life, and is over-estimated. In fact, there are dissidents who write comments on the social networks using four or five pseudonyms to give the impression that there are more of them". [Excuse me??? You cannot be serious - and you can't make the dissent go away by trying to shrug it off!] He thinks this is a movement that "has no success because it is not united. There are at least three different dissents: the political one from American foundations
[??? Which ones???], of Marine Le Pen (in France) and Matteo Salvini (Italy) who are not very interested in liturgical or moral issues - they often do not even go to church - but rather focus on immigration and the pope's attacks on capitalism. There is the more radical dissent by the FSSPX, or that by De Mattei and Gnocchi,
who reject Vatican II and everything else after. [That is obviously a falsehood. The FSSPX continue to consider the pope has head of the Church - they are hardly sedevacantists - and De Mattei and Gnocchi did not turn critical about the Church until after March 13, 2013, specifically because of Bergoglio's statements and actions that are exaggerations of the worst criticisms against Vatican II.][/DIM] And even if there may be some ranking prelates who lend support to this dissent, the contradictions among the three are destined to explode, and a common front has no possibility of lasting". [Hey, opponents of Bergoglio don't need any formal coalition at all - their common indestructible front is opposition to the anti-Catholic actions and positions of this pope, and that opposition will last for as long as Bergoglio is who he is!]
Introvigne points to a surprising characteristic common to many of these opponents of Bergoglio: "It's the mythical idealization of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is presented as the 'good' leader to contrast with Pope Francis who is the 'bad leader' because of his positions on homosexuality, Muslims and immigrants. Russian foundations very closely tied to Putin are collaborating with the dissenters of the pope".[Introvigne must be hallucinating. I do not ever recall any of the 'villains' mentioned in this piece as having even mentioned Putin at all, much less cite him as a 'good leader'. And of course, that last line appears to imply that Putin's supporters are somehow funding the dissenters against this pope. Can Introvigne offer one factual proof at all of his pathetically implausible scenario?]
BTW, the 'enemies' on the Stampa list appear limited to Italian sites and personalities (even if they somehow include the worldwide network of the FSSPX). Maybe the Fishwrap will supplement Stampa with their list of Anglophone sites and personalities.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/10/2016 06:28]