Beyond The Wheelchair

No problems with creepy perverts, for sure…

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

 

Wheelchairs are, as we are informed, not enough anymore. In his humbleness, the Bishop of Rome cares to be seen by the entire planet whilst he kisses and blesses a poor man, obviously disfigured by a terrible disease. Following the example of the Gospel, Francis does not miss an occasion to put himself in the middle of the street, and be seen by everyone whilst doing good. Very moving, I am told. Perhaps I should check the Gospel on the matter, though, and Francis too.

As we live in an age of easy popularity, forgive me if I swim against the tide and allow myself to be unpopular, fully uncaring of the complaints of the adoring crowds of Francis, The Humble Pharisee. I am truly, truly sick and tired of this kindergarten mentality that refuses to see reality, and prefers to take refuge in bouts of sugary emotionalism completely devoid of any logical content whilst sound Catholicism goes to the dogs. There are bloggers around swooning like girls at the sight of the boy band: look, he did not only kiss the man! No! He imposed his hands on him! Astonishing! Unprecedented! We thought he would say “take the man away from me, he’s ugly!” And instead, this…!

Give me a break.

Do you think that Pope Benedict would have refused to see, or bless, the very same man? What about JPII, JP I, Paul VII? Pius XII perhaps, or Pius XI? Or perhaps is it so, that these were all men who, conscious of the fact that they must disappear as persons so that Christ may appear in the Papacy, would not indulge in public gestures easily – and rightly – seen as cheap shot at personal popularity?

What is more like the Pharisee in the Gospel of a Pope who, instead of sending his Almoner to help around in the most discreet manner possible – as it used to be; so much so, that most people do not even know who an Almoner is and what he does – sends him around to say to the people he helps “this money comes from Pope Francis”, with the unavoidable press echo whenever someone makes the event public? Is it not so, that saying “this money comes from Pope Francis” is an invitation to make it public?

“Pope Francis helps old lady”. And then you are on the press with 200 euros.

Aaahh, the church of V II. The Pharisees would be proud.

The very same mechanism is at work with all the wheelchairs, and the poor disfigured people. It is as if this were the first Pope who has compassion.

Wake up, for heaven’s sake. Refuse to be part of this circus. Read again what Jesus said about the Pharisee who puts themselves in the middle of the road, and say it out loud. With all their shortcomings, Paul VI, JP II and Benedict XVI had a sense of dignity completely absent from this Twitter Hero, this Dalai Lama in White. This papacy is degenerating into a marketing circus of the cheapest sort; a circus meant to promote one man, whilst orthodoxy is considered “narrow-minded”. If you think of all the times Jesus expresses himself with great fury, you have no doubt whatsoever whether Francis would have considered Him narrow-minded…

And don’t tell me Francis doesn’t want this. He isn’t blind. He sees the cameras. He sees the photographers. He knows what will happen. He clearly follows a plan, enacted countless times already. If you still haven’t got that Francis is more attracted to photo-ops promoting his image than Bill Clinton was attracted to curvaceous interns, you are beyond hope.

Oh for a Pope who does his job seriously; speaks rarely but sensibly; can teach and admonish instead of spreading lies and confusion; and is interested in being hated by the wrong people, and followed by the right ones.

Will I see a decent Pope again before I die? Perhaps not. But I will not silently accept this obscene circus that degrades the Church every day to the promotion of one man, and seeks to prostitute Her to the whims and the fashions of this world.

Let us not obsess about abortion, or sodomy. Let us swoon about Francis’ latest media performance instead.

Mundabor

 

 

 

Francis Then And Now

Mundabor's Blog

 

 

In happier and more hopeful times, when the horror of Bergoglism had not shown itself to the world with all the arrogance of humility, yours truly and many others had a reasonable hope that the new Pontiff would have been reasonably conservative. Yes, it was clear it had a penchant for very public shows of humility, and it was evident the rhetoric of poverty would have been in his menu du jour pretty much every day. But we thought it would have been not much worse in the end than a Ratzinger with the addition of a bus ticket and a wheelchair. The Pinocchio Mass was clearly worrying stuff, but one hoped (for the record: I don’t anymore) that once become Pope the man would understand the implications of his new role.

This short introduction will help you to understand my comments to one of Francis’ off-the-cuff homilies…

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