The Poet, The Cardinal, And The Rudderless Ship

Can’t imagine he would put Francis in Paradise, or even Purgatory…

 

 

Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello,
nave sanza nocchiere in gran tempesta,
non donna di province, ma bordello!

Pedestrian translation: 

Ah, slave Italy, hostel of sorrows,

ship without a helmsman in a great tempest, 

not the lady of provinces, but a brothel! 

This is the way Dante describes Italy in the sixth Canto of his Purgatory. The Country, once so great a Lady of Provinces, is now a rudderless ship in the great tempest of the world events, and is now reduced to a brothel after her past greatness. Machiavelli famously quotes these passionate verses in the last chapter of Il Principe. 

These verses are extremely well-known in Italy, and the first line is an almost proverbial way of referring to the troubles of the Country. These verses are, no doubt about it, well present to the mind of Cardinal Burke, too, as well as in that of all notable members of the Curia. 

I can, therefore, not avoid thinking that when the good Cardinal chooses, of all possible ways, the image of the “ship without a rudder”  he is not saying that the rudder has been unexpectedly stolen by illegal immigrants; but that, rather, the helmsman just isn’t doing his job. 

This latest interview – which you can read following the link – is another pearl. I refer to what I have already written about Burke’s style, and note that in this interview he keeps following the same path: 

1. He makes clear that he is not making an attack ad personam. He merely states a circumstance of fact. 

2. He complains once again that the Pope is not intervening to defend truth. 

3. He tells the lie on the supposed approval for Pope Francis, when he says that he feels compelled to “tell a truth that many currently perceive”. 

4. He hammers once again on the infamous “who am I to judge?”, and slams it with the following sentence, that I report here verbatim: 

“The acts must be judged; I do not think that the pope thinks differently. They are sinful and unnatural. The pope never said we can find positive elements in them. It is impossible to find positive elements in an evil act.”

This interview shows, in my eyes, that the Catholic front has no intention whatever to allow the Pope to scheme a prepare another attempt at Great Fraud without any resistance. It seems to me that several voices are speaking in unison.

Mueller, Pell, and Burke have been firing every few days since the end of the synod. They insist in proposing the same criticism that had emerged during the synod. It seems very obvious to me that they are not isolated at all, and it is far more probable that the heretical side is. It seems also obvious to me that the refusal of the Cardinals to allow Francis to take a stance will soon, and certainly, next October, put him in an untenable, entirely discredited position. 

He is not getting any discount. In a football (soccer) metaphor, he is the object of man marking, and a very strict marking at that. He will not be allowed to play freely. His marksmen will be on every ball. Francis may be a slippery offender, but I have the impression these defenders can be rather the bulldogs if they want to. 

And yes, I am persuaded that even if TMAHICH does not get the reference, all Italian prelates will get it very fast: Francis is refusing to steer the Church to safe waters, and has made of Her a brothel. 

M

The Wizard, The Wand, And The Clown

If I had one of these, I know whom I would make disappear...

The recent statements of TMAHICH concerning the Theory of Evolution have caused a lot of discussions.

I have already posted some words about the Theory of Evolution. Now I would like to spend some words about what the Unholy Father said about this. I would focus on three aspects: the mind frame, the actual words, and the obvious theological implications.

1. The Pope who thinks that perhaps the Blessed Virgin thought “Lies! I have been deceived!”, or the like, at the foot of the cross seems not to have any doubt about the Theory of Evolution, at all. Where he should have certainties, he has doubts. Where he should have (serious) doubts, he has certainties. Francis is, through and through, a secular mind.

2. The words are, as so often by him, said in Francispeak. His words can mean both the God is not a wizard with a magic wand, and that God is inherently unable to create a world from nothing, and men from nothing, without “helping Himself” with an evolutionary mechanism. The first meaning is nothing more that the usual banal drivel we hear from this man when he is not being heretical. The second is extremely serious. This seems to me a kow-towing to the secular mentality, besides being obviously blasphemous. It is as if Francis would say to the world: “whilst I must tell you that I believe in God because I am the Pope, I will show you I am on your side by making Him as little as I can”.

Ambiguity, confusion, possible blasphemy. This must be Francis speaking, then.

3. The most important aspect is one that, surprisingly, seem to have been rather neglected in the commentaries. I do not believe for a moment that Francis is particularly interested in pushing any kind of evolutionary theory in biological matters. This is not what he is working at. What TMAHICH wants to achieve is to push the idea of an evolutionary theology. Evolutionary not in the sense of growing as, say, an oak evolves, but in the sense of transforming in something completely different from what was before; something very pleasing to Monsignor Ricca, Elton John, Rabbi Skorka, adulterers, concubines, and in short, the world.

The talk of “god of surprises” (lack of capitalisation intentional) and all the drivel about the Holy Ghost leading us to ever new truths is exactly in the same vein.

Francis does not even want to be an heresiarch. He wants to be your new god. What he says, is your new religion. Your religious convictions must change according to where he says the spirit leads him. One would be tempted to say that he has appointed himself the fourth person of the… Holy Tetrarchy, if there were not sufficient doubts already that he believes in both the Second and the Third Person, as proved by his saying that Jews and Muslims believe in the same God as the Christians. But then again this is the same person who states “there is no God! Do not be afraid!” and then proceeds to explain to us there are only… the three Persons, basically being heretical again in that casual, am-I-not-super-cool, half-drunk way of his.

This Is what I found, the other day, most disquieting in Francis' words: his continuous push on this concept of “evolution” into something that is not evolution at all but radical change, contradiction, negation. The speech in question was, if you ask, just another way of preparing the 2015 Synod.

Do not worry too much about the wizard.

Worry about the clown instead.

M