The Good In The Bad

Do you remember all those Proddies who knew Catholicism only by hearsay, and wanted to tell you how Catholicism works? Those who told you about Papolatry, and would not want to grasp the true nature of Papal Infallibility?

I wonder how many of them are being cured.

It must be impossible for a Protestant interested in the faith not to notice what is happening: a general insurgence of orthodox Catholics against the dangers of a wicked Pope. True, the Proddie in question might say to himself that the majority of those who call themselves Catholics sides, for all they know and insofar as they bother to make a conscious choice, with Francis; but the shortest reflection on the situation on his own camp will also persuade him that the ignorant and superficial majority does not in the least stand for what a denomination believes, and if you want to know it you will always have to turn to the orthodox minority, to those who – wrong as they are, of course – really care.

The critic of Papolatry is, therefore, confronted with a new reality: a massive opposition to the Pope exactly among that minority of hardcore Catholics he knows reflect the true stand of Catholicism. He must know – if he thinks about it honestly and without prejudice – that it cannot be that they are straying from Catholicism; rather, he will realise that the Pope is; and they notice it, and say it out loud, and do so out of their care for the salvation of souls; and they do so – as they will discover, when they research it a bit – within and because of the purest, most beautiful Catholic teaching.

The mainstream, “cafeteria” Proddies may think that Francis is “changing the Church”; but the attentive minority will certainly know better, because they will observe mechanisms at work that they well recognise; and will realise that, when you look at things drily, what they always thought of the Catholic Church just isn't happening.

How many among the Proddies have the intellectual honesty to recognise it? Rather few, I am sure. How many among them will start to move in the right direction? Fewer still, no doubt. But every soul has infinite value, and it is just among those Proddies who, actually, deeply care that some of the most brilliant Catholic minds have come: the John Henry Newman, the Ronald Knox, and the G K Chesterton of the world.

It is consoling to me – and, hopefully, to some of you – to think that in the middle of this mess, some Protestants are starting to really think, and to slowly walk in the right direction; and that God in His Mercy is providing for some water lilies to grow and prosper in the sea of mud this papacy has – wickedly building on errors of the past, but certainly pushing the problem into a whole new dimension – created.

As we look in astonishment at the extent of the mess, and must witness the tidal wave of excrements under which Francis is submerging the Church, we must also realise that God turns everything in His own favour, and will use Francis' tsunami of excrements as the dung to further the grow of a new generation of Catholic plants.

It would have been, of course, better if all this had not happened, at least from an earthly perspective; but then, if we look at it soberly we must recognise that a mass rebellion at all levels of clergy and laity could not do anything else than attract a horrible punishment in some form or other. Francis might well be this punishment, or the first instalment thereof. But the same God who put wonderful seeds of faith in the middle of Auschwitz, and caused brilliant Protestant minds to see the light, and baffle Protestants to this day – and who knows how many the Chestertons and Newmans and Knoxes have converted, even after death – will, I am sure, use this test to show to some fine Christian minds the beauty of Catholicism. A beauty that becomes the more resplendent, the more a horrible Pope tries to betray it.

M

 

Will Pope Adolf Go To War?

It didn't end up well...

The demotion of Cardinal Burke has been finally announced over the weekend. It is, seen from Francis' perspective, an obligatory stage. You cannot demolish the annulment process, and make of it a parody as much as you will be allowed to, as long as the relevant Congregation is led by someone who actually understands what he is doing. In order to make of the annulment a pig's breakfast it will be necessary to remove people with competence, and replace them with people who are as pliable as they are incompetent. The Communists have used this methods for decades, and one must say it can be made to work for a while; unless, that is, the entire construction implodes under the weight of its own stupidity.

On one hand, then, Francis will have it easier. On the other hand, he has one problem more. And he must slowly decide – or perhaps has already decided – where he will stop, or whether it's going to be the all-out fall-out.

But he has a problem. A huge one. The Church is, you see, still a bit different from a Communist dictatorship. Her boss is not Stalin or Kruschev, but Christ. Beside the invincible strength of the Divine Opponent it is difficult, very difficult, to intimidate people who are more afraid of what Christ will do with them if they comply with Francis' wishes, than of what Francis will do to them if they don't.

Burke has been removed and has been, for Vatican standards, harshly demoted. But in doing so, Francis has launched a boomerang that might well end up right on his teeth. Burke will now be even more one of the very few everyone looks to when Francis says or plans something very stupid. Burke is not an aggressive man, and he is certainly not given to personal attacks. But even Francis' limited intellect realises that Burke can deprive every move of him of every credibility, and make an ass of him by everyone who really cares. I am not entirely sure that this will do him much good.

Then there is the problem of Mueller, and Pell; both of them, still, at the heart of the Vatican machinery, and both of them already very vocal. What will TMAHICH do? Remove them? He would stay there as a petty, vindictive man; and he would be formally inviting influential Cardinals to make a wall against him.

Francis' parable reminds one of so many British Prime Ministers: as they become more and more criticised, they must purge the ranks of the government from the most dangerous opponents; but these ones, and their followers, will increase the ranks of the internal opposition; and the internal opposition will relentlessly gnaw at his credibility and prestige, even when never appearing to attack him openly; until the moment comes when the rebellion is out in the open, and then the PM – and much more so a Pope – is damaged goods anyway, irrespective of the outcome of the fight.

If Francis thinks that he can bend the Church to his will, he is an idiot. A very dangerous one, one that can cause a huge devastation, of course; but still an idiot in the end. Does he think so? Is he so reckless, so evil and most of all, so stupid?

To invade the Church with your own heretical troops is far more difficult than to even invade Russia. Not only are you facing Christ The King instead of General Winter, but you also have to conquer an immense territory, whilst the guerrilla rages all around you and destroys the credibility of your army a bit at a time. The conquering of the German and Austrian territories will be easy; much of the strategic positions in Western Europe and both Americas might well fall; but you will have ferocious guerrilla warfare in these territories, and will go absolutely nowhere in vast parts of Africa and Asia. Napoleon took Spain very rapidly in 1808, with an overwhelming military power. Ask him how much fun he had with it afterwards…

It's not to be done. Better said: it's never to be won. It's madness. It's another operation Barbarossa against an invincible enemy. The only thing he will achieve – if he has such an evil temerity – is to create a huge wasteland around him, scorching continents perhaps. But the war, he will never win.

Will, then, Pope Adolf go to war? As he prepares his ranks and picks his generals, the guerrilla also unavoidably becomes better organised and more determined. Francis himself fuels its ranks. It is simply not to be avoided.

If he had been slower and more subtle, instead of so arrogant and stupid, he might have had better cards, though one wonders if he would have had the time. But he has wanted too much and too soon, and his evil house of cards has now tumbled in the most spectacular way.

As Burke is removed from the Vatican ranks, he takes place in the very midst of the Army of Christ. As Francis keeps closing his ranks, and kicking out at some point Mueller, Pell, Piacenza and many others, he can make a huge wasteland around him, and a scorched earth policy might well be in accordance with his petty, vindictive inclinations. But he will loose in the end.

An idiot who thinks himself Napoleon, or Hitler, may well be about to invade Russia like it's 1812, or 1941, and think where they have failed, he will win. He might not be as stupid as that, but the drama of the people like Francis is that they deem themselves superior intellects.

There's no saying what an idiot could do, who thinks he is Napoleon.

M

 

Macbeth, Not Hamlet

Not much doubt on what is happening...

As Francis' difficulties become more and more evident, I seem to notice a tendency to interpret the events as a sort of conflict between opposing factions; a conflict which Francis, like his predecessor Blessed Paul The Disquieting, is not able to “manage” properly.

This is an insidious, wrong, very misleading, and rather disingenuous reading of the events.

There are no opposing factions. There are Catholics and Heretics. The Pope's job is not to “mediate” between them. It is to eradicate heresy. This is not an issue of “management skills”. It is an issue of “Christ or Satan”.

This here is no Hamlet. Think Macbeth instead. He isn't being driven by a faction of heretics. He is driving them. He is not, like Paul VI of not-so-blessed memory, a person too indecisive. He is the instigator and obvious driving force behind Baldisseri, Forte, Kasper, and assorted heretical company.

Francis has gone so far out of the window that I wonder whether his feet are still on the ground. His approval of Kasper's allegedly “profound and serene theology” perfectly matches his own praxis as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and at this point I doubt how anyone can doubt he really said to the Argentinian adulterer she can go to communion. Baldisseri is obviously his decision, Forte is his minion, the people he keeps appointing in positions of power, like Cupich, leave no doubt as to his intentions.

Do not fool yourself, and do not be fooled by tales of the poor Pope who is managing poorly his fighting factions. There is an heretical – or Neo-Pagan, to use the words of Bishop Schneider – fifth column inside the Church, and Francis is at its head.

An old, lewd, scandalous man has been elected Pope. A rotten mind keeping rotten company, and promoting his friends in positions of great power and influence. An enemy of everything our forefathers held sacred, and shameless enough to say so openly. A friend of all, but Catholics.

Do not be fooled. Francis is the instigator of, and driving force behind, all that is happening and might happen, schism not excluded.

M