Drowning In Its Own … (No, It’s Not “Tears”)

Five years later, there can be no doubt that Francis’ papacy is drowning in its own excrement. It is not only that the continued heresy has now reached the mainstream, in such a way that whatever new “innovation” Francis tries to introduce is now doomed to failure from the start. It is not even the astonishing incompetence of the people Francis has around him – as the very recent “lettergate” abundantly shows -. It is, finally, not necessarily the scandal of the 25 million USD (boy, this is a heck if a lot of black shoes…) Francis wanted to rob from the Papal Foundation in order to give them to a shady institution with a criminal past.

No.

The best indication that Francis’ Papacy is drowning in its own excrement is the tacit admission of the fact from the Vatican press office.

What kind of Pope needs external validation from other senior clergy? When has a Pope ever felt it necessary to support his reputation on the (true or assumed) integrity and prestige of other members of the Church hierarchy? Who does he think he is, the Prime Minister of TinPotLandia?

Certainly, the head of government of a small European State will draw prestige from being received at the White House, because the receiving institution is so much more prestigious and powerful than the received one. But a Pope has no earthly equivalent. If his reputation is in tatters, he is completely screwed. Not even a former or emeritus Pontiff can save him, because when a Pope is drowning the vortex is so strong that it will swallow even a pontiff emeritus!

It must be so, because Popes don’t become as impresentable as Francis is merely because they lack sense of humour, or are not photogenic, or are not good at making little children smile. They can only become so hated because they are heretics, and at that point there is no emeritus on earth that can save their papacy.

Francis is exactly there: to the point where his papacy has become a pretty vulgar joke, and the panic is clearly – if, again, tacitly – admitted by the same Vatican office that should protect his reputation.

For those, like me, who have been observing the public perception of this Pontificate as a direct indication of the harm it can cause, the latest implosions of these multiple-catastrophe pontificate are a source of great satisfaction and a moderate source of hope for the future: then the more this pontificate drowns in its own excrement, the more probable it is that the Cardinals in the next conclave, cowardly and corrupt as they all are, gather all together and shout , as loud as they can:

“never again!”

M

Lettergate: Benedict Is Inexcusable

It seems like every two days we get a different version of the famous letter, and every two days the Vatican PR people look more like miserable lying amateurs.

However, this does not mean that Benedict gets out of the matter one bit better than before.

It appears now clear that Benedict was being Benedict once again: in the same letter he gives the highest praise that can be given to the pontificate of an archheretic (insulting, well, us and calling us foolish), and this is truly the most damage he can do to Catholicism. Then, and in a matter that is utterly peripheral to Francis’ orthodoxy, he makes clear a couple of things: he has no intention of reading the booklets, he resents that one of them was written by a theologian unfriendly to him, and will therefore not write any kind of endorsement for the work.

Benedict’s letter can be summarised in this way: thanks for the booklets, obviously meant to show what we already know: that Francis is not a boorish heretic as those pesky, foolish Traditionalists think, and his Pontificate is in continuity to mine. However, I won’t read them. Other things to do, you know, and age, and my eyesight, and all that. However, next time kindly avoid provoking me with a theologian with whom I have had a controversy and I might actually deliver for you , verstanden?

How Benedict would get any better out of the final text of the letter is beyond me. Who is criticised in the unpublished part is most certainly not Francis. Those who look bad are the authors of the booklets and the Vatican guys who keep picking heretical theologians.

And please, please, please let us stop trying to find hidden ironies and subtle disapproval in what is an open endorsement of Pope Francis’ disgraceful papacy. Benedict has been reading Francis’ antics on the newspaper for five years, like everyone of us. Like everyone of us, he does not need the stupid booklets to decide whether Francis is a disgrace or not. Therefore, the fact that he refused to read the booklets is completely irrelevant. He endorsed the Pontificate of that scoundrel Francis. May God forgive him for his insolence.

I don’t need to say here that the duty of every bishop and cardinal, but particularly of one who calls himself Pontiff Emeritus, is to denounce heresy. Alleged ironies that aren’t even there will not wash.

M