The Two Faces Of Papal Arrogance

Pope Benedict fleeing. Wolves not in the picture.

I have already written about the arrogance of a man daring to rape the Divinely instituted office he holds for the sake of his self-promotion. Francis is, in term of haughtiness, impossible to surpass.

But there is another type of Papal arrogance I would like to bring to your attention: the arrogance of a Pope who, after abandoning his post, has the almighty gall to tell others what to do when he , himself, was too much of a coward to do anything.

Benedict is certainly less arrogant than Francis – not a difficult feat anyway – but it seems to me that, in a way, he is arrogant twice. His abdication was accompanied by the announcement that he would keep the title. What that meant has become apparent in the following years: I do not want ze responsibility, but I will keep ze title and honour, thank you very much. And to show you how humble I am, I will retire to a life of prayer outside of the limelight. Only, I will actually not do even that, instead releasing my wisdom of Historic Coward to the world every time I feel like it; obviously, praising Pope Francis every single time, lest someone think I am not the gregarious type I always was; though always safe in the knowledge that I know better, ja?

Benedict’s arrogance has been at work for a long time. Gregarious among the revolutionary storm of the Sixties, but pretending to know better even then. Gregarious during the years of JP II, following the latter’s brand of continuation of the V II’s pandering to the world with the veneer of orthodox Catholicism we all know. Gregarious during his Pontificate, as he kept appointing disastrous bishops and cardinals whilst giving us Summorum Pontificum in order to show that he… knows better once again; gregarious to the end when, nonagerian failure and supposed to be now worried about his impending judgment, keeps propping Francis whilst, once again, showing him that….. he knows better.

Francis’ arrogance is the crass behaviour of the boor. Benedict’s arrogance is the vastly more refined attitude of the erudite coward, fully seized of his own intellectual superiority as he avoids any step that puts him in contrast with the mainstream and the authority.

What a great Pope Francis is, says Benedict.

But I am his better in any way, nicht wahr?

M