The Remnant Petitions Pope Francis: Change Course, Or Quit

It’s come to this.

Back on The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and corresponding with the start of the Year of Mercy, The Remnant issued an “urgent” appeal, asking Pope Francis to change his ways, or if that’s not possible, then to resign the Petrine office. They’re hoping for 1,000,000 signatures.

From The Remnant:

Your Holiness:

[…]

A growing number of Catholics, including cardinals and bishops, are coming to recognize that your pontificate, also the result of an unexpected election, is likewise causing grave harm to the Church. It has become impossible to deny that you lack either the capacity or the will to do what your predecessor rightly observed a pope must do: “constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism.”

Quite the contrary, as shown in the annexed libellus, you have given many indications of an alarming hostility to the Church’s traditional teaching, discipline and customs, and the faithful who try to defend them, while being preoccupied with social and political questions beyond the competence of the Roman Pontiff. Consequently, the Church’s enemies continually delight in your pontificate, exalting you above all your predecessors. This appalling situation has no parallel in Church history.

Last year, speaking of Pope Benedict’s resignation, Your Holiness declared that if you felt incapable of exercising the papacy “I would do the same.” On the first anniversary of Benedict’s resignation, you called upon the faithful to “join me in prayer for His Holiness Benedict XVI, a man of great courage and humility.”

With no little trepidation, being under the gaze of the One who will judge us all on the Last Day, we your subjects respectfully petition Your Holiness to change course for the good of the Church and the welfare of souls. Failing this, would it not be better for Your Holiness to renounce the Petrine office than to preside over what threatens to be a catastrophic compromise of the Church’s integrity?

“Catastrophic compromise.” Uh huh.

Click the link to read the whole appeal, if you care to. Interestingly, it seems that none of the usual suspects (i.e., Pewsitter, Rorate Caeli, etc) have linked to or acknowledged this appeal/petition. Hmm. Wonder why? [UPDATE: I stand corrected – I’ve been told Pewsitter did link – I checked both pages of headlines the day I posted this, and didn’t see it. Normally they have links for several days beyond the original post. Mea culpa.]

Because it’s ridiculous?

This is John Kerry-esque: They were against papal resignations (Pope Benedict XVI’s) before they were for them.

Image Source: Zebra48bo [Creative Commons] via Wikimedia