![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2021\/09\/MudVolcanoStatues.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
1 Peter 2:17<\/strong>\u00a0(RSV) Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the [pagan, anti-Christian, persecuting] emperor.<\/p>\n
Ecclesiastes 10:20<\/strong>\u00a0Even in your thought, do not curse the king, . . .<\/p>\n
Titus 3:1-2<\/strong>\u00a0Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work, [2] to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We live in an age where everything is now broken up into soundbites. And we ourselves are smashed up into a hundred different factions. Currently this is massively going on, even among orthodox Catholics<\/a>. The devil is having a field day. He laughs himself silly all day long at the divisive, contentious actions of millions of Catholics.<\/p>\n
The big game and perhaps Satan\u2019s most successful tactic today (to divide Catholics) is to take a few snippets of a talk or writing by Pope Francis (invariably taken out of context) and give them the worst possible (inaccurate, incorrect) slant, and then hundreds of Francis-bashers get together in a forum and try to out-do each other in being dense and obtuse and stupefyingly asinine.<\/p>\n
It goes on all the time, and there\u2019s no end in sight. And (here\u2019s the saddest part) it will no doubt continue with future popes<\/em>, since this utter lack or respect and reverence towards the Supreme Head of Christ\u2019s Church<\/a>: the successor of St. Peter, is an essentially unCatholic mentality that is not and will not be confined to reactions to one pope alone.<\/p>\n
In American courts, one who is called to take the stand takes an oath by agreeing with the notion: \u201cdo you swear to tell the truth, the whole<\/em> truth, and nothing but<\/em> the truth?\u201d This is an excellent resolve to make. Today we have an epidemic of half-truths drawn from Pope Francis, that look at first glance like something other than what they are. A half-truth is often no better than an outright lie.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve closely examined many instances of this sort of thing in my 205 defenses of Pope Francis<\/a>. It\u2019s almost always (if not always) much ado about nothing; a tempest in a teapot; making a mountain out of a molehill at worst. That\u2019s my experience as an apologist. I can\u2019t pretend that it is other than what it is. I ran across another of the innumerable mudfests today, as I scrolled through Facebook.<\/p>\n
This post was a meme put up by Sancta Familia<\/em><\/a>: in agreement<\/em> with the Holy Father, since it introduced the excerpt from him as \u201cpowerful words.\u201d He was cited from an address in Slovakia on 9-13-21<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Perhaps some people are used to this [rigidity], but many others, especially the younger generations, are not attracted by a faith that leaves no interior freedom, by a Church in which all are supposed to think alike and blindly obey.<\/p>\n
[\u201cofficial\u201d Holy See version at the Vatican website: \u201cSome people may be used to this. But many others \u2013 especially the younger generations \u2013 are not attracted by a faith that leaves them no interior freedom. They are not attracted by a Church in which all are supposed to think alike and blindly obey.\u201d]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, the pope-bashers and the papal nitpickers and those given to rumormongering and gossip seemed to think this was the height of absurdity and\/or hypocrisy for the pope to speak in such a way. Of course, in its entirety it was a beautiful and profound message, soaked in the Bible and the Gospel. I\u2019ll get to that when I cite much of it, but first let me share with you some of the reactions. The thread<\/a> [public setting], which has been up about 41 hours, as I write, has garnered 582 comments (not all<\/em> negative, but most<\/em>). Here are some from the nattering nabobs (and several names you may know):<\/p>\n
Tony Esolen<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>And when and where in the last 50 years has the Church been \u201crigid\u201d? [88 likes]<\/p>\n
Karl Keating<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>I suspect there was a mistranslation. \u201cFlaccid\u201d and \u201crigid\u201d are easy to confuse. [38 likes]<\/p>\n
Larry Chapp <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>Exactly what I was thinking. You can\u2019t trust these darn translations.<\/p>\n
Edward Wassell <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>Isn\u2019t Traditiones Custodes<\/em> precisely an imposition of rigidity on the faithful and priests. Just accept the modern liturgy and obey.<\/p>\n
Robert Brennan <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>And for the 1,245th time, something the Pope says has to be explained to me. I\u2019m growing weary.<\/p>\n
[I couldn\u2019t resist that, so I chimed in: \u201cAnd for the 1,245th time it was no doubt taken out of context and a bunch of naysaying cynics give it the worst sort of interpretation. As a defender of this pope, let me tell you I am sick to death of that <\/em><\/strong>by now.\u201d I have received no<\/em> \u201clikes\u201d or replies at all after 17 hours: the usual routine in these hit-threads: groupthinking clones]<\/p>\n
Phillip Campbell<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>If he does not want a church where we are all supposed to be alike and blindly obey, then he should stop pushing indiscriminate conformity with his new legislation restricting the traditional Latin mass.<\/p>\n
Reanen Maxwell <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>worst Pope ever<\/p>\n
Phillip Campbell<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>Definitely at the bottom of the list<\/p>\n
[another one I couldn\u2019t resist, as I know Phillip personally, and he has been in my house, and I\u2019ve recommended a book of his; so I replied: \u201cRight down there with Honorius, Vigilius, Liberius, and the whoremongers and murderers, huh?\u201d Again, no \u201clikes\u201d or reply after 17 hours.]<\/p>\n
[Fr.] Erik Richtsteig <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>The irony is thick with this one.<\/p>\n
Michael Tamara<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>This is true on its face, but ironic considering the source and recent events in the Church.<\/p>\n
\n\nThe younger generations, if they still practice the faith at all, tend to gravitate toward tradition because they understand that true freedom cannot come from relativism and trying to appease the lawlessness of the secular world, but only through loving Jesus by obeying His commands. They yearn for a Church that will not affirm them in their fallenness, but that will once again challenge them to be raised up by Christ out of their sins and vices. They desire a Church that believes in them \u2013 that it is possible to live holy lives and strive to be saints \u2013 and encourages them in that effort rather than telling them not to bother because they\u2019re fine the way they are. Yet, it seems lost on the Holy Father \u2013 with his most recent motu proprio drastically handicapping the Traditional Latin Mass and marginalizing the vital and steadily growing group of Catholics who find their spiritual home and nourishment there \u2013 that it is younger families, priests, and religious who he has most greatly distressed by his own apparently rigid disdain for Catholic tradition.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nSheila Banks Dixon<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span>What is wrong with this man!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nTom Sharpling <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>Well, the new Motu proprio on the Traditional Mass is an exact example of requiring everybody to blindly follow and believe and think in the same way. I have in the past made it quite clear that this was a bad tempered and impulsive mistake and will do nothing other than detract from the diversity and richness of the Church.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nTeresa Toner <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>This pope has an unfortunate way with words. . . . his words are often ambiguous and easily misconstrued.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nReggie-Lou Fashbaugh <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>He has a Luciferian PERFECTED well intended way of words.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nOlisa Francis Achike <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>Signs and symptoms of clericalism. An out of touch statement by a clueless prelate.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nSheila Banks Dixon <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>Can you ever in a million years imagine Pope St John Paul speaking about the young people like this. He drew the young to him. There\u2019s something wrong about this Pope.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n[Yeah, it\u2019s obvious that Pope Francis has trouble drawing and appealing to youth: only three million showed up for the final Mass at World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and 2.5 million for the final Mass at World Youth Day in Krakow Poland in 2016: more than three times the population of that city (source<\/a>); clearly a problem]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nKevin T Rush <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>He\u2019s such a demagogue. Always twisting truth with straw man arguments. He\u2019s so tiresome; I marvel at the Lord\u2019s patience.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n*<\/div>\nTo give just one of a billion examples, elsewhere: Ed Feser is a Thomist philosopher, who fancies himself as quintessentially Catholic. Yet he doesn\u2019t talk much like a Catholic at all when it comes to Pope Francis (much more like Luther and Calvin). Here he is, from an article dated 7-18-21<\/a>:<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\n\nUsually, errant popes exhibit serious failings of only one or two sorts.\u00a0\u00a0But Pope Francis seems intent on achieving a kind of synthesis of all possible papal errors.\u00a0\u00a0Like Honorius I and John XXII, he has made doctrinally problematic statements (and more of them than either of those popes ever did).\u00a0\u00a0Like Vigilius, his election and governance have involved machinations on the part of a heterodox party.\u00a0\u00a0The Pachamama episode brings to mind\u00a0Marcellinus and John XII.\u00a0\u00a0Then there are the bad episcopal appointments, the accommodation to China\u2019s communist government, and the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which echo the mismanagement, political folly, corruption and decadence of previous eras in papal history.\u00a0\u00a0And now we have this repeat of Victor\u2019s high-handedness.\u00a0\u00a0Having in this way\u00a0insulted a living predecessor, might Francis next ape\u00a0Pope Stephen VI\u00a0by exhuming a dead one and putting the corpse on trial?<\/p>\n
Probably not.\u00a0\u00a0But absolutely nothing would surprise me anymore in this lunatic period in history that we\u2019re living through.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n