Here\u2019s piece about last week\u2019s Panic du Jour from the Francis haters: the letter from Benedict endorsing Francis\u2019 as, you know, orthodox and a good theologian.<\/p>\n
Rev,\u00a0Mons. Dario Edoardo Vigan\u00f2
\nPrefect, Secretariat for Communication<\/p>\n
Vatican City<\/p>\n
February 7, 2018<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most Reverend\u00a0Monsignor;<\/p>\n
Thank you for your kind letter of 12 January and the attached gift of the eleven small volumes edited by Roberto Repole.<\/p>\n
I applaud this initiative that wants to oppose and react to the foolish prejudice in which Pope Francis is just a practical man without particular theological or philosophical formation, while I have been only a theorist of theology with little understanding of the concrete life of a Christian today.<\/p>\n
The small volumes show, rightly, that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation, and they therefore help to see the inner continuity between the two pontificates, despite all the differences of style and temperament.<\/p>\n
However, I don\u2019t feel like writing a short and dense theological passage on them because throughout my life it has always been clear that I would write\u00a0and express\u00a0myself only on\u00a0books I had read really well.\u00a0Unfortunately, if only for physical reasons, I am unable to read the eleven volumes in the near future, especially as\u00a0other commitments await me that I have already made.<\/p>\n
I am sure you will understand and cordially greet you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yours,<\/p>\n
Benedict XVI<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Big Giant Panic happened because somebody in Rome released the second and third paragraphs of the letter, resulting in much pants-wetting from Francis-haters who felt betrayed by Benedict for his saying that the pope whose living guts they hate and fear is a good guy, perfectly orthodox, and in fact in line with his own thinking and that the whole good cop\/bad cop narrative then Francis haters have concocted is garbage.<\/p>\n
The Francis haters were on line in minutes declaring that Benedict could not have written it\/was being controlled by Shadowy Forces\/was a traitor to the faith\/was a reptilian sent by the Illuminati, etc.\u00a0 That crazy lasted for a day.<\/p>\n
Then, the next day it was revealed (BUM BUM BUMMMMMMMM) that the picture of the original letter in some article about the letter was partly blurry.\u00a0 Now the Conspiracy Theorists could really kick it into overdrive with a complete plot since the last paragraph made clear Benedict, while approving of the project, had not read the books in question.<\/p>\n
It was, as Right Wing Panics du Jour always are, much ado about nothing.\u00a0 The photo was blurry because it was an artsy photo, not because there was something that needed hiding.\u00a0 Was it stupid?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Because the editors should have known that the Francis haters will find any excuse to have a conspiracy cow.\u00a0 But there is just no evidence of malice.<\/p>\n
And for a very good reason:\u00a0 Benedict said what he said, not because he\u2019s read these books but because he knows Francis and knows he is perfectly orthodox and a good theologian<\/em>.\u00a0 In short, absolutely nothing in the second and third paragraphs is invalidated by the fourth.\u00a0 Nothing.<\/p>\nRead the piece<\/a> at WherePeterIs<\/a>.\u00a0 And keep reading them.\u00a0 In fact, bookmark them.\u00a0 They are an oasis of sanity in a time when the Greatest Catholics of All Time are working passionately to poison the Church against a good man and a good pope.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m so happy to see this!\u00a0 A blog by orthodox Catholics who like Francis and don\u2019t take every occasion where he clears his throat or moves his index finger as an opportunity to shriek, declare him a heretic, speculate about his evil motives and suggest that they both do not understand him, but are also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,374],"class_list":["post-102822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doings-on-other-blogs","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\n
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