This seems an interesting article for discussion and reflection, specially because it is coming from a traditionalist anti novus ordo Mass. I personally think he is more right than wrong and I will keep this article in mind when speaking about the pope in the future, though I know it is hard some times to not get carried away by the crazy news coming from Rome. I would just add that we do have a duty to defend our Holy Father before the world (ad extra) and to hide his errors regardless of his intentions. But still think it is ok to vent out our concerns about what he says as long as we separate what he said from whom he is, and as long as we do it within the catholic family (ad intra) in order not to scandalize others that are away from the faith. http://theweek.com/articles/704719/pope-francis-not-liberal?yptr=yahoo Pope Francis is not a liberal Two days ago I ordered for my living room a framed portrait of His Holiness Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Sovereign of Vatican City, and 226th Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. It is evidence of what strange times we are living in that my decision to hang the pope's picture, once a staple of dining rooms and parlors the world round, will be regarded by many of my fellow Catholics as a regrettable home décor move at best. I am not one of those ultramontantist Catholics who pretend that every word that falls from the papal lips is a piece of heaven-sent wisdom to be cherished, but I do believe that the pope is Christ's Vicar on Earth and that he deserves our affection every bit as much as he demands our obedience. We call him by the familiar title of "Papa" because he is our spiritual father; dumping on your father in public is not a good look. This is not to say that I am not concerned about the well-being of the Church under Francis. So far from feeling sanguine, I believe that the Church is more than half a century into her worst climacteric since the Reformation, a period of doctrinal chaos and pastoral uncertainty comparable to the Arian crisis of the fourth century. I also maintain that this crisis is the direct result of the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Mass, which I hope to see disappear in my lifetime and replaced with the old Roman Rite of St. Pius V in its ancient fullness. I am not, in other words, a happy-clappy liberal Catholic. But neither is Pope Francis. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that both of his predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, had more of the saccharine "Spirit of Vatican II" about them than Francis has. The current pope is a hard-headed practical man, with no illusions about human nature. Nor is he much of an intellectual, though his environmental encyclical Laudato si' is one of the most important pieces of theological writing to have appeared in my lifetime. His is a decidedly peasant spirituality of intense Marian devotion. He loathes pomposity with the fervor of his ascetic namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. While he is famous for not getting on well with mainstream traditionalists like me, the so-called rigorists and doctors of the law whom he has subjected to endless (and sometimes deserved) ridicule, he clearly has a soft spot for the much-maligned Society of St. Pius X, whose founder was shamefully — and perhaps invalidly — excommunicated by John Paul II. His gradual reintroduction of these battered and pious misfits into the wider life of the Church is the answer to many prayers. Much of the opposition to Francis is ostensibly a response to another of his missions of mercy, namely his streamlining of the annulment process, and what some consider his loosey-goosey views about admitting Catholics who have been civilly divorced and remarried to Holy Communion. I agree that in the hands of unscrupulous bishops in Europe and parts of the United States Francis's earnest entreaties for pastoral understanding of difficult situations could be used to justify sacrilege. But I am also realistic. Outside the neoconservative diocesan enclave of Northern Virginia where many of the pope's American critics live, the reality on the ground in many parishes in this country already resembles their fever dreams. At the parish in rural Michigan where my family attended Mass when I was in middle school, the lector most Sundays was a divorced and remarried Freemason. No one attended confession. Virtually everyone receiving the sacraments did so illicitly, with the full encouragement of the pastor. The worst has already come to pass, yet the Church somehow survives, just as Our Lord promised St. Peter it would. These concerns about sacramental discipline would also be more credible if they were not accompanied by a frenetic, omnidirectional antipathy to Francis the man. Ostensibly traditionalist Catholic journalists subject the pope's every utterance to a kind of graspingly paranoid scrutiny; the most innocuous line from a homily is taken as evidence of a sinister mission to undermine and ultimately destroy the Church. Meanwhile, an eager chorus of anonymous whisperers echo their delusional claims and flatter them for their keen faculties of observation.
The sad truth is ... the terms Liberal and Conservative have become meaningless in this age of Spin, Smear, Sound Bytes and 24/7 Fake news! If I had to to guess PF's place in the "Peckin' Order", I'd say he is an old fashioned Marxist Socialist with trappings of Christianity! More evidence below: Not that I needed anymore evidence to convince me that the "leadership" of The Church has been infiltrated by the same Marxist, fringe environmental, pro-abortion, Gay "rights" and Open-Borders Activists that have taken over the political parties of the US/EU ...... but .... ... "Something is rotten in the State of Vatican"! “Merkel: Pope Wants Her to Fight to Save Paris Climate Deal“ http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/vatican-climate-change-angela/2017/06/18/id/796684/ GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
Well I have seen several Popes in my lifetime, in my opinion all of them saints and none of them I ever had the least concern about to the present one. Perhaps I am delusional, lacking in affection, disobedient,. Perhaps he really is a nice guy who has been taken up wrong. Perhaps indeed I have some kind of frenetic omnidirectional antiapathy to Francis the man. Perhaps I do sense a conspiracy at work. And awful lot of perhaps. An awful lot of people who have similiar feelings. SO the suggestion is there is no real problem. We're all misguided, things are just fine. We need to calm down. We need to start seeing things clearly. We will maybe start seeing pink aliens next. Well that's alright then. Back to sleep. That's what I get for having an over active imagination. Thank goodness for that. Problem solved. The author of the article has such dazzling psychological insights into where other people are going wrong and not even a teensie weensy bit Condescending or Patronising. We are are fortunate to have great minds like this to set us all straight.
As for global warming I have my doubts. But maybe that is because I ..errr ..don't like the way Pope Francis looks. Have to watch that.
The question on the pope being liberal is way past now. I gave it the best hope I could for three years all along knowing better, that how he speaks is anything but orthodox. It is a hard thing to accept that a pope could be bad. I never considered error and heresy could ir would come from a pope. His language of speaking would never have been tolerated until this moment in history. The world had to have been dumbed down along with the baptised faithful. And so it is. We are now living in the confusion that has come from Satan and his followers of half truth. I feel fortunate to have been taught to stay with the truth and not with any man who speaks anything less. Others have not. They will stay with 'the man' and not the unchanging truths if God. Yes, even a pope can and has fallen into the sins of the world. We are witnessing to it as we speak. Those who do not hold fast to the unchanging truths of God will fall. No person on earth will be exempt from this, not even a pope. This is why Jesus said, "when I return will I find any faith left".
This article fails to explain the how or why of the central thesis, i e, "the pope is not a liberal." He just makes the unsubstantiated claim as if it were fact, then attacks those who might question this unsubstantiated claim. This article is worse than useless.
A mix of wishful thinking and self-delusion from a man claiming to be a realist. I don't know where he got the notion that Pope Francis has a peasant's spirituality. Pope Francis was no peasant by Argentinian standards. I agree with the author on one point: that Pope Francis certainly comes across as hard headed but I'm not sure that's a virtue. I'm obliged to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ as handed down by the Apostles and should even an Apostle or an angel from heaven preach a different Gospel "let him be accursed". I'm obliged to love the Pope as a human being made in the image and likeness of God. I don't have to like him. I'm obliged to obey my priest, bishop and the successor of St. Peter as long as they are preaching the same Gospel as the Church has always taught. If any one of them deviates from that Gospel in their shepherding, I have no obligation other than to pray for them. My enemy is the world, the flesh and the devil, not Catholics who have a preference for the Traditional Latin Mass or who believe that Jesus meant what He said as passed on to us in Sacred Scripture and through Magisterial teaching until this past couple of years.
I must admit , though I do have grave doubts about engaging in critique of a reigning Pontiff. I have a really huge devotion for Padre Pio and I ask myself the simple question ,what would Padre Pio have done, would he have spoken out? Would he have remained silent? The answer , from all I know of his is that he would not have . Sigh. He would have kept silent and would probably wnat to hit me over the head with something very heavy and shout at me. But what can you do? In the first place I know for a fact from the evidence presented that things are really, really seriously wrong. I mean so wrong that the very Church herself is placed in the gravest danger. So there are two options to keep quiet and so not give warning and possibly be an accomplice to a very,very great evil indeed or to keep silent. I prayed and prayed for an answer to what to do, after a long period of a very real moral agony over all this. I think it has been one of the most serious moral dilemmas of my life, a period of huge pain. Then when day in Church praying in front of the Blessed Virgin I heard the answer that I should just my common sense So have done so . I have been the dog who barked. One of the things that convinced me to speak out was the child abuse crisis. The main thing that helped this to happen was that people kept quiet believing this was the good Catholic thing to do. Well look how that turned out. Currently I don't get so upset about things to do with Pope Francis , the Vatican et all. For better or worse I have spoken out. I don;t need to exhaust myself anymore, I think people know what I think so I can let it all rest a little. I think what is going on now is just so obvious to anyone at all with an open mind. But I just find it so annoying for people to assume that people like myself have not been through such huge pain though all this before speaking out. It was always the very,very last thing I have ever wanted to do. Such a huge cause of pain. It is just so irritating to have people think that they are , 'Good' Catholics for publically defending that which is a great evil and shameful to even consider , whereas to clearly state in a condescending, and patronising manner that people like myself are delusional and 'bad' Catholics for speaking out. This from the very people who say that we are wrong to judge others. But yes I have not found this journey in this Pontificate at all easy; a real torment in fact. I just pray God will Judge me lass harshly than the Pope and others appear to do. Still if I have been wrong , just one more reason to trust in God's Mercy No surprise there I have so very many reasons to do so. But I think one of the reasons people are confused in all this is that they not reading the Signs of the Times aright. We are now in the Last Stages of an Apocaylptic Battle between good and evil. Between Satan and Heaven. I think if people had their eyes wide open to this they might see things very,very differently. So no, I don't think silence and wishful thinking are an option really. I'd be screaming my lungs out if I though it would do any good.
I was praying last night about the thought that I and others do not like Pope Francis, about Pope Francis himself and about the subject of liking or not liking people in the spiritual life generally. I don't really think that saying we love someone but do not like them really sits together very well. We may have feeling that are against someone or how they act , this is part of our poor human fallen nature. TO some extent if we dislike someone this is an choice. We dislike someone because, in fact we have at some level decided to not like them. If we have uncharitable thoughts about them, for instance it is only a matter of time before we act uncharitably. Nor are people stupid , they will sense we dislike them and we will end up in a whole world of trouble. So we are in the Field of Spiritual Warfare here. We must do the very opposite of what our fallen human nature urges. Praying for those who hate and despise us and doing good for those who wish us ill. Not an easy undertaking. It requires constant pray and vigilance. There is a lady at work , a supervisor who really despises the very ground I walk on. I have caught her actually hopping about from foot to foot in a real rage at simply hearing me speak. Poor woman Why is this? I think we both have such very different personalities really. I have to constantly pray for her for many years now to overcome my own feeling and bad urgings. You know I found this struggle a really huge spiritual blessing. We don;t at the end of the day learn most from those we like the most, the people we learn most from are the very people who cause us the most difficulty and wish us the most harm. But it is true, liking or disliking is a personal decision, as Jesus taught we must strive not to give into disliking people.
So as far as Pope Francis is concerned , no I do not dislike him. In fact it is , in a curious way rather the other way around. For I find in looking at Pope Francis I find he reminds me so much of myself..and who can hate themselves/ Not me as I am now but me as I was when I was an adolescent, before my conversion to the Faith. I was so idealisitic, so caught up in so many good causes. Everything in the world was black and right. 'We', were , 'Good' , everything and everyone else was evil. If you happened to agree with me everything was fine. If you didn't ,well you were the enemy. I was very profoundly immature and unrealistic. Basically I had no idea of the evil that lived in myself, the evil was always with the other. I loved my family of course, but in a way that had the bad elements of being totally uncritical. I had not come to terms in any sense with evil. I was not immature I was dysfunctionally immature. An emotional basket case in fact. On the other hand if you had looked at my spiritual life, before I lost the Faith you might have said I was very pious, some would have said even very holy. But it was just the most awful false shell. So basically when I look at Pope Francis I feel I am looking back at a much , much younger version of myself. What does this mean in terms of the Pope himself ,in how he acts and feels and speaks, in what he believes and where he is leading the Church. Well I feel the best model for understanding is to view him as a very, very immature teenager. As Winston Churchill once said anyone who is young and is not a Socialist by nature has no heart. Anyone who is older and is not Conservative by nature has no head. The first thing I feel about Pope Francis is that being a teenager he is so easy to manipulate. if you are part of his gang things are fine. If you are not part of his gangs things are apt to work out terrible. Think of how he has treated President Trump for instance. El Trump is certainly not part of Pope Francis's gang and boy does it show. Cardinal Burke again is way out of Francis's gang and boy does that show too. This is basically how teenagers behave, you are either in or out. Look at the Pope in this picture of the Pope, for instance , he looks all set to chuck up This behaviour is typical of a child/teenager. Look at Doanl Trump on the other hand. He knows where the Pope is at but smiles and carries on like an adult should. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/donald-trump-vatican-meeting-pope-francis
Another thing about teenagers is that they long to be loved and esteemed and this makes then just so easy to manipulate. Pope Francis has a huge hunger to be adored. This makes him putty in the hands of those who know how to flatter him. Heaven help you however if you even murmer a word that is even slightly critical. Yes, like me at this stage I too seemed very pious, even holy while I was in fact an emotional basket case. Try this model yourself . Try to interpret Francis as a teenager and see how it works. But no, I don;t dislike him in the least. I pity him, but I don't dislike him in the least. How could I? He is my past self. A good definition of someone who is immature for instance is someone who does not take responsibility for his actions. His press conferences in the sky, disasters and catastrophes , one after the other, are very good examples of this. He never learns from any of these. The teenager who simply never grew up. An emotional basket case. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...t/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult What is emotional age? A psychologist from Africa with whom I once spoke at an international psychology conference explained to me that in his country it was common to assess people in terms of both physical age and emotional age. Physical age can be counted by number of birthdays, and also by whether a person has attained full growth in terms of their height, strength, cognitive functioning etc. Psychological or emotional age is based on emotional habits. For instance, adults can stay calm whereas children tend to be quick to anger. Adults exercise careful judgment before talking whereas children are prone to impulsive blurting out of hurtful words. Preschoolers, of which there are four in my extended family, get mad or cry several times every day, even though they are basically well-nurtured and happy kids. If they want a car or doll another child is playing with, the younger ones are likely to reach out and take them. The rules of adult play like taking turns or not grabbing have not yet begun to shape their behavior. They do not act in a consistently civil manner with other children because they have not yet internalized the rules of "civilized" adults. What in children however is normal, in adults becomes childish and rude. Can you recognize childish adult behavior? One way to think about how young children differ from emotionally mature grown-ups is to picture young children you know—maybe even your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbors. How do these children differ from adults that you know and respect? Before reading my list of characteristics that I look for, you might want to jot down a list of the traits that you noticed in your visualization. Please share with other readers in the Comments below this article if you spotted some traits that I missed. 10 Signs Therapists Note When They Assess Emotional Childishness or Maturity How many of the following signs of emotional immaturity does your list include? 1. Emotional escalations Young children often cry, get mad, or look petulant and pouting. Grownups seldom do. 2. Blaming When things go wrong, young children look to blame someone. Grownups look to fix the problem. 3. Lies When there's a situation that's uncomfortable, young children might lie to stay out of trouble. Grownups deal with reality, reliably speaking the truth. article continues after advertisement 4. Name-calling Children call each other names. Adults seek to understand issues. Adults do not make ad hominen attacks, that is, attacks on people's personal traits. Instead, they attack the problem. They do not disrespect others with mean labels. There is one exception. Sometimes adults, like firefighters who battle forest fires, have to fight fire with fire. They may need in some way to power over an angry child, or an out-of-bounds adult, in order to get them to cease their bad behavior. "Stop it!" 5. Impulsivity (or as therapists say, "poor impulse control") Children strike out impulsively when they feel hurt or mad. They speak recklessly or take impulsive action without pausing to think about the potential consequences. Adults pause, resisting the impulse to shoot out hurtful words or actions. They calm themselves. They then think through the problem, seeking more information and analyzing options . Similarly, instead of listening to others' viewpoints, they impulsively interrupt them. Again, acting on impulse occasionally is a hallmark of mature behavior. Soldiers and police are trained to discriminate rapidly between harmless and dangerous situations so that they can respond quickly enough to protect potential victims of criminal actions. 6. Need to be the center of attention Ever tried to have adult dinner conversations with a two year old at the table? Did attempts to launch a discussion with others at the table lead the child either to get fussy? 7. Bullying A child who is physically larger than the other children his age can walk up to another boy who is playing with a toy he would like and simply take it. The other child may say nothing lest the bully turn on them with hostility. Safer just to let a bully have what he wants? 8. Budding narcissism In an earlier post I coined the term tall man syndrome for one way that narcissism can develop. If you can get whatever you want because you are bigger, stronger, richer etc, you become at risk for learning that the rules don't apply to you. Whatever you want, you take. It's all about you. Note that narcissistic attitudes may look initially like strength. In fact, they reflect rigidity. Psychologically strong people can tolerate listening to others. Narcissists are emotionally brittle. It's my way or the highway, like a child who wants to stay out and play even though dinner is on the table and pitches a fit rather than heed his parent's explanation that the family is eating now. It's all about me; no one else counts; and if I don't get my way I'll bully you with anger or feel overwhelmed and pout. 9. Immature defenses Freud coined the term defense mechanisms for ways in which individuals protect themselves and/or get what they want. Adults use defense mechanisms like listening to others' concerns as well as to their own and then problem-solving. These responses to difficulties signal psychological maturity. Children tend to regard the best defense as a strong offense. While that defensive strategy may work in football, attacking anyone who something different from what they want is, in life, a primitive defense mechanism. Another primitive defense is denial: "I didn't say that!" "I never did that!" when in fact they did say and do that. Sound child-like to you? 10. No observing ego, that is, ability to see, acknowledge, and learn from their mistakes. When emotionally mature adults 'lose their cool' and express anger inappropriately, they soon after, with their "observing ego," realize that their outburst was inappropriate. That is, they can see with hindsight that their behavior was out of line with their value system. Their that it was, as therapists say "ego dystonic" (against their value system). Children who have not yet internalized mature guidelines of respectful behavior toward others, or who have not developed ability to observe their behaviors to judge what's in line and what's out of line, see their anger as normal, as "ego syntonic" and justify it by blaming the other person. If you, or someone you know, does by these factors appear to be functioning more like a child than like a grown-up, what are your options? It's fine to love children. It's harder to love someone who is a child in the body of a grownup. Still, most childlike adults only act childishly when they feel under threat. One strategy therefore if you love someone who has childish sides is to focus primarily on the more adult and attractive aspects of the person. If you are the childlike one, love your strengths—and pay attention to growing in your less mature habit areas. Another strategy is to cease being surprised when the childish patterns emerge. Thinking "I can't believe that s/he/I did that!" signifies that you have not yet accepted the reality of the child-like behaviors. Accepting that the behaviors do occur is a first and vital step toward change. Third, if you are the receiver of childish behaviors, beware of trying to change the other person. Instead, figure out what you can do differently so those patterns will no longer be problematic for you. Your job is only to change yourself, not to change others. Lastly, talk together with loved ones about learning the skills of adult functioning. Much of what grown-up "children" do can be considered as a skills deficit. Getting the skills can move anyone into grown-up-ville.
We aren't required to like anyone. We like or dislike people for all sorts of reasons, mostly to do with their or our own personality. Loving them in a Christian sense is different because it means seeing past their idiosyncrasies to their intrinsic worth of being made in the image and likeness of God and wanting for them what we want for ourselves which is eternal happiness united with God when all sins will be wiped away. I don't like Pope Francis. He's the type of person I would cross the street to avoid because I see in him a slyness that makes my skin crawl. That doesn't mean that everything he does is bad or that he is completely evil. He appears to be taken in by the globalists' line that poverty can be eradicated if only we will do what they want despite Jesus telling us that the poor will always be with us. That he cares enough for the poor is a good thing. That he's so smitten by the globalists he would reduce Christ's Church to nothing more than an NGO or tool of the UN is not good. That he would slyly change the Church's priorities of bringing the full message of the Gospel to the world in order to curry favour with the globalists and gather acclaim from the atheist press is a very bad thing even if he believes that doing so will aid the poor.
We are all attracted to certain personalities and repel from others, it is human nature. This, in itself it is not sinful. It is hatred towards the person that is sinful. I don't hate Pope Francis, but I despise some of his actions and words contrary the the faith handed on. I compare it to Freemasonry. It is evil at the core, but within its wicked agenda it gives free hospital care at its Shriners Hospitals for children (social justice). That's a great thing, which sells great in the eyes of the world. They also have their Shriner circuses and parades that are entertaining to many. Another good thing in society. But, this is their cover for their evil deeply embedded within its secret society. Their underlying foundation is to destroy all belief in the one Triune God and the true faith. It is what it was founded to do 300 years ago. I don't hate Mason' s, but I hate their evil society. I hate those actions within the their members who work to destroy God's law' s of love. I hate their qwest to follow Satan. For me, it is the same for progressives/liberals who work to reject God's laws and towards man's passion for the world and the flesh while cooperating with the devil. They often hide behind their sicial justice agenda to give the appearance of being Christ like. Pope Francis has demonstrated over and again his desires to usurp God's laws, especially within marriage and family. I detest this as it is an attempt to destroy what God has ordained. But, I still pray and sacrifice for him and the other clergy and religious who are doing the same thing. Bottom line, there is allot of wolves in sheep's clothing today, not doing or even desiring the will of God as our Church magisterium has always taught. These are the ones that Jesus himself called out in his earthly journey. He made no pretense their actions were not of God and we must do the same. Love the sinner, but not the sin they are selling.
"That he would slyly change the Church's priorities of bringing the full message of the Gospel to the world in order to curry favour with the globalists and gather acclaim from the atheist press is a very bad thing even if he believes that doing so will aid the poor." Bingo!
Once I walked far up into the Mourne Mountain with the dogs and was quite proud of myself. Then I came to a cliff where some college students were doing cliff climbing , they have a little house up their from the University they use for cliff face climbing. When I looked at them swinging about hundreds of feet up from the granite face I realised I was not doing mountain climbing at all ,I was only out for a mountain stroll. Very humbling I think it is like this with charity. There are such mountains to climb. It seems to stretch on forever. I heard the story about an eagle. An Eagles egg feel from a nest and rolled down a hill till it wound up in a little run of mother hens. The hens took the egg is as their own and raised it. The eagle, thinking itself just a chicken used to grub about for worms with its mother hens and was quite happy, a bit like me with my mountain walks. Then one day a pair of eagles fly over overhead the young eagle, looking up saw them and conceived in its heart a great desire to fly. So it spread its young wings, shook itself and took off far, far into the sky to the amazement of all the mother hens who looked from below. A while back I heard an Orthodox Monk discussing the highest degrees of charity. He told the story of a monk who walked along the corridor in the monastery and saw what a total mess a lot of the monks had left their cells in , so dirty and disordered. He thought to himself how lazy and useless these monks were for doing this. Later another monk walked along the corridor and saw the same things. He thought to himself how wonderful these monks were to leave their cells in this state, that they were so busy praying that they had no time to clean up One monk had stayed with the chickens and the other had grown eagles wings and flown away. I think mothers are a little like this. When mother dislikes her child? No matter how awful he or she may become. Love gives mothers Eagles Wings. May God grant us all the Wings of Eagles. The grace of Perfect Charity. 1 Corinthians 12:31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts
Padraig, this is exactly the agony I am going through as well. I suppose many others also. I have spent many hours wondering what the great saints would do. We loyal Catholics are caught in a catch-22. We need to be loyal to the Pope and the Papacy and also to Christ and His Teachings. On top of all of this I am on the lowest tier of authority. I think if I was a Cardinal I would be acting like the Four cardinals are. At least I hope I would. Pointing out the truth while being very respectful and reaffirming loyalty to the Pope. As a lay person though I am a bit lost. All of this has to be done with the greatest care though. Notice how respectful the Four Cardinals are. That is the tightrope I am trying to walk and I suspect many others.
Yes these are totally uncharted, waters, totally uncharted. But we know we always have a duty of Charity. Sometimes though Charity and a Duty to the Truth make uneasy bed fellows. I am always conscious though that I will have to account for all this before God though. But I also know I would have had to account for the silence of cowardice and self interest as well. On the whole I would rather be hung for a sheep as a goat. I won't be accused of keeping silent when I should have been speaking out. If God has Irish ancestry I may even get a medal
So we have a crossroad. One of loyalty to the man pope and one to the truth. One offers both, but we know man can choose evil and truth never changes. I will choose the truth. I will continue to pray for the pope and the church, but my undying loyalty is to the truth when I have to choose between the two.
That is the hard part though Fatima! We cannot choose one or the other. We must remain loyal to the Pope and to Christ's teachings. That is the thin tightrope the Cardinals are walking on and we must too. It is very easy to fall of on either side. Fall off one side and land in heresy, fall off the other and land in schism. I don't think any of us truly realize the magnitude of the jeopardy we are in.
Yes, it certainly looks like schism is on the horizon. I believe that the Cardinals should have acted sooner. They may be too late getting the Church back on the narrow path. Pope Francis could get the Kasper proposal past the Synod, threw a strop over it and worked the proposal into AL anyway. He has dragged his heels responding to the dubia while approving one heretical interpretation after another. Meanwhile he has been stacking the hierarchy with like minded prelates with the result that if it does come to a showdown at a special Synod or Council, he should have enough Kasper types in place to outvote Bishops wanting pastoral practice to be in line with Church teaching. We all may be faced with the stark choice as stated by Fatima. In the link posted by Jarg describing how the faithful coped when the majority of the hierarchy supported the Arian heresy, the faithful voted with their feet, refusing to worship with the weak Pope and the heretical bishops. We could well be faced with a choice of attending Mass incorporating all sorts of abuses in a nice, comfortable Church or Cathedral celebrated by a Kasperite priest, or attending Mass in some back room or basement celebrated by a faithful priest who depends on us to support him and pay for renting the Mass venue. During the Liberius papacy, the faithful chose to attend Mass in fields rather than be complicit in heresy. I get the impression that the majority in our day will choose the comfy venue no matter how Mass is celebrated.
