Father Ripperger said recently that it best to stay "attached to The Church, but detached from the STATE of the church". The Church ~ the suffering souls, the Saints, Our Lady, the Angels, the Heavenly Hosts, the faithful militant. ~ Yes, we must each be honest with ourselves, especially about what we can do as individuals.....But, imho, we cannot force anyone else to do anything....be they lay, priest, bishop or even pope. Our Lady said in the Gospel, "do whatever He tells you". We must each ask Him ~ Lord, what would you have me do? ~ For myself, I have asked......the answer I try to stick to is "when the heart is stirred, silence the lips, and when the soul is stirred, silence your thoughts, and when a foul wind blows, rest your heart in My Heart", and be at peace. That was MY answer........so I've been trying to live that, while staying detached from the "state of the church". Others will have a different answer....
Of course we cannot force anyone to do anything immoral that they don't want to. But we can open the door and invite people to go through it. Of course it is difficult for folks to accept that the person they have regarded as Pope is actively working to destroy the Church they love. Of course if someone they suppose to be Pope actually is destroying the Church he cannot by definition be Pope. Why? Because it would be illogical A shepherd dies not steal his sheep and eat them. But this is not about Paoa Frankie. This is about your understanding of him. Because if you cut the feet from under him. you fear youre cutting the feet from beneath yourself. But our Faith is not built on any Pope false or otherwise, our Faith us built on Christ
I have been fond of many Pope's. Many of them were saints and men of genius. But it is Jesus Christ I follow and His Bride the Church. It doesn't cause me to pause for a second to say that Papa Frankie is a no good son of a b***h . If that's not as clear to you as it is to me when the evidence is so obvious, fair enough go with it. I've opened the door to you, it's up to yourself if you go through it. But it's the simple truth
I don't know if you're familiar with the blogger 'Mundabor', Padraig, but I used to be discomfited by his apparent 'vulgarity' (can one be 'vulgar' about a wicked pope?). I returned to him some time ago to find his views about Pope Francis vindicated and also to find his views on so many other issues, but particularly those on the war in the Ukraine, to correspond with what is true, despite all the lies to the contrary. When a person is truthful about one thing, you can usually depend on him for everything else. Of course, Mundabor is a native, orthodox (absolutely) Italian Catholic, living in the UK. This background ensures a more, earthy, grounded view of popes, while still being able to maintain respect of the highest order for the office itself. Indeed, it implies even greater outrage at one who would besmirch this most sacred office. It might be easier for some to come to terms with what is happening by denying he's a pope at all, but I go with the more appalling prospect that, gruesome as he is, he sits on Peter's chair...but not for much longer.
But, when he's dead, Christ can, and will, Judge him. And so can future Church authorities of the requisite authority. Popes have been dug up...but, spare us.
This is my take on all of this. If I draw a lot of flak on this, I am not so good at responding in timely fashion or maybe I just have no answers. Maybe I will have to lay low for a while. There was a blogger priest (I can't remember his name) who was asked what he thought about all of the criticism of Pope Francis. His response was "get a life!" I can relate to this response. In the very last Gospel, the very last line before Advent (Luke 21: 34-36), Jesus tells us "Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man." For many, defending Jesus and his spotless Bride, The Church, to the hilt, will help them to stand with confidence before Our Redeemer, the Son of Man. And we also have to think about Our Heavenly Father - will He deny us if we have denied His Beloved Son? But Jesus tells us what questions he is going to ask us when we stand before Him. Matthew 25. Did you feed the hungry, did you clothe the naked, did you visit the sick and those in prison? Did I do any of this today? No. Did I do any of it this week? No. Is that 20 euro I gave to St. Vincent de Paul a couple of weeks ago going to be enough? What about that rich young man whom Jesus told that he lacked one thing - to sell all his possessions and come follow him. How am I faring on that front? What about when Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this : a man finds treasure hidden in a field. What does he do? He buries it again and goes off, sells everything he owns and buys that field! These are the things I am worrying about. On the altar of my heart, have I given everything to the Lord, so that there is nothing that comes before him in my life? And now I am going to say something shocking, perhaps non-Catholic. I would give up the whole Magisterium of the Church, the whole Tradition of the Church, the whole mystical tradition of the Church, if I could be sure I would stand with confidence before the Son of Man. Of course I do love those Traditions. For some being in the Barque of Peter, The Church, gives that assurance. For others and possibly myself, being in the Immaculate Heart of Mary brings soothing relief to my doubts. But I do think that the Jesuitical program of the Social Justice Gospel may actually be closer to answering those questions that Jesus will ask before He separates the sheep from the goats, the rams from the he-goats. Will He ask why I did not speak out against Petrus himself. I don't know.
Yes. Christ is King. We ultimately follow Him. And I'll leave the current Pope to Him. He's doing as he himself said he would; he's making a mess. I've myself been cut off from close family members because "The Pope said". And I said no, morally I cannot do that. I stood my ground at great pain and sacrifice. And I pray for the strength to continue do so, for love of Him and no other reason. There may be even worse trials ahead; imho, if I can't stand alone in my Faith in the "here & now", how will I stand when I am alone in front of the Just Judge? We are all being tested, and the separation indeed seems to be happening right before our eyes. It's terrifying at times. When I cry out, it is with a thousand voices; those of my ancestors, the Saints who have befriended me, the faithful here in this world. I do what I can for those whom He puts in my path, & I weep when I let an opportunity pass me by out of neglect or plain sloth. It's all I've got; my widows mites. I can only hope He accepts them....always trying to remember that even if the "law" of this world says you can and must do this, does not mean I should do it no matter who says so. In all honesty, and I am open to correction/suggestions in goodwill, what else can a small sinful person do? I can't save the world; I've been down the angry road and I can say with full confidence what someone once pointed out to me ~ "The Justice of God is not served by the wrath of men" ~
You fail to see the spiritual works of mercy. Example, the praying for the souls in purgatory is the same as visiting those in prison. There are many Orders of enclosed nuns and monks who did little or nothing of the corporal works of mercy but have done huge amounts of the spiritual works. God rewards all the good we do.
His pontificate will be judged by a future Pope - who will declare that he was either a formal heretic or perhaps gather a council to investigate and judge whether he was Pope in the first place because of an invalid election. Either way his legacy will not be a good one, a pontificate of deliberate confusion and obfuscation.
Maybe it is scrupulosity on my part, but to my sensibilities it seems more prudent to take seriously the plain meaning of what Our Lord told us. Especially, if we are able bodied. Sure, pray as well (the spiritual works of mercy) but actually do what we were told to do. Our Lady told us to "do whatever He tells you ". And Our Heavenly Father told us on Mount Tabor, "This is my beloved Son, listen to Him." I've no idea how one might visit someone in prison and bring the Gospel to them. If anyone in Ireland feels like they want to try, I'm all in. I don't have the courage to do it on my own.
Perhaps having a wife has calmed him down, but I knew Mundabor from Damian Thompson's now defunct blog Holy Smoke. He was a loud mouth with no manners. He especially delighted in crudely insulting people he disliked, including the non-Catholic members. One of them called him Mundabore, which enraged him but I think summed him up. It's very good to be orthodox, but this doesn't give an excuse to be abusive. His brand of vitriol doesn't impress me. Sorry.
Oh thank you, I must read him, it will cheer me up. There was a Sicilian priest , just an ordinary Parish Priest who was very good too. He had a great Devotion to Our Lady. They pretty well sent the Vatican Airforce to dive bomb him to shut him up. Utube censured him Also a very holy old Italian Capuchin priest who appears to have been wiped off the map. There were many lone voices many of them coming to a bad end. Bless them all for their courage. https://nypost.com/2018/11/15/priest-who-called-pope-francis-an-antipope-excommunicated/
The Italians have never been scandalised by what goes on in the Vatican because they have come to expect it. I recall a very funny remark by a Protestant Italian lady when Pope St John 23rd was elected, 'They have gotten a good and holy pope. How did that happen !'.
When you're getting flak, you know you're over the target. Oh, as for Mundabor, he wouldn't be what is known nowadays as 'nice'!
They say Padre Pio sometimes sent people in tears from the Confessional and regularly refused absolution. This was one of the biggies his critics refused him of, of not being nice. I notice on several occasions in Scripture Jesus was not nice, sometimes confusingly so. For instance when the Samaritan woman and the Roman Centurion came them for help he gave them the big thumbs down saying that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. The reason why that people like Jesus and Padre Pio seem harsh, unpleasant and not nice on occasions is that they are working to a different agenda than us. They are as it were dancing to a different music and because they are dancing to a different rythme they can seems disjointed, bizarre at times. In order to understand and see we have to kind of getting with the groove. Dance to the same tune, which at times can be very hard to do as the music they dance to can seem weird to us. When King David danced before the Ark of the Convenant as it was led into Jerusalem he was criticised for being a fool and doing something below the dignity of a King. But David was,as it where dancing to different music. To the beat of a different drum. 1 Corinthians 4:10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!
