I’ve stopped caring about what Pope Francis and the Hierarchy are doing...

As most of you know, in my diocese, it’s almost impossible for me to attend Mass and receive the Sacraments. Because of that, I’ve pretty much stopped caring about what Pope Francis and the Hierarchy are doing to try to “change the Church:” I feel like I’m already entering into that time that Our Lady of Akita predicted when She said that all we’ll have is the Rosary and the “Sign of [Her] Son.”

I still pray for the Holy Father’s soul, and I definitely pray a lot for my own diocese and maintain a sliver of hope that things might get just a tad bit better here, but I just think that things won’t get better in the Church until after this Babylonian Exile is over. Sorry to be all dark and doomy about this, I was just listening this morning to a that Pope Francis was up to something and realized, I just don’t care anymore; (and come to think of it, I don’t want to care, because I think the only way I’ll care now, is if Pope Francis does something worse, than the Pacha-not-our-mama abomination; and if Pope Francis does something worse than the Pacha-not-our-mama abomination, ) I feel like I just need to focus more on saving my own soul and the soul of my future wife, my family and my local community. (I hope and pray that I can be successful in this area, at least in regards to my future wife and my family.)

 

Imo, it's okay and healthy to "turn down the static" -- as "static" tends to be everywhere, and can easily overwhelm. Where's the spiritual good in THAT?

Peter taking his eyes off Jesus and looking at the waves. Jesus redirecting Peter's gaze onto Himself.

During my Protestant upbringing, other people nearly drove me nuts with ongoing inter-denominational wrangling, nitpicking doctrines, is it wrong to hand out candy on Halloween (adults can't decide that themselves?), is a Country-Western beat in Christian music okay, on and on.

Early on I decided a lot of people either a) don't want to do what they're supposed to do [take up their cross, die to self, present the Gospel to others] or b) love to argue or c) both.

So yes, I also "switch off" as necessary.

 

I can identify with your feelings RW.. I have also pretty much gone on 'ignore' as far as the Pope goes. If I see a post about him, I'm most likely to scroll on by than read it as every day for a long time there was only news of 'the next thing' he's done to upset everyone. I do have respect for his position but feel he is not a very good Holy Father or shepherd of the Church. Occasionally he throws in something nice about Mary or elevates a blessed to a saint but few and far between. I've learned to not trust him, not trust history, and many other things. Now, I just trust in Jesus, Mary and the saints, do my devotions, watch the Marians say Mass online, pray for my family, friends and all of you, and keep my head above water.

 

Agree, I feel it's like going back to the 80's when Catholicism was more of a do-it-yourself thing in the face of so much modernism. And that was in the days of John Paul II! I had a PP who used to pray openly for 'a new brand of leadership' in the Church, which meant something that wasn't very Catholic at all. So I feel I've been there before in a way. Of course we've never had a Pope who promoted heretics and dismissed orthodox preachers. Fr Altman must have known he'd be asked to resign when he said what he did. Bless him for his honesty and love of truth.

Back in the 90s when the UK bishops were modernists almost to a man, I once asked a holy old monk, an eminent scripture scholar, what he'd do if his superiors told him to do something heterodox. He was an obedient and faithful Catholic priest but he stared at me and said "I obey the Pope!!". It was the one light that we had, our Pope and holy people like Mother Teresa. Now we don't have that. We have a few brave bishops and Cardinals, but that's it. The laity will have to save the church - traditionally the laity have been stronger than the clergy; England in the time of Henry VIII is an example. All the bishops bar one apostatised and it was the laity who largely kept the flame alight.

We've had heretic popes before. At one time the Arian heresy was so deep that there were few churchmen who were orthodox. The church survived that, it will survive this, though it may not be in my lifetime.

 

How many Faithful lay do you think are there? It often seems like the Faithful lay is in the majority and growing, evangelizing and having large families, and the hierarchy is on the defensive trying to stop us in anyway they can while at the same time acting as though they are for the laity and trying to free the laity from “clericalism.” On top of that, you’d think that these lockdown of Masses and the Sacraments would also increase the number of unfaithful leaving the Church. But I can’t help but wonder, how big are the Faithful, do we take up a significant portion in the Church?