Goodness, it just never stops. And almost always towards the end of the week.
In a presser for the release of a new Vatican-sponsored book containing many of Jorge Bergoglio’s homilies as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the subject of the Sacred Liturgy came up, and Francis opined very negatively on those younger folks who have an attachment for the TLM:
Asked about the liturgy, Pope Francis insisted the Mass reformed after the Second Vatican Council is here to stay and “to speak of a ‘reform of the reform’ is an error.”
In authorizing regular use of the older Mass, now referred to as the “extraordinary form,” now-retired Pope Benedict XVI was “magnanimous” toward those attached to the old liturgy, he said. “But it is an exception.”
Pope Francis told Father Spadaro he wonders why some young people, who were not raised with the old Latin Mass, nevertheless prefer it.
“And I ask myself: Why so much rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something, insecurity or even something else. Rigidity is defensive. True love is not rigid.”
There is so much to unpack here, so many errors, both of logic and with regard to the Sacred Deposit of Faith. One must ask, was the entire pre-conciliar Church similarly rigid and defective, in the Bishop of Rome’s mind? I think the answer to that is clear, Francis has always, always reserved his most feverish invective towards those in the Church who hold to a different, more traditional practice of the Faith than him.
But that wasn’t all. In another strange, one might even say scandalously disastrous interview with the noted Italian communist Eugenio Scalfari, Francis let go this whopper:
You told me some time ago that the precept, “Love your neighbour as thyself” had to change, given the dark times that we are going through, and become “more than thyself.” So you yearn for a society where equality dominates. This, as you know, is the programme of Marxist socialism and then of communism. Are you therefore thinking of a Marxist type of society?
“It it has been said many times and my response has always been that, if anything, it is the communists who think like Christians. Christ spoke of a society where the poor, the weak and the marginalized have the right to decide. Not demagogues, not Barabbas, but the people, the poor, whether they have faith in a transcendent God or not. It is they who must help to achieve equality and freedom”. [emphasis added]
Apparently, being a Christian is now about being a control freak totalitarian mass-murderer. How many tens of millions have died as a direct result of communism around the world, and continue to do so to this day? At least one hundred million, and that is quite frankly a conservative estimate. If one takes communism as simply leftism taken to its logical, inevitable conclusion, and notes that leftism has been the driving force behind the legalization of abortion worldwide and the mass use of contraception, the total number of deaths attributable to communism must run way into the billions. Leftism cannot exist anywhere as a ruling force/ideology without inflicting mass suffering on the populations under its rule. This has been the case from the French Revolution straight through to today, where thousands are starving in Venezuela and North Korea and are mired in abject poverty in Cuba -among other places.
But to Jorge Bergoglio cum Francis the Ideologue, who as a young man waited expectantly for the arrival of communist broadsheets in 50s Argentina and has always been a fervent Peronist, communists think like Christians. This is very close to saying that communism is the apotheosis of Christianity. Can anyone imagine both a more perverse, and a more materalist, conception of the Faith?
I know these catalogs I make from time to time of Francis’ derangement from the Faith, and his, it must be said, incessant attacks upon both Faith and faithful, are disturbing to some. But this stuff is incredibly important, and deserves at least a cursory review and rebuttal. Burying our heads in the sand will not make Francis go away, as much as we might like that (and as much, at times, as it may even feel necessary to maintain our own faith, which I completely understand).
Inadvertently, however, Francis himself has identified the source that drives so many to seek out the TLM, at least in major part. Just as the extremes of the Left in the United States played a huge role in Trump’s election as a reaction against and rejection of those extremes, it is the extreme errors of the left wing of the Church -of which Francis is most certainly a part – and the extreme destruction they have wrought both on souls and on the Church at large that is a driving factor in leading people to search out and find often not terribly convenient TLMs. And once they do, these souls find, almost always (though a few do not), that not only is the TLM and the entire traditional liturgical/sacramental practice of the Faith infinitely more efficacious for them in helping them grow in the Faith, it is almost always associated with far more rigorous and traditional (orthodox/faithful/just plain Catholic) catechesis that is equally of enormous benefit to souls. THAT, and not some secret psychological deficiency, are some of the major reasons why young people like me and my children adore the TLM and find so much fruit therein, both because of its innate goodness, and as an escape from the “communists make the best Christians” garbage (among many, many other errors) the permeates so much of the Novus Ordo establishment Church.
I know for my family, fleeing error was at least as big an attraction in seeking out the ONE parish that makes the TLM available in this Diocese as was our desire for sound catechesis and beautiful, God-given Liturgy (God-given because of the inspiration so many Saints acted under in guiding the organic development of the Mass over centuries). What Franky George Bergoglio really means by “rigidity or something else” is he finds these people – us – antagonistic ideologically. Much the same as the Left in this country is now calling everyone – even blacks, hispanics, and women – who voted for Trump racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. – every dirty name they can think of – what they are really saying is “enemy.”
Bearing in mind that projection is an inseparable part of being left-wing, Francis is saying much more about himself than he is those “young” people who “inexplicably” find great solace and sustenance in the TLM. He is such a child of the 60s and so provincial he is incapable -again, the parallels to the behavior of factions in this country are amazing – of imagining anyone with true humanity (and not some sad, pathetic holdover from the time of the Council who simply never got on board) that could believe differently.
There are a thousand ways to pic these two latest egregious statements apart. I have only chosen to focus on a couple of criticisms for brevity’s sake. I’m sure you can come up with many more.
A final note: Francis’ attitude towards the TLM being simply a magnanimous gesture to those old enough to have been around prior to VII to still have an attachment to the TLM implies an expiration date for Summorum Pontificum, does it not, since eventually those folks will die off?