
Pope Francis?
No Comment
After all ... “Who are we to
judge?”

(a frightfully emerging
picture ...)
The Popularity of Francis
may not be a good sign after all
It
has been nearly three years into the Papacy of
Francis and we have written nothing until now. Why? You be the
judge ... (and, yes, actually you can).
If you are on good terms with the world, you probably are
not on good terms with God. (Saint James.4.4)
The lives of the Saints are striking testimony
to this. They have not been welcomed, and most often reproached, exiled,
despised, and outcast. From Saint Paul to Saint Athanasius, from Saint
John of the Cross to Blessed José Luis Sánchez del Río, to name a few.
But do not take our word on it: there is a greater Authority:
“If the world hate you, know
ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been
of the world, the world would love its own: but
because you are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not
greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you.”
(St. John 15.18-20)
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“Unprecedented popularity”
“Pope Francis is the 266th
pope and history has seen 37 false or antipopes,”
he [Cardinal George Pell] wrote. “The story of the popes is
stranger than fiction,” the cardinal wrote, and today “we
have one of the more unusual popes in history, enjoying almost
unprecedented popularity.”1
The Lingering — and discredited —“Encounter
Group” mentality of the 60s
This, of course, is not to make a judgment, nor to imply one either
by Cardinal Pell or us.
We do, however, question the implicit paradigm
of Encounter Groups — “Often associated with the radical social
upheaval of the 1960s” 2 — that Francis appears to endorse
on a massive scale, insisting that,
“the
culture of encounter that is the foundation of peace”.
3
And all this time we thought — and the
Church taught — that it was God, Christ, the Prince
of Peace.
Not an Encounter
— with Christ
It is important to note
that Pope Francis is not speaking of an encounter
with Christ — that is to say, an encounter with God and the
subsequent conversion experience to Jesus Christ together with the peace
that attends this conversion (for that, after all, would be “proselytism”,
or the turning of others to Christianity and the Church which he openly
and famously deplores as “nonsense”) — but with other “cultures”.
What an odd notion. We wonder if
the Holy Father plans Encounter Groups with ISIS and Radical Islam —
clearly another “culture” altogether — and after absorbing their
thoughts on the matter arriving at that “foundation of peace” through
his policy of the “culture of encounter”. In this case — and it is an
important one — God cannot be in the mix. After all, by what name would
both cultures call Him (and your head may well depend on your answer),
and so arrive at peace? Perhaps we could compromise on the Name
of God since we have already compromised on so much.
This is no rhetorical question. Pope Francis’s
mantra, hearkening back to the clarion of Vatican II, is clear:
“A culture of encounter
demands that we be ready not only to give, but also to receive.”
5
This entire narrative gives pause ... no
matter how non-judgmental we must “correctly” be in order to
offend no one in the name of Christ.
Pray for the Holy Father. Pray for the
Church. And never cease to pray for the conversion of the world to Christ.
It was, after all, His last commission to us.
4
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
____________________________________________
1 Cardinal George Pell
(Catholic News Service. October 24, 2014)
2
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/encounter+group
3 (Vatican Radio - Pope
at Mass: Culture of encounter is the foundation of peace) Homily by
Pope Francis May 22 2013
4
“Going therefore, teach ye all nations;
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation
of the world.” (St. Matthew 28.19)
5 http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-all-media-must-serve-a-culture-of-encounter/
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Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
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