Culture

Worst Pope Ever?

Garrison Keillor performed a neat trick. He gently teased and admonished his enlightened NPR (pardon the redundancy) audience, which to a man or a woman identifying as a man, thought itself above average. The tease would come when Keillor would tell tales of Lake Woebegone in which “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

It is obvious to even the meanest student of logic that this cannot be so. Considered inside Lake Woebegone itself, that is. It can, though, be true considered against the population as a whole.

And there’s the trick. Lake Woebegone residents, which is to say NPR listeners, are free to accept in good spirit the mild and humorous correction, while still believing themselves above average—when compared to non-NPR listeners.

(Incidentally, if you doubt this, you can verify it for yourself. Find yourself any habitual NPR listener and see if this person is forced to conclude he or she or it or whatever soars above the rest of us.)

Now Pope Francis. Progressives find he is above average. To them, His Holiness resides on the placid shores of Lake Woebegone. The Pope never judges—except when he is judging self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagianists. The Pope is full of love and bonhomie—except for the wrath he directs at those who deign to ask him questions.

These are nice, but the real reason for progressives love of the Pope is that this Pope “changes” constant teachings of the Church in a progressive direction.

But, of course, His Holiness does not live in Lake Woebegone: nobody does. So not all Popes can be above average. So there exists the possibility this Pope is not above average. He may even be below average. And if he is below average, he may, logically speaking, even be the worst. Is that so?

The fairest summary of the place of Pope Francis in history is provided by Henry Sire in The Dictator Pope. Francis, says Sire, is “a politician who relies on public relations”, a Peronist who is neither left- nor right-wing, but an “opportunist,” whose papacy has been one of “manipulation and deception.”

Sire says “Francis is an example of a very few Maverick popes that there have been in history who have been chosen without proper thought and who had gone completely off the rails.” A “product of a thoroughly corrupt Society of Jesus” (about Jesuits, more here). Francis’s reign will go down, claims Sire, “as one of the more disastrous pontificates in history.”

The question before us is: how far a step is it from more to most?

Perhaps none at all.

Sire thinks “There have been popes who have been complete mistakes. What distinguishes Pope Francis is that is he just not personally a mistake, but that he is trying to lead the Church in a direction which rejects tradition. None of the bad popes I was alluding to in the past tried to that.”

A Pope that tries to do the impossible, even to the extent of making the Church believe he has done the impossible, clearly moves from more to most.

A Pope cannot change the constant and infallible teachings of the Church. He can, of course, modify practice away from tradition. Meaning his successor could re-modify practice back toward tradition. But a Pope who acts on this allowable power too strenuously or too often makes his pontificate transient. He becomes like a president who rules by executive order knowing his successor can and will do the same.

The hope of progressives, though, is that Pope Francis is changing the Church’s infallible teachings (example). That he makes a move so drastic that his executive orders can’t be walked back. Francis, to the extent he has an intelligible plan, gives no indication he doesn’t believe in this forbidden and impossible power himself.

It’s 2018, so why shouldn’t the Church preach the goodness and pleasures of sodomy? The popular culture is convinced of the sinlessness of sodomy, so why not the Church? It should evolve as the enlightened have evolved.

Why shouldn’t the death penalty, seen as a just and even necessary penalty for thousands of years, be eliminated? About the specifics of the death penalty, and why it is worth keeping, we’ll redo again soon. But the possibility it can change from absolute right to absolute wrong is what interests us.

A new Catechism was issued (actually a revision) in which the death penalty was squashed (thanks to reader Mark Charters for the link). Here is what the new passage says:

2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

One immediately suspects Anthony Kennedy, in his retirement from SCOTUS, was asked to draft this passage. Increasing awareness—-not all are yet brought to enlightenment—that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. Even after!

What in the unholy hell has the dignity of the criminal have to do with the death penalty? There is decreasing awareness that the answer is nothing at all. Traditionally, the Church’s concern was for the soul of the criminal, his eternal state, and not his “dignity.” Dignity forsooth! As for salvation, a hanging sharpens the mind, as the saying goes. Whereas a prison sentence, which might in enlightened times, be turned into freedom, does not.

The new Catechism language is pure Kennedyism, representing a fundamental and awful change in Church tradition. It is not a concern, I must emphasize, that the death penalty is to be held in abeyance (by Catholics) during this pontificate, because it has been in abeyance for decades. Since the pontificate is seen as a shiftable presidency, traditionalists can look for a time when the death penalty is again allowed.

No. The problem is the shift of concentration from Heaven to Hell. The Church has moved from the old longing that even the criminal is not cast into the eternal fire, to the pleading that his earthly existence does not offend his dignity.

Any Pope that attempts a change like that is clearly the worst.

Categories: Culture

15 replies »

  1. Yes, the worst Pope assuming he is actually the Pope as his election was rigged.
    What could possibly possess Pope Francis to render the death penalty “inadmissible”?

    —A diversionary move to deflect the heat from l’affaire McCarrick?
    —A diversionary move to deflect new and greater notoriety of homosexuality in the Church and more particularly in the Vatican?
    —As an offset to his perceived over emphasis on abortion?
    —As a way to enhance his “mercy” credibility with the MSM and liberals generally?
    —Because he wants to future changes in the Catechism regarding the definition of homosexuality and it’s sinfulness.
    —Because he actually believes the death penalty is “inadmissible”.

    Given Pope Francis questionable theological credentials, his open mindedness to homosexuality and other deviant sexual practices, his subversion of Catholic doctrine, his Machiavellian methods, and dictatorial nature one has to assume that his declaration that the death penalty is “inadmissible” is nothing more than a public relations ploy.

  2. Without the death penalty, the entire New Testament would be irrelevant, as would Christianity itself.

  3. This papal proposal is worth a Godwin or two.

    You-know-who and his allies would also have human dignity, even after the atrocities of the death camps. Further, I believe that the prison technology of the 40-ties of the previous century was already good enough to keep them under lock and key for the rest of their lives. So, the Nurenburg trials should have ended in life sentences, according to the Pope.

    Same reasoning for people like Pol Pot, or Ceausescu, the people ordering the Rwandan Genocide, of the bosses of ISIS.

  4. Once again Briggs (& Sire) cherry picks Catholicism, cherry picks popes, cherry picks Aquinas, cherry picks traditions, cherry picks Christianity & Jesus’ teachings to suit pre-determined malformed personal opinions. But we’re not going back to a time when the Earth was flat and the Universe revolved around it.

  5. Shecky R–the official Pope Francis signed/sealed letter: http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/180802b.html
    says explicitly “number 2267 of the Catechism expresses an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium”
    which means that if we take the new document as authoritative all prior teachings on the moral licity of the death penalty remain in effect

    For more details see:
    https://thejosias.com/2018/08/05/the-magisterial-weight-of-the-new-text-of-the-catechism-on-the-death-penalty/

  6. Sheri is right. If Jesus hadn’t been judicially murdered they would have had to invent the story.

  7. IMHO we already had Armageddon – SVDW cites it above. We live in the post-Apocalyptic world, the End of Times. So Francis is a perfect fit. He’ll be affirming baby brain sucking next, along with Obama and the Manson Familia New Left. It’s all encore. The concert is over.

  8. An old saying goes: there’s nothing like an impending certain death to inspire revision, contrition and conversion.

    Let’ take the Gospel account of the Crucifixion; the two thieves. According to legend Dismas (the “good” thief) was not just a pilferer, pickpocket, or such; he was a completely amoral reprobate brigand; a highwayman, murderer, rapist, extortionist and goodness knows what else a band of brigands get up to in their secret hideaways. But he was the one who chided the “other” thief for his derisory comment: “If you are the Son of God save Yourself and us” with the mild reprimand: “We are justly punished for our crimes but this Man has done nothing wrong. Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom”. Jesus replied: “This day you will be with Me in Paradise”.

    Saint Dismas had had a whole life of crimes and time to repent and make amends but if he were not crucified would he not have continued in his firmly established habits?

    Perhaps T’Googlio Monster would similarly convert if he faced the firing squad he so richly deserves… or perhaps he’d refuse the Grace offered and go with Judas and so many others.

  9. The key to the “New Catechism’s” error is “Today, however,….” We do not re-make the Church in the image of man, we get man to serve God.

    Pope Francis is a product of South American liberation theology. And he’ll still be Pope after many of us have gone on.

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