Readers Comment on New Pope Francis

TIA,

I was driving home from work tonight and heard Cardinal Dolan waxing enthusiastic about the new Pope Francis I. He was praising his first act as pontiff, which was to break with the tradition of going to the platform and sitting in the papal throne above the cardinals. Instead, he just stood among the Cardinals greeting them.

"He said I'll stay down here," Card. Dolan, Archbishop of New York said. "He met each of us on our own level."

Then, after greeting the Cardinals, he made his second break with tradition in his first public act. Stepping onto the balcony at the Vatican to greet the thousands of people in Vatican Square, Jorge Bergoglio asked the people to pray for him rather than bless the people, which is the traditional first act of a new Pope.

The willingness by Francis to dispense with tradition was interpreted by a Vatican spokesman as a sign he will be willing to break other formulas and traditions, making the papacy less monarchical and more democratic.

He already has done away with the ceremony and pomp as a Cardinal, eschewing the title and way of life traditionally held by a Prince of the Church. After being named Cardinal, he rejected the episcopal palace and took a small apartment. He also sent away the chauffeur and limousine and takes public transportation. Rather than the title Cardinal Bergoglio, he preferred to be called just plain Father Jorge.

Already he has given an indication he will continue along this path. Instead of taking the papal car that had been prepared for him to return to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, he took the same minibus he had arrived in along with the other Cardinals.

I think these are signs that he will speed up toward the miserablist church Atila Guimarães has written about on your site.

He notes that Paul VI even wanted “the Pope to leave the Vatican, along with those who inhabit it," and "should go to live for some time with his seminarians, with his people at St. John Lateran …. At St. John’s, his cathedral, he should inaugurate a new way of governing the Church in the manner of Peter who was poor."

One can only wonder if Francis I will fulfill the wishes of Paul VI.

     In Cristo Rey,

     Margaret Galitzin

Dear Mr. Guimaraes,

I’m waiting for you to comment on the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope. I see a lot of articles are trying to present him as conservative on social issues and not very favorable to Liberation Theology.

But then they say his first concern is the poor, increasing social services for them and evangelizing in the slums, using all the methods of adaptation to the modern world.

Then I read that Leonardo Boff, one of the main founders of liberation theology, had this to say about the election: “I am encouraged by this choice, viewing it as a pledge for a Church of simplicity and of ecological ideals.” If Boff is favorable toward Pope Francis I, then I don’t think he is a real enemy of Liberation Theology.

Does this new pope speak out of both sides of his mouth, like ex-Pope Benedict did? Or is he a true-blue progressivist who the conservative media is trying to make more palatable to the faithful?

Thank you for your insights and direction you give in these crazy, demon-infested times.

In the Immaculate Heart of Jesus and Mary,

M.C.

Hello, Tradition in Action,

If you want a preview of what the new Pope thinks about the Latin Mass, just read what was posted on Panorama Catolica Internacional, written by Card. Bergoglio’s fellow Argentinian Marcelo Gonzalez, who knows him well. It seems that he is no fan of the Latin Mass and was not open to priests saying them in his Archdiocese.

The only part I take issue with is when he says that he will take the Church in a direction that Benedict would not like. I believe the two will get along famously and work together to make a Church no one will recognize in 10 years, as Card. Schonborn (Benedict’s disciple) predicted.

Here is the article in English:

Of all the unthinkable candidates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is perhaps the worst. Not because he openly professes doctrines against the faith and morals, but because, judging from his action as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he seems to have been indifferent to faith and morals.

A sworn enemy of the Traditional Mass, he has only permitted parodies of it in the hands of declared enemies of the ancient liturgy. He has persecuted every priest who made an effort to wear the cassock, preach solidly, or who showed interest in Summorum Pontificum.

Famous for his inconsistency (and at times, for the unintelligibility of his speeches and homilies), given to the use of vulgar, demagogical, and ambiguous expressions, his magisterium cannot be called heterodox, but rather non-existent for its confusion.

His entourage in the Buenos Aires Curia, with the exception of a few clerics, has not been characterized by the virtue of their actions. Many are under grave suspicion of moral misbehavior.

He has not lost any occasion to carry out acts where he handed over his Cathedral to Jews, Protestants, Muslims, and even sectarian groups in the name of an impossible and unnecessary interreligious dialogue. He is famous for his meetings with Protestants in spectacles at the Luna Park arena where, repeatedly, together with the preacher of the papal household [Raniero] Cantalamessa, he was "blessed" by Protestant ministers during an act of common worship where he, in practice, accepted the validity of the sacramental powers of the Protestant TV-pastors.

This election is incomprehensible: He is not a polyglot, he has no curial experience, he does not shine for his holiness, he is slack in doctrine and liturgy, he has not fought against abortion or homosexual marriage, he does not have the customs to honor the Pontifical Throne. He has never strived for anything except to remain in positions of power.

Really, it cannot be what Benedict wanted for the Church. He [Bergoglio] does not seem to have any of the conditions to continue his work.

May God help the Church. One can never dismiss, as humanly difficult as it may seem, the possibility of a conversion... yet, nonetheless, the future terrifies us.

It is a pretty bleak preview of the new papacy.

Keep up your good work.

     A. P. B.

Hello, TIA,

After reading The Horror!, above, I could not help but think of Groundhog Day... the groundhog has seen his shadow...six (maybe sixteen) more years of winter.

     Fr. P.S.

Hi Dr. Horvat,

My friends immediately noticed that the papal election could still hold-up to the old Italian prophecy:

"When the White Pope and the Black Pope shall die during the same night, then there will dawn upon the Christian nations the Great White Day."

Could it still apply since the previous head of the Jesuits was called the 'black pope'.

Bergoglio was head of the Jesuits (see here).

"Formerly the head of the church’s influential Jesuit order, Francis is known as a humble man who led an austere life in Buenos Aires. He was born to Italian immigrant parents and was raised in the Argentine capital..."

God bless you.

F.D.S.


Editor's Note:

Jorge Bertoglio was not the General Superior of the all Jesuits, who is the one normally called the “black pope,” but was only the head of the Jesuits in Argentina.

Hi TIA,

Argentine Catholics and Jews came together to celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas together at a ceremony attended by current Pope and then Cardinal of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio. Watch the video here.

S.G.

TIA,

Thank you for posting this picture and comments.

TIA is always a place to go for reliable news on what is happening in the Conciliar Church.

J.B.

TIA,

At the first Mass of the new Pontiff, Pope Francis I, there was a very disturbing change that doesn’t bode well for the future of traditionalists.

The novus ordo table returned to the presbytery in the Sistine chapel. Seems that the “simple, humble” Argentine Pope couldn’t wait even a day to send the message that he is a champion of the ”simpler, more humble” New Mass. So the changes begin. But it doesn’t look like this is a Francis who will bring the church out of ruins, he will just move faster in the direction of destruction it has been on since Vatican II.

Thanks for your website. It is a godsend in this desert of paganism and ocean of cowards.

R.A.