Hmmm. From Sandro Magister:
But that’s just it. As the two books cited above prove, the time has come to back away from the reigning pope, if one aims to succeed him. After wringing out all the favors it could, the Sant’Egidio lobby has decided to put Francis on the shelf. The Church is burning, the flock is lost, it is time for a new pope. The two books trace his profile in their own way. Too bad that the aimlessness of both, on the real epochal challenges that the Church is called to face today, will not help him.
Go here to read the rest. A Pope can be in ill health for quite a few years, as was demonstrated in the latter part of the pontificate of John Paul II. Pope Francis could still be Pope for quite a while. The important thing is that now he is regarded as a short timer. His hasty issuing of his declaration of war against the traditional mass, without consultation other than with a handful of his cronies, was not the action of a Pope who believes time is on his side.
The big question: Is Francis now to be the cause of the “turning point” into a more novel world-centered Church, or is he to be the “returning point” by which we finally come to our senses and reject novelty and change and return to Christ’s given mission of bringing fallen man to salvation?
It’ll be interesting in that this will be the first conclave that won’t have the specter of St. Malachy hanging over it. Though how much that really influenced voting is anybody’s guess.
Was the motu proprio a sudden thing? It seemed like it was rumored for at least a year.
Almost all the Bishops are acting as if they had no advance notice.
Even liberal US bishops (like my own) haven’t actually followed the document as you’d expect. This indicates that 1) they were taken off guard at the severity of it, 2) they are simply conducting diocesan-wide “dialogue” to wait out Bergoglio, as they are aware of the massive problems, or 3) (and possibly bigger than people would think) bishops are afraid of a strict crackdown as they don’t want to give the SSPX any more influence. Make no mistake about this: this was designed to formally and finally excommunicate all associated with the SSPX.