PopeWatch: Classless Francis
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Not just a lack of class, but— like ignoring sensible Dubia from respected Cardinals— it’s a wordless proclamation of contempt and dismissal.
What a shabby little man. Just when I think Francis couldn’t sink lower, he excavates a new sub-basement.
Underhanded, insulting and a divider. In those regards PF is similar to Biden. I had to read up on Traditionis Custodes and the accompanying letter. Many of us are disappointed in our bishop. His reaction was not immediate but now parishes that had a Traditional Mass are forbidden to have it. The Trad. Mass cannot be celebrated in a consecrated building. An insult to the Holy Eucharist. It is like the early Christians meeting in catacombs. Sunday collections in those parishes stripped of the TM are decreasing even more. Families drive long distances to hear a TM. The BLA has been effected by the closing of churches during COVID. Now the bishop sends out the begging letter in December vice the week before Ash Wednesday.
I feel for the seminarians who will no longer be instructed Latin and the TM.
Benedict abdicated, so he lost any claim to at least be able to defend Summorum Pontificum from those who sought its overturn. And Francis was perfectly within his rights to not seek Benedict’s advice and input on the matter, even informally. Being an ex-Pope really means one no longer has a say in things.
But for Francis to not to give Benedict the courtesy of a heads-up, to leave the man to find out one of the crowning achievements of his reign was being dismantled by reading about it in the paper is a jaw-dropping slap in the face given to a defenseless old man. Like Traditiones Custodes itself, it was a senseless, stupid act of cruelty perpetrated on those who cannot fight back. In short, it was the act of a bully and a coward.
[…] Links: Benedict Learned About Traditionis Custodes via L’Osservatore Romano – The American Catholic No Truth on Rumors of Conservatives Ousting of Francis (Twitter) […]