Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
St Peter did deny Our Lord and made some impulsive decisions when they came to arrest Jesus. He also was abit of a hot head when he set out to spread the Church. Flawed he was.
But the difference between St Peter and certain subsequent Popes is they have enjoyed the comforts of the office. And I’m not saying that the office of Pope should not be a position of privilege and that it doesn’t deserve our respect.
However, certain Popes have retained their humility in a position of privilege whilst others have abused their position of privilege.
Fake humility which includes grumbling at your “subjects” (as Pope Francis views us) is not humility. It’s pretentious. And the problem is that he doesn’t even realise it.
“The Pope is the Vicar of Christ, not Christ….” Amen
And let’s not forget that Francis publicly rejected the title of Vicar of Christ almost immediately upon his installation. It was pitched at the time as another one of his showy signals of his supposed humility. I suspect it had nothing whatsoever to do with humility. Rather, perhaps the Holy Spirit prevented him from assuming a title, even an informal one, that indicates a part of the traditional role of a pope which he, Bergoglio, never had any intention of trying to fulfill. In that avoidance, at least, he has been quite effective.
Frank- Francis declining to be the Vicar of Christ never sat well with me either, and less so as time went on.
A good steward must accept that he acts always, and only, in the name of the King.
Didn’t he decline to use the title, Vicar of Christ?
Sadly, yes.
Didn’t he decline to use the title, Vicar of Christ?
If I was privileged to be in his inner circle, I think I would take great delight in referring to him as The Vicar of Christ every time I addressed him…just to get under his skin.
“Good Morning, Vicar of Christ, would you like 1 or 2 sugars with your coffee this morning?”
“Vicar of Christ, Putin is scheduled to see you after your pedicure.”
“We have scheduled the Synod on the Synodial Synodality for next month oh Vicar of Christ”….
God forgive me – I think it would be heaps of fun!! 😆