Bergoglio was above all a man of his time. His boyhood was spent under the dictatorship of Juan Perón, who dazzled a whole generation of Argentinians, and not least the young Jorge. As Jesuit novice-master in Argentina in the early seventies, Bergoglio was actively assisting a political grouping called the Guardia de Hierro (Iron Guard), who were working, successfully, for the return of Perón from exile and his reinstatement as President. In Bergoglio’s subsequent career as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and especially as Pope, Peronism became his defining legacy in its most typical features: the blatantly political outlook, the populism always intensely concerned with public image, the opportunism, and above all the ruthlessness with which party hacks were jockeyed into position and critics were crushed.
The other defining legacy Bergoglio represented was the phase of the Catholic Church, and especially the Society of Jesus, under which he was trained in the sixties and seventies. It was a time when the Church took the decision to ingratiate itself with the modern world by relaxing its traditional teaching, by secularising its liturgy, and by jumping on the contemporary political bandwagons. The result of the policy was seen in a catastrophic decline of the Church, with the Society of Jesus as a prime example: from a peak of 36,000 members it has plummeted to its present 14,000, most of whom are elderly survivals of the years before 1965. To cite this however is merely to give the statistical side of a failure which has left the Church with a ruined clergy, too timid to teach spiritual truth, and mired in sexual scandals.
Go here to read the rest. The Peronist Pope damaged the Church in ways that will take years if not decades to repair. The Conclave of 2025 will go down in history as beginning the work of repair, or continuing the destructive legacy of Pope Peron Francis.
In 1928, Argentina’s annual per capita product was 60% that of the United States. In 2018, it was 33% that of the United States. That’s the Peronist legacy.
I have often called Pope Francis a Marxist Peronist Caudillo, and rightly so. But as I look back on things, I don’t think he could have been anything else, given his country of origin, and his religious and political formation. Towards homosexuals, illegal immigrants, those in adulterous relationships, etc., he felt great sentimentality which he confused with love. I think that he believed he could win such people into the Church by being nice and tolerate and inclusive. He looked on exhortations of righteousness and holiness, conversion and repentance as judgmental and authoritarian. He loved ingratiating himself with liberal political leaders because he craved worldwide esteem which he confused with respect for the dignity of his high office. He embraced pagan values like environmentalism because he likely thought that taking care of “Mother Earth” was like giving our descendants their rightful inheritance. But he was completely ignorant of energy technology and energy policy. He favored socialism because likely he thought that was the best way to equitably distribute wealth from “hoarders” to the poor; he never recognized that sometimes people are poor because of the foolish decisions which they have made in life. Towards orthodox traditionalists he felt great antipathy because of what he preceived as their uncharitable rigidity. I think that he disbelieved all the reports of homo-eroticism and corruption regarding the lavendar laced members of the clergy because those reports came from those whom he regarded as rigid and uncharitable. I don’t think that he was very smart, certainly not on par with Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. JP II. And I do think that he could be easily manipulated by lavendar laced clergy smarter than him.
All that said, I am still sad that he is dead. Now there is no chance for him to repudiate and reverse the damage that he has done. As for the Church, just as Christ the Head of the Church was beaten and whipped and crucified, so must His Body the Church. Yes, let us pray for a man like Cardinal Sarah to replace him. But at the same time, let us prepare for the reverse as well. Whatever happens, however, God Almighty is still on the Throne, and He still wins no matter what. Nothing happens outside of His sovereignty, whether by His perfect will or by His permissive will.
I always found it interesting when I went to international Catholic meetings outside of the USA, the vast majority of people I met thought that Pope Francis was a great Pope, in fact, the word genius was constantly bandied about. I don’t think this is true, but definitely, there’s a lot of the Catholic world that looks upon his pontificate as a resounding success. Of course, most of this was European, where I became convinced that there is a different, secular version of Catholicism than the American outlook.
I think he could have been just about anything else. That aside, he had a front row seat to Argentina’s political and economic dysfunction. It appears to have taught him nothing.
Or conversely, it taught him *too* well…
Some people are drawn to a particular “style” of Catholicism- our Church is filled with everyone from St Thomas Aquinas to St John the Baptist. Palace Scholars to Cave Hermits. All are good and Faithful and of God. Pope Francis preferred the Faith of poverty and the lowly. Where he didn’t get it right was his unwillingness to accept the Faith of intellect, tradition and reason. It was limiting and stunted. The silent faithful were neglected as a result. Instead of being drawn up, we were pushed down. It has felt suppressive over the past decade because intellect and reason and tradition has been unjustly undermined.
He is gone now. God will judge him as He will judge me and judge everyone. Praying for a Pope who is for all of the Faithful.
“Where he didn’t get it right was his unwillingness to accept the Faith of intellect, tradition and reason.” – Ezabelle.
All to all. Didn’t St. Paul say that he must try to be all to all? To acknowledge each level has a claim? The intellegent, the non studied or dim, but called none the less. The St. Matthews as well as the Saint James the Greater? Sinners and the like?
It’s a very large net.
The Pope wasn’t all to all.
Ok. We are all flawed.
Let us continue to pray for him, his soul, and a replacement that
embodies all in Spirit, Truth and Love.
Love, seen by it’s author, Jesus, extends boundries that are not made by humans, but are found in Jesus and His Living Word.
1st Corinthians v19 through 23
Paul a Servant to All
19For whereas I was free as to all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more. 20And I became to the Jews, a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: 21To them that are under the law, as if I were under the law, (whereas myself was not under the law,) that I might gain them that were under the law. To them that were without the law, as if I were without the law, (whereas I was not without the law of God, but was in the law of Christ,) that I might gain them that were without the law. 22To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all. 23And I do all things for the gospel’s sake: that I may be made partaker thereof.
Now I’m wondering if he ever saw “Evita” and what he thought of it. He apparently wasn’t well liked in his homeland so… don’t cry for him, Argentina….
@Matthew: I have always asked those who called Bergoglio “genius” why, if so, was he flunked out of his doctoral program at Sankt Georgen Theologate in Frankfurt (W Germany at that time) and why he failed his comprehensive exams (they never listed him as a Ph.D. candidate) (His planned thesis area was supposed to be on the theology of Romano Guardini.)
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Lucius:Now there is no chance for him to repudiate and reverse the damage that he has done.
True. I have been praying that he had a chance to reverse the damage done to his immortal soul before he took his final breath.