“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked” (Gal. 6, 7)
The bull Misericordiae Vultus: the abolishment of sin for false mercy
In April, Francis proclaimed in his bull Misericordiae Vultus an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, a Holy Year that will begin on December 8, the date on which the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of Vatican II will be celebrated, a little after the end of the Synod of Bishops on the family that is slated to conclude on October 25:
The Church feels a great need to keep this event alive. With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history. The Council Fathers strongly perceived, as a true breath of the Holy Spirit, a need to talk about God to men and women of their time in a more accessible way. The walls, which for too long had made the Church a kind of fortress, were torn down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way.[1]
With the "walls" that guarded the faith now "torn down" by a council that sought to take on a "pastoral" character, Francis now proposes to raze those that still safeguard morality, employing as his tool to carry out his subversive project next October's Synod of Bishops on the family, obvious convened with the same "pastoral" end in mind.
Let us recall some facts that can shed light on the very peculiar way in which Francis understands "mercy":
1. The famous "who am I to judge" gay people.
2. The "private" telephone call to a woman "married" to a divorced man, whom he counseled to go to another parish in order to receive the sacraments.
3. The call to a Spanish transsexual who had written Francis complaining about the "discrimination" of which "he" was the victim in "his" parish and whom Francis invited to Rome for a visit in a "private" audience, accompanied by "his" "fiancée".... all expenses paid by the Vatican!
4. The washing of a transsexual "woman's" feet last Holy Thursday, who in addition received communion.
On the other hand, Francis does not attempt to conceal his thoughts about Christian morality when he stated, "we cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible...The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently."[2] In an undisguised admission of the spirit behind the Jubilee of Mercy, Francis declares,
We recall the poignant words of Saint John XXIII when, opening the Council, he indicated the path to follow: “Now the Bride of Christ wishes to use the medicine of mercy rather than taking up arms of severity…The Catholic Church, as she holds high the torch of Catholic truth at this Ecumenical Council, wants to show herself a loving mother to all; patient, kind, moved by compassion and goodness toward her separated children.” Blessed Paul VI spoke in a similar vein at the closing of the Council: “We prefer to point out how charity has been the principal religious feature of this Council… The old story of the Good Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the Council …A wave of affection and admiration flowed from the Council over the modern world of humanity. Errors were condemned, indeed, because charity demanded this no less than did truth, but for individuals themselves there was only admonition, respect and love. Instead of depressing diagnoses, encouraging remedies; instead of direful predictions, messages of trust issued from the Council to the present-day world. The modern world’s values were not only respected but honored, its efforts approved, its aspirations purified and blessed… Another point we must stress is this: all this rich teaching is channeled in one direction, the service of mankind, of every condition, in every weakness and need”.
The Church of Francis, "bruised" on the "outermost fringes"
Next Francis invites us to undergo the experience of the "outermost fringes" and to discover a taste for "what is new".
In this Holy Year, we look forward to the experience of opening our hearts to those living on the outermost fringes of society: fringes which modern society itself creates...Let us not fall into humiliating indifference or a monotonous routine that prevents us from discovering what is new! Let us ward off destructive cynicism!
But as he noted at the opening of the 2014 Synod of Bishops, the Church should allow herself to be permeated with the "fragrance of the men" of our times:
To find what the Lord asks of his Church today, we must lend an ear to the debates of our time and perceive the “fragrance” of the men of this age, so as to be permeated with their joys and hopes, with their heartaches and anxieties. At that moment we will know how to propose the good news on the family with credibility.[3]
The Church of Francis's dreams conforms herself to the world, allows herself to be modeled after its "values" and its "aspirations" rather than seeking to convert it to the Lord. After razing the "walls of the fortress", it is now time for the Church to go out into the streets to breathe the "fragrance of men", even at the risk of being "bruised," yet never again "suffering from self-absorption". It is not a matter of enclosing oneself up in one's own "certainties" or of taking cover behind the dogmas of the past, of harboring the claim that one's own "ideas" are "unique and absolute". Rather it is a matter of admitting that they are only "an opinion in the service of the people", thereby renouncing for all time "proselytism" and interference in the spiritual life of the people.
As I have frequently observed, if a choice has to be made between a bruised Church, which goes out to the streets, and a Church suffering from self-absorption, I certainly prefer the first. [4]
The world has changed and the Church cannot enclose herself in her supposed interpretations of dogma. We must draw near to social conflicts, the new and the old, and try to extend the hand of consolation, not of stigmatization.[5]
Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.[6]
In this quest to seek and find God in all things there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.[7]
Proselytism is a kind of solemn nonsense: it does not make sense. It is necessary to know each other, to listen to each other, and to let our understanding of the world around us grow…This is what is important: to know each other, to listen to each other, to widen the circle of our thoughts.[8]
Our objective is not proselytism but listening to needs, desires, disappointments, despair, hope.[9]
Francis's false religion in the service of the one-world religion
This Holy Year of Mercy will be put in the service of not only the demolition of what is still left standing of family and sacramental morality but also of the programmed construction of the syncretistic world religion, integrating all "noble religious traditions", the bases of which the Council has established, particularly in the documents Nostra Aetate and Unitatis Redintegratio:
There is an aspect of mercy that goes beyond the confines of the Church. It relates us to Judaism and Islam, both of which consider mercy to be one of God’s most important attributes. Israel was the first to receive this revelation, which continues in history as the source of an inexhaustible richness meant to be shared with all mankind ... Among the privileged names that Islam attributes to the Creator are “Merciful and Kind”. This invocation is often on the lips of faithful Muslims who feel themselves accompanied and sustained by mercy in their daily weakness. They too believe that no one can place a limit on divine mercy because its doors are always open. I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination.[10]
Francis to the Waldensians: forgive the Church for its inhumanity
On the occasion of his visit to the Waldensian church in Turin last June, Francis likened the legitimate diversity of charisms within the Church to the "diversity" that characterizes the innumerable heretical sects. He also did not miss the opportunity to humiliate the Church by begging the Waldensians' pardon for the "inhumane treatment" to which they had been subjected. Decidedly, the way Bergoglio sees things, the Church before Vatican II is to blame for all misdeeds imaginable, and there is but one thing to do in front of the whole world: humiliate her in the face of her enemies and plead for forgiveness.
The unity produced by the Holy Spirit does not mean uniformity. Indeed, brothers are united by one and the same origin but they are not identical to each other. This is very clear in the New Testament, where, although being called brothers, all of those who share the same faith in Jesus Christ, one intuits that not all Christian communities, to which they belonged, had the same style, nor an identical internal organization. Rather, within the same small community different charisms could be perceived (cf. 1 Cor 12-14), and even in proclaiming the Gospel there were differences and sometimes contention (cf. Acts 15:36-40). Unfortunately, it happened and continues to occur that brothers do not accept their differences and end up making war against one another. By reflecting on the history of our relations, we cannot help but be saddened by the disputes and acts of violence committed in the name of our faith, and I ask that the Lord grant us the grace to recognize ourselves all as sinners and to be able to forgive one another. It is by the initiative of God, who never resigns himself to the sin of man, that new ways open to experience our fraternity, and we cannot escape it. On behalf of the Catholic Church I ask your forgiveness. I ask your forgiveness for unchristian-like and even inhuman attitudes and conduct, which, historically, we have had against you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us![11]
Francis's admission to evangelical pastors: perhaps I may be a heretic
Last May 24, Francis sent a videotaped message[12] to the ecumenical conference organized by the diocese of Phoenix (USA) in concert with Pentecostal evangelicals. In the video, he affirmed that ecumenism "of blood" is a manifestation of Christian unity regardless of their "ecclesial affiliation". This is not new: it is at least the tenth time he has said it[13]. What is new, on the other hand, is that he recognized that he had probably uttered "heresy".
That realization, nevertheless, did not stop him from maintaining it publicly, making it an argument in favor of the newfangled theology found in the conciliar documents Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio. There we learned that the Catholic Church would not be identified with the Church founded by Jesus Christ; in its bosom would be found, albeit in different degrees, a multitude of other "churches" and "ecclesial communities" that refuse to be subject to the authority of St. Peter's successor and who reject the magisterium of the Catholic Church.
The unpublicized fact that Francis realizes that his words are probably heretical and that, notwithstanding this realization, he persists in publicly and systematically avowing it, seems to me a sure indication that we are faced with a case of formal heresy, since, by these actions, he demonstrates that he is separating himself from the teaching of the Church with full awareness of the attendant consequences by disdaining with Olympian arrogance the Church's authentic doctrine on the matter...
Together today, I here in Rome and you over there, we will ask our Father to send the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and to give us the grace to be one, “so that the world may believe.” I feel like saying something that may sound controversial, or even heretical, perhaps. But there is someone who “knows” that, despite our differences, we are one. It is he who is persecuting us. It is he who is persecuting Christians today, he who is anointing us with (the blood of) martyrdom. He knows that Christians are disciples of Christ: that they are one, that they are brothers! He doesn’t care if they are Evangelicals, or Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolics…he doesn’t care! They are Christians. And that blood (of martyrdom) unites. Today, dear brothers and sisters, we are living an “ecumenism of blood”. This must encourage us to do what we are doing today: to pray, to dialogue together, to shorten the distance between us, to strengthen our bonds of brotherhood. I am convinced it won’t be theologians who bring about unity among us. Theologians help us, the science of the theologians will assist us, but if we hope that theologians will agree with one another, we will reach unity the day after Judgment Day.[14]
His indifference toward the truth is patently clear. Francis shows signs of supreme contempt for the definitions of the magisterium relative to membership in the Church. For him, the unity of the Church - which certainly already exists, for it is the unity of faith, an essential note of the Catholic Church, the only Church founded by Jesus Christ - will become a reality only through "dialogue" and the "culture of encounter" that will allow us to overcome unsolvable "doctrinal disputes", as the Holy Spirit on His own brings about "unity in diversity" and "harmonizes differences"...
That completely heretical doctrinal notion of a "unity in diversity" is a commonplace of Bergoglio's "magisterium". By way of illustration, let us look at what he said to "Pastor" Giovanni Traettino when he visited him at his Pentecostal "church" in Caserta, in southern Italy, in July 2014 (incidentally, this "pastor" was also in attendance at the ecumenical meeting in Phoenix):
What does the Holy Spirit make? I said he makes something else, which one might think of as division, but it isn’t. The Holy Spirit creates “diversity” in the Church. The First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12. He creates diversity! It’s true this diversity is so rich, so beautiful. But then, the same Holy Spirit creates unity, and this way the Church is one in diversity. And, to use a beautiful word of an Evangelist whom I love very much, a diversity “reconciled” by the Holy Spirit. He does both these things: he creates the diversity of charismata and then makes harmony of the charismata. For this the first theologians of the Church, the first fathers - I’m talking about the third or fourth century - said: “The Holy Spirit, He is harmony”, because He creates this harmonic unity in diversity.[15]
"Unifying" the Church by "globalization" and the "prism"
Francis availed himself of even more startling arguments in order to explain to the Pentecostals that the unity of the Church does not lie in the unity of faith. Instead it should take its inspiration from the unity employed by "globalization", just like the geometrical figure of the "prism", wherein not all points are equidistant from the center, a property that makes them "united in diversity".
We are in the epoch of globalization, and we think about what globalization is and what unity would be in the Church: perhaps a sphere, where all points are equidistant from the center, all equal? No! This is uniformity. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t create uniformity! What shape can we find? Let us consider a prism: the prism is unity, but all its parts are different; each has its own peculiarity, its charisma. This is unity in diversity. It is on this path that we Christians do what we call by the theological name of ecumenism: we seek to ensure that this diversity may be more harmonized by the Holy Spirit and become unity; we try to walk before God and be blameless; we try to go and find the nourishment we need to find our brother. This is our path; this is our Christian beauty! I am referring to what my beloved brother said at the beginning.
The unity advocated by Francis is the result of a human construction, of a consensus emerging from "dialogue" and of the "encounter" between interlocutors who possess different religious convictions and insuperable theological disagreements. Of course, in order to throw the unsuspecting off track, Francis explains that this unifying effort is the fruit of the activity of the "Holy Spirit", Who has the task of "harmonizing diversity" so that it becomes "unity". It is patently obvious that such a project is found at the antipodes of Catholic doctrine...
Humanly speaking, it is simply inexplicable that the vast majority of the clergy did not immediately notice such inanity. It borders on the mysterious that so flagrant a contradiction of the Church's magisterium could not have been automatically identified at once, seeing that no special theological training is required to do so. All that is needed is basic catechism and the sensus fidei, not to say a tiny bit of logic and the most elementary common sense. It is just beyond belief that churchmen with insight do not loudly raise their voices to register their absolute rejection and irreducible opposition to what cannot be called other than manifest heresy and open apostasy from the Catholic faith.
For more information on the pontificate of Francis, you can consult the books Three years with Francis: the Bergoglian deceit and Four years with Francis: enough is enough!, published by Éditions Saint-Remi, in four languages (Spanish, English, French and Italian): saint-remi.fr/fr/35-livres - www.amazon.com/Kindle-Store-Miles-Christi/s
