Vatican City, Sep 18, 2017 / 01:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Nearly four years after the Pope established his Council of Cardinal advisers to help him in the task of reforming the Roman Curia, one member of the group said their work is wrapping up, and that it could take only a few more meetings to finish what they set out to do.
The ongoing process of reform “is being done at various stages of development, and I hope we’ll come to an end in all of these matters soon,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay told CNA Sept. 14.
“It will take two or three more meetings more,” he said, adding that “by June perhaps we’ll be seeing the end of the tunnel.”
Cardinal Gracias is also President of the Asian Bishops Conference and in 2013 was chosen by the Pope along with eight other prelates from around the world to advise him in matters of Church governance and reform.
He spoke to CNA in a lengthy, sit-down interview after the council – also called the “C9” – concluded their latest round of meetings last week.
As far as the reform goes, Cardinal Gracias said “there won’t be very major changes; it’s the governance of the Church, we can’t just turn everything upside down.” Rather, it will be “a gradual change, a change of mentality, a change of approach, restructuring a bit of the departments so that they are more logically suited to the needs of today.”
He said a key goal of the C9 is to implement the vision of the Second Vatican Council, specifically when it comes to the importance of the role of the laity and women, and incorporating greater synodality and collegiality into the Church’s structures.
From the beginning Pope Francis “had very clear what he wanted this group to do,” the cardinal said. “He had no hesitation, he’s a good leader. He had a clear vision.”
Cardinal Gracias admitted that in the beginning he had doubts as to whether or not they were going in the right direction, and had started to worry what people on the outside might say, since many fruits of the meetings weren’t and likely won’t be immediately visible. He said he also struggled with doubts about the pace at which they were moving, and believed that things were going “too slow.”
“I will confess that once at the beginning I was wondering, ‘are we going in the right direction?’ I asked myself. But now I can see it is,” he said, explaining that Pope Francis’ Christmas speech to the Roman Curia last year was a “tipping point” for him.
More than anything, there is a change in mentality that’s needed, which will take longer than simply reforming the Vatican’s structures, he said, but said the group is “rather confident that it will happen because the Pope is giving very effective leadership.”
In addition to the ongoing curial reform, Cardinal Gracias also spoke about the recent release of Indian priest Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil 18 months after he was abducted in Yemen. He also spoke about the Pope’s upcoming trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and when a possible papal trip to India might take place.
Below are excerpts from CNA’s interview with Cardinal Gracias:
You’ve seen Fr. Tom and you were at his meeting with Pope Francis. How is he doing?
I was pleasantly surprised with calmness with which he came out, because he did not know, to my knowledge, that he was being released. But he said I know people have prayed for me, I’m grateful for the people who were praying for me, but he kept on saying ‘Jesus is great, Jesus is great.’ And then he told the Holy Father. It was a very moving moment. As soon as the Holy Father came he prostrated in front of the Holy Father and kissed his feet, and he said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you Holy Father, but just one message I want to give you: Jesus Christ is great. Jesus was with me right through, I could sense the presence of God with me’…And once I thought the Holy Father had tears in his eyes. When Tom kept on speaking about Jesus, this is what he told the Holy Father: please tell the people that Jesus is great! I would say that he’s come out of it with an experience of the presence of the Lord, and I think at that moment the Holy Father had tears in his eyes…I met the Holy Father later that afternoon, and he was telling me how impressed he was. He was also surprised with the calmness of the man, with Tom…He was a man who is perhaps strengthened in the faith after this experience, and not bitter about anything. Particularly about his captors, he was very understanding. It was a special experience, very edifying. He needs rest, certainly, he’ll have a medical exam and he’ll be with his superiors, but eventually he’ll go back (to India). So thank God really. It was an anxious moment for the whole Church in India. We didn’t know what was happening, but we understood that putting more pressure, in the perspective of the government, could make things more difficult for him. (But) he’s not really stressed in any way you can make out. Physically weak, but spiritually strong. When he met the Holy Father, he was weeping right through it. And the Holy Father was very touched, he kissed his hand and blessed him…He felt the comfort and strength of the entire Church. As he said, there was never a moment when he felt abandoned, either by the Church or by God. He kept saying, ‘Jesus is great.’ So he came out spiritually strengthened in that sense. It was a big relief, a big blessing, and the Holy Father was overjoyed. I think the government of Oman did a very splendid job of helping out…they even brought a Salesian to accompany him on the last plane. It was very human of them, so had the comfort of a spiritual companion.
What role did the Holy See play in working out his release?
They only offered help, they kept the issue open and kept sharing. The Holy See was told he was alive, and the Holy See communicated with the Indian government. In Yemen, the political situation is very fragile, and one doesn’t know who is in charge. There are bombardments and all sorts of groups are taking over, so there was always a risk I suppose, that if you tried to liberate him you could have harmed him. But they were always interested, they kept it alive. Every time I came to Rome somebody from the Secretariat of State updated me. The Vatican made sure there was interest. Any information the Holy See had, they shared it with the Indian government, the Omani government, so that was good.
It’s interesting that there is still no word on who is responsible…
It’s not a terrorist attack, it’s a kidnapping. They wouldn’t glory in taking him. That has not come out. I spent about half an hour with him before the Holy Father, and he was speaking continuously. I did not at any point attempt to ask him questions, because I think that would be a stress for him. He has got to share…he wants to share it and then I imagine you feel lighter. He’s probably just got to rest, and rest and rest, physically and then mentally too, he’s got to get it out of his mind. He’s not come out of it a broken man at all. I was afraid of that, that he would come out a broken man, but no…It’s a moment of grace, a moment of faith, a special experience. The high point was when he told the Holy Father, ‘just tell everybody that Jesus is great, Jesus is great.’ Just three simple words. That was like the sum of his whole experience, what he meant and why he meant it…he felt not abandoned, I suppose. I hope recovers. I imagine he needs a couple of months really, or maybe more than a couple of months, to really rest. He needs time with the family also, natural circumstances…I’m not sure about this, but I have a feeling that the Omani government decided to bring him to Rome, because they (wanted) to hand him over to the Vatican. I think it was better for him, because I think if he had gone to India he would have been mobbed by everybody. He just needs space to recover, and for doctors to examine him. Physically to see if he’s alright, and psychologically also, to be investigated. I think it was a wise decision, but I think it was a decision more of the Omani government.
I don’t want to exploit your time, but I wanted to ask a few questions about the process of reform and the C9. You just finished your latest round of meetings…
Yes, we just finished the latest round, the 21st meeting. I can’t imagine we’ve had 21. I didn’t realize it’s 21 already. I think we are working hard. What’s nice is that we’re a cohesive group now. In the beginning we were all (gestures). Now we know each other so well and we work together, and of course trying to implement the Holy Father’s vision of the Church. Also, one of the things we always say, and it’s very clear, before the conclave the cardinals had spoken a lot of their vision of the Church, and we have the texts of what all of the cardinals said, and all the cardinals gave their vision. We picked up from that, the Holy Father picked up from that, his own vision. We’ve focused so far … it’s for a dual purpose that the group was formed: one is to help him help him in the governance of the universal Church, and the second is to revise Pastor bonus, the papal document of St. John Paul II for establishing the Curia and giving the job descriptions and the vision of each dicastery. It’s to revitalize, I suppose that’s what Pope Francis wants us to do, and to have a new mentality which is applying Vatican II also; how to make the Roman Curia at the service of the Holy Father more effectively, but the Churches at the local level, the Churches in the dioceses, how to make the Roman Curia assist the local Churches to be more effective pastorally, so they can be more vibrant in that sense. So I think the holy Father is satisfied with what’s happening. I’m satisfied too with the way we are going ahead. We come for three days and work intensely, we work from 9:00 on the first day to 7:00 (pm) on the last day trying to wrap things up, but lots of work has been done. But it’s coming to the end. I think it will take maybe two or three more meetings until we wrap up our conclusions about the dicasteries. Then of course the Holy Father will study the thing and decide. So we’re going well. The feedback we receive is the Holy Father is happy, he is satisfied, and he has been using the Christmas messages sometimes to give an indication, a little progress report, so this year’s Christmas message (2016). I didn’t realize it, but when I read it I realized it’s practically giving a progress report of what this group has been doing. I hope that it will make an impact. There won’t be very major changes; it’s the governance of the Church, we can’t just turn everything upside down. But a gradual change, a change of mentality, a change of approach, restructuring a bit of the departments so that they are more logically suited to the needs of today, and also of answering the vision of the Second Vatican Council: the importance of lay people, synodality, collegiality, then concern about women, getting more women involved, then giving importance to the local Churches. Then reflecting on the role of episcopal conferences in all this, because that’s another big issue. So all of this is being done at various stages of development, and I hope we’ll come to an end in all of these matters soon. It will take two or three more meetings more, I foresee at least February, June…by June perhaps we’ll be seeing the end of the tunnel.
It’s been a long process…
It’s been a really long process, really, but it’s good. I’ve been in other committees of this sort, in which at the beginning we don’t what we’re doing, where to begin, and they you find your way and you find your vision. But here it was very clear, the Holy Father had very clear what he wanted this group to do…we were not clear in why we were called and what he wanted to do, but gradually we understood his mind. He had no hesitation, he’s a good leader. He had a clear vision and he had his people with him. He’s there with us, he genuinely doesn’t take any other appointments. He’s there except the general audience. There are emergencies of course, this time there were lots of things happening, but he participates and he listens to discussion, and every now and then he raises his hand when he wants to speak. It’s very odd, but now we’re accustomed to it, the Pope raising his hand (laughs) … it’s very valuable, he’s part of the discussion all the way through, completely inserted right in the thick of it. Certainly he doesn’t speak that much, because I think we would feel inhibited and want to go in his direction. So it’s just the right amount and at the right time.
Well he’s very much about the process, isn’t he? He doesn’t want to interrupt the process that’s happening…
Yes, absolutely. And he’s happy. And everybody speaks their mind. We know each other so well, and we know that the Holy Father wants us to speak our minds, so no one is at any stage (overly) conscious that the Pope is there with us, no…but it’s going well, I think it’s going well. I will confess that once at the beginning I was wondering, ‘are we going in the right direction?’ I asked myself. But now I can see it is. He’s a man of deep faith, the Pope. I remember having spoken to him once about the synod, I was sharing him my anxieties on whether the synods were going well, and he told me, ‘Cardinal, I am not worried.’ He told me that. I told him I was worried, I don’t know what direction we’re taking, whether we’ll be able in two synods to give your vision. (He said) ‘I’m not worried. It’ll work out.’ He knows what he wants, he’s a good Jesuit, and the Jesuits know exactly what they want.
At what point were you convinced that things were going in the right direction?
After about seven or eight or nine meetings, I was beginning to wonder. My worry was what will the world say? Everybody knows we’re meeting over here, but we are very limited in what we say are the fruits. What are these eight men – nine, we became nine after the Secretary (of State) joined – the nine cardinals are coming and discussing here, what’s happening? They’re not just coming here for debate. I was worried about the fruits not being seen, and the process being too slow. But then, especially after I heard the Holy Father’s speech (at Christmas 2016), for me that was it. I was like, wow, there has been a lot done. That was absolutely…this past Christmas, it was like a progress report of this group. I’m in the group, right, but I never realized the number of things we had really discussed. Besides modifying the document, the protection of minors, the economy, updates on these things, general principles of collegiality, synodality, we’re thinking about these things. Care of the Curia personnel. It’s everything that the Holy Father…he isn’t like us, who when we go back home we’re fully in the diocese, he has this in mind and he keeps working on this fully afterwards. We go back to our dioceses and are concerned about the local Church, but he certainly follows up with what we say. I’ve seen it several times. He takes the group very seriously. Every now and then he would ask us to take up some point on the agenda to discuss it a bit, which he wants advice on. I think it’s a new system he has started in which he gets feedback from all over the world, and he gets it from the grassroots. I think, anyway, I hope. We come from different continents and we bring in our own experiences. But it is going well. In fact I really, really think there has been a contribution to the Holy Father, and then the Holy Father takes decisions. I have a feeling this is shared by all now. I have no doubt, this would be the general feeling of all about it. The tipping point was really his speech, but already before that, say about six or seven months before that, we began to see really when we reflected that…perhaps the Holy Father knew that that was in our minds. It was in my mind, and maybe I expressed it indirectly. And the Holy Father once commented also, he said ‘we have done this much, so don’t get discouraged.’ So at one stage he sort of answered that doubt in my mind.
You mentioned that there’s also a change of mentality needed. Other than the structural shifts, it seems that the change of mentality will be the more challenging task…
That will take longer. But we hope it will percolate down, because once you have a certain mentality you generally don’t change unless the circumstances change, the ambiance changes. And in a certain sense not changing dramatically. That will I think take longer. But I’m positive that it will happen. We’re very, very hopeful. We’re rather confident that it will happen because the Pope is giving very effective leadership, and every now and then there is a clear message from him. But it will come about and suddenly we’ll realize, oh there has been a change! That’s how it will happen. It won’t come overnight, but at a certain point we’ll realize things have changed. He knows what he wants. And he’s happy. Certainly the indication I can see is this way; the relationship he has with the group and the joy he has in being with the group. He says he feels that it has helped him. Thank God. We do what we can. I don’t know how or why he chose us, but he’s happy. I was very surprised when I got a call from him. I said ‘why me? What have I done?’ I suppose he knows. I don’t know why. I did not know the Holy Father before, we’ve never been in any other committee before. Only at the conclave. I don’t even remember having chatted with him at the conclave, or before the conclave. After the conclave it was true that I was with him. It’s true that after I was with the Pope at Santa Marta for a few days. Then we were having meals together – breakfast, lunch and dinner for four or five days. That’s the time we came to know each other. So we were thrown together for about a week. It struck me that after his election I was at Santa Marta, because there were five or six cardinals. All the American cardinals were there, the European cardinals, all the ones from close by left and came back (for the installation). I stayed for the installation and then went back to India. And then you share, when you speak. He was very comfortable with us, very comfortable with me. But still, he had to make a choice.
Has he mentioned anything about when a visit to India might take place?
He’s very interested. We’re working it out, and I’m very hopeful. He would like to come and we would like to have him, and the government would like to have him. But now we must see his program, the government’s program, but I’m certain he will come. There are no details at all for the moment. I’m rather certainly positive that we will be able to get the Holy Father, he’s interested and I think he’s getting more interested. And the people will be excited…we are looking forward. In the beginning, as soon as he was elected, I asked him, ‘when are you coming to India?’ And he was sort of (disinterested), but gradually he began to like the idea. He’s never been to India before. As a Jesuit I think he was supposed to go to Japan, that’s what he was telling me. He’s going now to Bangladesh and Myanmar. It will be very sensitive. Bangladesh has it’s own problems, I believe they have elections next year, and Myanmar has problems to solve, also the refugee problem at the moment. Of late it is continuously on, I believe yesterday or this morning I saw it on CNN, and BBC is reporting on it. It’s an issue for the world. I’ve been there (Bangladesh) a few times. It’s a nice Church, concentrated mostly in Dhaka, a living faith. I’ve been to Myanmar also, I went as a papal legate there some years back, and I found the Church very vibrant. A simple faith, but I’m happy. I think it will mean a lot to the people. It will also strengthen the people. I think the Church is also very vibrant, it’s not have any specific difficulty, in my impression as a papal legate about two or three years back, but I was very impressed by the faith and the organization. It was vibrant. The Church was small, but strong and alive. It will make a difference for the Churches, and for the governments I expect.
Will you be there?
I plan to go to both places yes. In all of these trips in Asian I’ve come along: Sri Lanka, Korea, the Philippines. At the moment I’m president of the Asian Bishops Conference, so I suppose in that capacity I’ll have to go.
[…]
I wonder if Bergoglio has ever read the Epistles of St. Paul, who advised that some people should indeed be excluded from the Church? Maybe he never heard of Jesus of Nazareth either, who also spoke of separating the sheep and the goats.
Pope Francis said: “I am well aware that speaking of a ‘Synod on Synodality’ may seem something abstruse, self-referential, excessively technical, and of little interest to the general public…”
Agreed. So why spends millions for 450+ to get autumn vacations in Rome?
Pope Francis says the Synods show must go on because marginalized Jesuit friends like Fr. James Martin are working with the Holy Spirit to help the Catholic Church grow by changing its teaching on sodomy, like it did for slavery and ecumenism. https://catholicherald.co.uk/leading-u-s-catholics-clash-over-schismatic-synod-agenda/
Um, this sounds like a serious case of stuckedness.
Well, ‘scuzee Your Holiness, but those you have persecuted under TC, and The Dubia, and the FFI, and in and on, beg to differ…
Ironic that Pope Francis invokes Paul VI as the initiator of the Synod of Bishops. Bishops.
One thing he’s got right, that the S on S is of little interest to most Catholics, in spite of their supposedly having been encountered, dialogued with and listened to at every turn.
A number of things do not make sense to me.
1. Trying to make the works of mercy into a creed – they’re already part of our creed.
2. Building bridges like Greeks – when the Greeks came to Christ He moved swiftly to the Cross.
3. “Redefining structures and permanently eradicating sin possibilities through the poor” – preferential option for the poor never meant that and neither is that a true teaching of the faith.
4. Updating doctrine by minimizing it for sake of inclusivity and/or the universal service of the poor – is not the witness of the saints.
Pope Francis said of the Greeks in their approach to Jesus near the time of the Passion, that what the Lord indicated was “neither yes nor no”. I suspect that this “between memory and the future” -the between the yes and the no,- is what Pope Francis is trying to flesh out through the horizonless synod.
And I do not believe that it is what is meant by the incident in question.
The bridge building image is said to have come from James Martin. I do not know the point in time when it arose from him.
During 2014 I applied to a Jesuit University in the US midwest for an MA program in Literature and was eventually enrolled in mid-2015. In my application essays I had used the image of bridge building to indicate a mode of getting my thoughts from one place to another in tackling ideas between secular subjects that I ordinarily find very difficult. I had made some references to my faith mixed in with the essays.
If someone has felt “inspired” by what I wrote to interpret the image as some kind of “apostolic brilliance”, I would like to make it clear I never meant any such thing. Also, I do not grasp what such meaning would entail, even now.
(As it turned out I couldn’t make sense of the curriculum or the online portal or the degree director of the time; and I suspended my study.)
Surely these are strange discussions!
The Pope seems to say it is called for because the very survival of the Church is at stake? – and/or he seems to say it is called for because the very survival of the world is at stake?
‘ “This is a grace we all need in order to move forward. And it is something the Church today offers the world, a world so often so incapable of making decisions, even when our very survival is at stake,” he said.
“We are trying to learn a new way of living relationships, listening to one another to hear and follow the voice of the Spirit.”
To explain the significance of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis described the synod as “a journey that St. Paul VI began at the end of the [Vatican II] Council when he created the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops because he had realized that in the Western Church synodality had disappeared, whereas in the Eastern Church they have this dimension.”
“And this years-long journey — 60 years — is bearing great fruit,” he added. ‘
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/bishop-manuel-nin-synod-on-synodality-unlike-eastern-synods
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2015/03/17/on-the-paradox-of-abundance/
We read: “today’s dominant technocratic paradigm raises profound questions about the place of human beings and of human action in the world.” The same can be said about some entries on old-fashion flip charts at synodal focus groups.
“Forward, ever forward” said trail guide Jim Bridger to the “walking together” and ill-fated Donner Party, in the face of late autumn weather, as he wandered off elsewhere to fame and awards (lines in history books, and a mountain range in Montana!). And, as on the bridge of the Titanic when Joseph Ismay, White Star resident expert from the corporate boardroom, insisted to the captain–ever faster with an arrival deadline clearly in sight! The turning of the screw, so to speak.
Butt, yes, to engagement and invitation–and to actual “listening”… still waiting for the pope’s business-as-usual and cya advisors to flip. Never “backward!” Late autumn 2023! and 2024!
“Important to the Church”? What church? As for the synodal “dimension in the Eastern Church:” https://www.ncregister.com/blog/bishop-manuel-nin-synod-on-synodality-unlike-eastern-synods
Have the Catholics who prefer the traditional Latin mass been invited?
“Let the people eat cake.”
Peace Journalism is the need of the hour worldwide. The basic concept of Peace Journalism is to prevent violence and war.
War journalism is the need of the hour worldwide. The basic concept of war journalism is to expose the truth of violence and war.
To call sin love is to wage war on the truth that love is never sin. “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16). God the Holy Spirit inspired St. John to write about Him Truth: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:15-24)
And Gandhi said: “The way to peace is the way of truth. Truthfulness is even more important than peacefulness. Indeed, lying is the mother of violence. The truth of a few will count; the untruth of millions will vanish even like chaff before whiff of wind.”
Christ is the Truth of God. To prevent violence, we must tell the truth of Christ. And Christ said in His Sacred Scripture and Tradition that concubinage and sodomy are sinful and never loving in practice. A Synod, or anyone, that says sin loves like Christ is lying and leading us to spiritual and physical violence, like war.
Don’t be deceived, Francis. Some of us are listening and watching you very closely. More than you think.
The synod will be an embarrassment and disaster for the Church.c
We do get this: “That word of the Gospel that is so important: everyone. Everyone, everyone: there are no first-, second- or third-class Catholics, no. All together. Everyone. It is the Lord’s invitation.”
But, beyond the invitation, what is the distinction between the universal and sacramental Catholic Church as historically established by the incarnate Jesus Christ, and the Islam’s inclusive and doctrinally minimalist family of the ummah, in which full membership requires only a mere declaration of intention to belong, from which follows “not only a sense [feeling?] of belonging, but a knowledge of being accepted as well” (Farooq Hassan, “The Concept of State and Law in Islam,” 1981)?
Rising above all considerations of the efficacy of a more inclusive Church, one that suggests that we least provide the opportunity for conversion and salvation to all, inclusive of those in irregular union or practice, the ‘garment of faith’ the sole requirement to receive the sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist – is the given perception that reception of the Body and Blood of Christ is a uniquely redemptive sacrament consistent with reparation for sins. As is the sacrament of penance.
While this holds true for sins that are commonly reparable, venial sins, it isn’t for those that are intrinsically evil. These sins require acknowledgment to the Church by confession to a priest, followed by legitimate absolution. This regulation has persisted since Trent, the Church forbidding commonly held private practices of absolution.
The Holy Eucharist is a remedy, a strengthening of our faith, and will [the rational appetite or desire] to refrain from serious sin. To increasingly transform our life style to that of Christ. Exclusion, as opposed to inclusion, is a necessary feature in Christ’s revelation of the Father’s will, that we are willing to convert, to cross the barrier of our own making by adopting a way of life contrary to the revelation of Christ the Way.
LET US PRAY FOR POPE FRANCIS THAT AFTER ALL THE SYNODS OF SYNODALITY HAVE THEIR SAY HE WILL HAVE THE COURAGE TO UPHOLD THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AS POPE ST. PAUL VI DID.
Noreen, your comment reminds me of a line from a film. John Cleese in “Clockwise” says “It’s not the despair, but rather the hope that’s killing me.” The hope that after 10 years of destroying the legacy of ppJPII and ppBXVI, the hope that after 10 years of Bergoglioism’s Cancel Catholicism Programme, he might suddenly turn around and say “ha, I was only joking. I don’t really want to destroy the last remains of the Catholic Church for her enemies,” seems to me worse than handling the despair and acknowledging the Catholic Church is eclipsed by full blown Apostasy.
Noreen’s heartfelt prayer made me think of Jane Austen’s Persuasion on this great Sunday of Simon Peter’s confession of faith:
“All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one: you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone!”
If Pope Francis allows the type of weaponised ambiguity to dominate the Synod as Paul VI did during VII then we will see the church head further into confusion.
I remember at the local diocesan synod level discussion and I brought up the Latin Mass effect and I was met with shifting seats, puzzled looks and a sharp intervention that the alphabet soup mafia and need for women to be in charge of the liturgy were far more important!! Well then let them proceed and we know that it will be a complete train wreck!
“The measure is full, and the time has come to choose which side we are on. Either with Bergoglio and Spadaro, with the Synod on Synodality, with a human and counterfeit church enslaved to the New World Order, or with God, His Church, and His Saints. And on closer inspection it is already unheard of to hypothesize that Catholics – I am not speaking of priests or prelates – can consider it possible to have a choice.”
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano
https://twitter.com/CarloMVigano/status/1695760255815147927
“Surely one of the most concerning aspects of this paradigm, with its negative impact upon both human and natural ecology alike, is its subtle seduction of the human spirit, lulling people — and especially the young — into misusing their freedom,” the pope said.
If “this paradigm” is the Synod and if “human and natural ecology” is the traditional dogmatic teaching and practice of Catholicism, then Francis has spoken truly of the disorientation diabolically lodged in the sulci of his and his psycho-fanatical synodalists.
Francis has misunderstood faithful Catholics for far too long. We care that demons have been given access to Christ’s seed under Francis’ watch. We care that Francis has allowed distorted truth to stand for Christ’s Word. We care that Christ’s Body has been in recent years repeatedly dishonored. We care that souls are lost because Francis has failed to learn, to respect, or to transmit the Faith handed to him. Francis does not care.
But Christ cares, and He is our salvation. Francis is an open door to a dark and horrid place from which there is no escape.