Vatican City, May 13, 2017 / 02:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The following is an unofficial transcript of the in-flight press conference on the papal plane returning from Fatima to Rome on May 13, 2017.
Greg Burke: Thank you Holiness, they were 24 very intense hours, as you said, for the Lord, 24 hours for Our Lady. It’s apparent that the Portuguese felt very touched when you said, “We have a Mother,” that they feel this in a special way. 100 years ago Our Lady didn’t appear to three important journalists, she appeared to three shepherds, but we’ve seen how they with their simplicity and sanctity were able to make this message reach the entire world. The journalists make the message arrive – it is seen from the number of nations from which they come – and they’re very curious about this trip of yours. If you’d like to say something first, great…
Pope Francis: First of all, good evening. Thanks. And, I’d like to respond to the first of the possible questions, so we can do things a bit more quickly. I’m sorry when we’re at the halfway point and they come to tell me that it’s snack time… let’s do them all together. Thanks.
Greg Burke: Good, let’s begin with the Portuguese group, with Fatima Ferreira of the Portuguese TV Radio
Anna Elza Ferreira (Redevida de Televisao): I don’t know what I think about sitting in front of the Holy Father. Well, first, many thanks for this trip. Holy Father, you came to Fatima as a pilgrim, to canonize Francisco and Jacinta in the year that the apparitions mark their 100th year. From this historical point of view, what is left now for the Church, for the entire world? Also, Fatima has a message of peace. Holy Father, you are going to receive in the Vatican in the coming days, the 24th of May, the American president Donald Trump. What can the world expect and what does the Holy Father expect from this encounter? Many thanks.
Pope Francis: Thanks. Fatima certainly has a message of peace. It’s brought to humanity by three great communicators that were less than 13 years old, which is interesting. Yes, I came as a pilgrim. The canonization was something that wasn’t planned from the beginning, because the process of the miracles was in progress but the all of a sudden the export reports were all positive, and it was done – that’s how the story was told – for me was a very great joy. What can the world expect? Peace. And what am I talking about from now on with whomever? Peace.
Ferreira: And what remains now of this historic moment for the Church?
Pope Francis: A message of peace. And I’d like to say one thing … before disembarking I received scientists from all religions who were doing studies in the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo, including agnostics and atheists. And an atheist said to me, “I’m an atheist.” I won’t tell you from what ethnicity or place of origin he was – he spoke in English. And at the end, he asked me, ‘I ask you a favor: tell the Christians that they should love their message of peace more.”
Aura Miguel (Radio Renascença): Your Holiness, in Fatima you presented yourself as the “bishop dressed in white.” Up to now, this expression applied rather to the vision of the third part of the secret, St. John Paul II, the martyrs of the twentieth century. What does it mean now, your identification with this expression?
Pope Francis: The prayer, that, I did not write it… the sanctuary wrote it… but also I have tried because they said this, and there is a connection with the white. The bishop of white, Our Lady of white, the white glow of the innocence of children after Baptism and innocence… there is a connection to the color white in that prayer. I believe – because I did not write it – but I believe that literally they have tried to express with white that desire for innocence, for peace… innocence: to not hurt the other … to not create conflict, the same.
Miguel: Is it a revision of the interpretation…
Pope Francis: No, but that vision … I believe that then Cardinal Ratzinger, at that time prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, explained everything clearly. Thank you.
Claudio Lavanga (NBC News): Thank you. Holy Father, yesterday you asked the faithful to break down all the walls, yet on May 24 you meet a head of State who is threatening to build walls. It is a bit contradictory to your word, but he also has – it seems – opinions and decisions different from you in other topics, such as the need to act to confront global warming or the welcoming of migrants … Thus, in light of this meeting: what is your opinion of the politics that President Trump has adopted so far on these topics and what do you expect from a meeting with a Head of State who seems to think and act contrary to you?
Pope Francis: The first question … I can respond to both… I never make a judgment of a person without listening to them. I believe that I should not do this. In our talk things will come out, I will say what I think, he will say what he thinks, but I never, ever, wanted to make a judgment without hearing the person. The second…
Claudio Lavanga: What do you think about the reception of migrants?
Pope Francis: But this you all know well…
Claudio Lavanga: The second instead is what you expect from a meeting with a head of state who thinks contradictory to you?
Pope Francis: Always there are doors that are not closed. Look for the doors that are at least a little bit open, enter and talk about common things and go on. Step by step. Peace is handcrafted. It is made every day. Also friendship among people, mutual knowledge, esteem, is handcrafted. It’s made every day. Respect the other, say that which one thinks, but with respect, but walk together … someone thinks of one way or the other, but say that …. Be very sincere with what everyone thinks, no?
Claudio Lavanga: Do you hope to soften his decisions after the meeting?
Pope Francis: This is a political calculation that I do not permit myself to make.
Greg Burke: Thank you Holiness, now there is a change of places, Elisabetta Piqué is coming.
Elisabetta Piqué (La Nacion): Thanks first of all for this brief and very intense trip. We wanted to ask you, today is the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, but is is also the important anniversary of a fact of your life that took place 25 years ago, when the Nuncio (Archbishop) Calabresi told you that you would become the Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, something that meant the end of your exile in Cordoba and a great change in your life. Have you every connected this fact that changed your life with Our Lady of Fatima? And in these days that you’ve prayed before her have you thought about this and what did you think about? Can you tell us about that? Thanks.
Pope Francis: Women know everything, eh! No, I didn’t think about the coincidence, only yesterday while I was praying before Our Lady I realized that one May 13th I received the phone call from the nuncio 25 years ago. I don’t know… I said, well look at that. I spoke with Our Lady a little about this. I asked her forgiveness for all of my mistakes, also of a bit of bad taste for choosing people… but yesterday I realized this.
Greg Burke: Nicolas Seneze of La Croix is coming.
Nicolas Seneze (La Croix): Thanks, Holy Father. We’re returning from Fatima for which the Fraternity of St. Pius X has a great devotion and much is said about an agreement that would give an official statute to the Fraternity in the Church. Some even imagined that there would be an announcement today… Holiness, do you think that this agreement is possible in a short timeframe? And, what are the obstacles still? And what is the sense of this reconciliation for you? And, will it be the triumphant return for faithful who have shown what it means to be truly Catholic or what?
Pope Francis: I would toss out any form of triumphalism. None. Some days ago, the Feria Quarta of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, their meeting – the call it the Feria Quarta, because it’s the fourth Wednesday – studied a document and the document still hasn’t reached me, the study of the document. This is the first. Secondly, the current relations are fraternal. Last year, I gave a license for confession to all of them, also a form of jurisdiction for marriages, but even before the problems, the cases they had, for example, had to be resolved by the Doctrine of the Faith. The Doctrine of the Faith carries them forward. For example, abuses. The cases of abuse, they brought them to us, also to the Penitentiary. Also the reduction to the lay state of a priest, they bring to us. The relations are fraternal. With Msgr. Fellay I have a good rapport. I’ve spoken many times… I don’t like to hurry things. Walk. Walk. Walk. And then we’ll see. For me, it’s not an issue of winners and losers, it’s an issue of brothers who must walk together, looking for a formula to make steps forward.
Tassilo Forcheimer (ARD): Holy Father, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Reformation, Evangelical Christians and Catholics are able to walk another stretch of road together. Will there be the possibility to participate in the same Eucharistic Mass? Some months ago, Cardinal Kasper said: A step forward could take place already this year.
Pope Francis: There have been great steps forward, eh … we think of the first statement on justification, from that moment the journey has not stopped… the trip to Sweden was very significant because it was just the beginning and also a commemoration with Sweden… also there is significance for the ecumenism of the journey… that is, to walk together, with prayer, with martyrdom, with works of charity, with works of mercy. And there, Lutheran Caritas and Catholic Caritas have made an agreement to work together. This is a great step. But steps are always awaited. You know that God is the God of surprises. But we must never stop. Always go on. To pray together, to give testimony together and to do works of mercy together, that announce the charity of Jesus Christ, to announce that Jesus Christ is Lord, is the only Savior, and that grace only comes from Him. And on this path the theologians they will continue to study, but the path must proceed. And (with) hearts opened to surprises.
Mimmo Muolo (Avvenire): Good evening Holiness. I’m asking you a question in the name of the Italian group. Yesterday and today at Fatima, we saw a great witness of popular faith together with you. The same that is found, for example, also in other Marian shrines like Medjugorje. What do you think of those apparitions, if they were apparition, and of the religious fervor they have aroused seeing that you have decided to appoint a bishop delegate for the pastoral aspects? And if I can permit myself a second question I know is very close to your heart besides that of us italians… I would like to know, the NGOs were accused of collusion with the boat traffickers of men. What do you think of this? Thanks.
Pope Francis: I’ll start with the first. I read in the papers that I peruse in the morning that there was this problem, but I still don’t know how the details are and because of this I can’t give an opinion. I know there is an issue and the investigations are moving ahead. I hope that they continue ahead and that the whole truth comes out. Medjugorje, all the apparitions, or the presumed apparitions, belong to the private sphere, they aren’t part of the public, ordinary magisterium of the Church. Medjugorje. Medjugorje. A commission was formed, headed by Cardinal Ruini. Benedict XVI made it. I, at the end of 2013 the beginning of 2014, I received the result from Cardinal Ruini. It was commission good theologians, bishops, cardinals, but good. Very good. And the commission. The Ruini report was very, very good. Then there were some doubts in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Congregation judged it opportune to send each one of the members of this Feria quarta (Editor’s note: “Feria Quarta” is a once-a-month meeting in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during which current cases are examined) all the documentation, even those that seemed to be against the Ruini report. I received a notification – I remember it was a Saturday evening, late evening… and it didn’t seem right. It was like putting up for auction – excuse me the word – the Ruini report which was very well done. And Sunday morning the prefect received a letter from me that said that instead of sending them to the Feria Quarta, they they would send the opinions to me personally.
These opinions were studied and all of them underscore the density of the Ruini report. Principally, three things must be distinguished: the first apparitions, that they were kids. The report more or less says that it must continue being studied. The apparitions, the presumed current apparitions: the report has its doubts. I personally am more nasty, I prefer the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who’s the head of a telegraphic office, who everyday sends a message at such hour. This is not the Mother of Jesus. And these presumed apparitions don’t have a lot of value. This I say as a personal opinion. But, it’s clear. Who thinks that the Madonna says, ‘come tomorrow at this time, and at such time I will say a message to that seer?’ No. The two apparitions are distinguished. The third, the core of the Ruini report, the spiritual fact, the pastoral fact. People go there and convert. People who encounter God, change their lives…but this…there is no magic wand there. And this spiritual and pastoral fact can’t be ignored. Now, to see things with all this information, with the answers that the theologians sent me, this good, good bishop was appointed because he has experience, to see the pastoral part, how it’s going. And at the end he’ll say some words.
Muolo: Holiness, thank you, also for the blessing of my fellow citizens who thank you, they saw it and are very happy…
Greg Burke: Holiness, now if I can be the nasty one, we have done all of the language groups and…
Pope Francis: Time is up already?
Greg Burke: There’s a question, they tell me.
Pope Francis: One or two more.
Joshua McElwee (National Catholic Reporter): Thank you, Holy Father. The last member of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, who was abused by a priest, resigned in March. She, Ms. Marie Collins, said that she had to resign because the officials in the Vatican did not implement the recommendations of the commission that you, the Holy Father, approved. I have two questions: who is responsible, and what are you doing, Holy Father, to ensure that the priests and bishops in the Vatican implement the recommendations suggested by your commission?
Pope Francis: Marie Collins explained the matter to me well, I spoke with her, she is a good woman, but she continues to work in the formation of priests on this point… she is a good woman who wants to work … but she made this accusation, and she has a bit of reason… why? Because there are so many late cases, then in this period of lateness, because they accumulate there, you have to make legislation for this… what should the diocesan bishops do? Today in almost all the dioceses there is the protocol to follow in these cases: it is a great improvement. This way the dossiers are done well. Then there are the accusations…this is a step. Another step: there are few people, there needs to be more people capable in this area, and the Secretary of State is looking for, even Monsignor Mueller (Editor’s Note: Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), to present new people. The other day two or three more were approved… the director of the disciplinary office changed, who was good, eh, he was very good but he was a bit tired… he returned to his home country to do the same with his episcopate. And the new one is an Irishman, Msgr. (John) Kennedy, he is a very good person, very efficient, prompt, and this helps a lot.
Then there is another thing: Sometimes the bishops send – if the protocol is okay, it goes right away to the Feria Quarta and the Feria Quarta studies and decides. If the protocol is not okay, it must go back to be redone. That’s why you think of continental help or in a continent or two … in Latin America, one in Colombia, another in Brazil, as pre-tribunals or continental tribunals… this is in the planning… but then it’s fine, they study it at feria quarta and they take away his clerical status. This goes back to the diocese, and the priest makes recourse. First, the application was studied by the same Feria Quarta that had given the sentence, and this is unfair. I created another tribunal and I put an indisputable person as the head, the Archbishop of Malta, Msgr. (Charles Jude) Scicluna, who is one of the strongest against abuses, and this second – because we must be just – the one who makes recourse is entitled to have a defender. If he (the defender) approves the first sentence, the case is over.His only option is a letter asking the Pope for pardon. I have never signed a pardon. I believe, I do not know, another question. This is how things are. We’re going forward. If Marie Collins was right on that point, we were also on the way. But there are 2000 cases piled up.
Portuguese journalist: I’m going to ask a question about the case Portugal, but I think that it can be applied to many of the Western societies. In Portugal, almost all of the Portuguese say they identify themselves as Catholics. But the way the society is organized, the decisions that we make, often are contrary to the indications of the Church. I refer to marriage between homosexuals, the legalization of abortion, now we’re going to begin discussing euthanasia. How do you see this?
Pope Francis: I think it’s a political problem. And that also the Catholic conscience isn’t a catholic one of total belonging to the Church and that behind that there isn’t a nuanced catechesis, a human catechesis. That is, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is an example of what is a serious and nuanced thing. I think that there is a lack of formation and also of culture. Because it’s curious, in some other regions, I think of the south of Italy, some in Latin America, they are very Catholic but they are anti-clerical and ‘priest-eaters’, that … there is a phenomenon that exists. It concerns me. That’s why I tell priests, you will have read it, to flee from clericalism because clericalism distances people. May they flee from clericalism and I add: it’s a plague in the Church. But here there is a work also of catechesis, of raising awareness, of dialogue, also of human values.
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This event more than anything else made me lose respect for Pope Leo. He gave credence to a complete fraud of a LARPing female bishop who advocates for heretical and gravely evil things. What for? Receive her in a private audience as a courtesy, perhaps. But to put on such a public show that appears to validate her claim to ordination and office? Preposterous and scandalous. Pope Leo, I respect you no more.
His strange actions are on all fronts:
Counter-Islamists Accuse Vatican of Promoting ‘Islamophobia’ Regime Catholics Join in Protesting Holy See’s and U.S. Bishops’ Use of Ideological Term
A global organization monitoring Islamism has reprimanded the Vatican for embracing the disputed term “Islamophobia” while turning a blind eye to the threat of Islamic ideology, Sharia, and the persecution of Christians in Muslim nations.
The Center for the Study of Political Islam International (CSPII) issued a strongly worded statement on April 23 after the Vatican condemned the “persistence of Islamophobia” in an intervention at the United Nations marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
Is there no end to their appeasement of Islam?
“While framed as a defense of universal liberty, the Vatican’s intervention adopts a highly contested political term—‘Islamophobia’—without addressing the ideological and legal dimensions of Islam that generate legitimate public concern,” CSPII warned.
https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-news/counter-islamists-accuse-vatican-of-promoting-islamophobia-regime
“First of all, I think it’s very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters,” he said. “We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, the equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
His pontifications prioritize Marxist Liberation Theology, not Holy Scripture or even St. Augustine, the patron of his order:
Romans 1:26-27
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a]
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. AND SAINT AUGUSTINE:
“Those sins which are against nature, like those of the men of Sodom, are in all times and places to be detested and punished. Even if all nations committed such sins, they should all alike be held guilty by God’s law” (Confessions 3.8).
An Imam, a woman Protestant “Bishop” and a Pope all entered a bar at the same time. Which one of these three was Catholic.
(Gold Medal of the Day to anyone who gets the answer corret)
Not a one for $1000, Alex.
Well, if the pope was Pius V, it was the pope. Then again, maybe there was good Irish bartender too.
Is that real gold?
None, as in 0.00, of these pagans, heretics, and apostates
The Holy Father refers to the Anglicans distinctly and correctly as a “communion” and not as a “church,” and then we also read of its: “…significant theological and ecumenical divides… particularly regarding the ordination of women and sexuality.”
In the first instance, the vocabulary reflects the clarity of Vatican II and the follow-up “Dominus Iesus” (August 6, 2000) regarding the absence of valid Holy Orders in “ecclesial communions” that have historically amputated themselves from the sacramentality of the Apostolic Succession. In the second instance, within the Anglican ecclesial communion some 80 percent of Anglicans do not recognize Canterberry’s (female…and laywoman) Mullally nor the Anglican blessing of gay “marriages.”
Meanwhile, in the Catholic Church a similar divide lingers over the doublespeak half-blessing of gay couples as “couples” (Fiducia Supplicans). A wording slippery slope predictably now being fully Anglicanized by der Synodal Weg. And, which was called out early by the Catholic Church in all of continental Africa, and in Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Peru, Kazakhstan, and parts of Argentina, France and Spain, and by others.
But, yes, to Pope Leo’s steps of “hospitality” as a form of “ministry”…
But how, exactly, to fully witness and evangelize a fallen world now in freefall? It’s almost as if words matter, and as if marginalized Natural Law—moral theology and sexual “ethics”— is the canary in a coal mine.
The Church has to inform even declare that in spite of hospitality some things are deviations from truth and well-being and remain integrally un-Christian that can’t attain the “being Christian together”.
Tell them to look at the muddles in their own “societies” and their own patterns in psychological badgering that hard or soft don’t make anything right and can’t.
What’s there to talk about?
You’re a confused man Brother. Phony gestures of solidarity with influential “Christians” forcefully advocating crimes against humanity is a crime against humanity in itself.
Forgive them, Father, for they should know better. And shame on the author for calling her archbishop. In charity, she’s a confused woman. It’s not different than calling her a man or husband, for that is what an archbishop is: the manly husband of his bride the (local) church.
Since Robert Prevost chose to insinuate himself into American politics, I no longer have faith in him as a spiritual leader (NB I am NOT saying that Robert Prevost is not the Pope).
An extremely unfortunate (to use a very mild term) event. I agree that as a courtesy the pope could have had a private meeting with her. But the big hoopla surrounding this visit just gives impetus to indifferentism – one faith as good as another. The treatment given to her makes it seem that she has valid orders.
I mean no offense to women, but in her full “bishops” garb she looks like someone going to a Halloween costume party.
Surely, for the 2 people in the photograph, DAVID AXELROD IS THE WAY.
Classic damned if you do damned if you don’t. Although, at closer exam, is that in the end false?
Protocol demands Leo Meets with a woman who represents a Church fallen into the embrace of radical progressive irreligiosity. Anglicanism no longer represents Christ’s revelation to the world. In a real sense its religiosity is on par with the German ‘Catholic’ Synodaler Weg.
Benefit in Leo XIV meeting with Mullally is the image of magnanimity. An expected politeness. That the Catholic Church is big enough to be tolerant. After all, the Church meets with Muslim leadership.
Then there’s the opposing perception of tolerance that borders on complacency, a form of accommodation. Accommodation to worldly values was evident in Leo’s predecessor. Leo claims discipleship.
If weighed in the balance the difference here is a Church that once validly, at least in common beliefs with Catholic Christianity, represented Christianity. That has changed. Anglicanism now represents the digressive process of the repudiation of what Christ revealed to the world. In that context, particularly in consideration of a like tendency to dilute Christ’s message within our Church it would have been better to offer a polite refusal. Perhaps a compromise proposal to privately meet with Mullally if and when the Pope visits Britain.
@Donald. The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the King or Queen of England. This impetus for the beginning of the C of E was Henry VIII’s desire to commit adultery, which he did. She was later beheaded and Henry married a third time. My guess is the Holy Spirit was not around for Henry’s second and third marriages
BY the time of Henry VIII’s third marriage to Jane Seymour, his first two wives were dead, so he was canonically free to enter a new union. He didn’t pursue reconciliation with Rome then because he’d already confiscated the monasteries.
A long-winded retired and resident Monsignor made a rare appearance at the ambo in my parish, but then put us all at ease: “As Henry VIII said to each of his six wives, I won’t keep you long…”
Please clarify: Were his first two wives dead because he had them murdered? If so, I not certain he’d be “free” to marry another.
Katharine of Aragon wasn’t murdered – though I don’t imagine being put under terrible stress for years helped her health.
WIKIPEDIA has a graphic showing the lifespan of Catharine of Aragon relative to Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. If you wish to do all the reading needed you will see there is clear evidence that the King was involved with Seymour during the life of his wife and during his adultery with Boleyn. A pattern with all the future women -constantly abusing women.
It could possibly be that while he was involved with Boleyn before Catherine had died, he was also involved with Seymour.
Henry VIII had an illegitimate child Henry FitzRoy born 1519, by Elizabeth Blount. He died 1536. She died 1540. Apparently the King had kept up relations with her for as many as 8 years until she got married to another in 1522.
I think Henry VIII had a kind of “confidence: he could and would have a male heir for whom he would arrange the inheritance of the Kingdom at any cost. He demonstrated he had no respect for women which fell also onto his true wife and sacrament, hatred that gave him into rage at the Church and murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blount
Pope Prevost will only NOT meet with those for whom Catholic orthodoxy is preeminent in their spirituality.
I succumbed to Francis-Fatigue with the previous occupant of Peter’s Chair. I now sense an incipient case of the same syndrome with the current one. I guess it will remain for orthodox laity to preserve the patrimony of the Catholic faith. Our prelates are not up to the task. They’re too busy jumping into bed with Moloch.
Finally, in refusing to meet with the SSPX while meeting with and praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Ms Mullally mean that what she represents is acceptable and that the SSPX does not?
Add to this that an entire national Church now called the Synodaler Weg drifting off into something akin to congregationalism our Christian world has become a bewildering wilderness. Fortuitously and miraculously it appears Protestant converts to the faith are presenting, as evident in the editors of Catholic websites a growing light in the enveloping darkness.
We might muse, did the Reformation contain some mysterious alter purpose to be revealed centuries later among a unique corps of men with the complete sense of analytic freedom to research and discover where and what the truth is?
Quote: Finally, in refusing to meet with the SSPX while meeting with and praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Ms Mullally mean that what she represents is acceptable and that the SSPX does not?
Yes. It is a fake and easy “unity” which is not based in Christ that feels good and comfortable.
I do not idealize trads and know only basics about SSPX but they are straight Catholics. They have their own temptation, of swapping Christ with various “trad things” and many already went for that, refusing to criticize PL in exchange for his preservation of their little “trad ghetto”. But SSPX seems not to belong to that category, at this point at least. They will fall however if they begin to put their “traditionalism” above Christ, being attached to it more than to Our Lord.
The true basis for unity, Christ, exposes the fake unity based on “niceness” and “all-acceptance”. Hence, the true unity together with Christ must go away. This is, in a nutshell, what is happening now. This process will speed up and increase in magnitude.
As I see it, the would and the Church are tested now re: Christ, their attitude to Him (and to the Truth and true Love, for those who do not believe in Him but have conscience). Only putting Him above and beyond anything and clinging on Him will do.
Finally, in refusing to meet with the SSPX while meeting with and praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Ms Mullally mean that what she represents is acceptable and that the SSPX does not?
Add to this that an entire national Church now called the Synodaler Weg drifting off into something akin to congregationalism our Christian world has become a bewildering wilderness. Fortuitously and miraculously it appears Protestant converts to the faith are presenting, as evident in the editors of Catholic websites a growing light in the enveloping darkness.
We might muse, did the Reformation contain some mysterious alter purpose to be revealed centuries later among a unique corps of men with the complete sense of analytic freedom to research and discover where and what the truth is? That God might turn the tables on Satan and draw some good from evil?
I look at the CofE episcopacy as children playing dress-up. The old saw “smells and bells”.
Some years ago a coworker, an attorney who did pro bono work for the Episcopal community, conceded his concern for the future of it, and this was before its surrender to new temporal powers.
Very sad indeed. Yes the Pope is a very kind and good man, and yet I wonder what the great English martyrs of the 1535-1681 period view this? They took would look and react with sadness. Would the pope meet someone who dressed up as Napoleon, of course not! And yet he gives this woman who dresses up as a “bishop” and whose orders were declared by his named predessor as null and utterly void!!!?? With respect, Holiness I would have used the time by meeting with the SSpx that with this clown, who actually didn’t think it was worth her time to vote in the recent parliament decision to bring in infanticide! Again, such a sad photo 😢