DEVLIN: God, Give Us a Catholic Pope!
As a long-time papal observer (since Pope John Paul I, only 33 days, 1978) and a non-Catholic, like many of us, I am watching the current Papal conclave with a strong degree of fascination and hope.
In 2013 when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became “the Vicar of Christ on Earth”, hearts rose because, after all, he did take the name of the great saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. However, according to most of “trad” Roman Catholics, that was both the beginning and the end of the hearts arising.
As a theologically liberal Jesuit (a redundancy actually) and a devotee of the Marxist Peruvian priest, Gustavo Gutierrez, Francis sowed great heaping seeds of doctrinal confusion amongst the Catholic faithful. He trashed the Tridentine Latin Mass, endorsed blessing of same-sex ‘couples’ and seemed to be more concerned about how air conditioners affect climate change and the end of the earth than he was about the Catholic doctrine of the sanctity of life (think Pope Paul IV, 1968).
Several words in his numerous obituaries from traditional Catholics cried out Francis’ subterranean efforts to float changes in Catholic doctrine and the Catholic catechism. One of those words which spoke loudly was “confusion.” It appears that Francis would make a statement which was against Catholic beliefs, and then the Vatican would blame it on “mistranslation” from the Italian to English. Was that intentional or our fault for not really understanding the heart of what the now former pope was saying?
The bottom line is that Francis was a serious devotee of the Peruvian Marxist priest, Gustavo Gutierrez. Born eight years apart and both died just six months apart, Gutierrez was the father of liberation theology, a highly influential yet toxic application of Marxism to the Gospel of Jesus. Seminarians, like myself, Catholic or not, studied and read Gutierrez’s 1971 seminal work, “A Theology of Liberation.”
In Gutierrez’s worldview, Jesus came to liberate the poor. The Gospel is all about Marxist ‘class struggle’ and the struggle between the haves and the have-nots and ‘the application of socio-economic inequality’ to Catholic teaching. It’s not really about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. No, it is all about the source of sin which was manifested by an unjust social structure-“Liberation of the people from the political and economic structures which oppress them” …..He spoke of ” a social revolution, not reform” and… Marxism is “simply the best theory available for ensuring that theology is adequately contextual”…”We demand that we go and build a different social order.”
Once we understand Gutierrez, we understand Francis.
Let’s tear down stated Catholic doctrine, let us jump on a Jesus, Che, Fidel, Lenin, Maduro, Mao Tseung bus and create a new social order, infusing Catholic teaching with Marxism. Gutierrez would eventually go on to be a theology professor at Notre Dame, just in case you missed the fact that he was an influencer. An influencer and a lethal one. In 2013, this should have told us and that Papal conclave all they and we needed to know about Francis: that he was interested in turning the Catholic Church upside down and doing it with a smile.
During his tenure, Francis described faithful Catholics like Bishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas, (and his ilk) as “whited sepulchers” and “little monsters” who “like to throw stones.” Because of Strickland’s faithful and correct challenges to Francis, Strickland, like Father Frank Pavone of Priests of Life, was removed from office. Pavone was permanently removed as a priest.
Their collective crimes? They challenged the undermining of Catholic teaching that Pope Francis was surreptitiously pronouncing as the Bishop of Rome. In the church, doctrinal dissolution and theological uncertainty was creeping in, like a vine encircling a healthy tree. Every pro-Latin Mass Catholic I met over the last 12 years (and I met many through the pro-life movement) were deeply heart-broken and saddened by this now-deceased Pope. “We are praying for our Pope,” they would tell me privately, not wanting to be disrespectful but scratching their heads (and souls) as to why their shepherd was sowing confusion amongst the faithful. They silently cried out for the likes of Saint John Paul II.
Thus, every faithful Mass-attending Catholics became fearful because it appeared to be that the Catholic teaching on sex outside marriage and the restriction of the priesthood to men, etcetera, was in Francis’ liberation theological crosshairs. Catholics have been and are now confused because of the dead Pope’s lack of clarity and undermining of 2,000-year-old teachings. And young Catholics and new converts love their Church, not for the confusion, but for the same solid doctrinal teaching that Francis undermined.
Thus, the clarion cry of faithful traditional Roman Catholics today is, “God, give us a Catholic Pope!”
