by Anura Guruge
on July 21, 2021
Since Friday I have been asking a few of my Catholic friends to explain what possessed the pope to go ahead with this. It appears unnecessary. Overkill. They have tried, gallantly, but I am still at a loss.
So, I am going to take a crack at it myself. This is MY take.
I am also going to start off by throwing a bunch of thoughts at you in ‘bullet point’ form. You work them out. If you pull them all together, you might find a satisfactory explanation.
>> If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
>> Don’t try to fix something that isn’t totally broke & end up breaking it.
>> Francis has thrown a stick of dynamite into what was but a crack claiming that he was trying to stop the crack from spreading.
>> The ‘Latin Mass’ was the least of the problems facing the Catholic Church & the pope — but focusing on it was a ‘shiny object‘ (à la Donald Trump) to distract the media & the ‘followers’.
>> The Latin Mass per se was never going to be the sole basis for a schism. There are bigger/better issues that could lead to a split such as the so called ‘German Schism‘.
>> There are a lot of parallels between Francis & Donald Trump (refusal to wear masks the least of them). I will be coming back to this …
>> Francis is NOT an intellectual, far from it — he may be a Jesuit (albeit an Argentinian one), but he only has ‘street smarts’ as opposed to intellect. He is the least intellectual pope is 100-years IF not of modern-times!
>> Probably not coincidental to my point directly above, Francis is also the LEAST educated of recent popes — again one has to go back a long time to find one less academically blessed. He, atypically for a modern prelate, let alone a pope, does not have a postgraduate degree.
>> Prior to becoming pope he, again extremely uncharacteristically for a pope, had spent virtually NO TIME in Rome, at the Vatican or with the curia. He really was the consummate outsider. His experience of the Church was limited to that of Latin America.
>> In marked contrast to prior popes, starting at Benedict XVI & going back to Pius XII, Francis has come across as shallow. He can be shrewd at times, but most of the time he is ‘Mr. Smiling Nice Guy‘ rather than ‘Mr. Cerebral‘.
>> At 84, & not in the greatest of health, his thinking, never his strong suit, cannot be that acute or astute. That is am sure, is one of the reasons, for this decision. Francis did not make a very good decision. He didn’t think it through.
>> This Motu Proprio (despite it meaning ‘on his own impulse’) was NOT written by Francis. That is pretty clear. This would have been beyond him. A committee, possibly appointed by him (but maybe even NOT), wrote this in HIS name. This could have been the work of the ROGUE-CURIA who bamboozled the old pope to put his name on it.
>> Like Trump Francis, since becoming pope, has just loved the attention — especially the media attention. It, as was with Trump, has become the cornerstone of his papacy. Media attention.
>> As with Trump, with Francis it has all become: “ME”, “ME”, “ME”.
>> As with Trump, Francis will say & do stuff just for attention. I think this Motu Proprio falls into that category. A shiny object to get & gold attention.
>> As with Trump, Francis is not that bothered with future consequences. Francis too likes to be pope as if he is starring in a reality TV show.
>> This is another ‘Humanae vitae‘.
>> There will be unintended consequences.
>> This level of severe restrictions was not needed, not necessary.
>> Francis has thrown a stick of dynamite into what was but a crack claiming that he was trying to stop the crack from spreading.
>> Ahead of the 2013 conclave there was much talk that St. Malachy’s infamous ‘Prophecy of the Popes‘ & its ‘Peter the Roman‘ claim was about to come to pass. ‘Peter the Roman’ would destroy the Church by undermining it. At that time, I was adamant that ‘Peter the Roman’ was tripe. I might have been wrong.
Francis very well could be ‘Peter the Roman’!
Wow, this is a lot to take in! I’ll start with the My Take diagram above:
The irony is, is that the people most attached to the TLM (and therefore are called Traditionalists, at least in this understanding) ARE people who are too young to remember Vatican II! They are folks looking for a deeper sense of spirituality than can sometimes seem lacking in the post-1970 norms. So I wouldn’t peg all the “non-Traditionalists” as people who don’t remember VatII. Certainly of the TLM masses I’ve attended since Benedict’s motu proprio, it’s probably 60 to 75% composed of people under the age of 50. Many young families. And these are not people who necessarily dislike the post-1970 Mass; they are simply looking for something deeper.
Mark,
As ever you make a good point. I understand what you are saying. So, you are RIGHT. I have to come up with a better way to characterize the the ‘pre-Vatican II’ aspect. Any ideas, please? Thanks. Let me think about this. What other changes to that diagram? How would YOU DRAW it? Cheers.
I sent you my take on the diagram in a separate email.
As far as:
“At 84, & not in the greatest of health, his thinking, never his strong suit, cannot be that acute or astute. That is am sure, is one of the reasons, for this decision. Francis did not make a very good decision. He didn’t think it through.”
At the risk of sounding conspiratorial, one wonders if those who advise Francis ARE seeing that “the end is nigh” with this pontificate and are busy trying to “slide under the door” their agenda(e) while there is still time! If that is the case, we may expect to see even more divisive things coming up, in fairly short order…but I do hope I am totally wrong here.
Mark,
Yes, thank YOU. WE need to update the diagram. I have one BIG question for you there about ‘under 50’. Wow. We need to nail that.
As for your theory here, I think YOU are on the right track. You can JUST ‘see’ the hands behind the throne (quite literally) working the levers.
MY last contention is the CRAZIEST. YOU know how adamant I have been about ‘Peter the Roman’. Well, I am really having 2nd thoughts. That is NOT good for good, devout Catholics (like you)!
Thanks. I will be in touch via e-mail.
Anura