Pope Francis, the Thoroughly “Postmodern” Pope, Sweeps Augustine, the Inquisition, and 15 centuries of Roman Policy Under the Rug

This image of Pope Francis
posted by "Livius" on FreeRepublic

Sandro Magister, the Italian journalist (and a conservative Roman Catholic) has been offering a running commentary on “Pope Francis” that seems to be lamenting that Pope Bergoglio is actually a postmodern in sheep’s clothing.

You’ve heard the phrase “50 is the new 30”. Well, Bergoglio may be taking a page out of the book of a great American “great communicator”, Ronald Reagan, and going over the heads of everyone who might want to “interpret” the papal message and make certain that it conforms to “Roman Catholic Teaching”. In doing so, he is simply sweeping under the rug some 1500 years-worth of Roman Catholic policy.

The “papal interview” is the new “papal encyclical”

ROME, October 7, 2013 - As the days go by, the two interviews of Pope Francis with the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, director of “La Civiltà Cattolica," and with the atheist professor Eugenio Scalfari, founder of the leading Italian secular newspaper, “la Repubblica," appear more and more as milestones of the beginning of his pontificate.

In them Jorge Mario Bergoglio declares his inspiring principles, tells how he sees the current state of the Church, indicates his priorities, enunciates his program.

Interestingly, while “Pope Francis” may be able to “go over the heads” of his own handlers, he can’t avoid the “infallible interpreters” among the Internet apologists, who continue to want to tell us “what he really means”.

Magister is not one of those who agrees that what “Pope Francis” is saying is completely harmless to the Roman Catholic cause:


“What, me worry?”

One of his remarks had an explosive effect and spread all around the world, procuring for him a boundless quantity of consensus in secular public opinion:

"If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge him?”

Was it a remark that slipped out on the spur of the moment? Not at all.

In the most calibrated of his subsequent interviews, that with “La Civiltà Cattolica," Francis not only repeated it, he amplified it. Adding a corollary with a no less shattering effect:

“Spiritual interference in personal life is not possible.”

The interview with “La Civiltà Cattolica" was the fruit of a series of conversations between the pope and his interviewer. It was put down in writing with great care. It was checked word for word by the author before it was given to the press. It was published simultaneously on September 19 in sixteen magazines of the Society of Jesus, in eleven languages:

With good reason it can therefore be considered the first true “encyclical” of Pope Francis, much more so than the “Lumen Fidei" of classical construction that he inherited from Joseph Ratzinger.

Of course, this statement “spiritual interference in personal life is not possible” is precisely contrary to Augustine’s notion of the Donatists that “They go down with open eyes into Hell” (comments on Ps 54:16, cited in Peter Brown, “Augustine of Hippo”, pg 212). In 405, the Roman Church promulgated a drastic “Edict of Unity” – “the Donatists were branded as ‘heretics’, and so brought under general laws against heresy” (Brown, pg 230).

This involved removing Donatist bishops, by force, from the Donatist churches. Eventually, the Donatists were “disbanded”. “The Donatist bishop would be removed, his church would be taken over by the Catholics; and Augustine would be faced with the unpleasant and arduous task of absorbing a leaderless congregation” (Brown, pg 230).

Augustine, of course, “in replying to his persistent critics, wrote the only full justification, in the history of the early church, of the right of the state to suppress non-Catholics” (Brown, pg 231). It may be reliably be said that this “weakening” of the North African churches in the fifth century led to the rapid Islamic conquest of North Africa by Islam in the seventh century.

This policy of the Roman Church shaped the world where that organization held sway for the next 15 centuries. It led directly to the Medieval Inquisition. And the first “postmodern” “Pope”, “Bergoglio”, now wishes to sweep this policy under the rug without a word of explanation.