Expect the Bergoglio papacy to lead to more inquisition and less discussion

The Bergoglio Inquisition is coming

Ross Douthat, who considers himself to be among the conservative Roman Catholics, has a pretty good take on what’s happening in the Bergoglio papacy. The down side for Douthat is that his “only serious” solution to what’s happening may only exacerbate the problem that he sees.

“Expect the Inquisition” is a headline that probably some editor gave to the column, but the real heart and soul of the Roman Catholic Church is on display, and it shows why this editor is right and Douthat is probably wrong.

In his opening statement, Douthat himself has noticed “In the Catholic Church of Pope Francis, it is dangerous to be too conservative.” He then recounts the story of “a distinguished Catholic philosopher” who was removed from his university position for having “raised questions about ‘Amoris Laetitia’”.

The sniping goes the other way, too. “Meanwhile, in the Catholic Church of Pope Francis it is also dangerous to be too liberal.” He recounts the travails of “Father James Martin”, author of “Building a Bridge” (from the Roman Catholic Church to “the LGBT community”) who was not only disinvited from giving a speech at the “Theological College of the Catholic University of America”, here’s the key: “after an internet campaign by traditionalist priests and laypeople”.

“Pope Francis” dismisses Cardinal Müller from top post at “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”

“Pope Francis” dismissed Cardinal Gerhard Müller from his position as “Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (the Inquisition) today – perhaps making sure he gets the right “interpretation” (or maybe, “the left interpretation”) on Amoris Laetitia and no doubt on some of his future doctrinal statements, should he live so long as to be able to make more of them, Lord willing.

This is “Pope Francis” letting go the top doctrinal man in the Vatican. No word as to where he’s going, or who he would be replaced with. Imagine if “Pope John Paul II” had let Ratzinger go after just five years, and replaced him with a liberal “theological watchdog”.

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/06/breaking-exclusive-in-english-pope.html:

CORRISPONDENZA ROMANA and RORATE CÆLI have just learned that His Eminence Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith since July 2, 2012, has been dismissed by Pope Francis on the exact expiry date of his five-year mandate.

Cardinal Müller is one of the cardinals who sought to interpret Amoris Laetitia along the lines of a hermeneutic of continuity with Church Tradition. This was enough to put him among the critics of the new course imposed by Pope Bergoglio.

Bergoglio’s Gig: “Reformation Reconsidered”

Get ready. Please.

Reformation's anniversary brings commemorations, reconsiderations.

When Pope Francis visits Sweden at the end of October for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, it will herald fresh debates on the greatest rift in Western Christianity.

The Roman Catholic message will likely be some variation of this:

“I hope Protestants will appreciate the effort Catholics are making for this event."

That is: “Be thankful for the Roman Catholic Church”.

“The Roman Catholic Church is the source of all grace in the world”

But really, the Roman Catholic Church wants to sweep its own past under the rug and have you forget about it. Yes, we see a lot of that today. But Rome was the first, and is still the oldest practitioner of this type of head fake. Keep in mind this one example of Roman Catholic repression of knowledge:

In 1543 a little book was published in Venice with the title Trattato utilissimo del beneficio di Giesu Christo crocifisso i cristiani (A Most Useful Treatise on the Merits of Jesus Christ Crucified for Christians), written by an elusive Benedictine monk called Benedetto da Mantova (dates of birth and death unknown, but his surname seems to have been fontanino) with some help from the humanist and poet Marcantonio Flaminio (1498-1550), a popular work of piety that was translated into several languages including Croat.

At first sight this may appear to be a piece of native Italian Christocentrism, part of a Pauline and Augustinian renaissance known to have been nourished by a Spanish humanist and biblicist, Juan de Valdes (1500-1541), whose pious circle in Naples had included Flaminio. But the Beneficio can be read in more than one way. It proves to have been made up from a number of transalpine Protestant texts, and especially the 1539 edition of Calvin's Institutes. Whether or not Benedetto had come across Calvin in his monastery on the slopes of Mount Etna, which seems unlikely, the Institutes was known to Flaminio.

It is hard to distinguish between the theology of the Beneficio and Protestantism. "Man can never do good works unless he first know himself to be justified by faith." Other scholars insist, however, that the Beneficio is an expression of Evangelism, a movement that was not generated by Protestantism and should be distinguished from it. What is certain is that the Beneficio was placed on the Index and so successfully repressed by the Roman Inquisition that of the many thousands of copies of the Italian edition that were once in existence only one is known to survive, discovered in the library of a Cambridge college in the nineteenth century. That sort of successful repression was the Counter-Reformation. (The Reformation, a History, Patrick Collinson, (c)2003, pgs 105-106.)

Roman Catholics who are Anti-Americans

The Medieval Inquisition

From the University of St. Thomas:

Investigating heresy was the work of the medieval inquisition. But before going into the founding of the inquisition we need to ask what is meant by “heresy”? The word “heresy,” in its origins, means “choice.” Choice implies, therefore, different ways of thinking about a specific subject.

The following is written by a Roman Catholic writer, who concludes by saying:

In one of God’s little ironies, as Russell Kirk showed in The Roots of American Order, it was largely Protestants who championed the rights of Christians against the State, while Catholics endorsed old Roman, pagan conceptions of the State and its nearly limitless prerogatives. After the Reformation destroyed the Church’s political independence, popes saw little choice but to baptize, and try to morally inform, the absolutism of monarchs…

In the 20th century, the paternalist tumor metastasized. It grew into full-blown totalitarianism, as leaders like Hitler and Stalin (who scoffed at Enlightenment liberties) engineered genocides, ruthless wars of conquest, and the violent persecution of various believers. The clash of opposing paternalisms in World War II culminated in communist dictatorships controlling half the countries on earth…

Those same rumbles are being heard among Roman Catholics today, eager to throw off modern forms of human freedom because … why? “Catholicism minus the Enlightenment equals the Inquisition. Do I exaggerate?”

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: