# 30 OF 45 - THIS UNHAPPY BOOK REPORT ON "THE POLITICAL POPE"

# 30 OF 45 - THIS UNHAPPY BOOK REPORT ON "THE POLITICAL POPE"

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - BLOGGER, GEORGE H. KUBECK, WED. FEB. 12, 2020

 

George Neumayer - "The Political Pope" - Center Street, N.Y. 2017, Excerpts

Chapter - How Francis Is Undoing the Legacy of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI

" In a veiled swipe a his two predecessors, Pope Francis told an interviewer that Vatican II had encouraged openness to "modern culture" and dialogue with nonbelievers" but that after it "very little was done in that direction" in the Church. He promised to correct this shortcoming: "I have the humility and ambition to want to do something." ...

 

By laying the groundwork for change so methodically, "it's more difficult to turn things back, " said Fernandez. The pope is aiming for "irreversible" change and that even if some cardinals have "regrets" about electing him that "doesn't change anything," said Fernandez... Where Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI tried to counteract the influence of liberal theology, Pope Francis is seeking to spread it, noted the Journal....

 

They acknowledges differences between Islam and Christianity, he blurs them. They upheld moral absolutes : he "discerns" exceptions to them.... Quoting Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict described this "misplaced compassion" as a counterfeit of charity, "sentimentality, pastoral only in appearance."...

 

"Among Catholics there are many, not a few, many who believe to hold the absolute truth," Pope Francis has said. "There go ahead by harming others with slander and defamation, and they do great harm... And it must combed." Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Catholics to seek the truth, but Pope Francis makes them feel guilty for pursuing it...

 

The St. Gallen group, the cabal of liberal cardinals who were instrumental in Bergoglio's election as pope, had long groused about the "fundamentalist" views of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. They bristled when Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor that situation ethics reinforces the moral relativism widespread in society...

 

Through Pope Francis, the St. Gallen group got its revenge in Amoris Laetitia where the pope implicitly challenges Veritas Splendor by stating that the avoidance of adultery is a mere "ideal" which a Catholic can violae if he "discerns" that his circumstances and conscious justify it.....

 

OPPOSITION TO THE LATIN MASS

"In various interviews and speeches, Pope Francis has made it clear that it wouldn't bother him if the traditional Latin Mass movement died. He has mischaracterized Benedict'd rationale for authorizing wider use of it as a "prudential decision motivated by the desire to help people who have this sensitivity." In fact, Benedict has authorized wider use of the traditional Latin Mass both for the sake of older Catholics and for the sake of future generations of Catholics, whom he feared wouldn't have access to the liturgical riches of the Catholic patrimony...

 

In 2016, Pope Francis gave an interview in which he reiterated his dim view of youth interest in the ancient liturgy, casting as sinister: "I ask myself about this. For example, I always try to understand what's behind the people who are to too young to have lived the pre-conciliar liturgy but who want it. Sometimes, I've found myself in front of people who are too strict, who have a rigged attitude. And I wonder: How come such rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something insecurity, sometimes even more..."

FREEZING OUT CONSERVATIVES, PROMOTING LIBERALS

According to the prominent German philosopher Robert Spaemann, churchmen connected to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have been rendered irrelevant by this pontificate... "Soon after his election, Francis removed two Americans - Cardinal Justin Rigali and Cardinal Raymond Burke - from the congregation. Both men were major players in constituting the American episcopacy during the papacy of Benedict XVI...

 

In 2015, Pope Francis made Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, one of the Dominican Order's most flagrant liberals, a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace... is known for his open promotion of gay-rights ideology, his support for the Communion for the divorced-and-remarried, and his insistence that the Church embrace female deacons and "loosen" its opposition to female priests and other feminist innovations. He has said that gay sex is "expressive of Christ self-gift..." George H. Kubeck