Reading Pope Francis

Pope Francis holding the golden ferula used by popes Pius  IX to
John XXIII and resurrected by Pope Benedict XVI  from spring of 2008.

The stepping down of Pope Benedict XVI and subsequent election of Pope Francis created a period of intense uncertainty in the Church. The “Habemus papam” call of March 13, 2013 whilst being a welcome relief to the anxiety, created yet another intense moment in the Church. Both liberal and conservative Catholics shared the same burning question “Who is Pope Francis?” Google and other search engines were flooded with searches with keywords such as “Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio + Motu proprio 2007”, “Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio + liturgical reform”, “Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio + reform of the reform”, “Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio + liberation Theology”, “Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio + social justice” etc etc.

The venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen called Judas Iscariot the patron saint of "social justice" because  here people become concerned more with humanity and ignore the truths of God. It is God who is the center of the universe not humanity

For a moment it seemed that liberalism had triumphed, cafeteria Catholicism (where one picks and adheres only to those teachings that are ‘convenient’ to them); mainly because of the calibre of voices that were quick to hail and thumbs-up the results of the conclave. Among these voices were the likes of Huns Kung, a Vatican II peritus who had his teaching licence revoked in 1979 for denying much of Church Doctrine and being very vocal against papal infallibility.

*Other Catholics were not bothered this way or that, none of these issues mean anything to them anyway. 

For these Catholics, individual priests in parishes can stand at the pulpit and desecrate the holy faith and they would not even know the difference. Religion to them is just another thing on the “to do list” and as such can be swept up in any wave of new teaching that any priest, group of priests or even seminarians shove down their throats. The practice of loving one’s faith enough to make time to study and understand taking notes from the saints as our role models has been disregarded as Pope Benedict XVI once decried; “Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labelled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.

Was he or was he not going to uphold the call by pope Benedict XVI to the “hermeneutics of continuity”, the crux of his papacy?

It is crucial to remember the words of the good shepherd that thunders through the ages when he proclaimed, “The gates of the underworld shall not prevail against My Church”. He gave to the His Church the gift of the Holy Spirit and also promised, “the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name shall bring to your remembrance all that I have taught you and shall teach you even more …”. The Holy Catholic Church thus became the pillar and bulwark of truth (1 Timothy 3:15) because He that steers it is the Truth. Traditional Catholicism hails the work of the Holy Spirit and accepts in filial obedience and gratitude all that the Holy Spirit has been doing from the day of Pentecost to our time. To believe that the Church went astray at some point and only came back on track in 1962 (at the convocation of Vatican II) is to teach that the Holy Spirit abandoned the Church which is against what Christ Jesus Himself proclaimed “I shall always be with you until the consummation of the age”

In John 16:12-15, Christ Jesus says "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. *He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Thus ‘Catholics’ that believe the Mass was stuffed full with eccentricities that “deformed the character of the celebration of the Eucharist”, do a great injustice to the authority of the Holy Spirit who was always guiding the Church. Every Catholic needs to accept being led by the Holy Spirit and to accept the Holy Faith as it grows organically through the ages (not a revolutionary growth that undermines all the truth and *glory of Christ that was to be revealed.

Christ Jesus said that one needs to build one’s faith on rock so that when the flood comes and the river broke upon the house it will never fall (Luke 6:46-49). New teachings and people’s innovations will always come and go but the truth brought by Christ Jesus and glorified by the Holy Spirit will never be defeated. This is how the Church has survived through thick and thin for the over two thousand years.

Notice the Benedictine arrangement from Sacramentum caritatis

This anxiety and uncertainty that followed the election of Pope Francis quickly gave way to renewed hope starting on Thursday 14 March, where the new pope gave his Homily to the cardinal electors. From that Thursday the new pope has brought back the fire of hope and rekindled zeal for the house of God that the successor of St Peter is meant to steer in our hearts. Although his style is much different from the shy pope Benedict XVI, he has laid to the rest fears that he would usher our beloved Mother Church into an era of liberation Theology where relativity rules the day. I believe Pope Francis is his own type of pope and cannot be compared to Pope Benedict XVI just like no pope can be compared to any other in the history of the Church, still we have reason to believe that he will uphold the liturgical reforms that characterized then pope Benedict XVI’s papacy.

Below is a collection of quotes taken from Pope Francis’ homilies and teachings that would shock the liberal and bring renewed hope to the traditionalist.


“Missa Pro Ecclesia" with the cardinal electors in the Sistine Chapel

We can walk as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord. When we are not walking, we stop moving. When we are not building on the stones, what happens? The same thing that happens to children on the beach when they build sandcastles: everything is swept away, there is no solidity. When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: "Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil." When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness ... When we journey without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord, we are worldly: we may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord.

- Thursday, 14 March 2013

Urbi et Orbi

Let us be renewed by God’s mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.

- March 31, 2013,

Homily at the Casa S. Marta

How’s our faith?  Is it strong? Or is it sometimes a bit superficial? (all’acqua di rose – “like rose water”, meaning banal, an insufficient substitute, shallow, inadequate)” When difficulties come, “are we courageous like Peter or a little lukewarm?” Peter – he pointed out– didn’t stay silent about the Faith; he didn’t descend to compromises, because “the Faith isn’t negotiable.” There has been, throughout history of the people, this temptation: to chop a piece off the Faith”, the temptation to be a bit “like everyone else does”, the temptation “not to be so very rigid”. “But when we start to cut down the Faith, to negotiate Faith, a little like selling it to the highest bidder”, he stressed, “we take the path of apostasy, of disloyalty to the Lord.

- April 6, 2013

Homily, St. Martha’s residence - Lukewarm Christians

They try to build a church that conforms to their own common sense and see too much risk in following Jesus, These Christians are not united in the Church, they do not walk in God's presence, they don’t have the security of the Holy Spirit, and they do not make up the Church. .. to quote the words of Jesus in Revelation, 'lukewarm Christians'. The indifference that is in the Church ... They walk only in the presence of common sense common sense ... that worldly prudence.

- April 20, 2013

Feast of St. George

And so the Church was a Mother, the Mother of more children, of many children. It became more and more of a Mother. A Mother who gives us the faith, a Mother who gives us an identity. But the Christian identity is not an identity card: Christian identity is belonging to the Church, because all of these belonged to the Church, the Mother Church. Because it is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church. The great Paul VI said: “Wanting to live with Jesus without the Church, following Jesus outside of the Church, loving Jesus without the Church is an absurd dichotomy". And the Mother Church that gives us Jesus gives us our identity that is not only a seal, it is a belonging. Identity means belonging. This belonging to the Church is beautiful.

- April 23, 2013

Addressing the leaders of women religious

Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey and it isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel' themselves not to be with the Church ... It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit,

- Vatican City, May 8, 2013