The two journalists report of "enthusiastic Masses" in St. Peter's Square and a "measurable" increase in church attendance and confessions. A statement that has been variously asserted last spring, immediately after the election, siince it could hardly be measurable empirically. Since then it has hardly been heard. The participants at the Wednesday catachesis have measurably increased. Whether "Francesco" is the new fashion in names for newborn boys, the statistics of the coming years will show.
Atmosphere in the Vatican "Lousy" because "Brash Style" of the new Pope
In any event, according to Focus in the Vatican "the euphoria about the new pope, however, is long gone." The mood is described as "lousy". Publicly they say there is trust, but no one does. The reason is obvious, because everyone was confused, "because nobody knows what will happen tomorrow with him and the Church."
The recent low point was the criticism of the Pope in the Vatican to its employees through the media. Vatican employees felt alienated by the infamous interview with Eugenio Scalfari for the daily newspaper La Repubblica. The Pope blustered before the enthusiastically listening atheist Scalfari: "The leaders of the Church were often narcissistically, surrounded by sycophants and egged on by their courtiers to slander. The Court is the leprosy of the papacy. . . "
"The Curia - a troop of lepers" asks Focus . Several thousand men and women, priests and religious, the years, often decades, performing their silent and faithful service to the Church and the Pope. Pope Francis hardly meant those members of the Curia, who had made life difficult for Benedict XVI. with their intrigues and their boycott.. They belong to the so celebrated new pontificate and have been favored by the emergence of rank and standing.
The image of the gentle Pope, who acts collegially, is not confirmed in Rome. "Not only in the Vatican is there resistance to this. Around the globe, as critics report in Rome, the discomfort grows," says Focus .
U.S. bishops see "Acute Risk of Loss Without Profits"
In the U.S., there was anger by the Pope's interviews, especially with his "liberal sayings" about gays, abortion and contraception. The bishops, including "publicly" one of the Bergoglio electors, Cardinal Timothy Dolan," fear they will lose believers to the Evangelicals. Focus did not write this, but among U.S. bishops there is talk of the "acute risk of loss without profits ".
The weekly magazine cites opposition to Pope Francis in Latin America. There, priests and lay people have often fought "for years against communist and Church-critical populists." You feel overwhelmed by Pope Francis' perceived "left-swing".
Poland: "If This Continues, This Pope Will Make Our Church Kaputt"
Focus summarizes the mood of the Polish clergy and episcopate with the words: "If this continues, this Pope will make our Church kaputt," says a Vatican-insider, about local concerns. "
The official motto of the Church in Germany is "Celebrate". Focus journalists have so far perceived as much. You do, however, find even north of the Alps, rumblings, because the reforms are too slow to go for the "German bishops" who have "spearhead the demand for reforms." Since last 13 March, satisfaction prevails here, that the "brakeman" John Paul II and Benedict XVI. have finally been gotten rid of. But we are wanting to see some action. The expectations are so screwed up, the "minimal solutions" expected are to celibacy, women priests and remarried divorcees. And then what?
Hans Küng and the Rif Eskimos and Notker Wolf About Papal "bomblets"
Focus also questioned the apparently inevitable Hans Küng, who can dish out his broadsides against everything that has even the appearance of a Catholic Church. His words say much about as much about Catholicism, as a lone Berber in the Rif mountains could tell about the customs and traditions of Eskimos. They should therefore be mentioned.
Abbot Primate Notker Wolf thrilled at the Pope and his own, hardly decipherable ciphers: "The Pope exactly delivers bomblets that are needed in our time, which are bomblets that come from the Gospel, and there are many."
"Creeping Nostalgia" for Benedict XVI. - Lack of Theological Depth
Focus also reports of a "creeping nostalgia" for Benedict XVI. Citing a Curia employee: "The German Pope inspired us with his arguments". Thus, it is now over.
Focus also reported a lack of theological discussions, i.e. theological depth of this pontificate. One criticism voiced especially at Catholic universities around the world, but "only unofficially of course."
"New Modesty?" Francis has "Whole Floor" in Santa Marta, "Big as Old Pope's Apartment"
The Focus editors leave the Vatican "bubble". "What do you mean new modesty," a Curia employee is quoted. The Pope, who refused the papal apartment, "Evidence is now he has a whole floor in the Vatican guesthouse Santa Marta". Considering the large chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope's new apartment "is not much smaller than the old place." Even the house rules meet with criticism and incomprehension. Pope Francis said he wanted "not to lock" out and place himself among the people to talk to everyone. The reality, says Focus , looks different: "For in Santa Marta, one must not approach the Pope and not even greet him."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La cigüeña de la torre
Image: La cigüeña de la torre
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD
50 comments:
"Fundamental change" Now where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. The anti-christ obama creature.
What whiners!
As a non-Catholic who has long had respect for their Church, I find the ascension of this misguided socialist man horrifying. The whole world economic system is collapsing, and this clown thinks that governments should fleece its productive citizens MORE!
Socialism held the Church at Gun Point not 70 Years ago, and now this @sshat starts pushing for the very thing that almost wiped out the Planet?
Convents and Hospitals in the USA are closing because of Socialist Healthcare. Christians are being Slaughtered by a Socialist US President and his Muslim Allies(Of which Francis courts).
We're Dying and he's talking about Socialist Justice aka Destroying the Church.
"The Court is the leprosy of the papacy. . . " Who would want to work for a man that speaks like this? How demoralizing must it be! Surely not all, and not a majority, of the people who work in the Vatican deserve to be referred to this way. There surely must be good, hard-working people there, but Pope Francis just paints them all with the same brush. Alphonsus G.
In my English diocese the priests are loving this new Pope. They cling to the illusion that the problem is the Vatican and its burocracy. Get rid of that and all will be well. Therefore I question the content of this piece. Where disquiet might kick in is the drop in vocations. They grew steadily under B16 reversing the decline of decades.
One of the reasons Benedict resigned was because he saw a Curia that was uncooperative and he believed a younger pope could deal with them. However the "career cardinals" apparently elected a man more to their liking in Francis. Without disrespecting the office of pope, they have elected a "useful idiot" that they hoped would do things their way. Perhaps that is what he is doing, but as the saying goes, "Be careful what you ask for..." Now they've got it. This is the last gasp of the '70's before the biological solution sets in and the Church is truly renewed by a pope who will govern and stop institutionalizing the failures of the post-conciliar debacle.
I don't think Benedict XVI was naive. He knew even without the Vatileaks documents that the curia was filled with the unCatholic and antiCatholic.
He's not Pope. Pope Benedict is Pope, this guy is the "destroyer" that Saint Francis said would come. Any questions?
Don't talk stupid.
Actually, 2 questions: (1) Where is your evidence for your ridiculous statements? (2) Have you forgotten to take your medication?
"the court is the leprosy of the papacy" let me guess , he was misquoted, he didn't actually say that, it was a bad translation."
i remeber St Damian and Saint Franccis went to leprosy places out of love for lepers, nice that the supposed pope is using the term in such a way, oh that's right, it was a bad translation, he never actually said that.
Good grief, you do write nonsense. Oh, and judging from your wording, you're the same "Anonymous" who made comments at 5:02 & 9:01. Trying to boost your opinion?
„Die Führer der Kirche waren oft narzißtisch, von Schmeichlern umgeben und von ihren Höflingen zum Üblen angestachelt. Der Hof ist die Lepra des Papsttums . . .“.
The German uses a word that could only be translated as leprosy. Not a bad translation at al.
NPR translated it the same way... http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/01/228200595/francis-says-the-court-is-the-leprosy-of-the-papacy
Pope Francis is a like a breath of fresh air. The Magisterium has been behaving as though the laity weren't actually part of the church, and as though they had opinions worth listening to. The scandals that engulfed the church were entirely the result of this cliquish mentality.
Pope Francis not only has the title "Servant of the servants of God" - he acts like he BELIEVES it.
Pope Francis is not a Socialist, and the Church has always condemned both Socialism AND Capitalism. Catholics are Distributist. American Republicans may THINK that that's socialism but it isn't. And the Catholic Church isn't a wing of a United States Political ideology EITHER.
ROFLMAO!!!
2x ROFLMAO!!!
I am really not surprised by this piece of news because frankly I have been uncomfortable for him since his election. I have been praying for him but I think that one he is just not up to this Job as he said back in 2005 and really somebody younger healthy and more experienced be elected.
Popr francis is awesome. He gives fresh air in the secular world. He is very ecumenical and he dont want rigidity. He loves media and atheists too. His love to athiests was great that he gave them the chance to enter the Kingdom of God without believing in God.
I expect great things from him. His humility is so great that he washed a feet of a young moslem woman during a catholic liturgy. I pray to allah (because we worship the same God with islam) not to Catholic God (becausr there is no Catholic God) that his papacy will not be a restorationist, pelagian, triumphalist type of papacy.
Let's see:
1) Follow a policy which results in warring camps.
2) Never dialogue with those who differ from your agenda, instead use ridicule.
3) Obfuscate and confuse, after all truth is relative.
4) When you have the upper hand, crush the opposition.
5) Etc, etc., etc.,.....
Lol. Funny but sad at the same time.
Be careful what YOU wish for. Cardinal Tagle would fit their bill quite nicely, and he's only 56.
The TLM crowd I know is pretty tough and they've long said that Ratzinger and Bergoglio were both Modernists but only the latter continued to rule as one. Over coffee & doughnuts today, we tossed around the idea that Benedict may have been tricked into abdicating or done so under duress. If this was the case, is Francis' pontificate legitimate and is he protected by the charism of infallibility? I must admit, it's the strongest argument for sedevacantism that I've heard to date.
Francis, quit making the job of kooks any easier!
IF anybody thinks that John Paul II or Benedict XVI were "breakmen" i.e., they tried to SLOW down the process of destruction of Vatican II needs to admit themselves into an insane asylum! All evidence points to the contrary.
To both wonderful posters above, lets make a deal, lets come back to this forum in 3 years and we can discuss then who was correct.
Pope Francis is antipope, He is the false prophet as foretold. Please read "Book of Truth" the Book of Revelation is unfolding layer by layer. The false prophet will lead the Church to Apostasy.
The third Secret of Fatima is now in fruition. Please read, more prayers and penance are need this time. We are now at End Times.
It's spelt brakeman....
Obama is many things but hardly a socialist. Among his biggest contributors were Goldman-Sachs and Citi-Bank. It's well known that he was the candidate favored by most of Wall Street. None of your country's serious left sees him as one of their own. One of the former editors of a major US journal captured their mood when he described Obama as "A corporate shill who sounds like a preacher, a technocrat who comes off as an idealist, a conservative disguised as a liberal." Mussolini famously defined fascism as the fusion of corporate and government power. It would seem then that this adjective fits your president and his policies a bit more accurately. Hardly an improvement over socialism but a more precise description.
The Soviet Union was bankrolled by American and British corporations. Why would that be a surprise that American corporations supported a Socialist?
"Catholics are Distributist."
Huh??!! Where in the world do you come up with this?
Subsidiarity is the concept, not "distributionism"...
Matter, Form and Intent by the priest are All necessary for a valid Eucharist. The latter is a concern. Even an unbelieving priest can confer The Sacrament as long as he intends to do what The Church teaches in this regard. However, what if .....
" The abomination that makes desolate"
We need to pray for and encourage Holy priests !
Distributism is a early twentieth century hodgepodge of Medieval Romanticism and trendy economics with practically no political program.
What's the big fuss? The Church teaching is what it is. It will not change. There will be no official accepting of women priests, no condoning of homosexual acts, no remarried divorcees without annulment. This is an offense against God. No pope can change that. Let the liberals play their games. Faithful Catholics know the Truth.
German bankers definitely bankrolled the bolsheviks because they wanted Russia out of the war. Whatever support American and British banks and corporations gave to the soviets was given in the hope of making profit. It's one thing to bankroll people who would expropriate your wealth and even shoot you and your family were they to take over in your country, and quite another to support them in some other part of the world where it's someone else who stands to be expropriated or shot.
Of course, much depends on how one defines "socialism". Many on the left would question whether The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was really ever socialist at all, never mind "soviet" (governed by popularly elected councils) or a republic. If I may risk over simplifying; in socialism, the government takes over the corporations and either compensates the former owners and investors or arrest and even kills them. The instruments of production and distribution thus aquired are afterwards administered so as to prmote the public good (as defined of course by the government). In fascism the corporations fuse with the government and administer it so as to promote their interest and profits, most often through military ventures and myths of the nation's very special role in history, etc.
Both systems are problematic from a Catholic perspective and I'm happy I live in a country that is stll free and has a working market economy.
The liberals' game is causing the loss of many souls.
So you're admitting that large corporations bankrolled the Reds? Thanks. What this has to do with This topic, I have no idea.
The loose and inaccurate use of the term "socialism" and the labeling of Obama as a "socialist" is what gets under my skin, and I'm not even a socialist. Americans seem unable to come to terms with the fact their leader and country are bordering on fascism. Once again; in socialism the government takes over the corporations, in fascism the corporations and government fuse. In socialism the former elite are disenfranchised or killed, in fascism the corporate elite become more powerful. Corporations funded Russia's reds because it was profitable. Russia was far away and an annoyance. It would not be profitable for them to fund reds in their own country.
You live in a country where civil liberties are evaporating like morning dew under the summer sun, the middle class is dissapearing, the disparity between rich and poor is the widest in the industrialized world, and a handful of banks and corporations become ever more powerful. And all of this is because of..."socialism"? Look again and pull out the dictionary, turn to the "f" section.
I have relatives in your country and spent more than 20 of my almost 60 years there. I love it and its people. However, you'll never overcome the present crisis if you can't even identiify and label your problems accurately
Held at gunpoint for seventy years and are still holding the gun in case the Church slips up. These gun wielders are called World Jewry. Remember? Just because a few Neo-Cons are thrown in the poison soup does not change the identity or the bitter taste of the old and surely doth seem, the eternal foe. Count me out.
Fascism is National Socialism and Obammy is a Socialist. Having corporate bankers does not serve as a criterion. Socialism is a government with a central command economy, extensive social services and along with that a progressive approach to social morality, including denigrating anything which detracts from party loyalty such as the family, the Church or in the case of USA, the Boy Scouts.
Tancred, perhaps we can agree that the US is not the country it used to be or that its founders hoped for, and that life for Catholics there will become more difficult. I think prayer and fasting are in order, as well as a firm and faithful witness on the part of Catholic Americans. May God have mercy on that great country and its people.
This is a great article that I fully appreciate. Now as a faithful son of the Church (Using Bergoglios own words) , I can say I console myself with the idea that the Bishop of Rome is Pope Benedict XVl and Bishop Francis is only his Auxiliary Bishop. Auxiliary Bishops can be bad news. I give Bishop Francis as a prime example. This great article I believe suggests I may be right.
tancred- Not quite. If looked at properly, it has much to commend itself to its predecessors; national socialism, the medieval guild system, and the idea that 'We take care of our own.' But in today's judaized corporate hyper-individualism mindset, such a construct is considered heretical. More's the Pity. Oh, and Dorothy Day was no distributist, in that she was an INTERNATIONALIST socialist. - Fr. John+
The entire Church since Vatican II has forgotten that Jews, cannot be saved and escape Eternal Damnation, Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and The Life, no one can come to the Father except through Christ. The Synagogue of Satan, world Jewry, controls the world monetary system through international banks. In the USA our media agenda is run by God hating Jews, How long will we permit millions or even billions of souls to be damned through media lies, how long.........
You're a Novus Ordo heretic and you're calling orthodox Catholics kooks? Get a life!
Jorge the Heretic works tirelessly to destroy Christ's Church.
When there is a thriving economy and people have liberty in that economy and there is freedom to enjoy the fruits of one's labors and one is not give 50% of it to the government to use for studying monkey poop and putting czars in place - a man has the ability to take care of himself and he family and does not need a handout from the government.
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