As Bergolio Was Sent As "Brilliant, But Crazy" into "Exile"

Aquele Francis -- This Francis-- New
Book, "little light"

(Buenos Aires) "Aquel Francisco" ( This Francis ) is a book which appeared last week in Argentina in the publishing house Raiz de Dos of Cordoba.  It is dedicated to the life Jorge Mario Bergoglio, particularly his "exile" in the Argentine province of Cordoba. It will bring a new "light to the time", in which  Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio  had  "fallen out of favor and been exiled" within the Jesuit Order.The priest was then referred to as "crazy and almost irresponsible". An incident that had affected not only the superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, but also  other Latin American countries and also the General house of the Order in Rome. A "series of defamations under which the Pope had suffered more than 20 years ago," write the authors of the book.

Four Years in Cordoba

In  four years in Cordoba Pope Francis had two key moments of his religious life. From 1958-1960 he visited Cordoba in the novitiate with the Jesuits and 1990-1992 he spent time in an "exile" to which his order had  "sentenced" him.

The main source for the book is Pope Francis himself, with  two journalists from Cordoba, Javier Cámara and Sebastián Pfaffen, with whom he carried on  multiple telephone conversations. Archbishop Carlos Ñañez of Cordoba had informed the Pope about the book project, so the contact with the writing team was born.

On September 26, the authors personally presented Pope Francis in Santa Marta, a copy of the book, which is to be presented to the public in Cordoba on 9 October.

Everywhere He Went There Were "Bergoglians" and "Antibergoglians"

The authors, with their wives on St. Peter's Square

Cámara and Pfaffen looked  for answers as to why Bergoglio was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. An appointment that became the initial event of an ecclesiastical advancement that led to his election as Pope.  They also explore the question of why, wherever the current Pope appeared there were always groups of "Bergoglians" and "Antibergoglians" formed about him: "Whether his relationship to the religious, to the Argentine State to Peronism, to Marxism, related to Domingo and Eva Peron."

Asked about his "exile" in Cordoba, he did not want to speak of a "Noche oscura", a dark night, it was  "something for saints." He was "just a poor guy". For him it was more "a time of inner cleansing."

Meteoric Rise, Brief Case, Even Higher Rise

There were lonely years, thoughtful and hard for the future pope, the authors write. Bergoglio had initially experienced a "meteoric career". He was hardly an ordained priest appointed to be the novice master of the Province of the Order. At the age of only 36, he was already Provincial of the Society of Jesus for Argentina and rector of the  Order's University  of San Miguel.

Then there was a radical break.  In 1990 Bergoglio was relieved of all offices and duties and transferred  700 km away from  Buenos Aires to Cordoba. There he was for two years in a room in the religious establishment, but given "no task". He was not routinely called upon to celebrate Mass in the church of the Order, but for  Penance.

The authors write that Father Bergoglio was "demoted" from the new  Provincial leadership to Cordoba. For the exile the new provincial, Father Victor Zorzin, was responsible. He had already been Vice-Provincial under Bergoglio and did not agree with "many decisions that Father Jorge had taken both pastorally as well as in leadership." (page 176).

"Smear campaign"  in the General House in Rome

Father Victor Zorzin was Provincial from 1986-1991. He was succeeded by Father Ignacio 1991-1997 Garcìa-Mata.The authors write that there was "a smear campaign" against Bergoglio during the tenures of Zorzin and García-Mata, which assauled "across the borders of the Argentine Province of the Order and the Jesuit lines of other countries in South America and even the Generalate in Rome." This was reconstructed from a series of conversations with members of the Order.

In an interview with Radio Maria Argentina Pfaffen said that already the simple priest Bergoglio had become recognizeable for a  "special pastoral style."

"Pity he's crazy!"

Aquel Francisco, new book on Pope Francis from Argentina

The authors tell an anecdote of Father Ángel Rossi, a spiritual son of Bergoglio, who describes how much the current Pope had suffered: "The Order had related parties, who were responsible for the spread of rumors, which came from Jesuit sources, that the man who was Provincial of the Order, who was so young and so brilliant, had retired to Cordoba, because he was sick because he was crazy. When my mother died,  a layman who was very close to the religious establishment, approached me and pointed to Bergoglio, who knelt at the coffin and prayed! Pity he is crazy ' I looked at him and said: 'If this man is crazy, what am I?'"

Then, the authors propose a wide berth to the Present Time: Bergoglio as Archbishop had the impression that in some Roman dicasteries still, albeit with "low intensity" that a war had been fought against him. One of them, say Cámara and Pfaffen was "undoubtedly" the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza.Therefore, he was one of the first to be removed in this pontificate from their office. But Francis Pope had granted them a "dignified exit". Cardinal Piacenza was "promoted" to the Penitentiary. In its place, the Pope appointed his confidante Beniamino Stella, who then rose to cardinal.

"Iron loyalty"

The dismissal of Cardinal Piacenza was in no way an "affront" against Benedict XVI.,  nothing is "further away from reality than that." Pope Francis had his reasons. The Congregation has completely changed its face within a year.  More than half of all the employees had been sent back to their dioceses and replaced by other priests. Apparently, according to the authors, most of them had not enjoyed the confidence of Stella, who was a "very different type" from Piacenza. Stella calls it "iron loyalty".

The idea of the radical structural intervention at the Congregatino  is still said to be a development by Pope Benedict XVI., but only just implemented under Francis. Pope Francis  may have gotten the "dissatisfaction" in the offset, because the majority of the deposed, according to the authors, it was "natural" that they had not been satisfied.

The book presents key issues and offers interesting approaches. As to their claim that their  self-interjections  bring "light" in some contexts,  the two authors are, however, not correct. The declared intention to dedicate the book to the Pope,  already makes objectivity impossible from the outset. The dual authors  provide interesting details, but no coherent and above all coherent analysis that would offer better understanding of particular importance about this pontificate. The parts on the conclave and pontificate remain at the level of obsequious and uncritical reporting. It is amazing that it just barely distinguishes the publications about the Pope from Argentina and from those in Europe, where hardly anyone knew until the evening of March 13, 2013 about Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Sacro & Profano / Radio Maria Argentina (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Pope Francis: A Brighter Portrait [Update]

Update:  according to what we’ve heard from the Argentine journalist at Rorate Caeli, the Immemorial Masses offered within the vicinity of Buenos Aires, in fact, one close to the city center, another 20 miles away and the third within 60 miles, but none of them are within the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires itself.

When individual priests attempted to offer the Immemorial Mass, in this very conservative Archdiocese, they were ordered to stop.

We still don’t know what to make of the Society of the Good Pastor’s alleged presence in the Diocese

At any rate, it’s indisputable that when he was the ordinary, he not only didn’t promote the Traditional Mass, he thwarted it, against the spirit of the legislation, and it could be said in a spirit of disobedience to the wishes of the Holy Father and the legislation of Summoroum Pontificum.

Edit: this is a bit of an overwhelmingly positive look at the new Pope, with some cautionary notes.  It’s interesting to note that despite a local Argentine journalist’s description of the new Pope as a man who did not implement Summorum Pontificum,  the new pope has, in fact, several locations, far more than most cities in North America, including the Society of the Good Shepherd.  Not only that, but he appears to have been a bit of a cold warrior, and is going to face some nasty reprisals against the Leftist press for his involvement.  Hopefully the links on all the locations will still work.  Each cross marks a Mass location in and around Buenos Aires.:

Ver Misa Tradicional Summorun Pontificum en Argentina. en un mapa ampliado

Buenos Aires is a city with almost three million inhabitants.  It has four Latin Mass locations within the city limits and reasonable driving distance.  It looks like two of them offer Mass daily, according to the map above, while one offers it at 12 on Sundays.  Further to the south at the Air Force base, Mass is offered only once a month.  You can click and drag around the window to look inside them.   It will be easier to look around if you access it directly on google.

(Vatican)The conclave brought a big surprise. What is surprising is the choice of the Argentine, Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio. The Archbishop of Buenos Aires is the first non-European, [St. Gregory III?]  the first Hispanic, the first Jesuit, on the See of the Prince of the Apostles Peter.  Surprisingly, he is also the first to take the name Francis, which he has chosen as pope. Although he is a Jesuit, the recent descendant of Italian immigrants, he is close to the new Community Communion and Liberation (CL) of Giussani. From the ranks of this community comes Milan's Archbishop Angelo Cardinal Scola who was actually considered "papabile”. Bergoglio is only one and a half years younger than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was when he was elected as pope in 2005. Contrary to expectations, the College of Cardinals would set clear signals that needs to be read, but no long pontificate, as had been adopted previously. On the 17th of December,  Pope Francis I ail be 77 years old.

The choice of name inevitably points to the "poverello", the “little poor one",  St. Francis of Assisi. No pope has previously held the name. One name says it all. Cardinal Bergoglio forbade the Argentine faithful who wanted to accompany him to the joy of his elevation to cardinal in Rome, to make the journey. [Forget about any of the spiritual benefits pilgrims would receive for their sacrifices and good intentions.] He asked them to donate the money to charity. Appointments to the Roman Curia were refused by the Jesuit. He traveled to Rome only when it was absolutely necessary.

Francis, however, was not just the stereotype, which is known today about him, but in addition to his evangelical poverty, he is an especially staunch defender of God and an indefatigable son of Holy Church. This at a time when there were many sectarian currents outside the Church and many believers joined these groups because of their dissatisfaction with the church.  St. Francis opposed them by offering an equally authentic counter model. Which included also, if necessary, to suffer emergencies in the Church,  from what did not correspond to Her real nature in this time by human weakness and ignorance.

The new pope was also the Bishop for Eastern Christians in Argentina. He has not celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, since the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. The implementation of the motu proprio in the archdiocese was "rather lukewarm," writes Messa in Latino. The Remnant said that not much is known about his disposition to the traditional rite in a preliminary report. In his archdiocese there is a branch of the Old Ritual Institut du Bon Pasteur. He also was, however, so far, among others in the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.  As for questions in the Church's moral teachings and ecclesiastical discipline, he is considered to be like Pope Benedict XVI.. To legalize the killing of unborn children, the Cardinal said: In Argentina, "there is the death penalty." He turned and decided, without success, against the legalization of gay marriage by the Argentine government. [In one of the most Catholic countries in the New World.]

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit like the new pope said in an initial statement that Francis is a Pope who will show a "style of simplicity and evangelical witness" and also a "continuity with Benedict XVI."

On fiscal policies he may be expected to criticize the excesses of capitalism. Bergoglio, although no Franciscans may be considered  as a Franciscan in his manner of living. He has neither a driver nor a stylish sedan. In Buenos Aires, he used a lot of public transport. In the conclave of 2005, he was as the “rival" of Benedict XVI. said to have tearfully asked the cardinals in the conclave not to choose him, but Joseph Ratzinger. His opponent is now to succeed. The pendulum has swung in the other side? Among the human vices he finds particularly offensive is careerism, especially in the church.

In the short speech to the assembled crowd at St. Peter's, he said, both in relation to his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. and of himself as "bishop."  Francis clearly addressed his diocese as Bishop of Rome. How this will affect his understanding of the papacy, must be seen. What role will the collegiality on which was in the General Congregations much emphasis?

In 1973 to 1980 Bergolio was the Argentine Superior of the Province of Argentina of the Jesuit Order, and then vigorously opposed the Marxist liberation theology. Not least because of his resistance to some Marxist-inspired confreres and the resulting conflicts, he was transferred. [He fought with the good guys] In 1986 he received his doctorate in Germany, which is why he learned, alongside Spanish and Italian, very good German as well. Subsequently, he served as spiritual director and confessor at the Jesuit church of Cordoba. In 1992 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires by John Paul II.  In 1997 he was appointed Coadjutor, and he succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarrancino by the Office of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. By 2011 he was also Chairman of the Argentine Episcopal Conference.

In the General Congregations prior to the Conclave for the new pope, he spoke especially about the mercy of God and the joy of the faith. In Argentina it is the priest, acting in the slums, who are his favorites. Without Deviations of the Doctrine of the Faith he was trying to win all, even the most feeble, for Christ. The Church, said then Cardinal Bergoglio,  must "always reflect the merciful face of God."