Somewhere out there in the interwebs I remember seeing a site that chronicled the “events” of the Francis era.
This isn’t quite on that scale, but it is … illuminating. Seeing bits and pieces over time is one thing. Seeing them assembled in one place at a glance is another.
You might take a look at Sandro Magister today at L’Espresso: Settimo Cielo.
A Memorandum on the Next Conclave Is Circulating Among the Cardinals. Here It Is
It is hard to refute any of this except for the part near the end about the Jesuits.
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That is an interesting memo. And since it is coming from Magister, almost certainly authentic. My uncle, a bishop, was the first one to recommend reading Magister to me several years ago. I wonder if he’s seen this yet and what his thoughts are on it. I’ll try to remember to ask him the next time I talk to him.
Unlike Popes Paul, JP, and Benedict, Francis has been strongly willing to select for bishops (and even more for archbishops and cardinals) men after his own bent way of thinking and doing. To the extent that now Francis is removing bishops who don’t cotton to his way of doing things, whether they do anything overtly illegal or not. The college of cardinals, now, looks a great deal like Francis.
Hence it seems implausible that this memo will reverberate much with the majority of the cardinals. Perhaps some will be impatient with the nonsense of the financial scandals, because (at least in theory) there is no particular reason why theological hare-brained thinking has to run alongside financial incompetence. But the root problems with the finances probably has a lot to do with moral degeneracy of a sexual nature rather than mere incompetence. And an utter unwillingness to ROOT OUT that degeneracy, or even let it be discovered and publicized. And since there is, among the Francine cardinals, a very extensive sympathy with homosexual proclivities, along with some cardinals’ (a) being silenced by threat of exposure of old sins, (b) willing collusion with the pink mafia, or (c) being actual leaders of the pink mafia, it seems unlikely that there will easily be found a majority of the conclave willing to have the Vatican undergo the publicly awful effects of REAL reforms that can truly fix the problem.
So, however valid is the list offered (with a possible caveat on the Jesuits), it is unclear why we should think a conclave would act on it.
I don’t know about this memo – even if the stated corrections to the doctrinal deviations, financial malfeasance, and other manifest failures could be corrected by a Pope sent from heaven, the damage has been done. The Church has (ostensibly) elected, and tolerated for 9 years, a man who spouts contradictions to the faith on a weekly basis, with almost no pushback from the episcopacy.
To my mind, the Church’s special claims to hold the fullness of divine truth and to be a sure guide to salvation have been dealt a grievous blow. Had the Church functioned as she should, this man would have been deposed sometime in the 2nd year of his rule. But, except in a few very small circles, there was nothing but snivelling cowards everywhere.