Fr. Z's Blog

Back in the day of earlier cinema, to create a special glowing effect, for example to pretty-up an actress, vaseline or some other substance was smeared on the lens or on a piece of glass in front of the lens.

Something like that is going on after the death of Francis.

It is hardly unexpected that certain left-leaning and progressivist outlets will vigorously apply the vaseline when summing up the man and his pontificate.

For example, at Jesuit-run Amerika Magazine you’ll nearly drown in it. For obvious reasons. Similarly, Fishwrap lays it on thick. At the time of this writing, in league with Amerika, front and center Fishwrap moons over Francis and all things queer.

Other views, however, are also focusing on Francis with a less interfered with lens.

For example, at Crisis Eric Sammons lists oddities from the last few years that did nothing to help the Church and, frankly, quite a bit to cause division and weakness in the public square.   Once you start piling things up, some of which have faded a bit from memory although not from cumulative effect, it’s pretty daunting.  However, this paragraph stood out:

They say “personnel is policy,” and the radical policies of Pope Francis were reflected in his close advisors. He consistently surrounded himself with questionable and even downright evil men, including Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Fr. Marko Rupnik, and Fr. James Martin. Any pope can be prone to mistakes when appointing men to high positions, but Francis seemed to delight in having some of the worst people as his closest confidants.

At First Things there are a couple of pieces with no smear.  First, the Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput remarks HERE:

What the Church needs going forward is a leader who can marry personal simplicity with a passion for converting the world to Jesus Christ, a leader who has a heart of courage and a keen intellect to match it. Anything less won’t work.

“Personal simplicity”.   On the other hand, that “personal simplicity” wound up with a double-effect of diminishing the papal office and personal grandstanding.  I think I am not alone in being less than favorably impressed with the choice of a car (which is a kind of stunt) or not showing up with clothing proper to a Pope for truly important moments (like his first appearance) or not genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament (but doing so for foreign officials) or living at Casa Santa Marta in humility (which cost the Vatican City State a huge pile cash to purchase and secure the Roman street out outside the nearby wall), etc.

Also at First Things, Protestant (Orthodox Presbyterian Church) Carl Trueman HERE opined candidly:

As a confessional Protestant, there is perhaps one decision Francis made that I should approve: restricting the Latin Mass. The need for vernacular liturgy was a standard part of Reformation Protestant policy. But even here there was a problem. The Protestant Reformers’ liturgical changes were driven by a specific theology of the word and its connection to salvation and sacraments. Catholicism’s theology of the sacraments is different and does not require liturgy in the vernacular. The pope’s move therefore lacked any obvious doctrinal motivation. One can only speculate as to his motives, but it appeared to be a liberal assault on traditional Catholicism. Francis was thus my own worst Protestant nightmare: an authoritarian Roman pope driving a liberal Protestant agenda, a leader who embodied the worst of all possible Christian worlds.

That’s was a good insight, about how the Protestant approach requires vernacular (because of sola Scriptura, each person being his own “pope” and authority to interpret, and the emphasis on preaching in worship, etc.) and that the Catholic Church’s theology does not depend on the vernacular.  We can absorb it and use it but we don’t depend on it.

One thing upon which most clear-eyed commentators will stress, is that we need now a Pope who unify and not seemingly delight in dividing, will care for the dignity of the office and proffer clarity of doctrine in teaching and even in more casual remarks.

Perhaps in your goodness you might take on some extra time in prayer, perhaps in church before the tabernacle, asking God to guide and protect the Electors of the College of Cardinals in their important task.