As I have said earlier, excommunicating Viganò will be playing straight into his own hands — & plans.
I had a hunch that Viganò was not dependent on the Vatican for his sustenance. I just got the feeling he had means of his own. I looked it up. He is from a wealthy family and has quite the inheritance. So, he is not going to be homeless & hungry.
Now he has all the freedom & latitude he wants to be even more critical of the pope, the pope’s inner cabal & the Vatican. I am sure he has some interesting dirt that he will start to divulge. Pope Francis should have played cool. But, he couldn’t resist. Not good. This will backfire.
Totally banning the ‘Traditional Latin Mass’ (TLM) will cause fireworks in the Church — across the globe. There will be a schism — all we can speculate about is how BIG & far reaching it will be.
Not sure WHY Francis is trying so hard to force this issue.
It isn’t as if TLM is heresy or unacceptable. It was THE ‘Law of the Land’ for over 400 years. Wow.
The pope, looking mighty crotchety of late, is picking battles here, there and everywhere. Trying to excommunicate Vigano, antagonizing the Germans. There is no need. He sure doesn’t look like he had that many years left. Why not let sleeping dogs lie?
But, I suspect Francis wants to go out as a pope that will be TALKED ABOUT, MUCH, in years to come.
As the last Pope to have caused a schism would sure give him that wish.
No question, whatsoever, that retired Archbishop Carlo Carlo Maria Viganò, one-time Papal Nuncio to the U.S., is by now a well known and relentless GADFLY. His vocal criticisms of Pope Francis and the Vatican are not new. Today he called the pope ‘cancer’! [See image above (top right)]. In 2018 he asked for the pope to resign. Earlier this year he called for the pope to be arrested (though he wasn’t clear as to who could or would be able to do that).
He is now 83.
All the news reports are based on HIS CLAIM. So, he can’t be sure whether this is ALL true. I suspect that there is some basis to what he is claiming. I am sure the Church — and the pope — want to punish him and also silence him.
It just sounds so medieval. The ‘Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith‘ (DDF), that per Vigano is charging him did use to be THE INQUISITION! So there is that.
Yes, my first thoughts had to do with ‘Free Speech‘. Then it slowly sunk in (again).
He is getting a Church pension. He is beholden to the Church & pope. That is the rub.
They have a hold on him. Excommunicate him. Kick him out. Laicize him. Tear is frock off. I am sure he has supporters who will give him shelter.
Click image to access the Motu Proprio at the Vatican site.
I do believe that Pope Franciscould very well be working on an edict that defines the role of a ‘Pope Emeritus‘.
That, however, should NOT be taken as an indication that Pope Francis is planning to resign anytime soon.
If anything it could indicate the very opposite, i.e., that Pope Francis intends to be in absolute charge for many years to come (God willing (of course, in his special case)). What?
We already have a Pope Emeritus.
That pope emeritus has NOT lived up to his original promise to stay, firmly, in the background, devoting his entire time & energies into prayer & meditation.
NO! That pope emeritus has over the years, with increasing frequency, become quite the gadfly. Of late, with the Latin Mass controversy not abating, the pope emeritus has become lightning-rod. A rallying point. A figure who could inspire a genuine schism.
So, my druthers is that Pope Francis will issue an edict limiting the ‘visibility’ of the pope emeritus. Essentially putting a gag order on the ex-pope. To be fair, Francis has the right — & the motives — to do so. The ex-pope is becoming too much of a distraction.
That is my take. Yes, Francis could very well be working on an edict to redefine the status of a pope emeritus. But, that does NOT mean that he is planning to resign. The edict is to curb the voice of the current ex-pope.
I do not see Pope Francis resigning in the coming 12-months, if not longer. He has become addicted to his power & stature. There is no way he will give it up now — even if his health starts to falter. He will do what other popes have done. He will cling on to the papacy until ‘God’ makes the final summons. That used to be the way until the current ex-pope rocked the boat.
I could, as ever, be wrong, but this is by current take. Please feel free to contradict me. Comments are open.
Click to ENLARGE. From the ‘National Catholic Register‘.
Click to ENLARGE & read here. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility. Click to ENLARGE & read here. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_supremacy.
This is my take on it, but I did discuss at length with a couple of others who also happen to know there way around the Catholic Church, its ‘laws’, traditions & practices.
We don’t need to get too technical or pedantic here.
A pope, Francis (or otherwise), has absolute, unilateral, AUTOCRATIC POWER over the Catholic Church in all matters. Period.
It is well understood & acknowledged that a pope cannot be judged, corrected, censored,or disciplined on Earth. Only God has (any) sway over a pope. Period.
A pope cannot be impeached or removed from office.
There are NO councils, courts, parliaments or whatever to hold a pope accountable.
When it comes to matters of the Catholic Church, the pope is SUPREME & can do whatever, whenever. Period.
A pope does not have to have any of his decisions validated, voted upon, endorsed or whatever from anyone else. ‘Pope has spoken, the matter is settled‘. Period.
And all of this BEFORE we even broach upon the thorny issue of Papal Infallibility (above).
So, all I can say is that Burke must be smoking too much incense! His claim holds no water.
In the case of the Latin Mass the pope is NOT even trying to change doctrine. But, let’s say that he was. He can do that — worst case doing it (so called) ex-Cathedra (i.e., from his throne) so that he is infallible! It is good to be the pope. Period.
The pope can change liturgy. Trival. The pope can even do so on-the-fly. John XXIII did this when he removed the offensive phrase ‘Perfidious Jews‘ from the Mass. On-the-fly. John XXIII wanted it removed. Done & dusted. Period.
Burke might be trying to say that some MAY not buy that the pope has the authority.
Well, the pope, unilaterally, just by saying the words, can excommunicate Burke. Snap of his fingers. Poof. Burke becomes a berk. (Smile).
The pope can excommunicate a whole bunch of people.
But, he can’t prevent a schism. That he can’t. Other than that, he can do whatever.
So, maybe what Burke is trying to say, clumsily (as befits another old man), is that those that question the pope authority will have to be schismatic.
The pope has already ‘busted’ Burke at least once. The pope might decide to show him, once & for all, how much power a pope has over Catholics, even U.S. cardinals.
Click image to access the Motu Proprio at the Vatican site.
Click to ENLARGE. My take on the current Catholic Church.
Click to ENLARGE & read here. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_Catholicism
Click to access my June 3, 2021 post in my OLD Blog. So, I had addressed this issue earlier.
Since Friday I have been asking a few of my Catholic friends to explain what possessed the pope to go ahead with this. It appears unnecessary. Overkill. They have tried, gallantly, but I am still at a loss.
So, I am going to take a crack at it myself. This is MY take. I am also going to start off by throwing a bunch of thoughts at you in ‘bullet point’ form. You work them out. If you pull them all together, you might find a satisfactory explanation.
>>If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
>> Don’t try to fix something that isn’t totally broke & end up breaking it.
>> Francis has thrown a stick of dynamite into what was but a crack claiming that he was trying to stop the crack from spreading.
>> The ‘Latin Mass’ was the least of the problems facing the Catholic Church & the pope — but focusing on it was a ‘shiny object‘ (à la Donald Trump) to distract the media & the ‘followers’.
>> The Latin Mass per se was never going to be the sole basis for a schism. There are bigger/better issues that could lead to a split such as the so called ‘German Schism‘.
>> Francis is NOT an intellectual, far from it — he may be a Jesuit (albeit an Argentinian one), but he only has ‘street smarts’ as opposed to intellect. He is the least intellectual pope is 100-years IF not of modern-times!
>> Probably not coincidental to my point directly above, Francis is also the LEAST educated of recent popes — again one has to go back a long time to find one less academically blessed. He, atypically for a modern prelate, let alone a pope, does not have a postgraduate degree.
>> Prior to becoming pope he, again extremely uncharacteristically for a pope, had spent virtually NO TIME in Rome, at the Vatican or with the curia. He really was the consummate outsider. His experience of the Church was limited to that of Latin America.
>> In marked contrast to prior popes, starting at Benedict XVI & going back to Pius XII, Francis has come across as shallow. He can be shrewd at times, but most of the time he is ‘Mr. Smiling Nice Guy‘ rather than ‘Mr. Cerebral‘.
>> At 84, & not in the greatest of health, his thinking, never his strong suit, cannot be that acute or astute. That is am sure, is one of the reasons, for this decision. Francis did not make a very good decision. He didn’t think it through.
>> This Motu Proprio (despite it meaning ‘on his own impulse’) was NOT written by Francis. That is pretty clear. This would have been beyond him. A committee, possibly appointed by him (but maybe even NOT), wrote this in HIS name. This could have been the work of the ROGUE-CURIA who bamboozled the old pope to put his name on it.
>> Like Trump Francis, since becoming pope, has just loved the attention — especially the media attention. It, as was with Trump, has become the cornerstone of his papacy. Media attention.
>> As with Trump, with Francis it has all become: “ME”, “ME”, “ME”.
>> As with Trump, Francis will say & do stuff just for attention. I think this Motu Proprio falls into that category. A shiny object to get & gold attention.
>> As with Trump, Francis is not that bothered with future consequences. Francis too likes to be pope as if he is starring in a reality TV show.
>> This level of severe restrictions was not needed, not necessary.
>> Francis has thrown a stick of dynamite into what was but a crack claiming that he was trying to stop the crack from spreading.
>> Ahead of the 2013 conclave there was much talk that St. Malachy’s infamous ‘Prophecy of the Popes‘ & its ‘Peter the Roman‘ claim was about to come to pass. ‘Peter the Roman’ would destroy the Church by undermining it. At that time, I was adamant that ‘Peter the Roman’ was tripe. I might have been wrong.
