Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church died Easter Monday morning and his funeral was attended by thousands of mourners and a few faux Catholics like the Bidens and Nancy Pelosi.
Almost immediately after his death was announced, the media was swarmed with responses from Hollywood stars and other celebrities expressing their sympathy for the passing of this ‘beloved’ pontiff. Many other Catholics, conservative and fundamentalist, more likely silently thought, Ding, Dong, the pope is dead.”
I, myself, do not believe that Pope Francis was an evil man, nor do I feel that he is suffering in Hell as some of the nasty commentators posted on various blogs.
.I believe he was a very compassionate man who cared deeply for the disenfranchised and those people who are considered unworthy sinners by judgmental critics. He has been quoted as saying, “Who am I to judge?” when confronted by reporters after advocating that gay and lesbian couples be allowed to have their own families, allowed priests to bless gay couples, and cleared the way for transgender Catholics to be baptized and even serve as godparents.
No wonder he is beloved by the progressive community.
Unfortunately, like so many liberals, the pope forgot that as the Vicar of Christ, he is required to judge and to remember what Jesus Christ said to the sinners he embraced, “Go, and sin no more.”
I do believe he was, like many Jesuits, incredibly naïve. His pronouncements on climate change, illegal immigration and global economics, were not any issue that we Catholics have to adhere to but as long as he remained staunchly pro-life, he was my pope.
I have read several caustic comments about the “woke” pope which claim that he has destroyed the Catholic Church. No pope can destroy the Church founded by Jesus Christ because it is safeguarded by the Holy Spirit. Just compare the late pope to the really bad and evil popes in the past and recognize that as evil as they were, they never changed the dogma of faith and morals given to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ.
And boy, did we survive many bad popes. Pope John XII (955-9640 allegedly murdered several people; Pope Benedict IX (1032-1044) was accused of selling the Papacy; Pope UrbanVI (1378-1389) tortured cardinals who had conspired against him. But perhaps the worst one is Pope Sergius III who reputedly ordered the murder of his two immediate predecessors, Leo V and Christopher, and allegedly fathered illegitimately a son who later became pope, John XI. His pontificate has been described as “dismal and disgraceful.”
It was inevitable that Pope Francis, who was the first pope from the Americas, would embrace his papal reign with the theology of liberalism. Liberation theology is a theological movement that emerged in the 1960s, particularly in Latin America, which emphasizes the Church’s role in addressing social and political injustices, especially poverty and oppression. It is fundamentally anti-capitalistic and has as its root Marxist social analysis, particularly its critique of structural inequality and class oppression.
But the Catholic Church is adamantly anti-socialism and pro-capitalism. When Jesus Christ said, “the poor will always be with you,” He added that this is because sin is always there. It is up to each individual to care for the poor rather than to wait for Caesar, a.k.a., the government to do it.
As the papal conclave is assembled to pick the next pope, many on the left are afraid that the next pontiff will be super-conservative. I am just hoping that our next pope will be a man who is a true vicar to guide the Church in His name.
As much as I may have disagreed with Pope Francis’s advocacy for change in the Church, he did once perform a very significant and positive action that magnified the most important tenet of the Church — the Divine presence in the Eucharist.
While still a Archbishop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was shown a consecrated communion wafer that had begun to change into flesh. He immediately safeguarded the host and then sent it to New York to be thoroughly scientifically examined by experts without revealing that it actually was a communion wafer. The flesh was determined to be living heart tissue and had the same blood type as found in the many other eucharistic miracles and also on the Shroud of Turin.
Why is it AB positive? Because this is the universal recipient blood type. Makes sense, right?
For more information on eucharistic miracles, you can access all at carloacutis.com. This site was made by a British-Italian young man, Carlo Acutis, who died at 15. He will be named the first Millenium saint, after the conclave picks the next pope, for using his coding skills to spread Christian teachings online.
Perhaps, Pope Francis’ wisdom and belief in the Real Presence of Christ was why he was chosen by the Holy Spirit as the next pope.
Thank you, Pope Francis and may you rest in peace with God in Heaven.
Image: Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Haemi Castle, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do), via Wikipedia
Jesus Christ is King
