Mr Robert Mickens is angry because PF has broken the rules.
The Vatican City Governorate had decreed that all persons should wear masks ... rather as the Doge might have required Venetians to do at Carni Vale (or even the Masters of Ceremonies at the Vauxhall Gardens). But at the General Audience, PF himself and his entourage were maskless. A furious Mickens quotes the Vatican Government edict which makes clear that the rule applies to everybody.
Pictures show a maskless pontiff, exposing himself to the mindless mobs of groupies and Selfie enthusiasts.
What on earth does poor Mickens expect?
PF has form.
On repeated Maundy Thursdays, PF ignored the rules. He wanted to wash female feet. He wanted to and so he did. Just like a wilful toddler.
Then the rules were changed to require only that the feet be Christian. Still he ignored the rules.
At the heart of the disorder I have often called Bergoglianism is the conviction that he, PF, is above the Law.
And I argue that this is closely connected with the modern, unhealthy, sickly, papal personality cult.
My anxieties about PF began immediately after his election when his "I am a Poverello" papal name was announced. Then he came out on to the balcony humbly dressed and humbly asked to be blessed. Those anxieties grew when it was soon announced that he would not live in the Apostolic Palace. And that he would wear more humble vestments than Pope Benedict had.
You see, this brought back for me unpleasant memories of the corrupt Anglican Bishop Peter Ball, whose career was based on a cult of phony humility. He would pepper his (very often self-regarding) sermons with allusions to himself as 'just a silly monk'. I have known him enter the Sacristy before Mass, lift up his habit to show a humble pair of elderly trousers, and tell the servers that he was 'just a poor old monk'. Nice-looking young men beguiled into thinking of joining his 'religious order' would be shown his humble bedroom, with just a humble mattress on the floor, and a broken crucifix.
I am most certainly not suggesting that, as Ball was, PF has ever been a sadistic abuser. The media would have publicised that if they had been able to find even a tiniest scrap of evidence. Clearly, there is none whatsoever.
I beg forgiveness simply for the fact that I cannot shake off this gut feeling: a parade of Phony Humility is likely to be an indication of something, whether great or small, which is not quite right.
Of course PF did not want the mob at the Audience to be deprived of looking upon his wonderful (and humble) Face!
Whatever the next pope is like, whatever his doctrinal biases, I hope that, at least, he will not stoke up a personality cult whch is already excessive and is a a menace to the mentality of the Catholic Church.
And that he will indulge no temptation to set himself above the rules. Even if he thinks he is.
18 comments:
It was partly by temperament but also by conviction, I think, that the admirable Benedict XVI discouraged a personality cult.
And before anyone starts to denounce him for resigning, do they really imagine that he could teach, sanctify and govern in his present physical condition?
Within 24 hours of his being introduced to the faithful, the marketing "team" of the Pontiff Francis went to work explaining that the new pontiff was famous for his humility.
It is reported that awareness of this humility was cultivated for some years prior in Buenos Aries, when "His Excellency" Archbishop Bergoglio would travel by subway or bus, with an assistant whose job it was to photograph him in this very act of humility.
As the quip goes: "The key to success in sales is sincerity. When you can fake that, you've got it made."
It seemed that within 24 hours of his being introduced to the faithful, the marketing "team" of the Pontiff Francis went to work explaining that the new pontiff was famous for his humility.
It is later reported by Henry Sire that awareness of this humility was cultivated for some years prior in Buenos Aries, when "His Excellency" Archbishop Bergoglio would travel by subway or bus, with an assistant whose job it was to photograph him in this very act of humility.
As the quip goes: "The key to success in sales is sincerity. When you can fake that, you've got it made."
Oh Father! The Divine Wisdom may have a purpose in his being exposed, maskless in this way. I rejoice because it may open the door for a new pope. Just like the general shut down has decreased the blasphemy and concomitant idolatry attending celebrations of the novus ordo, Bergoglio's careless flouting of these regulations may bring in its wake something we could scarcely have hoped for without this blessed pandemic. Laus Tibi Christe! Let the crowds embrace him and let him embrace them. Doxa Soi O Christe, Doxa Soi! God looked and saw that it is good!
I agree with Fr Hunwicke about the dreadful personality cult surrounding the current pope. Pope Francis seems to want to flaunt his humility, thereby showing the opposite of true humility! Personality cults around popes seem to have started with Paul VI after Vatican II. The globe-trotting John Paul II continued this trend and toured the world like a pop star. Thankfully, Benedict XVI acted with greater dignity and and self-effacement.
Clerical personality cults are not restricted to popes or bishops. Many priests seem to like the adulation and admiration they can attract for their style of preaching or their way of celebrating Mass. One good thing about the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is that is allows very little scope for the celebrant to ad lib and turn Mass into "The Father [Christian name] Show"! We've come to Mass to worship God, not to be entertained by a show-off priest!
After a number of visits to this blog, I will admit, I have given witness to arrogance. There was an instance when Father Hunwicke asked readers to wait with comments until he gives a go-ahead, but I ignored the request and ended up making a fool of myself. Despite my shortcomings, at least I aspire to humility.
JM Bergoglio has appeared on the world's stage, pulled out of obscurity by a cabal of sodomites or sodomy promoters, ready and willing or rather excited, anxious and determined to remake the world in his image, that of a kind, loving and humble man, a lowly servant more discerning and more just than God Himslef, a man called to changing the wording of the Lord's Prayer. Many psychopaths have tried (though on a more local scale) what Bergoglio believes to be in the process of creating, namely heaven on earth, unity of all humanity, global peace, end to poverty and inequity, but all have failed in ways tragic to humanity. His humbleness JM Bergoglio believes himself to be the first one to have figured out how to do it properly.
"I beg forgiveness simply for the fact that I cannot shake off this gut feeling: a parade of Phony Humility is likely to be an indication of something, whether great or small, which is not quite right."
Oh Father! Have you been reading David Copperfield again? Is the Pontiff's very 'umble demeanour setting off alarm bells?
May we assume under his teaching also his invention on the old Covenant, which was never abrogated and the Jews are saved without conversion?
We have one like that in Boston (USA) as well... I’ve been known to refer to him as “His Humility, the Cardinal...”
Replying to PM - I understand that Pope Leo XIII lived to be 93. I imagine he was not exactly in 100% good health by then (correct me if I am wrong) and yet he was still the Pope.
Back in 2013, the Vatican PR machine told us that the Pope found a Swiss Guard standing alone outside this room late at night and, despite the man's protests, made him come and sit down with him for a cup of coffee and a chat.
The common (and expected) response was to ooh and ahh at his egalitarian kindness.
Perhaps this is a therapist's bias, but my response was to notice his authoritarian infantilization of another man in order to serve his own imagined role of parental benevolence.
Rather than letting the Swiss Guard do his duty, a livelihood he volunteered for, trained for and which is an honor; rather than respecting the man as another man who does his duty and thanking him for it, Francis had to alter the situation to suit his personal compulsions about benevolence and fraternity, so that he can set up yet another theatrical rule-breaking performance in which he is the star. The Guard was NOT part of that great crowd of "the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized" that Francis is always talking about (traditional Catholics excepted). But that did not suit His Holiness' script.
If you honor a soldier for being a soldier, for doing his duty, you recognize him for who he is, one man honoring another. But Francis had to turn him into some poor tired peasant conscript upon whom he can bestow his liberating benevolence. Bergoglio took away the man's pride in himself for performing his task so that he can mother him as if he were a dependent child.
I smelled exhibitionist narcissism back then and my assessment over time has only become worse and worse.
Mohammed Ali's frequent declamations of "I am the greatest!" were at least honest. "I am the humblest!", on the other hand...
There's another way of looking at it. Aged 83 and with only one lung, should PF contract the Chinese virus he might well die of it. The risk to the young people surrounding him is negligible. Venturing forth unmuzzled can be seen as both symbolic and courageous. It can also indicate humility - in the long run his fate is in God's hands and his earthly life is of little account. HM the Queen also appeared in public last week without a face muzzle.
The ongoing Coronapanic is becoming increasingly irrational. Someone should remind Mickens of the adage that rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.
@ Johan Nolah
Let me first state my position on masks. I don't believe they work. I only wear one, when I am forced to do so.
I believe that humanity could greatly benefit from the help of a leader, who would reject the world-wide regulations enslaving us, against all reason and all existing evidence.
But I have the impression that JM Bergoglio is supporting the tyrannical "health authorities" (who are often often without medical degrees, but with a great deal of experience imposing communism on populations), not siding with the people, marching in an act of protest in our streets. Has he ever mentioned the brutality governments use against these people? In many places the number of hospitalizations and deaths are on a sharp decline, as prohibition increase. Australia is like a big concentration camp right now. No, Bergoglio supports our rulers, he is one of them. Agenda 2030 he promotes in the Church is but one aspect of a greater plan, the "Great Reset", a new name for their (Bergolgio's too) New Word Order.
@Dorota Mosiewicz-Patalas
That rebarbative but admirable lady writer Lionel Shriver has an article in the current Spectator making much the same point about covid precautions as a means of creeping government control. I came upon it just after finishing Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" -- truly "it could happen here" (if it hasn't already).
Replying to PM: Pope Benedict XVI was not seven years ago in the physical condition he is in today. Even if he had been in his present condition then, with sound advisers and courageous bishops near him, he would have averted Holy Church the nightmare that his resignation has produced.
Replying to PM: Pope Benedict XVI was not seven years ago in the physical condition he is in today. Even if he had been in his present condition then, with sound advisers and courageous bishops near him, he would have averted Holy Church the nightmare that his resignation has produced.
I think not wearing a gag is a mark in PF's favour. If the illness were really that bad, he couldn't avoid it with one anyway. The risk is only death, which shouldn't phase him, of all people. Maybe he's trying to model Christian virtues of courage, humility and faith?Rather than secular virtues of safety, healthiness, longevity and comfort. Good on him.
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