A Papacy of Novelty

What if things are not always as they seem?

What if the enormously popular Pope Francis is popular precisely because he is less Catholic than his two immediate predecessors? What if his theory of his stewardship of Catholicism is to broaden the base of the Church by weakening her doctrine so as to attract more people by making it temporally easier to be Catholic?

What if the pope really believes that rather than resist modernism — with its here today and gone tomorrow fancies — the Church should give in to it and even become a part of it so as to appear to be relevant?

What if this is the very opposite of his responsibilities as the Vicar of Christ? What if he rejects his role as the personification of the preservation of Truth and believes he can ignore some truths?What if, when the pope emphasized the Golden Rule when he addressed Congress, he was not talking about the moral obligation of individuals, but the duty of the government? What if the pope’s muted message that we are our brothers’ keepers was not addressed to us in the Judeo-Christian individualist sense, but to the government in an authoritarian sense?

What if the pope was arguing that the government has a moral obligation to be charitable with taxpayer dollars and dollars borrowed in the taxpayers’ names? What if charity comes from the heart, not from the government? What if it is impossible to be charitable with other people’s money? What if you can get to Heaven by giving of your wealth to the poor? What if there is no personal merit when the government takes your wealth and gives it away in your name?

What if the papacy of John Paul II, which helped liberate millions from the yoke of Communism, and the papacy of Benedict XVI, which produced personal piety and fidelity to traditional teachings amongst many now studying for the priesthood, have been rejected by Pope Francis in favor of novel experiments intended to attract those who reject traditional teachings?

What if this papacy of novelty is as unsuccessful as Vatican II and churches soon empty because the Church changes with the wind, embraces the cult of personality and is disinterested in the Truth?

What if Truth is immutable? What if novelty is the opposite of Truth?

Reprinted with the author’s permission.