Father Tom Rosica, Vatican flunky and head of the Canadian Salt and Light television network, and who was last seen threatening to sue a Conservative Catholic blogger, go here to read about it, has some interesting statements about Pope Francis, as reported by Lifesite News:
A Vatican consultant who leads the Canadian Catholic media organization Salt and Light Television has issued a statement publicly recognizing and defending that Pope Francis “breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants” and that he rules by his own personal authority, rather than the authority of the Scripture and tradition of the Catholic Church.
According to Salt and Light CEO Fr. Thomas Rosica, “Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’”
“Our Church has indeed entered a new phase,” writes Rosica. “With the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”
According to Rosica, Pope Francis has a “commitment to a ‘conversion’ of the papacy as well as the entire church.”
“It’s hard to predict what will come next,” writes Rosica, who calls Francis “shrewd” and imbued with the trait of “holy cunning.”
“The pope’s openness, however, also a signature of his Jesuit training and development, means that not even he is sure where the spirit will lead,” writes Rosica. “He has said: ‘I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even have all the questions. I always think of new questions, and there are always new questions coming forward.’”
The surprising statements, which confirm the strongest accusations made against Pope Francis by orthodox Catholic critics, appear in a recent blog post by Fr. Rosica on the Salt and Light Television website (a PDF of the post can be found here). The article was republished by ZENIT, but ZENIT has now eliminated the two sentences on Francis breaking tradition from its version of the article.
Rosica’s open proclamation of Francis’ rule as an “individual” apart from the authority of historic Catholic doctrine is reminiscent of H. J. A. Sire’s portrayal of Francis as “the dictator pope” in his recent book of the same name. According to Sire, a well-published Catholic author and a (now-suspended) member of the Knights of Malta, Francis rules as an aloof and “arrogant” autocrat, indifferent to Catholic doctrine.
Rosica also indicates that he regards adherence to the Scripture and the Catholic Church’s traditional doctrines, which the Church declares as the standard by which the Catholic faith is itself known and understood, as a “disordered attachment.”
Go here to read the rest. There is a reason why, after five centuries, Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope. May we never endure another Jesuit pope.
“Tradizione!” thundered Pope Pius IX, at Cardinal Filippo Maria Guidi of Bologna, “La tradizione son’ io!” – “I am the tradition!”
As with so many things Pio Nono, of blessed memory, said, he was wrong about that.
With the way Pope Francis operates, how can we verify the claim that he is “free from disordered attachments?” I mean people with addictions are usually the last ones to recognize that they have an addiction. This statement is the rejection of any concept of personal accountability. It is lawlessness, pretty much the church of Leona Helmsley.
I suspect the disordered attachments were a reference to Church Tradition and Scripture. Most Jesuits today view Catholicism, as commonly understood, as the enemy.
@ Donald R. McClarey:
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I’m very much into contemplative prayer and know about attachments. My understanding of what was meant by disordered attachments are the same things as you mentioned. The reference to addictions was intended to be an example of a disordered attachment where the person with the addiction can be blind to their own disordered attachment.
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Most obstinate heretics often failed to see the errors in their own views. We are all born with Original Sin. We are all to some extent damaged goods and are born with the log of Original Sin in our own eyes. Baptism only remits the penalty of Original Sin. The effects, concupiscence, remain. After the Fall only Jesus and Mary were pure from their very conception.
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A personal blind spot can be the hardest of all attachments to detect. To me Church Tradition and Scripture are the way that I can give myself a spiritual eye exam, to see if I’m seeing clearly, to make sure that the log of Original Sin hasn’t distorted my own spiritual vision. I don’t see how anyone can attest to their own spiritual holiness and sanctity without some external standard by which to evaluate the claim. To be self-certifying is to be self-righteous.
Michael does well to remind us that dangerous varieties of ultramontanism have been with us for a couple centuries, even in Rome. Pio Nono had an effusive understanding of his authority, which was not embraced (fortunately) by Vatican I in its definition of infallibility.
But I will say this for Pius IX: If he thought too often that he was synonymous with the Tradition, he did at least have a fair understanding of it, unlike his present successor. Urged to add St. Joseph to the Canon in the 1870’s, he adamantly refused, saying he did not have the power as pope to change the Roman Canon.
John XXIII, however, had no such reticence.