Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 2:58am

PopeWatch: Preferential Option for Left Wing Dictatorships

Professor Daniel J. Mahoney has a searing analysis of this pontificate at National Review Online:

For generations to come, the Catholic Church will bear the shame of its capitulation before a totalitarian regime in Beijing, a regime that demands loyalty to state power and Communist ideology before fidelity to the saving grace of Christ. An atheistic state now essentially controls all episcopal appointments in China. The sacrifices of the underground Church, whose adherents have remained faithful to Rome since 1949, are apparently of no major concern to Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Pope Francis. And one should not underestimate the ideological sympathies for Chinese tyranny that predominate in some circles around the Argentine pope. The same mistakes, but even worse, that drove the Vatican’s policy of barely concealed appeasement of Eastern European Communist regimes (the so-called Ostpolitik of the 1960s and 1970s) are being made again, with no evidence of lessons learned. As Bishop Schneider points out, the great Hungarian cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who adamantly opposed the Vatican’s policies toward his country’s Communist regime and was summarily dismissed by Pope Paul VI, has now been declared worthy of veneration for his “heroic Christian virtues” in witnessing to the faith and in fighting Communist totalitarianism. Can no one in Rome connect the dots and see that history is repeating itself? 

A preference for left-wing dictatorships is not simply evidence of change in a change-obsessed papacy but a sign of foul moral corruption, part Machiavellian and part ideological, in the upper echelons of the Church. This moment calls for fidelity to enduring moral and theological truths, faithful adherence to the magisterium understood as the full weight of Catholic wisdom, and a firm rejection of the historicized and politically correct substitution for the magisterium that is evident in some curial circles. And we must stand up fearlessly for our coreligionists who continue to suffer under Islamist and Communist violence and tyranny. Let us uphold true Catholicism and not a mawkish substitute that owes more to the religion of humanity than to the faith of the martyrs. Let us hope that Pope Francis comes to see the need to uphold authentic continuity in the Church — fidelity to her old wisdom — and not a frenzied chasing after change for change’s sake. This is a hope that is fully in accord with the filial respect that faithful Catholics owe the Holy Father.

Amen.  Go here to read the somber rest.

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Ranger01
Ranger01
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 6:19am

I have no “filial respect” for the bishop of Rome.
For the Holy Office he holds, Yes, I do respect it. But not this fraud currently in charge.
So, believing this, have I excommunicated myself?

Don L
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 6:54am

“…chasing after change for change’s sake”
I see the opposite, change for an agenda’s sake, and it’s hardly an agenda to restore the faith as handed down by the apostles.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 7:06am

It’s a good piece. Distilled from a better book

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 7:12am

I think Mahoney argues change for change’s sake IS the agenda.

Magdalene
Magdalene
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 8:26am

The corruption in the Vatican is indeed deep. I look at it as a cesspool. There is no moral leadership there. The prince of the world rains there.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 2:43pm

Xinjang’s Pope.
Lock, stock and barrel.

Stephen Lowe
Stephen Lowe
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 3:27pm

it is a Jesuit thing from the 1970’s. It is clearly evident in the JP II papacy….while he was striving to break the yoke of communism in Poland and eastern Europe….the wonderful Jesuits were collaborating with the communist terrorists in Central and South America. Just look at the fruits each activity has wrought… Poland, Hungary and others are thriving while Nicaragua and others are horrific pits…The regime in the Vatican will not acknowledge this basic fact and wants to spread it’s errors worldwide

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Monday, February 10, AD 2020 8:40pm

“Xinjang’s Pope.
Lock, stock and barrel.“

Makes you wonder where’s John Cornwell when you need him, doesn’t it?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, February 11, AD 2020 3:03am

Agree. What we have with Bergoglio is Vatican II in full which was complicit with Communism from day one. The so called “preferential option for the poor” is nothing more than a veiled call for Socialism. Vatican II twisted Christ words by mis-representing “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, i.e., the humble and meek. Vatican II must be abrogated in its entirety. Bergoglio and all like him must be expelled from the Church. The Church must return to preaching spiritual values not the values of this world.

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