Time to Turn Off the Francis Show and Stay Faithful

Don’t be fooled into pretending it’s real

A day ahead of Ramadan, and of the final release of the Global Warming Encyclical, we have to ask, “At what point can we recognize that the things Pope Francis writes and says are not rooted in the Catholic Faith, but are merely blanket politically correct assertions?”  Pope Francis is really more like the “Pope Francis Show” than an actual Pope, isn’t he?

When I was a boy I used to laugh at the character of Archie Bunker.  He was so funny and he was in no way a hero.    Everyone on that show seemed realistic.  They always argued.  They were poor.  All In The Family was the top program for several years.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the point of Archie and Edith wasn’t our entertainment.  That show was created to confuse people.  It’s goal was the transformation of our culture – and it worked.

Much more brilliant than the acting and the punch lines was the creation of the characters.  Most of the thought went into building individuals who were normal, decent, and conservative, yet foolish, selfish, undisciplined, or ignorant.  That’s hard to do.  Archie and Edith were two people who would not actually exist.  That’s the whole point of television really, to create a false world. I no longer find that show very funny.

It’s in the same spirit I believe that the world is now treated to Pope Francis.  There is a lot of thought and preparation behind the character of Francis, and his performance is executed quite well.  The Pope Francis show may seem like a clumsy bull in a china shop but it isn’t slowing, or stopping to regroup.  It doesn’t think small.  It rolls up the whole world in its carpet.

Pope Francis has invited all faithful to welcome the Encyclical on the environment, entitled “Laudato si, on the care of our common home.”

Toward the end of his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father launched an appeal, saying, “Tomorrow, as you know, the encyclical on the care of the ‘common home’ that is creation will be published. This common ‘home,’” Pope Francis stated,  “is being ruined and therefore hurts everyone, especially the most poor.”

Is the world our common home or our commune?  Is it being ruined?  Where?  It looks beautiful to me, except perhaps on television, in suburbia, in a mall, or in most churches.  I don’t think Pope Francis is talking about ugliness though.  He’s talking about gases and Liberation Theology.

“Therefore, I would like to launch an appeal to responsibility, based on the task which God gave to man in creation: ‘to cultivate and protect’ the ‘garden’ in which humanity has been placed.”

“I invite all to welcome with an an open spirit this document, which places itself in the line of the Church’s social doctrine.”

What is an ‘open spirit?’  Isn’t that something a Christian should avoid?  Perhaps Pope Francis means being open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit?  I think he says that a lot, but I don’t think he means it much.  Pope Francis really just wants us to be open to sets of lies.

How many times lately has the Vatican been forced to tell us this heterodox piece of propaganda is in line with the Church’s social doctrine, and before it’s even formally released?

What is the Church’s social doctrine anyway?  Isn’t it basically drawn from several somewhat conflicting encyclicals of the more recent popes?  Is that dogma?  Inasmuch as any of those letters are inconsistent with the full magisterium of the Church, they must be rejected.  Ignorance of the past is no excuse.