Dear Editor: I am deeply saddened that your references to Pope Francis’ pontificate show no awareness of the numerous issues for which thousands of thoughtful Catholic luminaries have been expressing grave concern.
It is not merely his simplistic attitudes about those in multiple marriages and live- in arrangements with throw-away children that are disturbing, or giving indications that Pope Francis believes appeasing guilt is the primary goal of pastoralism. There have been public statements by Pope Francis, at times insulting of Catholics honoring Catholic orthodoxy, which has the effect of subverting the very idea of a coherent doctrinal and truthful account of the human condition, gifted to us from our Creator.
Whether wholly accepting or not, Francis has been known to sympathize with process theology, fashionable in the 1970s, of which Cardinal Walter Kasper and Father Hans Kung were leading proponents. It suggests that God is incomplete, still in the process of learning how to be God and that no received truth about anything should be considered absolute. It’s as if their imperfect God might have accidentally misled the Church in the past, and it’s up the superior minds of today’s theologians to reorder God and His Church in accord with their current thought, whose “consensus,” they believe, can never be wrong.
Yet there is seldom more depth to the moral theology of these geniuses other than to suggest that because moral intentions can be confused, objective morality doesn’t exist.
Even worse, liberal theologians don’t appear minimally schooled enough in Catholic wisdom, or common sense, to comprehend the implicit break with everything Christian through accepting the preposterous idea that politically-made social definitions and norms can ultimately perfect the human condition. It essentially amounts to the social enslavement of everyone as their own moral arbiter leading lives without remorse. The real freedom our Lord guarantees with moral truth, doesn’t occur to them.
Under this pontificate, Catholics cannot ignore the cold-blooded fringes of prelates loyal to Catholic doctrine replaced by an inner circle of Cardinals proven to be ultra-soft on abortion, the sanctity of Christian marriage, and moral theology in general; Pope Francis’ effusive praise of prominent secular abortionists with special Vatican invitations for them to lecture on global moral issues while shutting out Catholic scholars with countering viewpoints; the plundering of the Vatican pro-life academy of members chosen by St. John Paul II and intentionally replacing them with pro-abortion theologians provided they ratify a left-wing world view; the effusive praise of the murderous Castro brothers and a refusal to meet with the dissenters they persecute; the forced disbanding of centuries-old religious orders dedicated to prayer; desecrating the Eucharist by essentially forcing Protestants in Mass attendance to receive it, who initially resisted out of respect, and later minimizing the event by saying, “They have their explanations for communion. We have ours. Life is bigger than explanations and interpretations.”
Reverence, holiness, and the Real Presence can be so trivial and burdensome to some!
Despite the often generous avuncular persona of Pope Francis, he has been pressured by bad influences and needs our prayers.
Pope Benedict has recently said that “The Church is on the verge of capsizing.” Of course he added, “The Lord wins in the end.”
Jesus warned us about making a religion out of our sins. Let us not have our desire to euphemistically call our sins “less than fully ideal,” while practicing mock sacraments of accommodation, absolve us from the urgent prayers for our Church.
FATHER MARIK KACZMARSKI
Clearwater, Fla.
