Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Time to expell some from The Church (Kat, Mike and Trina)

As Catholics, we strongly object to the actions of some officials in the Church. 

 

Anthony Faiola, Michelle Boorstein, Stefano Pitrelli  (Washington Post) report

Pope Francis is facing some of the most vociferous objection to papal authority in decades, in language that might have stunned past popes.

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller derided the pope’s new guidance allowing priests to bless same-sex couples as “blasphemy.” One Italian priest found himself rapidly excommunicated after he referred to Francis in his New Year’s Eve homily as an “anti-Pope usurper” with a “cadaverous gaze, into nothingness.” Still holding on to his title is Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who recently dubbed the pontiff a servant of Satan and announced a seminary to train priests free from the “deviations of Bergoglio” (Francis’s name before becoming pope).

Some of this resentment is long-simmering. Almost as long as he’s been pope, Francis has been confronted by dissenting church traditionalists. Viganò, for one, has previously called for Francis’s resignation.

The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had been widely expected to clarify any muddiness about the hierarchy in Vatican City, leaving just one figure wearing papal white within its ancient walls. A year later, the voices questioning Francis’s basic authority have only grown louder, at the same time that bold, legacy-cementing moves by the 87-year-old pope have prompted broader backlash within the church.

 

 

Honestly, they need to leave the religion, leave the Church.  We say that as Catholics.  And we have disagreed with popes before.  Sometimes strongly.  But we have certainly never said one was Satan.  And, as parishioners, we'd argue we have a lot more right to criticize.  We can be wrong in that and we can certainly ask for forgiveness if we are wrong, however, we're n a priests.  The priests are supposed to follow the pope's instructions, the bishops are as well.  This is outrageous.
 

We strongly support nuns in any conflict with the Church.  That's a knee-jerk response from us because we know all the nuns endure.  But even with that attitude on our part, we would be shocked to hear a nun, protesting a pope, call him "a servant of Satan."

There is no excuse for that.  There needs to be serious admonishment from the Vatican over this.