“You have seen that in the United States, the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude. It is organised and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
“You have been to the United States and you say you have felt a climate of closure. Yes, this climate can be experienced in some situations,” continued Pope Francis, who was visiting Lisbon as part of his World Youth Day trip. “And there, one can lose the true tradition and turn to ideologies for support. In other words, ideology replaces faith, membership in a sector of the church replaces membership in the church.”
It’s all perfectly true, of course. The Faith has, for countless Reactionary US Catholics, been replaced by ideology, which is to say, heresy. Fragments of the Church’s teaching have been ripped bleeding from the Whole and weaponized against the Tradition, the Holy Father, and the overwhelming majority of the Church’s members. That is what heresy is: an irrational exaltation of the thread over the whole weave, of the leaf against the Tree, of the cancerous tumor again the healthy Body.
Since the Greatest Catholics of All Time–whose entire identity for decades has consisted of exalting themselves over supposed Catholic In Name Only vermin who constitute Most of the Church–now find themselves in the bizarre position of believing themselves anointed by God to save the Church from the Pope himself, they often whipsaw between their intense loathing for him and a sort of abusive “I hate you because I love you” schizophrenia about him that reflects their view of God as Cosmic Abuser:
So we get stuff like this from them:
And even fantasies of mob mass murder against him (echoing, in this case, the murder of St. James by another mob of zealots convinced God had anointed them to kill a victim telling them stuff they did not want to hear).
Indeed, the hostility toward and wishes for death for Francis are everywhere to be found in the anti-Francis sect:
So when a reader complains about Francis clearly seeing and naming Reactionary ideology for what it is…
“The Holy Father invites many voices but then he condemns those who speak to power what he does not want to hear. I suspect this papacy will not simply be known for those whom it invites to the table but for those spurned as well. Catholics in America were loved by Pope John Paul II, is this the case for Pope Francis? In any case, I hope the Holy Father knows that most faithful Catholics in the U.S. love him and respect his authority.”
…it rings rather hollow. What exactly is being claimed by such a complaint? That the Pope tyrannically rejects Reactionaries “speaking truth to power”. Or that most faithful Catholics in the U.S. love him and respect his authority and are not to be numbered with these Reactionaries? If the former, then how is it speaking truth to power to slander him as a heretic and “false pope”, to call for his death and savor the hope for his damnation? If the latter, then why is this person frantically denying he fits the shoe he appears to insist on wearing as a supposed innocent martyr to the Pope’s alleged tyranny?
The truth is that the Pope sees and calls out clearly this weird Reactionary double-dealing wherein US right wingers constantly attack the Pope and then blame the Pope for trusting his own two eyes instead of the torrent of lies from US right wingers who constantly attack the Pope while denying they constantly attack the Pope.
As another example of this, CRISIS!!!!!11!!!!! recently offered yet another demand that somebody rid Reactionaries of this meddlesome cleric with a piece by Regis Martin, of the Thing That Used to Be Franciscan University of Steubenville, a hatchery for larval MAGA antichrist religion zealots that used to be a Catholic University. The piece, labeled “prophetic” by such voices as Larry Chapp, has a title that says it all:
This, from a teacher at a University that makes a special point of advertising their fidelity to an oath that says
I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.
I, N., in assuming the office of ………, promise that in my words and in my actions I shall always preserve communion with the Catholic Church.
…is special kind of double-dealing doubletalk. And doubletalk that has been met, not with rebuke or pleas for fidelity or calls for investigation into the promotion of disunity, but with stony, sullen, agreeing silence by the faculty and administration of FUS.
Here’s reality. Conservative American Francis-haters complaining about the “dictator pope” for allegedly persecuting them mistake “Not being treated as the center of the universe” and even “Not hating and rejecting all the people they hate and reject” for “persecution”. They live the life of Riley in the US and spend their time feeling sorry for themselves while this pope goes to the highways and byways to welcome the marginalized, poor, crippled, blind, and lame the Greatest Catholics of All Time want to kick out of and drive away from the Church. The people forever complaining he is persecuting them are the persecutors, not the persecuted.
Hence, the incoherent doubletalk.
It can all be summarized this way:
Reactionary Catholics a Decade Ago: IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR THE POPE TO RESIGN! BENEDICT IS STILL THE POPE! I AM TOTALLY STANDING FOR TRADITION RIGHT NOW!
Reactionary Catholics Now: IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THE POPE RESIGN! I AM TOTALLY BEING PROPHETIC RIGHT NOW!
Reactionary Catholics Every Day: IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THE POPE DO WHATEVER *I* WANT HIM TO DO! I AM TOTALLY IDENTIFYING MY IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENTS, PREJUDICES, HATREDS, FEARS, AND DESIRES WITH THE WILL OF GOD RIGHT NOW!
Michael Lofton does the detailed autopsy on Regis Martin’s (and, by extension, the entire Sect’s) credibility below:
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3 Responses
Thanks for this. What a sad, sad, shame.
As I ponder all of the mental wrangling the conservatives do, insisting that Pope Francis wants to bless sin, I’m reminded of the times that I have been rebuked in the confessional by odd priests for what didn’t amount to sin. I’m straight, in a monogamous marriage, and know the rules of the Church. While there was definitely a creepy vibe from those priests, (and uninvited questioning) It didn’t occur to me until later that the priests themselves had a perverse understanding of sex, and were projecting what was wrong with *them* onto me. I can’t help but think that an obsession with the perverted–whether they are acting upon it or not–and *jealousy* with the mere possibility that someone in the room is getting away with something of that nature –is part of the bean-counting-catholic-theologian-problem.
Also, as I’ve stated here before, a couple of my friends have revealed to me that they have sexless marriages. Some people just don’t want it. Sure it’s sad if it becomes a cross for the other spouse. It is their struggle. There must be some hidden trauma, or organic problem that should be investigated. I’m sure a priest would bless their union regardless. I tell my own children, who are hoping to find love one day, that friendship is the backbone of any good and happy union.
I have no doubt in my mind that there are gay unions that are not only sexless, and chaste–but holy in the way that generosity and love are lived. Their union may not be sacramental, but it could very well be the stuff of holiness. Could these unions be blessed in private? Sure. Why not? Wouldn’t that help them to *stay* chaste if that is a temptation?
Or to quote my wise and succinct husband: “People who are looking for the Devil will always find him”.
Recently I’ve spent a little time on a trad Catholic sub-Reddit (until I got banned today… Very thin skinned folks).
At any rate, there’s a couple posts implying Fernandez is a pervert due to the recent “discoveries” of books with words like orgasm and such. They didn’t reply when I asked several times if they’ve read Love and Responsibility. Probably not.