John VennariIt appears that a children’s book titled Dear Pope Francis is to be released on March 1.
Rorate Caeli obtained and posted a section of the book that is not only disturbing, but provides a snapshot into the mind of Francis concerning the ancient Mass of the Church.
This is the excerpt:
“Dear Pope Francis,
Were you ever near the pries as the altar boy?
Greetings from Alessio (Italy, age 9)”
“Dear Alessio, yes, I was an altar boy. And you? What part among the altar boys do you have? It’s easier to do now, you know: You might know that, when I was a kid, Mass was celebrated different than today. Back then, the priest faced the altar, which was next to the wall, and not the people. Then the book with which he said the Mass, the missal, was placed on the right side of the altar. But before reading of the Gospel it always had to be moved to the left side. That was my job: to carry it from right to left. It was exhausting! The book was heavy! I picked it up with all my energy but I wasn’t so strong; I picked it up once and fell down, so the priest had to help me. Some job I did! The Mass wasn’t in Italian then. The priest spoke but I didn’t understand anything. and neither did my friends. So for fun we’d do imitations of the priest, messing up the words a bit to make up weird sayings in Spanish. We had fun, and we really enjoyed serving Mass.”
What, then, has Francis effectively taught this nine-year-old altar boy, and any youngster who reads the book?
- The protestantized Novus Ordo is superior to the old, stodgy,“other-worldly” Tridentine Mass, where the priest faced the altar and not the people, and where the faithful allegedly could not understand what the priest said.
- The Mass and things pertaining to the Mass can be the object of cheap amusement even by altar boys while they are serving. How contrary this is to the spirit of Catholicism.
The Gifts of Piety and Fear of the Lord, two of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, instill in us a reverential fear of God, which recognizes God’s greatness and our littleness, and a deep respect for those things that pertain to God, which must be treated in a reverential manner. These Gifts do not appear to be manifest in Francis. There is also no sense of the supernatural when Francis speaks of the Mass.
Francis, the modernist Jesuit, boasts to a nine-year-old youngster, and thousands of other youngsters who will be given a copy of this book, that, “messing up the words a bit to make up weird sayings” is an acceptable practice for an altar server. What really matters, “We had fun…”. The excerpt from the book reminds us of the episode – captured on video – where Francis poked fun at the little altar boy properly folding his hands in prayer. “Are your hands stuck together?” asked Francis, grabbing the boys hands and moving apart and back.
For Francis, some of the most sacred aspects of Catholic practice can be the object of sport: “We messed up the words” of the Mass, “We had fun,” “Are your hands stuck together?”
Who is this vulgar little man that our contemporary Cardinals elected in 2013?
One month into his papacy, I stated publicly I would never allow Pope Francis to teach religion to my children. After almost three years of this tumultuous reign, I reconfirm that statement with greater intensity.
Francis’ vulgar mockery of aspects of the Mass (which reminds me of the Novus Ordo priests of the early 1970s trying so hard to be ‘cool’ and ‘one of the guys’), his public praise of the abortionist Emma Bonino, his guilty silence in the face of his duty to oppose Italy’s same-sex Civil Union bill (that passed due to his silence), his recent Situation Ethics approach to contraception, wherein he recently indicated that use contraception may be an option as a shield against Zika infection, and his countless scandalous words and actions wherein he sounds worse than a 21st Century combination of Cardinal Bernadin and Leonardo Boff, further and further erodes his moral authority. Faithful Catholics run for cover almost every time he opens his mouth.
This is why I am afraid when Francis appears ready to get his hands on anything else Catholic that I love, for he seems to subvert all he touches.
St. Alphonse Liguori tells us in a Letter of October 24, 1774, that it is possible for a Pope to be elected who does not have the greater glory of God as his main concern, that such a Pope will not receive the help from God that he needs, and that things will go from bad to worse.
St. Alphonsus writes at the time of a Papal Conclave:
“As regards the bishops, very few of them possess genuine zeal for souls … So we have to pray to Jesus Christ that he would give us as head of the Church one possessed of more spirit and zeal for the glory of God than of learning and human prudence. He should be free of all party attachments and devoid of human respect. If, by chance, for our great misfortune, we should get a Pope that does not have the glory of God as his sole purpose, the Lord will not help him greatly and things from their present condition will go from bad to worse.”
We are now in a state where we have a Pope who seems to manifest some of the worst aspects of modernist Jesuitism, does not seem to be guided by the spirit of God, and where things are going from bad to worse. The Message of Fatima tells us to “pray a great deal for the Holy Father,” and likewise St. Alphonse Liguori urged Catholics to pray that the Lord remedy such a situation.
In the meantime, we continue to publicly resist the words and actions of Pope Francis that appear contrary to the Faith of all time, and promote the traditional Catholic Faith to all those in our sphere of influence.
We close by quoting the renowned Father Francisco Suarez, one of many who remind us of the need to resist:
“If [the Pope] gives an order contrary to good customs, he should not be obeyed; if he attempts to do something manifestly opposed to justice and the common good, it will be licit to resist him; if he attacks by force, by force he can be repelled, with a moderation appropriate to a just defense.”
Matt Gaspers
