This past week two comments from Pope Francis caught my eye. (I try not to pay much attention to his off the cuff comments.) These occurred in a somewhat "official capacity". His comments in his Homily and what was said and not said in his meeting with Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic. I'm not going to go into it word for word, we all probably know what was said. And how in his homily the other day he talked about the danger of being to caught up with Marian apparitions. These and his obvious dislike for the Latin Mass have led me to this conclusion; Our Pope (and the men who surround him) want to flat-line out the Catholic church to the point where the Church is completely inoffensive. Our Holy Fathers' comments on Medjugorje say to me that the Church wants nothing to do with any type of spiritual event that stands out or is different, or 'offensive to our Protestant brothers.' For him, I believe, any Marion apparition fits this category. (Notice he didn't defend, denounce or even mention Fatima or Lourdes.) And I believe it is the same with the TLM. Anything that takes away from the simplicity of the Novus Ordo Mass or that causes any division in a parish is not good, so, time to crush it. No doubt about it, these are dark times for Holy Mother Church. To keep our heads in the sand and just either ignore what Pope Francis says or go along with him is to agree with what is happening to our Church. To ignore 2,000 years of Christ's and the Church's teaching and to just show love for neighbor and works of charity, well, anyone can do that. All the hugging and smiles will not help the Sunday Catholics who never go to confession, don't bury their dead properly, show lack of reverence in Mass, who don't believe in Hell and probably don't even believe in Heaven. The dumbing down of our Church so as to make it inoffensive fly in the face of Christs own words. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
All because people disagree with Catholics or see us as 'righteous' or any of the denouncements used today, should mean nothing to us. We should always take the high road, the Road to Heaven, no matter what the cost.
Intercede for us O Holy Mother of God, from the anger of God the Father.
