The Real Deal: Therese of Lisieux, Faustina, Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, Maximillian Kolbe, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Madeleine DelBrel, Caryll Houselander, Adrienne von Speyr, Balthasar, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, Pope Benedict, to mention a few.
Cheapened Version: The papal teaching and governance of Pope Francis.
Century of Mercy. The defining event, drama and journey of 20th century Catholicism was the triumph of the Divine Mercy, sublimely in the persons mentioned above, quintessentially in the revelations to St. Faustina, and magisterially in John Paul's "Dives in Misericordia" and his entire life and pontificate. The providential events of the 20th century Church can all be seen as rays of the Divine Mercy: Vatican II, ecumenism, rsourcement theology, theology of the body, care for the poor, liturgical reform, and the lay ecclesial movements.
What is Mercy? The response to misery and sin by the Good, the Holy, the Gratuitous, the Extravagant, the Transcendent, the Almighty Trinity. Two extremes here: the miserable, suffering, guilty, death-fearing sinner...and the infinite, absolute, almighty, transcendent, holy God. Mercy is the movement of the later to the former; the condescension, compassion, generosity, prodigality, and extravagance of pure Love. Without the Holy and the sinful you have no mercy. The denial of sin and oblivion of the Holy vitiates Mercy. Our great 20th century saints above held in tension a dread of sin and awe of the supernatural. The infinite tension and distance between the two is what draws forth the extravagance of Mercy. A demonic strategy against Mercy would be a leveling of the transcendent and a normalizing of the sinful. Mercy, as articulated classically by Faustina and John Paul, does not stand in isolation by itself as an Absolute. It is in tension with...as it coinheres in...and is coinhered in...Justice, Holiness, Truth, and Wrath. John Paul especially articulated a powerful message of Mercy but always in tension with these other realities of the divine. A mercy bereft of truth, justice, wrath and holiness is cheap, counterfeit, superficial, and sentimental.
Mercy: God's Greatest Name?
This popular mantra of the Francis era is misleading. In our own misery and sin we are most interested in his Mercy as our relief. It is not God's greatest name. Consider: within God's own self there is neither misery nor sin. And so, there is no mercy within the interior life of God, distinct from relating to us. Theology distinguishes between the "immanent Trinity," God's own internal self, and the "economic Trinity" which is how He interacts with us. And so, within God, prior to creation and salvation, mercy would have no place. So, for us to claim this as his greatest name or attribute is anthropocentric or self-centered. Traditional language of God as holy, transcendent, supernatural, absolute, infinite, and "the act of being" (contrast to us "beings") all point beyond our neediness to the intrinsic Goodness and Reality of God.
Pope of Mercy? A Mixed Legacy
Francis and his coterie configured his pontificate as a turn to mercy, a revolution, a reversal from a prior Church and previous papacies that are implicitly seen as legalistic, excluding, judgmental, and uncharitable. A complicated man, he was not consistently liberal or conservative in theology. Highly emotional, he nourished an animus against a traditional, clerical Church seen as exclusive, self-centered and indifferent to the suffering beyond Church walls. His famous directive to the youth to "make a mess" signals a resentment, an urge to destroy a status quo seen as morally defunct. In this, strangely, he mirrors his Great Antagonist, Trump, in his Musk/DOGE/chain saw rage against the American "system" and "deep state." In this Trump and Pope Francis both lack a conservative's filial gratitude and reverence for what has been received, our deposit of faith or constitutional rule of law, however flawed and imperfect. This view is offensive to the entire trajectory of 20th century Catholicism as noted above.
Unfortunately, this papacy is in fact a deep rupture with the past, with the 20th century legacy of Mercy, of St. Faustina and John Paul II and an entire litany of saints and confessors. At the core of this pontificate, fueling all its initiatives, is a reconfiguration of Mercy, with a diminished sense of the Holy and of sin. This is the "who am I to judge/" "I'm ok, you're ok" version: sentimental, soft, superficial, effete, people-pleasing. This is not Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Moses descending from the mountain, Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist calling out Herod and Herodias, or Jesus the Lion of Judah.
Jorge Bergoglio was an admirable Christian, priest and spiritual director. His generous, welcoming gestures to prisoners, immigrants, and those suffering sexual confusion elicited widespread esteem and affection, largely from those critical of or removed from the Church. He enjoyed a deep, passionate union with his Savior; a fervent love for the poor and suffering; and an extraordinary (for a churchman) freedom of spirit. A gifted spiritual director and creative homilist, he was at the same time an interesting eccentric and maverick. On the corporal works of mercy (feed hungry, shelter homeless, visit prisoners, etc.) he gets straight As.
Problem: the task of the pope is mostly the spiritual works of mercy. Peter and the apostles deliberately initiated the diaconate so they could be free of feeding the poor to focus on prayer, study of Scripture and preaching of the word. Peter was called to "strengthen his brothers in faith." Jesus told him "feed my sheep." This was not literal; it meant teach, govern and sanctify the Church in truth and love. The spiritual works of mercy include: correct the sinner, teach the ignorant, counsel the doubtful. More than anyone else on earth, the pope has the mission to correct, teach, counsel. On these he will be judged: did he affirm the sinner in sin, fail to teach hard truths, further confuse the doubtful? On these issues, we do well to pray for the soul of our deceased brother and pope before we pray to him.
Let us briefly consider the legacy of Pope Francis in light of his underlying understanding of Mercy.
1. Sexuality. With some inconsistency, but with vigor, he rejected the rigorous sexual ethos of chastity and spousal fidelity, presented in a fresh expression by John Paul and Benedict, in favor of a welcoming, accepting, accommodating posture towards mortal sins against the 6th and 9th commandments. This is clearly expressed in the "blessing of homosexual unions." He destroyed the John Paul II Institute for Family Studies in Rome, replacing it with its opposite, an openness to legal abortion, contraception and homosexual activity. In many gestures, he encouraged LGBGQ militancy and sheltered clerics accused of sexual abuse just as the Church was struggling to recover from the priest scandal. In this he diminished the iconic sacredness of sexuality/gender and the gravity of mortal sin in one move, leaving in its place a soft, sloppy laziness.
2. China. Not himself an expert on Chinese communism, he allowed Cardinal Parolin to hand control of the Church there over to the Communists. They now appoint bishops at their pleasure. The clergy in China now are under control of the state. This was a profound error: a massive underestimation of the evil intentions of the communists; and a degradation of the sacred nature of the hierarchy. This is a Catholic nightmare. The extreme opposite of John Paul's sage, courageous defeat of the Soviet Empire.
3. The Latin Mass. It is hard to explain his hatred for TLM: illiberal, merciless, dictatorial, anti-traditional. He advocates a pluralism, but on this he tyrannically usurped the prerogatives of the local bishop, in shameless non-synodality. TLM at its heart is a craving to worship our Lord Eucharistically in a manner that is reverent, elegant, uplifting, and in union with the traditions of centuries. One can fully endorse Vatican II (with Benedict) and still see the value of this expression as not only honoring our predecessors but also more expressive of the holiness of God along with our own desperate need for Mercy. The Vatican II mass, especially as deformed in its implementation beyond the council directives, tends to be comfortable, informal, casual, secular...not always expressive of our sinfulness and God's holiness. TLM is dissonant with a relaxed, easy, go-along-to-get-along type of Mercy.
4. Synodality. This intends to replace the apostolic college, our hierarchy, created by Christ, with a democratic, modernist, dialogic process. The spirit behind it is again a disgust for the hierarchy as received, the college of cardinals and bishops. It is a diminishment of the sacredness of holy orders. It is an underestimation of the pervasiveness of error in our world beyond the shelter of the Church and the inspiring Holy Spirit. It is a misplaced 60s-ish trust in optimistic, humanistic psychology of encounter. Again: the perversion of Mercy is twofold: dismissal of the holy and downplay of evil.
5. Death Penalty. Here we have the direct contradiction of our unchanging teaching: use of lethal force is a prudential judgement (as in war and police action) at the discretion of civil authorities. Francis created a new absolute: capital punishment is never to be allowed. This is not an organic development of doctrine, but a rupture, a rejection, negation. Many of us (John Paul, Benedict, I myself) believe out of a complex pragmatic calculation that in most contemporary situations adequate alternatives relieve us of recourse to the death penalty. BUT, this is not an absolute, inherent prohibition, like deliberate killing of the innocent or violation of marital fidelity. The absolutism, clearly heterodox, of Francis on this indicates a view of mercy unbalanced by just retribution/wrath/justice as well an underestimate of the power of evil which sometimes must be confronted with hard, even lethal justice.
6.Political Agenda. Much of this papacy focused on a secular, policy agenda: immigrants, environment, capital punishment, poverty. This was again a mercy towards the suffering. Unfortunately it was also a clerical intrusion upon prudential, policy, pragmatic issues which are the concern of the laity and for which neither holy orders nor seminary training provide competence. This policy/secular focus again entails a distraction from the supernatural economy as our antidote to sin.
Conclusion.
In critical mass, the words and decisions of this papacy did severe violence to our communion in truth. This past 12 years leave us polarized, confused, disoriented. This was not the intention of the pope. He was eager to reach out in compassion to those suffering and feeling rejected by the Church. He brought a flair, an intensity, a creativity, a zeal to this mission. And this surely did some good.
It could have been worse. At the end of the day, diehard progressives are more disappointed than us conservatives. To his credit (and the protection of the Holy Spirit) he did not reverse or significantly undermine any major teaching: abortion, homosexuality, women priests, contraception, etc. It was more like death by a thousand paper wounds. On three points he clearly went heterodox: blessing of gay unions, communion for the divorced but not annulled, and capital punishment. The first two were clothed in ambiguity. The last was hardly discussed since there is a broad consensus against it on prudential grounds.
He was uniquely ill prepared for the Petrine mission to "strengthen the brethren in the truth." At the core of his "Petrine disability" is his emotional temperament, complex of resentments, confused intellect, and a disordered understanding of the divine mercy.
As we end this period of mourning for him, we commend him to that very Mercy. And invoke the Holy
Spirit of Mercy...and Truth, Justice, Holiness, Wrath, Transcendence...upon the cardinals in conclave and upon the entire Church.
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