In his interview with Crux, in addition to putting his flippant disregard for those who are devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass on display (see HERE), Leo kindly shared his concept of what it means to be pope.
And guess what? It’s not Catholic.
He states:
The totally new aspect to this job is being thrown onto the level of world leader…
So, Prevost thinks of his new role as head of the conciliar church as “this job.”
Contrast this with the Catholic Church’s traditional understanding of the papacy as faithfully handed on by Pope Pius XII:
That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same. (Mystici Corporis 40)
One can be certain that neither Pius XII, Boniface VIII, or any of his successors ever referred to the Roman Pontificate as “this job.” And why not? Because such a description is profane and earthbound; in short, it speaks of an office and a function that is utterly humanistic.
That said, let’s be honest: Leo has good reason to call his office a job; in truth, that’s all it is. And just wait until you hear what he has to say about the job description:
Being pope, successor to Peter, asked to confirm others in their faith, which is the most important part… I hope to be able to confirm others in their faith because that is the most fundamental role that the Successor of Peter has.
Confirm others in their faith? But what if their faith is heretical? The Second Vatican Council, of which Leo is a faithful son, does exactly this! (See Unitatis Redintegratio, Lumen Getnium, Nostra Aetate, for example.)
Be that as it may, confirming others in their faith is not what Jesus established the papacy to do. Addressing Peter, the Lord said:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. (Luke 22:32)
Being that Jesus is true God, this prayer is also properly known as a “divine promise,” that by which the “gift of truth and never failing faith have been divinely conferred upon Peter and his successors in the Petrine Office.” (cf Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus)
As Pope Pius XII teaches:
Christ enriches pastors and teachers and above all His Vicar on earth with the supernatural gifts of knowledge, understanding and wisdom, so that they may loyally preserve the treasury of faith, defend it vigorously, and explain it and confirm it with reverence and devotion. [Emphasis added] (Mystici Corporis 50)
It is this, the treasury of faith – that is, the true faith, the Holy Catholic faith – in which the true popes confirm the faithful.
Speaking of confirmation, Leo went on to confirm the object of his veneration:
We keep hoping. I believe strongly that we cannot give up hope, ever. I have high hopes in human nature.
You’ve heard of the theological virtue of hope in human nature, haven’t you? No, me neither. But hey, at least he’s consistent. When asked about promoting peace in the world, Leo immediately took the opportunity to glorify the Prince of Peace.
Nah, just kidding. He actually said:
In theory, the United Nations should be the place where many of these issues are dealt with … We have to continue to remind ourselves of the potential that humanity has to overcome the violence and the hatred that is just dividing us more and more.
At just a quarter of the way into the interview and already we’re in you can’t make this stuff up territory.
And believe it or not, it gets worse.
Asked about polarization, Leo asks rhetorically: “Why is the world so polarized? What’s going on?”
Bear in mind, this is the man that most of the world calls Holy Father, Roman Pontiff, Vicar of Christ. Now, if he truly is all of these things, then of course he’s going answer his own rhetorical questions by citing the regrettable fact that Jesus Christ is largely unwelcome in the hearts and minds of men and the parliaments of nations, right?
Nope. His initial answer is that he doesn’t really have a good answer.
I think there are a lot of elements that have led to this. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I certainly see the reality in some of the results. The crisis of 2020 and the pandemic certainly had an effect on all of this, but I think it began further back.
Ah, it’s those dastardly COVIDS! But then, having had a moment to gather his thoughts, his attention returned to god. No, not the Lord our God, but the conciliar god, man.
Perhaps in some places the loss of a higher sense of what human life is about would have something to do with that, which has affected people on many levels.
Never mind focusing on Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior who draws all men to Himself, rather, the remedy for polarization, according to Leo, is to gaze with wonder upon the soaring dignity of man.
From there, Bergoglio’s mini-me pointed to the income gap between rich and poor as a leading cause for polarization.
Like I said, you can’t make this stuff up.
Leo was then asked to comment upon another topic that is near and dear to his humanist heart, synodality:
Synodality is an attitude, an openness, a willingness to understand … To bring people together and to understand that relationship, that interaction, that creating opportunities of encounter, is an important dimension of how we live our life as church … synodality is a way of describing how we can come together and be a community and seek communion as a church … together we look for the way to grow and walk together as church.
Yep, you read that right. Leo repeatedly speaks of doing this or that as church, no definite article, just church. The man is a walking 1970s felt banner.
Leo tells us that synodality is about relationship, interaction, and encounter.
With whom, one wonders? Note very well the answer: It isn’t Christ, it’s other people.
NB: Coming together, walking together, communion… These are merely ways of referring to unity, a note of the one true Church of Christ, with the Holy Roman Pontiff being its proximate cause.
The conciliar church, by contrast, has no unity. Moreover, it has no pope. The two go together, see?
On the topic of unity, Leo said:
Trying to work towards an authentic unity of all Christians has to be one of the goals of the Church today.
I rest my case. The conciliar church has no unity. At best, unity is a work in progress in the counterfeit church, just as its leaders have been telling us ad nauseum for decades on end now. Leo is simply the latest.
When the topic of dialogue with the Orthodox was raised, Leo framed one of the primary challenges in the form of yet another rhetorical question:
What’s the role of the bishop of Rome within the world of believers? But we have to keep working on this.
Readers may recall that Leo recently caused an uproar when he said, “Rome, Constantinople and all the other Sees, are not called to vie for primacy.”
Now, here he is floating the query, as if the answer isn’t perfectly plain already: What’s the role of the bishop of Rome within the world of believers?
In truth, this isn’t really a question as all. Rather, Leo is making a statement. That’s what rhetorical questions usually do, i.e., he’s letting it be known that the Bishop of Rome as he conceives of the office – despite being responsible for confirming others in their faith – is really just one man in a world full of believers.
Given his pedestrian view of the papacy, the following comment on the pope’s place in that world should come as little surprise:
It would be impossible for the pope to get involved in individual countries around the world, to say, ‘this is what you should be doing, that’s what you should be thinking’.
At this, it’s tempting to imagine that Prevost has no concept of what a true pope actually is, namely, the Vicar of Christ the King, the King of kings who rules over every nation.
In my view, however, the better way to understand Leo’s comments is to recognize that he knows who he is, he is aware of his role as leader of a schismatic and heretical sect, and thus he makes no claim whatsoever to being the Holy Roman Pontiff, at least not as the Catholic Church understands the Office of Peter.
Asked how he intends to approach the so-called “LBGTQ+ community,” his first comment was: “In a synodal way.”
How ghey is that!
In other words, Leo will approach the homo-movement with openness, a willingness to understand, seeking communion…
He went on to say:
I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the church’s doctrine in terms of what the church teaches about sexuality, what the Church teaches about marriage, [will change].
This is like a father telling his teenaged kid: It’s highly unlikely, any time soon, that I’ll let you smoke crack at the kitchen table…
Leaving little doubt that the homo-door is anything but locked, Leo also said regarding LGBTQ+ issues:
I think that the Church’s teaching will continue as it is, and that’s what I have to say about that for right now. I think it’s very important.
I think … for right now…
To the extent that one can say that the mask is now off a man who declared just moments after emerging on the loggia, “We want a synodal church,” only to follow that gem up a day later by saying that Bergoglio is in heaven, Leo has well and truly let it be known in this interview exactly who and what he is:
A conciliar neo-modernist, just like the men who came before him.
