Understanding the atypical papal acts of Pope Francis

Louie,

Fr. Edward Perrone, the pastor of Assumption Grotto Catholic Church in Detroit (the parishioners of which include a number of friends and acquaintances, including Michael Voris), is a traditional priest whose insights deserve serious consideration.

While I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting Fr. Perrone and hearing him preach in person once, my sense is that when it comes to the crisis in the Church in our day, in particular as it relates to the present pontificate, he gets it, and he’s laboring like so many others to respond appropriately.

Furthermore, as a pastor of souls, he has the unenviable duty of instructing a flock comprised of individuals unequally possessed of an authentic Catholic formation on how best to do the same.

Recently, Fr. Perrone offered the following:

Here I believe is a key to understanding the atypical papal acts of Pope Francis. He’s trying to teach the Church that charity has to be a truly human and Christian response to neighbor and not mere good talk or the writing of a check. God who is Love became man in Christ doing the works of love; so must a Christian act, in love. When people criticize the Pope for this or that odd thing he may do, failing to comprehend the example and lessons of charity he’s offering, one wonders about such a person’s spiritual life. Attacking another’s real or perceived faults can be but one other effective way to divert attention away from one’s own personal defects.

With all due respect to Fr. Perrone, this particular reflection is likely to be misunderstood in that it fails to properly distinguish between that which is objective and that which is subjective.

Specifically, when one speaks of “understanding the atypical papal acts of Pope Francis,” it is important to consider that this can be taken both ways.

For instance, to consider the pope’s words and deeds objectively is simply a matter of viewing them in the light of authentic Catholic doctrine. For those who possess a solid comprehension of the same, in many cases, this isn’t a particularly difficult task.

Using the Holy Father’s recent video message to the Kenneth Copeland Ministries Conference as an example, when one considers the “atypical papal act” of the Roman Pontiff addressing a manifest heretic as “my brother bishop,” it isn’t very difficult to understand, from an objective standpoint, that the pope’s words are erroneous and therefore dangerous. This much is beyond debate.

Fr. Perrone’s above quoted message, on the other hand, addresses another matter altogether, and exclusively so at that; namely, subjective understanding of another individual’s motive and intent.

In truth, subjective understanding of this nature entails making judgments we simply are not qualified to make.

It is entirely right, therefore, that we should always assume good intentions on the Holy Father’s part. The Lord alone can, and will, search every heart for motives and the possible presence of invincible ignorance.  We cannot.

With that in mind, one can indeed accept that the pope means well, or to use Fr. Perrone’s words, is “trying to teach the Church that charity has to be a truly human and Christian response to neighbor,” while at the same time recognizing when his words and deeds are inconsistent with the truth that comes to us from God through His Holy Catholic Church.

In failing to make this crucial distinction between the objective and the subjective, Fr. Perrone’s reflection may give one the impression that he means to suggest that those who criticize the pope’s errors (not the person of pope, properly speaking) are therefore to be suspected of masking a spiritual deficiency.

I’m not at all convinced that this is what Fr. Perrone intended to convey.

Even so, I am all but certain that any number of people will read his words precisely in this way, and some will perhaps even use them as justification for laying false claim to the moral high ground.

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Comments (45)

  1. Fr. Perrone frightens me much more than a priest that is in your face liberal and a heretic. I’ve spoken to quite a few face to face and even entertained at dinner in my home. I knew exactly where they stood and knew exactly how to react to them. Fr. Perrone chooses not to address the issue. Authority comes from the top, down. We cannot speak of the heretical happenings in the church and dance around the Pope. The Pope is our leader. We should never attack the person, only his heretical teachings. I have personally been attack when another doesn’t like what I say. The old saying, “if you don’t like the message, attack the messenger”. That’s what happened to Jesus. Pope Frances teaches exactly what he learned, but that does not excuse him. He has the responsibility to teach the truth of the church handed down from antiquity. I believe Jesus knocked the money changers tables over in the temple. WE WILL, ONE DAY HAVE A POPE WHO WILL DO JUST THAT! I was always told our pope is benevolent dictator. Yes, he is in charge and if the churc is going to change, it will because of the Pope.

  4. As usual, I could expound on this for quite some time. How can anyone talk about all of the error and evil in the church without talking about the pope? Pope John XXIII started VatII, Pope Paul VI pushed it through, JPII took it to newer heights, Pope Benedict XVI continued with a few “concession”, and Pope Frances is going full speed ahead. Tell me if anyone of them could not have put the brakes on and stopped, especially. JPII (mega time) the mess? We can’t fool ourselves and think that we can blame bishops, priests, etc. and ignore the pope. How absurd! There’s this pink elephant in the room, let’s just dance around it. I’m afraid Fr. Perrone has bought the lie and he is hurting numerous souls. He can try to put as much guilt as he wants on anyone who doesn’t have a spiritual director or doesn’t go to confession, or doesn’t help his neighbor, but this 83 year old will stay with Catholic spiritual life in keeping with the church of the saints of old as well as I can, and not cower when attacked unjustly. Fr. Perrone simply chooses those who are below him to attack. Our Lord said they hated Him and they will hate us. I say to Fr. Perron that he is afraid. Since his words are a public attack on me, I feel comfortable with public statement about him. Now I understand why Michael Voris is afraid to mention anything about Pope Frances. And this is why Voris will not go as far as he could. He refuses to believe that “the buck stops with the pope”. It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out or a priest!,

  5. This comment by Fr Perrone is UTTERLY, UTTERLY stunning. I am SPEECHLESS. Is this priest living on planet earth? Or some kind of parallel universe where Francis would indeed be worthy of his name?
    –
    “atypical” papal acts of Pope Francis”?????
    BOY, TALK ABOUT EUPHEMISM AND SPIN!!!
    What about “heresies and blasphemies of “Pope” Francis”????
    –
    “When people criticize the Pope for this or that odd thing he may do, failing to comprehend the example and lessons of charity he’s offering” “ODD THING”?? Francis blaspheming Our Lady at the foot of the cross is an “odd thing”?? “Lessons of charity he’s offering”? WHAT lessons of charity has this evil man offered mankind, this man who has made it into the cover of the TOP LGBT magazine in the US? Has Francis practiced charity by admonishing sinners and pointing out clearly error and heresy? Oh, but no, this man has employed a PUBLIC, MANIFEST, SCANDALOUS homosexual, Msgr Ricca to oversee the “clean-up” of the Vatican bank! “WHO AM I TO JUDGE??” YES, HOMOS AND PERVERTS, CONTINUE LIVING CALMLY IN YOUR CESSPOOL OF SIN AND FILTH, AND WORRY NO MORE, BECAUSE “POPE” FRANCIS HAS DECLARED THAT HE IS NO ONE TO JUDGE YOUR ABOMINABLE ACTS AS SINS THAT CRY OUT TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE.
    –
    This wicked man stated on June 15th during one of his usual heretical sermons: “When we go to confession, for example, it isn’t that we say our sin and God forgives us. No, not that! We look for Jesus Christ and say: ‘This is your sin, and I will sin again’. And Jesus likes that, because it was his mission: to become the sinner for us, to liberate us. ” Jesús “likes” that we sin again?? Jesús is a “sinner”? This is an “odd thing”? Saying this is an “act of charity”?
    Isn’t this quote by Francis in fact eerily similar to Lutheranism?:
    http://www.lutherquest.org/walther/articles/600/jmc.633.htm
    –
    It is precisely of priests such as these that Our Lord warned:
    “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
    Revelation 15:17
    –
    It is PRECISELY because of priests such as these that the conciliar revolution was allowed to occur, because of their lukewarmness and spiritual sloth in defending Christ Our King before his enemies.

  7. Father Perrone cannot offer solutions because he is part of the problem. No wonder Michael Voris is so mixed up. We need another Father Gregory Hesse–he was totally faithful to Our Lord’s True Church–the Roman Catholic Church–but did not mince words or offer empty pablum solutions.

  8. http://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-coming-wave-of-unity/

    Mark Mallett puts a good face on what the Holy Father is doing as well….basically saying that the Pope is paving the way for Christian unity which, of course, can only happen with divine intervention. And I think Fr. Perrone is also trying to put the best face on things. I think we all understand that we WANT our Holy Father to be doing the right thing and we are very worried that he is not.

  9. We can’t make anybody do anything, Magdalen, but we are bound under the pain of sin not to do or say anything when the opportunity is given us. Everyday we say at Mass, “what I have done and what I have failed to do”. Sins of commission and sins of omission, When we received the sacrament of Confirmation we became “soldiers of Jesus Christ”, no small thing. St. Paul told us we had to run the race to win. Nothing important in life is easy. Saving our souls is THE MOST IMPORTANT. Everything else is nought. If we don’t pray a lot or as St. Paul said pray without ceasing, stay in sanctifying grace, stay close to Our Lady, we’re not going to make it. Soldiers always defend who or what they are fighting for and we are fighting for our salvation and defending Our SAVIOR. TRUTH IS TRUTH in season or out of season! Maybe some rambling thoughts, but all connected to our Holy Faith!

  10. Edu, I just clicked on your site on Luther. I basically knew what his teaching on faith and works were, but this preacher spells it out and it is scathing! Thanks. Each time I read this kind of thing, I always remember, you’re never too old to learn.

  11. Bravo, Bravo……Bubbles! I agree with you completely.

    Now, I know where Michael Voris is coming from………

    ……..as the Scripture says……..’blind leading the blind……!

  12. Great Post, Louie. Your last paragraph is exactly how I took the meaning of Fr P’s words. And we don’t live in a world where one is allowed to get away with even noticing the pope’s errors without being accused of attacking the pope’s person.
    –
    p.s. I agree Bubbles, Fr. Side-stepper is a dangerous species.

  13. Okay…. But…. Why is Francis teaching in such a manner? I mean surely the saints, including recent Pope saint, have a good understanding of how to teach charity and love etc. So why all of a sudden this stuff from Francis? What I mean is that clearly Francis is not in fact teaching anything Catholic. The reason this is atypical is because it is antithetical to Catholic truth and the behavior of truly humble Catholics. Its like saying well you know, David drives Gos car in an atypical manner but this is because he is teaching us something. Sorry but David is going to have an accident and needs to be arrested. Driving in reverse with tyres rubbed in oil is not atypical it’s just stupidly dangerous.

    Francis loves thé sound of his own voice. Mr humble can’t get enough of this new theology. He wants everyone to believe in his modernism. On his mind he has lots to teach us. Us neo pelegians.

    Francis ostentatious show off attitude is just atypical humility.
    And if you believe that it’s no wonder you think Francis is a great but atypical Catholic.

  14. Tom, I agree, but if I say this in most company it’s like I just shot their grandpa or something – the reaction is an education. people more often than not think it is of the devil to say annnnyyything about the pope even if it is repeating his own words or relaying his own actions which he has done in public and the whole world knows anyway. It’s shaking my tree this pope-is-perfect stuff. Christ was the Incarnation, not the pope – the pope is the peg, the lynch-pin of unity (or should be), and more, should be protecting and guiding the sheep safely to heaven. unless he knows something that the Church hasn’t known for 2000 years, it just is what it is, a person who doesn’t even see a safe ship needing to be captained to heaven let alone want to steer it.

  17. @s.armaticus: this is the face of Catholic youth! it says it all – not as gullible as old hippies are willing to bet on; they are not fooled. Happily not as ridiculously invested in the ‘person of the pope’, as people seem to have become. I’ve read a little papal history. at glance it seems as if people gave the office its due but nobody was under any superstitious delusion that if the pope tripped the sky would fall. I have a theory that until the reformation there was no such thing as poppidolatry.

  18. “In failing to make this crucial distinction between the objective and the subjective, Fr. Perrone’s reflection may give one the impression that he means to suggest that those who criticize the pope’s errors (not the person of pope, properly speaking) are therefore to be suspected of masking a spiritual deficiency.”
    .
    ## He seems to think – or can be so interpreted – that critics of the Popes are “projecting”. No. Even if one allows for an element of that on the part of the critics, the Popes either act like Catholics, or they do not. It is not a hateful fantasy of JP2’s critics that his actions at Assisi in 1986 sanctioned pan-religionism – it is a fact. If lesser mortals can sin against the Faith – which is apparently not unknown – by why reasoning is a Pope who does no differently from them to be exempted from the suspicion that he has done the same ? Either the Church’s teachings have an ascertainable, recognisable intellectual content, that makes it possible to know the meaning of those teachings – or, they do not. If it possible for others to be heretics and schismatics & apostates by denying certain things – the same possibility is open to Popes. It is relativism to say otherwise.
    No Pope is important enough for the principle of contradiction, logic, the Faith, orthodoxy, the meaning of words, the Traditional understanding of the Faith, reason, or morals to be sacrificed as a holocaust of thanks & praise to this idol. For that is what a Pope becomes, if the Church is re-configured around the Pope so as to make sins against the Faith by a Pope an impossibility.

  20. @saluto:
    “I have a theory that until the reformation there was no such thing as poppidolatry.”
    .
    ## Yup. There was plenty of very great reverence for the office among Catholics – but no lack of criticism for its incumbents. Papalatry is anti-historical, un-historical-minded rubbish. I blame the Catholic over-reaction to the Reformation; re-inforced later by post-Napoleonic Ultramontanism. It was not a good development that even justifiable criticisms of Popes became a sort of Catholic ThoughtCrime. The authoritiarianism of the Jesuits did not help. The fruit of that ? Lack of balance at & after V2, leading to our present troubles.

  21. the CatholicThoughtCops are on the beat; so true, Jimmy.

    I can’t remember who mentioned a couple posts back but I looked up this:
    –

    Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio Paul IV
    –

    “In assessing Our duty and the situation now prevailing, We have been weighed upon by the thought that a matter of this kind [i.e. error in respect of the Faith] is so grave and so dangerous that the Roman Pontiff,who is the representative upon earth of God and our God and Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the fulness of power over peoples and kingdoms, who may judge all and be judged by none in this world, may nonetheless be contradicted if he be found to have deviated from the Faith. Remembering also that, where danger is greater, it must more fully and more diligently be counteracted, We have been concerned lest false prophets or others, even if they have only secular jurisdiction, should wretchedly ensnare the souls of the simple, and drag with them into perdition, destruction and damnation countless peoples committed to their care and rule, either in spiritual or in temporal matters; and We have been concerned also lest it may befall Us to see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel, in the holy place. In view of this, Our desire has been to fulfil our Pastoral duty, insofar as, with the help of God, We are able, so as to arrest the foxes who are occupying themselves in the destruction of the vineyard of the Lord and to keep the wolves from the sheepfolds, lest We seem to be dumb watchdogs that cannot bark and lest We perish with the wicked husbandman and be compared with the hireling.”

  24. The emporer is walking around naked, and if anyone dare say something, it’s because they just don’t know their place.

    Brilliant.

  25. My problem with Pope Francis is not that he is wrong to be charitable and loving toward all, of course that’s not wrong, but that he destroys the Catholic faith and teaching in doing so. In fact, following the Church’s teaching fully is the ONLY way to truly be charitable and loving towards others, with a view to eternal salvation.

    Thanks for your work, Louie V., may God bless you.

  26. I’m really disappointed to read these words from Fr. Perrone, usually a very good and level-headed priest. It reminds of the homosexual lobby accusing Christians of being homophobes or likely “closet gays” if they dare question sodomy and the gay lifestyle.

  27. As “Summorum Pontificum traditionalist”, I, too, tried very very hard to like this Pope. But it seems that each time he opens his mouth I feel a kick in the stomach, starting on last year’s Maundy Thursday when he washed a Muslim woman’s feet in a rite that I had always been taught to symbolize the “call to the priesthood.” Okay, so as Pope, he’s the supreme lawmaker, but that does not mean he is above the law. Then came his comments to the visiting South American heirarcy calling traditionalists, “ideologues, intransigent rosary-counters” and I was barely holding on to the excuse that he must have been mistranslated.
    But almost a year into his pontificate and we’re still being treated to Francisms that either fall short of the mark or overshoots it. And Fr, Perrone thinks it’s us who’s at fault.
    This Pope is only a few years older than me and I wonder where he got his catechism. I dearly wish to love him, but instead, I’m entertaining thoughts (as Socci does) that maybe Pope Benedict’s abnegation was invalid? Why is Pope Francis uncomfortable with the title Pope and continues to refer to himself only as “Bishop of Rome,” while Pope Benedict retains his papal habit, coat of arms, and title Pope (Emeritus)?…
    And if Blessed Anne Catherine’s prophecy is to be believed, are we in fact living in the era of “two popes?” They can’t be both popes. One of them may not be the real one.
    But of course Fr. Perrone would consider my questioning a defect of my own character. Glad he’s not my pastor.

  28. Marietta: Not only the washing, but seriously, everyone: Has anyone ever been told who received Communion that day? If I recall correctly, there were 40 inmates, of which only 10 or 12 were Catholic. Yet, there were SEVEN PRIESTS, including Francis, who were concelebrating the Mass. Why was there no coverage on who received? If anyone knows, please enlighten me.
    And Edu, couldn’t have expressed it better. Where is the outrage from mainstream Catholics when just a short review of Bergoglio’s statements show we have a real problem.

  29. Thank you, Steve, for pointing out what happened at Communion that day. I was so heartbroken last year that I didn’t get past the washing of muslim women’s feet. There is nothing wrong with the Pope washing people’s feet, of course, if to illustrate love of neighbor – but not on Holy Thursday, where the meaning of such acts goes beyond his humbleness and mercy

    I felt that if the Pope wanted to wash people’s feet, he could do it at any other time of the year, but not on Holy Thursday – and not within the Mass.

    He falls short of Catholic teaching by emphasizing only “Mercy,” without much thought of the other side of the same coin, which is Justice. He overshoots Catholic teaching by speculating that in her grief, the Blessed Mother blamed God for Her Son’s suffering on the Cross. The latest overshot just flies in the face: That in Our Lord Himself becomes a sinner for taking up our sins – that He’s happy if we offer our sins to him with the promise that we will commit more sins to give Him and make Him happy! Say what?
    Again, an overshot.
    I know of a Dad who had to pay for a window that his young son broke because his son couldn’t possibly pay for it. But it didn’t make the Dad the window-breaker, merely the payer. And for sure the Day wouldn’t approve of his son breaking another window just to make him happy!
    In the time of Francis, a faithful Catholic is likely to do a reverse “cafeteria Catholicism.” Of the teachings of Francis, choose only what the Catholic Church has taught over the centuries and ignore the traditionalist insults and other head-scratchers.
    God our Protector, Look down upon us and see the Face of Thy Christ.

  30. Marietta: Interesting that you should end with the beautiful prayer to the Holy Face. For those who do not know, today is the beginning of the Holy Face Novena which ends the Monday before Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras in the secular world). Perhaps if we all petition God the Father through the Holy Face of His Son, He will give us His ultimate Mercy now and end the Age of Sin by restoring our King and Queen to us so that their Thrones are on Earth as it is in Heaven (and that means no more Bergoglios).

  32. “Fr. Perrone’s above quoted message, on the other hand, addresses another matter altogether, and exclusively so at that; namely, subjective understanding of another individual’s motive and intent. In truth, subjective understanding of this nature entails making judgments we simply are not qualified to make.”

    This is not entirely true. Criminal courts, for example, judge whether an accused person acted with intent. They do so under the historic influence of canon law.

  33. Halina,
    If I may comment please….To describe ‘where Michael V. is coming from’ in regard to his priest as ‘the blind leading the blind’ is hyperbole and surely needs to be qualified. Michael Voris is a mature Catholic who has contributed much to my Faith with his impeccable teaching on church history and the beauty of the Catholic faith as well as his top notch investigative reporting. Through his Mic’d Up show I have met interesting people – this is where I met Louie V. and came to this invaluable blog – and I have been enriched through the priests he has interviewed. I even started my Latin lessons at his site. I have never met him in person but he has been a better brother to me than my own brothers.

  34. Perhaps I should say that Michael Voris has been a better brother to me in Christ than my own two brothers (in my family).

  35. One problem that has come up is the inability to separate the subjective from the objective. It’s been a problem since day one of this pontificate. Virtually all the problems of this pontificate is because he (Pope Francis) has no ability to separate objective from the subjective…..

    To be fair to our priests, trying to bring the positive over Pope Francis’ remarks is perhaps an exercise in calming the waves. (not saying I agree with the strategy, I don’t)….In other words, the blatantly obvious (Pope Francis’ remarks on whatever) are clear problems and they do need pointing out…but to do this work is very taxing spiritually, and the job of a priest is to lead, and one can’t lead when one has nothing to give.

  36. Steve,
    –
    Do you have a link to the story of Nope Francis distributing communion on Holy Thursday to non-catholics? I was doing a little google searching and couldn’t find the info.
    –
    Thanks and God Bless.

  37. Dear Heather,
    If, I have offended ‘you’, please forgive me. The fact is, if you want to learn your faith, he is not the ‘only’ source of information…..too bad that you depend strictly on his opinions. Faith comes from God, we have the Bible, the Mass, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, and the Saints.
    As far as the resource of the information about the ‘crisis’ in the Church, he is NOT all there. He refuses to see that the Catholic problems come from the ‘top’ of the hierarchy, he attacks the bishops, while he is blind to the conciliar Popes and THEIR ‘follies’, ‘innovations’, ignorance of the ‘loss of millions of souls’ do to THEIR ‘bad example to praise and associate with the ‘heretics’, ‘the Jews’, ‘the infidels’…….THEIR ‘, ‘blindness to evils that are committed right under their ‘reign’!
    Heather, Michael Voris is not an enemy of Catholicism, although, he in his ‘silence’ regarding the above, he is contributing towards ‘error’.
    He openly speaks against the Society of Saint Pius X……..as an expert, advised by his experts…….what a ‘folly’ that is!
    He is all those things that you have described him to be, according to you!…….. You are right, we are brothers and sisters in Christ…….BUT, we must be united in TRUTH that is 100%……….facts, words, actions speak for itself. Yes, blindness leads others to blindness. The fact is that even good priests are blind to ‘facts’, because of ‘fear of men’, because of ‘false obedience’, because of ‘popularity’………This is precisely ‘why’ the holy Church is in Passion!
    Since, we live in the world of ‘high tech’, all means of communication is at our disposal……..there is nothing wrong with ‘rebuking’ your brother in Christ, especially, those who by their own authority speak to millions (this is a tremendous accountability before God)……..besides, humiliations make us ‘humble’…….NOT PROUD!
    ……thanks to the above mentioned Catholic Hierarchy……Catholic Unity has been ‘dismantled–demolition style’……..the ‘joy’ to the enemy who loves to see (as NEVER before)…….Catholics biting one another, justifies their ‘blindness’……Miserere!

    Let us offer our differences….to the Most Pure ‘Sacred Heart’ of Jesus, and the Most Pure ‘Immaculata’……..our souls are at stake, let no one deceive us!

    In Christo et Maria,
    Halina

  38. True enough, Dumb Ox. But then, they judge “intent” with respect to temporal matters, and have such authority given to them. Also, the “intent” they judge is even somewhat “objective” odd as that sounds. They judge whether a person acted deliberately (knew or should have known that what they did was a transgession and acted with free will) as opposed to by mistake, accident, under duress or some other state of mind that lessens culpability. When it comes to matters spiritual, we simply are not given the authority to judge that form of intent.

  40. Steve and Bubbles,
    Thank you for your Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. We hardly ever hear of this devotion in Church today, and it almost feels lonely to think you are alone practicing this devotion. How wonderful to know there are more of us!

    The Devotion to the Holy Face is powerful because it’s in reparation for sins committed against the first Three Commandments, which are most important since they pertain directly to God. Sadly, this Franciscan (the pope, not the saint) flurry of “your-conscience-as-your-moral-guide” and “love-for-the-poor-above-all-else” seems to have pushed “love of God” aside.
    May the Lord bless and keep you and make His Face shine upon you.

  41. Unfortunate comments from Father Perrone. He commits the same sin he is accusing others of really. I would wager that 99% of the criticism of Francis’s “odd actions” is rooted in a love of Christ and his Church. I can’t say the same for his constant insults toward Catholics who don’t think the Church started in 1960.

  42. Dumb-Ox: I hope Fr P doesn’t approach the sheep as ipso facto criminals.
    –
    Here’s a few straight words about the Francis’ departure from law – which he isn’t above:
    –
    (1) Maundy Thursday. What will our Holy Father do? Will he, like last year, disregard the law confining those whose feet he washes to the half of humanity called viri (don’t write in trying to convince me that this does not mean males)? A year ago he was recently elected; he had made decisions in a hurry; and some of the rhetorical reaction to what he did was probably excessive. This year, he will have had time to think and to take advice and to decide.
    (a) He can change the Law. I am not keen on this because the current use with regard to the pedilavium is of great antiquity and has meaning. But I am not the Church’s Summus Legifer. If he changes it, then the Law has changed. I am neither antinomian nor sedevacantist.
    (b) He can follow the current law. One would assume that this is, in the very least, the fall-back position of any Catholic cleric.
    (c) As I pointed out much earlier, he could do the pedilavium, formally and liturgically, in accordance with the law. Then, extraliturgically, he could go out into the streets and perform this vivid acted ikon of Humility in any way that takes his fancy.
    (d) Since the pedilavium is not compulsory, and, indeed, only entered the Missa in Coena Domini comparatively recently, he could omit it during the Liturgy, and, separately, do it extraliturgically.
    (e) He could do the same as he did last year. In this case, he will be teaching either
    (i) that the Roman Pontiff is above the Law; in other words, that he is not a member of the Church like every other Christian, subject to its Magisterium and its discipline, but Some Other Type of Arbitrary Being set above the Church; or
    (ii) that it is lawful for anybody to disregard liturgical Law when they consider that they have a compelling reason.
    –
    http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/liturgical-indicators-in-holy-week.html

  43. I just returned from Fr. Perrone’s adult catechism taught from the Baltimore catechism. My non-Catholic neighbors are attending with my wife and I, and we are getting sound teaching. Fr, Perrone pulls no punches, calling protestantism heresy and noting the heretical ideas of the so-called reformers. As a parishioner at the Grotto I’ve heard him preach the spiritual superiority of the Latin Mass, the evils of abortion, homosexuality, contraception, euthinasia, the coming persecutions, the possibility of an underground Church, and most importantly the need for personal sanctity. Louie, I met you at last years “Call to Holiness” conference, headed for years by Fr. Perrone as an answer to the heretical “Call to Action” conferences. I asked you about your talk on VII and the why you didn’t speak on the actions of the Rhine group at the council. You said ” this group wasn’t ready for that”. I understand sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. As a pastor of souls, with the unenviable duty of instructing a flock comprised of individuals unequally possessed of an authentic Catholic formation, maybe we should extend Fr, Perrone the same understanding. I believe many of the well intended contributors on this site would do well to heed the advice of Micheal Matt’s recent recent Remnant TV spot and look for those they can make allies of. Thanks, and may God bless you and yours.

  44. Edu: no I don’t have any links and that was just the point I want everyone to understand. There has never been any publicity or report on who received Communion that day. The fact that there is no public record when Francis made such an outrageous act as washing the feet of moslem females, one has to ask did any of them or other non-Catholics receive that day? And why has this never been discussed publicly before? That also makes one won der if they do not want us to know what happened at that Mass..
    As we continue the Holy Face Novena, may we all honor our King’s Holy Face with one of the most powerful prayers He gave whenever we hear His Holy Name blasphemed. We respond with all the Angels and Saints: “Admirable is the Name of the Lord.!”

  45. Steve,

    I live at Rome, and can assure you that there were no public reports of the one muslim girl receiving communion. The assumption was that she did not. We were all quite surprised that she even attended; but as all the girls wanted to see the Pope, those who were not Catholic attended for that reason, it can be supposed. Bergoglio probably did not even plan to wash her feet in advance, but did so sponteneously. Anyhow, its not a sacrament (foot washing). And Benedict XVI while pope gave the protestant co-founder of Taze communion. so…

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