Mary Ann Kreitzer, Who are You Serving, Part 2

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I recently wrote about Mary Ann Kreitzer in regard to a post on her blog authored by another contributor in which Pope Francis was completely renounced and declared an anti pope.  At the time I wrote, Mary Ann had not made any comments one way or another, but since it was on her blog, I could only assume she agreed with it.

Mary Ann finally commented last night.  She explained that she had been away celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary - Congratulations, Mary Ann - and had basically not been paying attention to the blog.  She commented in answer to a question directed at her:

Do I agree with Susan? Frankly, I don't know. We aren't clones.

I love and respect Susan and I know one thing for sure -- that we have an evil pope who is undermining the faith every chance he gets. It's not the first time in Church history and a man can be evil and still be a valid pope.

I do definitely agree with Mary Ann that a man can be evil and still be a valid pope.  We have some very sad examples throughout Church history.

But I absolutely do NOT agree that Pope Francis is evil.  His whole life has been one of humility and simplicity.  He has given his life completely to the Church, living and working among the poor even when he was elevated to archbishop and then cardinal. This is how the Catholic Herald described him at the time of his election to the papacy:

Since 1998, he has been archbishop of Buenos Aires, where his style is low-key and close to the people.

He rides the bus, visits the poor, lives in a simple apartment and cooks his own meals. To many in Buenos Aires, he is known simply as “Father Jorge.”

Cardinal Bergoglio riding the bus in Argentina

Father Bergoglio literally put his own life in danger helping others escape from the military juntas in Argentina.  As pope, he has rejected the papal apartments and chosen a simple suite in a Vatican guest house, the same building he stayed in during the conclave which elected him.  He says daily Mass, not for the elite who pay to attend as other popes have done, but for the average Vatican worker and visitor.

Pope Francis has made himself more available to people than any pope in modern history.  He says 3 rosaries and spends one hour in adoration every day.  He goes to Confession every week.  He dedicated his Papacy to the Blessed Mother.  He has never at any time in his life been involved in any sort of personal scandal.  You can be sure that if there had ever been the slightest hint of impropriety for as much as a minute at any time in his 80 plus years, it would be all over the Internet.

Pope Francis comforting a deformed man

I would also like to remind Mary Ann that the blood relic of St. Gennaro liquified in the presence of Pope Francis, and this is the first time this has happened in the presence of a pope since Pius IX in 1848.  There have also been several healings attributed to Pope Francis, and at least one exorcism.  These are not the signs of an evil man.

In one more comment, Mary Ann said this, after quoting from another comment:

"I do hope that anyone who happens to read this blog will not think it is representative of the Church."

Actually, I think it is totally representative of the Church today which is in such confusion. I don't think much about this particular question because it doesn't change my faith one bit. I trust that God who gave us Holy Mother Church will protect her no matter how bad the pope is. As DJR points out Church history is full of bad popes. And, in fact, the Church surviving despite all the evil men sitting on Peter's chair is one more proof that she is a divine, not a human, institution.

Thank you for your prayers, Sojourner. We are all struggling. In the end, this disagreement is a speed bump in the road and Padre Pio's words are more important than ever: "Pray, hope, and don't worry."

That was actually a very kind answer to someone who disagrees with her, but her statement, "I don't think much about this particular question because it doesn't change my faith one bit. I trust that God who gave us Holy Mother Church will protect her no matter how bad the pope is" is actually a very selfish statement that really evades the issue and discounts the tremendous damage to souls that is happening with all of these attacks against the papacy.

Mary Ann, you need to start caring, and to care deeply. Yes, of course the Church will survive this crisis. But it is like living in the time of the Reformation and not caring about the damage to souls because "God will protect Holy Mother Church". Yes, the Catholic Church survived the Reformation, but look at all these Protestant sects down through the following centuries who were and are without the Sacraments, without the Eucharist, without access to the Blessed Mother. How many hundreds of millions and maybe billions of people have been deprived of the beauty and salvation of the Church founded by Jesus Christ because of the Reformation?

Mary Ann, you try to wiggle out of the question by saying you are "not sure" if Pope Francis is a valid pope.  You and I both know that this is just the same as denouncing him.  You do honestly state that you have judged the Holy Father to be an evil man who is undermining the faith.  However, that statement is actually a denial not of Pope Francis, but of Jesus Christ.

As I wrote in my most recent post, no human being on earth has the right to judge the Vicar of Christ.  Pope Leo XIII wrote this in his encyclical, SATIS COGNITUM (On the Unity of the Church);

 "The Son committed to Peter the office of spreading the knowledge of His Father and Himself over the whole world. He who increased the Church in all the earth, and proclaimed it to be stronger than the heavens, gave to a mortal man all power in Heaven when He handed him the Keys" (S. Johannes Chrysostomus, Hom. liv., in Matt. v., 2). In this same sense He says: "Whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth it shall be bound also in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in Heaven." This metaphorical expression of binding and loosing indicates the power of making laws, of judging and of punishing; and the power is said to be of such amplitude and force that God will ratify whatever is decreed by it. Thus it is supreme and absolutely independent, so that, having no other power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole Church and all things committed to the Church.

Notice what this says:  The authority of the Chair of Peter "is of such amplitude and force that God will ratify whatever is decreed by it.  Thus, it is supreme and absolutely independent, so that, having no other power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole Church and all things committed to the Church."   This means that Peter has been set aside from every other living human being.  Peter has no superior and certainly no equal among mortals.  No one on earth has the right to judge the pope.

Most trads and conservatives would condemn this as papalotry.  By making such statements, they have rejected Peter and separated themselves from the Church.  They are following in the footsteps of Martin Luther.

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But this most certainly does NOT mean that popes cannot make human mistakes.  Although their authority is absolute and they are protected from spiritually misleading the Church, they are still fallible human beings, and they can and do still make major mistakes and even sin.  Our first pope, Peter, sinned so badly that St. Paul had to publicly correct him.  Interestingly, in his correction, Paul refers to Peter as "Cephas".  Paul was not correcting Peter the Pope.  He corrected Cephas the fallible human being.

In our times, we have witnessed major mistakes in the papacy.  St. John Paul II was grossly wrong in his judgment of many different people, most notably Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, and one of the most immoral men in Church history.  JP II praised him and defended him on many occasions, completely unaware of the truth.  JP II also promoted Theodore McCarrick, a known sexual abuser.  JP II was a very holy man, but a lousy judge of character, and the Church has and is still paying a price for his many mistakes.

Pope Benedict's resignation showed us just how weak popes can be.  It is ironic that the enemies of Francis often look to Benedict as their leader and make claims that he is still the real pope.  Despite his wonderful writings and spiritual insights, Benedict's papacy will no doubt go down in history as a failed papacy. JP II left the Vatican in chaos, but Benedict only made it worse.  Instead of dealing with it, he literally ran away.  And again, the Church is paying a heavy price for a pope's weakness.

I do believe that Benedict did what he felt was best for the Church, but he was using his own human reasoning and not relying on the Holy Spirit. Once he stepped down from the Chair of Peter, he lost all the charisms of the papacy.  I certainly do not believe he will lose his salvation because of this decision, but his papacy will always have a black mark against it.  He will always be viewed as a failed pope.

 

As much as I admire Pope Francis, I have no hesitation in pointing out his weaknesses.  He has made major mistakes in the sexual abuse crises, which he has admitted.  And we have just seen a major gaffe committed by Francis when he allowed the pagan tree planting ritual at the Vatican.  I think there is little doubt that he was well aware of it.  He left there as soon as he possibly could.  I can only hope he learned his lesson from that snafu.

The point I am trying to make is that despite the power invested in the papacy, these men can still commit major screw ups.  But their screw ups never involve leading the Church away from Christ.  They are all administrative or personal failings.  We can judge their human actions, but we can never judge them spiritually.  Cephas often fails, but Peter never falters.

As I wrote, I don't agree that Francis is evil in any way.  But what if he was?  As I have shown, God will simply not allow the pope, not even an evil pope, to undermine the faith as Mary Ann has accused Pope Francis.  To resist the Pope, as Mary Ann does, is to deny the faith and separate yourself from Jesus Christ and the Church.

It seems all but inevitable that we are on the verge of a major schism.  The rhetoric and attacks against Pope Francis are at a fever pitch.  They don't even try to hide this fact anymore.  We have priests and bishops accusing Pope Francis of heresy.  There are organized protests against him.  He has been called every foul name you can think of and many you don't even want to know.

And Satan is behind all of this.  To destroy the papacy is to destroy the Church.  How can someone like Mary Ann Kreitzer not realize this?  How can she not see the demonic spirit in these attacks against the Chair of Peter?

We live in very evil times.  Yes, Mary Ann is correct.  The Church will survive.  We have the promise of Jesus Christ.  But how many souls will be lost?

It seems at the moment that the enemies of Francis are trying to make the Amazon Synod their crisis point.  If a ruling is made that they don't like, there may very well be an official schism.  Of course, those in schism will say that they have not left the Church, but that Francis has left.  Just making that statement puts them outside the Church and separated from Jesus Christ. 

Remember, Where Peter Is, There Is The Church.