“Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.
Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.
Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.
Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the 132 voting-age cardinals.
While there is no guarantee how the cardinals might vote, the chances that they will tap a successor who shares Francis’ pastoral priorities become ever greater.””
Comment: I thought that Francis would be a grand pope, a liberal who nevertheless kept within the boundaries of church teaching. Instead, he has proven to be a man whose very identity as a Catholic Christian is open to question.
He has left open to speculation his own faith in the reality of transubstantiation in the Eucharist, told a fallen priest that he too is homosexual, thereby condoning that sort of orientation in the clergy and done nothing of substance in regard to married diocesan cleergy and a greater role for women in the Church.
He is said to yearn for his Argentine homeland.
Vaya con Dios, Frank. pl
Pope Francis fuels new speculation on future of pontificate | Fox News
Vaya con Dios indeed!
I am of the opinion that it is not only Pope Francis whose real nature as a Catholic Christian is into question, especially of those who promote the continuation of wars, terror, and massive killings of inocent civilians or soldiers, for not to mention the survival of such evil ideology as nazism in the heart of Europe, and all this only for spurious interests of keeping their bank accounts and assets safe from the unteenth economic crisis provoked by the financial casino The West has turned into.
Related to his deterirating capacity of moving himself autonomoulsy this is a side effect of the Covid vaccines which I ahve observed in the elders around me, people who were previously mvoing without any difficulty statarted falling frecuently, which caused fractures o which they never more recovered, and finding it difficult to have the mobility they previously had. They all are deteriorating at galloping pace.
In the case of Pope Francis, a porbable punishment from The Lord, as he left without job some Swiss guards who wanted to keep their body´s sovereingty and refused to riosk their health capital even for a so well remunerated job.
The same could be said of the Vatican City homeless he forced to vaccinate.
In the sin he wears the penitence.
It could not be gratuitous at the celestial spheres supporting the eugenicist transhuman transgender technocratic agenda dcitated by Davos and Bilderberg.
Raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran I can tell you my years 12-15 included lots of church time. Our Pastor wasn’t fooling around. Confirmation into the church positioned you for a trip to a Lutheran Seminary. As “pro, test, ant”, it presented the Roman Catholic church as wrong in its understanding of Christianity but never wrong on its desire to lead to Christian salvation. If religion is not one’s thing, how can anyone understate the importance of the Renaissance to western Europe and the importance of the Catholic Church thereto. Or look simply at power. Francis commands the attention of 2 billion(?) Catholics in the world. The Pope is important. A year or so into his regnum I concluded he was first a socialist then a Catholic. I think the “board of directors”, the Cardinals, were no longer satisfied with Benedict, fired him, and hired Frank to represented the church they envision. What is this new church? The Cardinals want something different, even revolutionary. I think they want a new religion, a convergence of Islam/Christianity/Socialism. Luther will be a trifle.
Agree, he was an Argentinian socialist first – lousy country from which gain international gravitas, or even to profess universal religious principles. He was carried along by the 2000 year plus history of this ever-changing, yet immutable Holy Catholic Church; but he never became or even grew into being its real leader.
Faith, True Faith, must still stand for bedrock; not mere social trendiness. I wish the Church well in its next selection. The world is in need of salvation. Even for non-Catholics.
Deap, well said, and by grace and grace alone we shall. As to Francis’s successor it is well to note that Latin America and Africa make up 55% of the world’s Roman Catholics. Recently a Polish Pope, a German Pope, and an Argentinian Pope suggests an African Pope can not be far from happening. That would be something.
I am not a Catholic but I am more a Catholic than him, I wont say what I think of him but contempt is not a strong enough word.
Deap
The beauty of salvation is that is applies not to the world, but to individuals. The criteria are the same for you, I, cardinals and even popes. No one gets a pass, especially someone who betrays their faith. I see around me plenty who won’t make the grade and a few who most assuredly will.
The Catholic Church’s enfant terrible Archbishop Viganò is very outspoken on the rot within the Church. He has labelled Francis a non-Catholic pope and I find it hard to argue with that. He opined recently on the stuffing of the College of Cardinals: https://catholicfamilynews.com/blog/2022/06/03/usque-ad-effusionem-sanguinis-regarding-the-nominations-for-the-upcoming-consistory
IMHO the Church badly needs a figure like Viganò to clean the Augean stables.
Dolores, I really don’t know what to say about your the second paragraph.
BA, if I don’t miss my bet Vigano will be consigned to administrator of Eskimo Conversion Studies and given an office in Goosebay soon after the Cardinals choose another socialists. He will have to decide whether to remain a Catholic (whatever that is today/tomorrow) or seek welcome in another church. I wonder if he reads Lutheran doctrine? Should Benedict remain alive the RCC will have three Popes; unprecedented. A revolution is happening in Rome. It will change the direction of today’s Catholic Church, but what is that direction? Isn’t leadership obliged to tell the faithful where they want to lead the church? I believe church leaders are diverging completely from the past 1000 years. Watch the RCC’s overtures to Islam and advocation of socialism. It has plunged itself into the affairs of men right now, today. All things above the Pope belong to God. All things below the Pope belong to the Pope. Wasn’t that Gregory? Did the RCC never really leave the past?
Archbishop Viganò is a man of rare courage, if he was pope, dam, some of us considered sinners by you would have to convert.
I also thought Bergoglio would be a great Pope. But after his elevation, he launched into his temptations and rigidity shtick which widened fissures already existing in the RCC. I flipped from fan to critic.
Nevertheless he’s pope. And occupancy is the first rule of possession.
See ya later you heathen jesuit commi pope.