In Bitter, Bizarre First Post "Love" Homily, Pope Lashes Out at Critics, Calls Judas "This Poor Repentant Man," Blames Jewish Priests for Judas' Death (They Were Bad Confessors and had No Mercy)

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"Please help me."

The Pope appears to be growing increasingly unhinged.

Is the aggressive crazy talk a response to perceived opposition or a post Amoris victory lap?

Vatican Radio reports on today's homily at Santa Marta. The first part deals not with Judas but with those who clutch to "the letter" of the law. It is impossible to believe that Francis is not referring to opponents of the "pastoral solutions" proposed in Amoris Laetitia: 

Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of taking stock of what is in people’s hearts and lives instead of only taking the law into account. 

...the Pope spoke of the Doctors of the Law whom – he said - passed judgment with their hearts closed to God and to prophecy; all that mattered to them – he explained – was to uphold the Law. 

Pope Francis was reflecting on the Reading from the Acts of the Apostles in which the Doctors of the Law accuse Stephen of speaking “blasphemous words against Moses and God” because they “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.” 

They even instigated false witnesses to uphold their claims, he said. 

“Their hearts, closed to God’s truth, clutch only at the truth of the Law, taking it by ‘the letter’, and do not find outlets other than in lies, false witness and death” he said. 

Then Francis presented a novel theory on Judas. As far as I know, no one ever in the history of the world has ever directly blamed the Jewish chief priests for Judas' suicide:

Pope Francis said: "It hurts when I read that small passage from the Gospel of Matthew, when Judas, who has repented, goes to the priests and says: ‘I have sinned' and wants to give ... and gives them the coins. ‘Who cares! - they say to him: it’s none of our business!’ They closed their hearts before this poor, repentant man, who did not know what to do. And he went and hanged himself. 

And what did they do when Judas hanged himself? They spoke amongst themselves and said: 'Is he a poor man? No! These coins are the price of blood, they must not enter the temple... and they referred to this rule and to that… The doctors of the letter. " 

The life of a person did not matter to them, the Pope observed, they did not care about Judas’ repentance. 

The Gospel, he continued, says that Judas came back repentant. But all that mattered to them “were the laws, so many words and things they had built”.

Francis appears to be arguing that Judas' return to the priests was tantamount to trying to make a confession to them. But the priests were bad confessors and rejected him. No doubt they lacked mercy.

This is of course demented.

It is tedious to observe that:

1. The Jewish priests (being Jewish priests) had no power to forgive sins in that sense.
2. Neither Judas nor the priests believed they had such a power.
3. In any case, while looking down at Judas for being sort of a rat, the priests obviously wouldn't think that acting against Jesus was a sin per se.
4. Most Biblical commentators attach significance to the particular Greek word used for "repentance" in this passage as opposed other passages. The common understanding is that his repentance was more akin to "I'm sorry I find myself in this position now" rather than "I'm truly sorry that I betrayed my Master and friend."
5. This is reinforced by the fact that Judas did not try to save Jesus or go back to the other apostles in order to reconcile with them, etc. Rather, he killed himself.

Perhaps Francis believes in what some have called the "blood libel."

But concerning Judas not Jesus.

Interestingly, he concluded the homily by repeating a sort of anti-Catholic blood libel--that the Church has a long history of burning dissidents and so on:

"History tells us of many people who were judged and killed, although they were innocent: judged according to the Word of God, against the Word of God. Let’s think of witch hunts or of St. Joan of Arc, and of many others who were burnt to death, condemned because according to the judges they were not in line with the Word of God” he said.

The above isn't Catholic. It's anti-Catholic.

Enough.

Who will stand up to it?

Happy Feast of the Holy Family! Pope Claims Jesus Had to Beg Forgiveness From His Parents

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Yes, this accurately describes the reality. If you have a problem with it, take it up with Francis.

Jesus asked God the Father to forgive others. He never asked anyone to forgive Him.

Well, okay, he asked Mary Magdalen to forgive Him, but that was only a movie.

To be serious, there is a simple and obvious reason why Jesus never asked anyone to forgive Him: He never committed a sin.

That's because, while fully man, he was also fully God, and God doesn't commit sins, even, you know, small ones.

Incredibly, the Pope (the Pope!) doesn't seem to understand or believe this. In his homily for the feast of the Holy Family he claimed (emphasis in red):

At the end of that pilgrimage, Jesus returned to Nazareth and was obedient to his parents (cf. Lk 2:51). This image also contains a beautiful teaching about our families. A pilgrimage does not end when we arrive at our destination, but when we return home and resume our everyday lives, putting into practice the spiritual fruits of our experience. We know what Jesus did on that occasion. Instead of returning home with his family, he stayed in Jerusalem, in the Temple, causing great distress to Mary and Joseph who were unable to find him. For this little “escapade”, Jesus probably had to beg forgiveness of his parents. The Gospel doesn’t say this, but I believe that we can presume it. Mary’s question, moreover, contains a certain reproach, revealing the concern and anguish which she and Joseph felt.

Now, of course, if we believe the Bible account, we know what really happened. Jesus didn't beg forgiveness when His parents finally found Him. Instead:

When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them.…

In my view, that's one of the most memorable passages in the New Testament. Through a window of 2,000 years you can feel the concern, and then the astonishment, of Mary and Joseph. They were worried about their son, as any parents would be. Interestingly, though, while they get an answer they didn't expect--"I was in My Father's House"--an answer that in the mouth of any other child would have been interpreted as obnoxious at the least, they do not reproach Him or box his ears, etc. Rather, Luke records them as being merely puzzled. I think they were also awed. They knew their son was heaven sent, even if they did not yet know He was God.  

But back to the Pope. He makes statements that no knowledgable and faithful Christian would ever make. He either doesn't know his Christian teachings or he disagrees with them.

I do not think any more that he believes that Jesus was the Son of God.

Is the Pope Catholic? Well, he was baptized, obviously, and he was confirmed as a Catholic and then as a priest. So. in that sense, of course he's a Catholic. On the other hand, in terms of subscribing to Catholic teachings, the evidence suggests that the answer would be no.

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A word on sources. This homily is taken from the Official Vatican Network. But I was directed to it by Novus Ordo Watch. The funny/unfunny blog title picture is from their post. Novus Ordo Watch is a sedevacantist group. I am not a sedevacantist, and there's about as much chance of me ever becoming one as there is of me opening up a brothel in Tangiers or becoming a Sufi . . . or being elected President of the United States. If you have read many of my posts, you will also see that I disagree with the Novus guys on a great many matters.

But you know what? Aside from falsely (in my view) believing that the Pope is NOT the Pope, they've been more right and less wrong about Pope matters than the majority of Catholic bloggers. Give them some credit, unless you're one of those people who has an inordinate fear of what other people think.

Pray for them. And pray for all of us.