The Horrific Math of the Evolving Cardinalate

Tweet

The following table shows the proportion of papal electors that will have been selected by Pope Francis, beginning on June 28th, when the five new designates will be confirmed, and extrapolating out, in case Pope Francis continues to occupy the chair in another one, two or three years. Since it's probable that some cardinals under age 80 will die in the interim - to be replaced by Francis - the actual proportions will, of course, almost certainly be higher.  

2017 - 4 years: 49 of 121 (40%)
2018 - 5 years: 53 of 120 (44%)
2019 - 6 years: 59 0f 120 (49%)
2020 - 7 years: 67 of 120 (56%)

At her blog, What's up with the Synod, and in a recent article in The Remnant, Hillary White wonders whether Jorge Bergoglio might have already served his primary purpose for the Modernist revolution/demolition:

A while ago Mike Matt asked me how it could possibly be worse. I said, “Oh, I don’t know. How about someone smarter, more wiley and less obvious, more politically skilled and more plausible, and 20 years younger?”

“Has Bergoglio reached the end of his usefulness? And if so, what’s next on the agenda?” Broadly, he was to sever the connection of the Church’s power structures to her doctrines, most especially the doctrines that the secular world finds most objectionable; that is, on sex and marriage. He was to complete the desacralization of the Church as an institution and remove the last obstacles for a functioning union between Catholicism, “liberal” factions in other Christian confessions and other religions and the globalist, transnationalist elites in Brussels and New York.

All of these things he has accomplished, and the time has come for the Revolution to move on to the next phase.

[…]

The short version is that at the end of 4 years of Pope Francis Bergoglio, every bit of the power and money of the institutions of the Catholic Church is now in the hands of the completely triumphant post-Conciliar, secularist, globalist, neo-modernist Revolution. And that is why I think that Bergoglio’s reign will not last much longer. His purpose has been accomplished; Maradiaga’s “irreversible renovation” of the Church is done.

Bergoglio himself has been recorded saying that he thought his pontificate would last about 4 years. And here we are. We know that certain people put him in place for certain reasons. He was to accomplish some very particular tasks and I think he has done so. I think overall, his job was to complete the demolition project of the radical revolutionaries of the Vaticantwoist project; that is, the total reconstruction of the Catholic Church along the lines of their vision. 

What I believe is that now that the Wrecking Ball has done his work, we will next have the Surgeon.

As Miss White mentions, one of the most important projects of Bergoglio was packing the voting-age cardinalate with the Modernists's men.

Let's look at the numbers again:  

2017 - 4 years: 49 of 121 (40%)
2018 - 5 years: 53 of 121 (44%)
2019 - 6 years: 59 0f 120 (49%)
2020 - 7 years: 67 of 120 (56%)

Now, of course, most of the current cardinal revolutionaries or useful idiots/hacks or whatever one wants to call them, were actually selected by Benedict XVI or John Paul II. This shows two things:

1. How tolerant, trusting, naive or clueless Benedict and John Paul II were towards the enemies of the Church (as opposed to how focused and dedicated Francis and his allies have been in choosing people that are on board for their agenda), and
2. How the above numbers are in fact much worse than they seem - many if not most of those not selected by Francis are just as likely to choose another Francis (or as White argues, an even more dangerous man than Francis) as are the Francis appointees.

Those who think the current crisis will end with the death or resignation of Francis are deluding themselves.

The "interesting times" are only beginning.

Cardinal Designate Omella Hosted Symposium on Accompaniment - "Populism must be dismantled"

Tweet

Archbishop Juan Jose Omella and Pope Francis

Archbishop of Barcelona, Juan Jose Omella, one of the five new cardinals-to-be, chosen yesterday by Pope Francis, recently hosted a symposium on "accompaniment." Omella defined it as "being open to new horizons, proposals and ways to explore."

Omella also declared: "Populism must be dismantled." 

From the Spanish journal, Alpha y Omega, March 28, 2017 (cleaned up Google translation):

Cañizares and Omella: "Populism must be dismantled"

A meeting in Barcelona organized by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences on the accompaniment of young people, encouraged "transparency, truth and solidarity."

The theme of the symposium that began in Barcelona on Tuesday is the accompaniment of young people. The meeting, organized by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), has as its context a Europe that seems to show weakness, threatened by a populism that wants to divide it and that can seduce so many young people. This theme had a special weight on the first day.

...The Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia and Vice-President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Antonio Cañizares, and the host, the Archbishop of Barcelona, ​​Juan Jose Omella, in a brief meeting with the press before starting the symposium, referred to the need to "dismantle the untruths of populism," in the words of Cañizares. Omella added that it is necessary to dismantle the atmosphere of lies and corruption in society, that is, to bet on "transparency, truth and solidarity and to dismantle populisms"...

...Omella said in his presentation that the Church is facing the challenge of accompaniment, which is nothing more than "being able to help extract the best from each of those we accompany, helping them to discover the mystery of which they are bearers, and initiate them in the art of discernment concerning the will of God." He made three proposals: to walk in a sincere dialogue, "which implies being open to new horizons, proposals and ways to explore, as well as the search for good practices"; that dialogue leads to concrete proposals; and that it takes place under the guidance of the Holy Spirit...

At the congress, a message from Pope Francis was delivered through the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, in which he encouraged reflection on the challenges of evangelization and the accompaniment of young people, such that they can "be convinced carriers of the joy of the Gospel to all environments."

Why Does Cardinal X Check His Cell Phone While Hearing Confessions?

Tweet

This is a repost of a piece I wrote last year. The occasion was Bishop X's installation as Archbishop X. I'm now reposting it in honor of Archbishop X's elevation to Cardinal X. The only change I've made it so change "Bishop" to "Cardinal."   

From the comments section on one of the most perceptive pieces on Cardinal X:

Oh, and one piece of advice for any of you who ever happen to go to him for confession: ask him to turn off his phone BEFORE the sacrament begins. He is on his phone CONSTANTLY, (which is not news to residents of his former city), but I was STUNNED to hear text beeps occurring while he was listening to my confession. To this day, I regret not asking him why he would leave his phone on during this holy sacrament.

Now, this has never happened to me. Once in a while I have snuck a peak at priests in-between confessions at our church. In every single case, they've either been praying the Rosary, saying other prayers or reading what looked like a Bible or a Missal.

They're probably guilty of crypto-Lefebvrist tendencies.

But back to Cardinal X. Now, I've heard other negative things about his personal behavior, some of them directly from "insiders" that I personally know, not from comments on the internet. That I've heard them is one of the reasons I'm using the above public bit of "hearsay" in this blog post. But for a couple of obvious reasons, I'm not going to talk about the other things here.

Whoa! How unfair of me. How uncharitable. How gossipy. Accusing the man without allowing him to defend himself.

Well, give me a break. Anyone that has followed his career knows what he is. And from a number of other personal accounts, the man is a stewing bundle of bias, uncharity, selfishness and hypocrisy. Sure, I hope he goes to Heaven. But at the moment he's greatly harming the Church and endangering souls. I hope he has a change of heart.

And he can defend himself whenever and however he wants. For example, this blog is entirely open to him.

Why does Cardinal X check his cell phone while hearing confessions?

Q: You seem to also embrace this idea that we've heard-- from Cardinal Kasper and also from Pope Francis the idea of mercy. Not ideas, but the mission of mercy. Why mercy?

A: Well, as Cardinal Kasper said in his very important book on mercy-- there really has not been a fully developed theology of the mercy of God, and so that's why he wrote about it. And yet, it's at the heart of the Scriptures. That if you read throughout the Psalms, also through the Prophets and then how Jesus conducted himself, mercy is at the heart of what God does for us. And it's because the condition that we're in of sinfulness....And so the only remedy for that is God's mercy. It's not something that we can do. So we are thrown at the feet of God's mercy, because we're enslaved by sin. All of us are.

So then, in the confessional, the primary and most physically obvious and consistent mechanism for mercy in the Catholic Church,

Why does Cardinal X check his cell phone while hearing confessions?

Q: So it's about listening? 

A: It is. It's about listening.... 

Q: And so to win a convert, what you have to do is? 

A: Listen, talk, be respectful of people—and make sure that you really have an openness to where people are coming from...

If it's about listening,

Why does Cardinal X check his cell phone while hearing confessions?

A: ...And I just think that more and more you're going to see that kind of appointment (the Pope appointing me--Bishop X--and other likeminded clerics) happening... 

Q: When you say “that kind of appointment?” 

A: The kind of appointment that you're talking about of somebody who looks at people the way the pope does and wants. The pope has said this and the nuncio has said this. The nuncio told us last year the pope told him, I want more pastoral bishops...the Holy Father wants bishops who know “the smell of the sheep.” The pope has been very direct about that. 

Q: What do you hope to accomplish as Bishop? 

A: I'm going to be attentive to the needs of the people that are there and get to know them...

So, why does Cardinal X check his cell phone while hearing confessions?

Because he's a fake.

Cupich Manipulates Election, Rams Through "Francis" Over Heads of Parishioners (He Wants the Red Hat)

Tweet

Blase Cupich was not the choice of the Congregation of Bishops to replace Cardinal George as Archbishop of Chicago. But Pope Francis overrode its recommendation and appointed Cupich anyway. While unusual, the move was not unprecedented. And of course it was the Pope's right.

Within a year, Cupich had been asked to participate in the Synod on the Family in Rome. He was not one of the four bishops elected by the Unites States Conference of Bishops to attend the Synod. Once again, he was the personal selection of Francis.

Then Francis appointed Cupich himself to the Congregation of Bishops. 

Now there is speculation that Francis will soon name Cupich a cardinal.

From Bishop of Spokane to potential red hat in less than two years. That's pretty good.

Blase Cupich is the Pope's man.

I was reminded of this while reading a local story about the opening of the new Pope Francis Global Academy in Chicago, although the opening is actually more of a consolidation or downsizing - one school with two campuses will replace four schools that just closed. Cupich candidly admitted that the new school will be the "end of an era" for the Far Northwest Side of Chicago.

Like Francis, Cupich stresses "participation," presiding over meetings of parish representatives and strongly urging them to contribute their "input." On one view, however, it's all for show, comprising nothing more than potential validation at best and top-down manipulation at worst. And of course, some would claim that that's the same basic strategy employed by the Bishop of Rome. 

While it would be unfair to suggest that everyone was opposed to the school consolidation, there was significant opposition. Here's the first comment on an article about the "merger."

This has been completely disorganized. Downtown has dictated what the "merger" will be. Input from the parishes was not accepted. When we pay for school we go from parishioners to customers. We were told a Church can survive without a school. Not if the parishioners move to a different school, then the Church is no longer receiving their donations.

But what first caught my attention was the issue of how the new school was named. Indeed, I almost missed it. My annotations will be in red.

GLADSTONE PARK — Archbishop Blase Cupich will celebrate the opening of Pope Francis Global Academy with a mass at St. Tarcissus Church, officials with the Archdiocese of Chicago said. 

The academy — the first Chicago school named for the pontiff — will merge the schools of four Far Northwest Side Catholic churches that closed in June: Our Lady of Victory, St. Tarcissus, St. Pascal and St. Cornelius.

------------------------- 

St. Pascal was the childhood home of Cardinal Francis George, who died earlier this year . . . 

In an online vote held earlier this month, 500 parishioners and parents picked from four finalists: Pope Francis, Mother Teresa, St. Francis or Blessed Frederic Ozanam for the school's name, the archdiocese said in a statement. 

However, it was not clear from that statement whether Pope Francis was the pick of most of those who voted. 

The pope's name was added to the list of three finalists — Mother Theresa, St. Francis and Ozanam — selected by a group of teachers, parents and parishioners by Cupich.

Parish members don't appoint cardinals. Popes do.

Cupich wants the hat. 

Cardinal: Muslims Believe They Will Conquer Europe Through Faith and Babies

Tweet

At ground zero in the clash of civilizations 

Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi is the Patriarch of Antioch. So he is an Eastern Rite Catholic, not a Roman Catholic. But that still makes him a "full" Cardinal of the Catholic Church in all the relevant ways.

Indeed, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi is one of the only 119 Cardinals under the age of 80 who could vote for the next pope if the election were held today. For context, there are a total of 218 Cardinals, and as many Eastern Rite Cardinals (8) as, say, Central American Cardinals.

This bishop understands what's at stake, and presumably some of this is due to the fact that he is almost at ground zero in the great 21st-century purge of Christians from the middle-east.

Note, however, what he does not say. He doesn't say that Muslims will conquer Europe through violence per se. Nor does he claim that even Muslims might think that. Rather, the core of his fear is based on the current relative strength of the two belief systems, at least as it is manifested in the dedication of their contemporary adherents. He also makes a number of other unassailable but recently neglected points.

If history teaches us anything, it is that circumstances change and even impregnable seeming systems and ideologies can collapse overnight (see communism). Can the reverse also occur?

Regardless, who can say that he is now wrong?

From the Italian Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana, translated and summarized by Breitbart (in turn referenced by Credo):

In a stunning interview, the Maronite patriarch of Antioch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, has contended that Islam has a clear, two-pronged strategy to take over Europe: religion and procreation. 

(By Thomas D. Williams, 6 November) The cardinal said that Muslims look on Christians as weak and believe that since they have no children and barely practice their faith, Islam will easily conquer them. Sadly, he said, Muslims take their faith more seriously than most Christians, and they are gaining ground because of it. 

“I have often heard from Muslims that their goal is to conquer Europe with two weapons: their faith and their birthrate,” al-Rahi said in a recent interview with Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian Catholic weekly magazine. 

For the Muslims, the Cardinal said, “the practice of the faith is essential and fundamental. In Saudi Arabia they go to Friday prayers even if they need a walking stick. They know the Koran by heart, and when they talk they often cite it. The same is not true for Christians who do not refer either to the Bible or the teachings of the Church.” 

The Muslims “believe that God’s will is to procreate and that marriage is aimed at this,” he said. “They think that numbers will give them the upper hand.” 

Christians, however, “hardly get married anymore, and have few children,” he said. 

The Cardinal also said that Muslims “identify anything that comes from the West as Christian per se. All Western politics is Christian politics, it is a new crusade. They say that Christians are the remains of the Crusades and of Western imperialism,” he said. 

At the same time, al-Rahi sharply criticized the EU’s ineffective solutions to Europe’s migration crisis, arguing that the only way to end the chaos is by stopping the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 

The 75-year-old cardinal is the Maronite Patriarch of the ancient city of Antioch, where Christianity has deep and millennial roots. He said that the ongoing conflict provoked by the Islamic State is forcing both Christians and moderate Muslims to emigrate from the Holy Land, so before all else, attention must be given to putting an end to the siege. 

It is useless for Europe to quarrel over the reception of refugees without addressing the root cause of emigration from the Middle East, which is armed conflict, he said. 

“The first thing to do to protect Christians in the Middle East is to end the war in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine,” the Cardinal said. “European states quarrel with each other about the number of refugees to be admitted but do nothing to end the conflict.” 

“The Middle East is emptying and leaving the field open to fundamentalist and terrorist organizations,” al-Rahi said. For some reason, he said, “States do not talk about it, the only one making appeals is Pope Francis.” 

“Europe is talking about the reception of refugees, those who would like ten thousand and another who will take three thousand people, but this does not help us,” he said. “Europe should focus on the cause of migration, namely the war. You have to turn off the tap and ensure that Muslims and Christians will return to their lands.” 

“A Middle East without Christians,” the Cardinal continued, “has no identity.” 

“This is the place of all divine revelation. It is where Jesus took flesh, died and rose again. It is where the Church was born and began to proclaim the Gospel to the world,” he said. 

Al-Rahi also noted that Christians resent being called a “minority” in the Middle East. We have been here for two thousand years, he said, “six hundred years before the arrival of Islam.” 

“Just as Europe discusses how to preserve its identity, it is urgent that we do the same,” he said.