"The Dictator Pope": Mysterious New Book Looks "Behind the Mask" of Francis

Yes this is exactly it. However it is when the going gets tough that the tough get going , in the fires of Tribulation.

However as you say Dolores that is easy for me to say, I make no money from this forum and if only a handful stayed and everyone else decamped enmass I would be happy enough if I had done the right thing.

I don't altogether know why some folk stayed asleep so long, we can only guess. But I am glad they are waking now.

I find the fear that they show very, very striking. I wonder if I was as afraid as they were when I began to wake up?

I don't think so; I have read a lot of Church history and seen a lot of dark things in the Church in my time. I was never really starry eyed about the Papacy and the Vatican in the first place.

I think I was not your typical Catholic in this in a lot of ways.

I read a great quote by St Francis De Sales today, in essense he said that letting ourselves be scandalized too easily can be as bad as giving scandal.

 

It's true , Our Lady really is Star of the Sea at the moment.

 

Beautifully said maryrose.

 

Agreed, how many of us have been horrified with the church happenings when we first had our eyes open to it. We knew through prophecies the day would come, but surprised by its speed of deep downfall, like an avalanche spinning out of control.

I tread very carefully on this very friable and frayed tightrope within my own community as people are so focused on how nice Pope Francis is that they do not see the full picture of our crashing into the abyss of chaos and schism.

Mark, must tread softly within that balance, his community consists of the world platform. His writing gently brings the reader to the truth in little pieces making it more palatable.

Those of us who are fully aware have a hard time with his soft peddling, but to those who are just starting to see and seek this maybe the best approach.

Mary, gentle and kind mother, please pray with us for all the Mark Mallets of the world that are leading by teaching all your children to the truth. Pray for us that we may have patience to wait for our Lord's holy word to come into fullness. We understand that the cornerstone of our Church will not crumble, please guide us all in holding on. Mary I pray that we are given the strength to hold on with humility, patience and endurance. The storm has not reached it's fullness, but the wind is blowing rapidly, please provide us with protection under your Mantle of love. Thank you Mary.

Thank you most gracious and Holy Trinity, you are the God of love and mercy, you are the God of justice and might. Thank you for the trials and tribulations, may I be able to carry my cross and follow. You carried the world's crosses, may I have the strength to help carry others who fall. Lord of all, thank you for your mother whom you gave to us as ours. Thank you for the many blessings and graces given to us each day. Jesus I trust in you.

 

This is a nicely balanced review of a couple of books about Pope Francis, copied from the latest issue of the weekly, Catholic Herald:

The Black Legend of 'Francis the Marxist'

The Political Pope
BY GEORGE NEUMAYR, CENTER STREET, 304PP, £20

What Pope Francis Really Said
BY TOM HOOPES, SERVANT PUBLICATIONS, 160PP, £9

George Neumayr's The Political Pope isn't a bad book. In fact, it's not really a book at all. About 75 per cent of the text is block quotes, and 25 per cent is paraphrasing. It is, perhaps, the first listicle ever published in hardcover.

There's no attempt at balance. The quotations are chosen to support the author's thesis: that Francis is Marxist who thinks transgenderism is basically fine and wants China to overtake America on the world stage. The quotes themselves don't point to that conclusion on their own, of course, but Neumayr doesn't implicate himself by making such a claim. Instead, he draws on a small number of (mostly anonymous) authorities to explain the Holy Father's thinking - and, occasionally, the Heavenly Father's. A Jesuit scholar apparently told Neumayr that "God will strike Francis dead before he destroys the Church."

It's rather a fascinating study in how the most alarming trends in secular media have taken root in the Catholic press. Left- and right-wingers now have their own distinct media bubbles. They are flooded with news articles carefully curated to confirm their own bias. It is not a matter of having "alternative facts", but of only having half the facts. And Neumayr has given right-wing Catholics 221 pages of anti-Francis factoids to reinforce their echo chamber.

The Political Pope could only exist in such a strictly segregated environment. Neumayr's readership must be so disposed against Francis that it wouldn't even think to pause and ask: "Is there another side of the story?" One quick Google search and his narrative would come unstuck.

And we can't blame only conservatives. Immediately after his election, the secular Left claimed Francis as one of their own. They take his utterances as proof that he's "updating" the Church - that is, destroying traditional teachings. And that only fuelled the ire of the anti-Francis Right. Hence what Tom Hoopes calls "The Black Legend of Francis".

Indeed, Hoopes's book What Pope Francis Really Said is one of the texts Neumayr must assume his audience hasn't read. A conservative by any measure, Hoopes hints at not having been terribly keen on the Holy Father back in 2013. It was only with the help of his daughter, who is coming into her own intellectually in the Francis era, that Hoopes began to look more closely. She didn't see him as a liberal dogma-slayer, but as an unusually pastoral... well, pastor.

So Hoopes went out and did a terribly useful thing: he wrote a book demonstrating the range of Francis's opinions. Yes, Francis has lashed out at those who oppose migration from the Muslim world. But he's also spoken of Christianophobia, noting that the faithful are being "chased out of the Middle East". And, yes, he poked fun at Catholics who breed "like rabbits". But two days later he assured a general audience that large families give him "consolation and hope", and that population control isn't a solution to global poverty.

Yet the book is a bit fawning in its treatment for my taste. At times, it strikes one as an effort to reclaim the spirit of papolatry that centre-right Catholics enjoyed under John Paul II. Hoopes seems to take the view that conservatives' reservations toward Francis are all just a big misunderstanding. We can go through the list of his orthodox opinions, have a good laugh at our own silliness, and go back to gazing towards the Vatican with unqualified awe. At times, Hoopes goes
so far as to omit inconvenient details from that narrative. He recalls a meeting between the Pope and Kim Davis, a county clerk who went to prison for refusing to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples. "Thank you for your courage," he said to Davis. That's all on the record. But Hoopes fails to mention a statement the Vatican released shortly after their visit, saying their detente "should not be considered a form of support for her position in all of its particular and complex aspects".

Me? I'm inclined to believe the Pope when he said: "I want a mess." I think he's actively playing with our notions of liberalism and conservatism. He wants conservatives to be more pastoral and liberals to be more orthodox. And he's willing to send out mixed signals if that's what it takes.

As a conservative, I'm grateful for that. I'm glad he's forced me to stop and ask "Who am I to judge?" when questions of gender and sexuality arise. I'm glad the image of my Holy Father washing the feet of refugees is seared into my brain. I'm glad he scolded me for letting the communists "steal our flag", the "flag of the poor". Because it is our flag.

Has any of it made me less conservative? Not a lick. Has it made me a better Catholic, a better disciple of Jesus Christ? I think so. I hope so. After all, what are popes for?

Michael Davis is the Catholic Herald & US editor

 

I prefer not to take a stance on Pope Francis because I find the whole thing just too confusing and recognising my confusion I wouldn’t want to offend against charity by detraction. It would be all too easy to fall into sin and to be consumed by bitterness and possibly hatred. I recognise that I am one of the little ones, of no real account in the Church. I do my bit in the little corner of the Lord’s vineyard He has given me to tend. Our Lord and Our Lady know I am little and confused and I am sure they have pity and sympathy for me and all of us in this current climate in both the Church and the world.

Our Lord and Our Lady know and understand what is truly going on. They know the full and absolute truth and have got the big picture. We don’t and cannot be expected to. The only thing of which I am certain is that we are in a great spiritual battle. This spiritual warfare is unrelenting and intense and vicious. Heaven knows what is occurring and will come to our aid. Heaven knows that we, like David, are little and weak and armed only with what seem like puny weapons against a seemingly mighty Goliath.

We must use the weapons we have to hand namely prayer, the Sacraments and trying to conform ourselves to Christ as best we can in challenging times. Only God knows what is going on and how this all ends up but we know that God doesn’t command or expect the impossible. We are only asked to love the Lord and to demonstrate this by obeying His commandments. We are not bound to obey anyone who would command us to sin. We have the Bible and the Catechism and the Sacraments thank God. So long as we stick to these we will be fine. We must stay close to Our Lady in these choppy waters. We must stay close to Our Lord in the Mass and the Sacraments as to whom else can we go?

Our Lord knows this. He is fully in control. We can be serene and confident that so long as we do our best to remain faithful to Him, in whichever corner of His vineyard He has planted us, that ultimately all will be well. Our Lord bid us to fear not as He has overcome the world. We too shall overcome united with the twin Hearts, the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart.

Praised be Jesus and Mary.

 

maryrose you have described it perfectly.

 

Again very astute post. You say it all. Friable and frayed—excellent description.

 

Charity and Truth are sister and brother and walk hand in hand.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedi...ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html

1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:32). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

The greatest Charity and the greatest duty in life we have to our sisters and brother is that of the Truth. But how few of us give this precious gift! For we know if we give it lambs will turn to raging lions and tear us apart.

..and if face the Truth concerning others ,we are faced to see the Truth as it concerns our own souls and who can bear the fire and Light of Truth and Holiness?

 

I agree Padraig. Human nature always, like an old western movie, wants to shoot first and ask questions later. Mark Mallett has not been behind the 8-ball, he merely chooses to do as scripture teachings and pray and study before potentially bearing false witness. Who hasn't in their journey been accused of being this or that based on little/no evidence. Who has not jumped into the Catholic scene, in faithful practice of it and been looked at as 'holier than thou' for upholding all its truths? Mark is not slow in catching up with what is taking place in the hierarchy of the Church, he simply does not shoot from the hip as some on this forum do. When what is happening in the Church can be well established he will speak to it. I respect this, as I believe this is what Jesus did and this is what he expects of his servants. I think it is often times wanting to sensationalize events in the Church to be the first to read, speak and condemn what we find appalling in the Church. Prayer, fasting and reflection seems to be a better course of action in the onset of any controversy.

 

I think when we look at the twelve Apostles, the twelve pillars of the Church we see twelve different men. Twelve different souls. Twelve different spirits, twelve different spiritualities, twelve gates to the New Jerusalem.

I think to take the road of Mary is to follow the Great Golden Road of humility and obedience . This is a great consolation to me, for in following Mary who was ever lost?

 

Anyone who says that of course is wrong. It is true though that some on the "right" go so far that they actually do go into schism by not recognizing the Pope(s). So perhaps he is seeing that and drawing the wrong conclusions from it. I don't know. I can't see into Mark's mind.

We must remember that we here are unusually blessed in seeing the problems for what they truly are. The fact that a faithful man like Mark still has difficulty seeing clearly should be a sobering reminder to all of us and something that should make us humble and thankful before the God of the universe who has chosen to so bless us.

 

Just pointing out that the article in the Catholic Herald does not review the book "The Dictator Pope" which is the subject of this thread. The book is not mentioned in the article.

 

The relevance is obvious. "The Dictator Pope" is a book like the "The Political Pope" which the Catholic Herald article discusses.

If I may take a paragraph from the article which is highly relevant to the thread:

It's rather a fascinating study in how the most alarming trends in secular media have taken root in the Catholic press. Left- and right-wingers now have their own distinct media bubbles. They are flooded with news articles carefully curated to confirm their own bias. It is not a matter of having "alternative facts", but of only having half the facts. And Neumayr has given right-wing Catholics 221 pages of anti-Francis factoids to reinforce their echo chamber.​

 

Have you read both books? Otherwise, how would you know how relevant or balanced is the book review which doesn't review the book?

 

My view is based on the expansive comments on both books on this forum.

​

 

Your view of a review of two books you haven't read and the non-review of a book you also haven't read is based on comments about the non-read and non-reviewed books? Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

 

When the "alternative facts" are Modernist propaganda I have no more interest in reading them than I would Nazi or Communist propaganda. That is the problem with today's Church, there is a lot of poison trying to be injected into it by the so call "left-wing".

The Catholic Church has always been a conservative traditional institution by its very definition. It is not some amorphous blob that is always changing to suit man's current needs. It is eternal and unchanging.

In truth there is no "right-wing" and "left wing".
There are Catholics and there are heretics.

What you cite as an "echo chamber" I view as authentic Catholicism.
If I am a Catholic why do I care what some possibly heretical Modernist apostate has to say?
I don't.

What you cite as "personal bias" I call personal beliefs.

More Modernist wordplay...

 

Well put, maryrose.

Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!