I keep saying that I need to find time to tend to the blog, but entries have been few and far between for the past year or more. The abdication of Pope Benedict and the election of Pope Francis have prompted many thoughts and I find myself feeling compelled to rejoin the fray at this time.
One concern is the nearly immediate polarization of opinion toward Pope Francis although he has yet to sit on the Throne of Peter for even a week. On one hand are many of the modernists in the Church and their counterparts amongst arbiters of the popular culture, some of whom have thus far been perfervid in their sentiments. The likes of Donna Brazile are seen on television gushing over 'The Pope of the Poor' while the disgraced but apparently shameless Cardinal Mahony breathlessly twitters away like a lovesick bobby-soxer about the color of the Pope's shoes(!) and kvells about "moving from HIGH Church to LOW and humble Church"! (No word from Cardinal Balony as to whether his $150,000,000+ cathedral or his liturgical dancers are what he means by "Low Church"... but then again I've always wondered whether the man was actually a protestant so perhaps it's only natural for him to use such language.)
At the other extreme are two unlikely bedfellows - the secular left whose fantasies about their ideal pope (who'd probably take the name "Libertine I") have been shattered by the fact that yet again the Catholic Church has elected a pope that is Catholic; and the 'traditionalists' who believe they've seen nothing but ill omens in every liturgical and quasi-liturgical action of the past 5-1/2 days.
Herewith a few quick thoughts:
- Liberals/modernists who are curently singing paeans to Pope Francis will find cause to come down out of the clouds before too long. Once the bloom is off the rose they will treat him the same way they treated Papa Ratzinger - with scorn and derision.
- For people who claim that their beliefs and positions are based upon 'science', 'reason', 'logic', etc. the secular left certainly engages in a lot of unscientific, unreasonable, and illogical thinking - one might even call it 'blind faith' - in expecting a pope to suddenly change the Church's teachings.
- Pope Francis is not going to undo what Pope Benedict has done juridically, and if he tries there will be one heck of a row. That is not what he needs. Even if perchance he is at heart a polyester-poncho-wearing inculturated low-church Mahonyite whose papal liturgies make JPII's look like Tridentine Masses he is not going to "repeal" Summorum Pontificum.
- Granted, the ars celebrandi of the reigning pope does have a great deal of value as an example to the Church. Funny, we complained about B16: "he doesn't decree, all he does is 'lead by example'" but surely his 'style' gave many a priest both an ideal to follow and some 'cover' against his critics: "I'm just doing what the Pope does". My one specific fear is that a reversion to a 1970's Bugnini/Piero Marini style of papal liturgies will embolden the opponents of the liturgical renewal who will then be able to claim: "now you're not doing what the pope does".
- The "inaugural" Mass of Pope Francis is tomorrow. All of us will learn more about what to expect in this pontificate. Let us wait and see, trust in God, and meanwhile use the remainder of Lent fruitfully. I know one thing for sure: the Holy Father needs our prayers!
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