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francis-mad-iii

Busy day today, so I will republish a post from this blog that appeared on the 14th of March, 2015 titled El Papa Loco? The reason that I am bringing the information in this post to your attention dear reader is due to a passage in the recent Damian Thompson post titled  Why more and more priests can’t stand Pope Francis. The passage that drew your most humble bloggers attention is as follows:

At the end of last year, however, the communion row began to overlap with other controversies, all of which raised questions not only about the Pope’s judgment but also about his state of mind.

This issue regarding Francis, bishop of Rome’s “state of mind” has been a recurring theme from the earliest years of Jorge Bergoglio’s clerical career. In March 2015, your humble blogger drilled down into this issue. Below is the re-publication of that post, because this is an issue that just won’t go away.

El Papa Loco?

Today, 205 days from the start of what this blog has termed the Stealth Sex Synod of Bishops of 2015, we continue discussing the issue of “psychological illness” that Francis and the Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro, “an Italian Jesuit who is close to Francis,” leveled at Catholic seminarians and faithful. We also pointed out that it might be a bit rich – to use an British expression, for Francis to question another person’s sanity, since it is quite possible that he suffers from those same ailments.

Today, we dig deeper and get clinical.

Introduction

The Bergoglio “sanity issue” was recently raised by two authors, Javier Cámara and Sebastián Pfaffen  in their biographical book “Aquel Francisco”. (see here) Here is the quote from the Eponymous Flower blog: (emphasis added)

“Aquel Francisco” ( This Francis ) is a book which appeared last week in Argentina in the publishing house Raiz de Dos of Cordoba.  It is dedicated to the life Jorge Mario Bergoglio, particularly his “exile” in the Argentine province of Cordoba. It will bring a new “light to the time”, in which  Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio  had  “fallen out of favor and been exiled” within the Jesuit Order. The priest was then referred to as “crazy and almost irresponsible”. An incident that had affected not only the superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, but also  other Latin American countries and also the General house of the Order in Rome. A “series of defamations under which the Pope had suffered more than 20 years ago,” write the authors of the book.”

Now obviously the authors needed to somehow dispel the above assertion as to the “crazy and almost irresponsible” “incident that affected not only the superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, but also other Latin American countries but also the General house of the Order in Rome.” Enter one Father Ángel Rossi, “a spiritual son of Bergoglio“, who gave what appears to be a verbal confirmation to the authors that Father Bergoglio is in fact “sane”.

However, this humble blogger concluded that Fr. Rossi’s opinion can hardly be considered as a “clinical assessment” being made by a mental health industry professional.

Furthermore, Francis has himself hinted that he suffers from certain forms of “neurosis”. (see here) For the record, “neurosis” is defined as “a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress such as depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior and hypochondria.” (see here)

Therefore The Deus Ex Machina Blog have decided to undertake the below analysis.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM

In today’s post, this blog turns to the mental health industry professionals in order to try and determine if there is any evidence that could support the “claim” that the Argentinean Jesuits made the decision to exile Father Bergoglio on the basis of the latter’s “mental health issues”.

Our source for diagnosing mental illness will be the same as that of the industry professionals in the United States, i.e. the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short). For those of you dear readers who are not health care industry professionals, this is how the American Psychiatric Association describes the DSM: (see here)

“The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States. It is intended to be applicable in a wide array of contexts and used by clinicians and researchers of many different orientations (e.g., biological, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, family/systems)”

Therefore, a simple examination of the catalog of the mental disorder classifications should provide us with any confirmation – positive or negative, as to the proper state of the mental health of the present bishop of Rome. Besides, that’s how the professionals do it.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Through a simple duckduckgo.com search (the official search engine of the Deus Ex Machina blog), it would appear that in late 2013, the the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defined a new mental illness, the so-called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD.

Right out of the starting gate and it already sounds promising.

Let’s investigate further as to what kind of behavioral disorders the“oppositional defiant disorder” (ODD) entails: (see here)

“Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.”

Hmmm…. Now this sounds familiar. Now where have I read about Francis exhibiting symptoms that fit the above  symptoms?

The Evidence

Why yes. Now I remember. Here is the relevant passage from the Daily Telegraph: (see here)

“In 2005, then Pope Benedict quoted from an obscure medieval text which declared that the Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith, was “evil and inhuman”, enraging the Muslim population and causing attacks on churches throughout the world before an apology was issued.

Reacting within days [Being easily annoyed.] to the statements, speaking through a spokesman to Newsweek Argentina, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio declared his “unhappiness” with the statements, [Questioning authority, Negativity] made at the University of Regensburg in Germany, and encouraged many of his subordinates [Argumentativeness, Defiance,] with the Church to do the same.”

Sounds like ODD to this blogger. However, it might just be a misunderstanding or an isolated incident or something like that. Let’s see if we can find any more evidence of “oppositional defiant disorder” in the bishop of Romes behavior before he ascended to the See of Peter.

The next piece of evidence comes from the Church of England. Back to the Daily Telegraphs, where we read the following: (see here)

“The Ordinariate was set up by Pope Benedict for members of the Church of England and other Anglican churches who wish to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

…

He [“Ed. Note: Bishop Venables] added: “He [ Bishop Bergoglio] called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly [Being easily annoyed] that the Ordinariate was quite unnecessary [Questioning authority, Negativity] and that the Church needs us as Anglicans.[ Argumentativeness, Defiance]”

Clearly a sign of not only ODD, but insubordination as well. Hey, whose the pope around here? In all fairness, I can see how ODD and insubordination do go hand in hand. But I digress…

Any more evidence? Wonder if we can get some corroborating information from a Vaticanist. Let’s go over to the Sandro Magister blog and see what we can find. On the 24th of October 2014, in a post titled Francis’ Patient Revolution, we can read this regarding communion for serial adulterers: (seehere)

“On communion for the divorced and remarried, it is already known how the pope thinks. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he authorized the “curas villeros,” the priests sent to the peripheries, to give communion to all,[Defiance, Questioning authority,] although four fifths of the couples were not even married. And as pope, by telephone or letter he is not afraid of encouraging some of the faithful who have remarried to receive communion without worrying about it, [Negativity] right away, even without those “penitential paths under the guidance of the diocesan bishop” projected by some at the synod, and without issuing any denials when the news of his actions comes out.”

To paraphrase the singer Meat Loaf, 3 out of 5 ain’t bad. But in all honesty, if you are a bishop who is disregarding the teaching of the Catholic Church and defying the Pontiff, you would not want to exhibit argumentativeness and show that you are easy annoyed. So I think the this piece of evidence is also very strong.

So that is the evidence.

Summa Summarum

Closing, I would just like to make one obvious point, and stress this point one more time, and the point is this: it is not I who is claiming that Jorge Bergoglio, the bishop of Rome has a mental disorder defined in the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short) as “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD.

All I have done is taken a definition, according to classical Thomist methodology (see here) and have tested three pieces of evidence that I obtained from a simple duckduckgo.com search.

Having said that, and in the spirit of full disclosure, YES, I will admit that it was I who decided where the commas and exclamation points would be placed!

Back to the story.

Just to review what the metal disorder classified under the DSM as ODD entails, here is the brief summary: (see here)

“Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.”

From the above, it is quite clear that according to the American Psychiatric Association and the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short), Father and then later Bishop Bergoglio engaged in an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,”. Therefore, under the DSM, the bishop of Rome would diagnosed as having a “mental health issue”. In Argentina, the Jesuits just might use the term “crazy”. And as for Fr. Angel Rossi’s verbal confirmation as to Father Bergoglio’s sanity, according to the American Psychiatric Association, it would not be correct.

On an aside.

In the above APA linked post, the following paragraph can be found:

New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases. And there are treatments available.

Therefore, even if the bishop of Rome Francis and the Jesuit cleric Spadaro are correct, i.e. that the Catholic seminarians and faithful do have “psychological problems”, the good news is that not only are these “problems” already identified in the DSV, but treatments are available. Just like for Francis’ mental issues. And aberro-sexuality.

And since we stumbled onto the issue of aberro-sexuality, one more final parting thought, the people that brought us the DSV are the same people who classified aberro-sexuality as good, normal and wholesome behavior.