T -75: The Francis Effect And Its New Bedfellows

Tags

"new springtime of the spirit of the 21st century zeitgeist™ ", Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Benedict XVI, Bergoglio, Capuchins, Cardinal Burke, Carpe Diem, Catholic Church, Conflans, Deus Ex Machina, DICI, Eponymous Flower blog, Evo Morales, France, Francis church, heretical pope, hippies, Jesuits, Joseph Ratzinger, lost election, messeging, MSM, narratives, Neo-Pagan, New Liturgical Movement, new springtime, optics, Pagan Christians, pathological, Pope Francis, Raymond Burke, Roman Curia, Sandro Magister, spirit of Vatican II, SSPX, Summorum Pontificum, Synod 2014, Tradition, Vatican

Before we get into the subject matter of this post, one minor point of order is needed. When this blogger started the run up to the Stealth Sex Synod of 2015 on the 12th of January 2015 with the post General Quarters, (see here) the idea was to publish one post daily dedicated exclusively to the Synod, hence the numbering of the posts. However, due to an unforeseen heavy work/family schedule, it has just not been possible. So from today, I will just designate my posts with the number of days left to the commencement of the Synod, which is on the Monday 5th of October 2015.  Therefore, today is the 75th day before the first session of the Synod of Bishops of 2015 begins.

And now to our subject matter for today.

Today we go over to the New Liturgical Movement website and a post based on a post of Sandro Magister. (see here)  On the 17th of July, we find a post that deals with what is commonly known as the “new springtime of the spirit of Vatican II”. In the post, we read that the post-conciliar Dominican Order in Florence is “on the verge of closing one of its most important houses”. Furthermore, the “spirit of the new springtime” is on a roll. The inevitable closing of the Florence house comes on the back of another equally significant closing. “This follows the decision last year by the southern Italian province to close the equally important Neapolitan house at San Domenico Maggiore, once the home of St Thomas Aquinas”.

The above situation, as Sandro Magister explains, is caused by the “lack of vocations”. Therefore, we have a prima facie evidence of the Francis Effect in full force. And just to confirm that the Francis Effect does not limit itself to Italy, we also have a report from the US via Fr. Z. In a post titled Summorum Pontificum – 8 years on – and an ACTION ITEM! (see here), the following passage appears:

Second, while there was a large increase this year in ordinations in these USA, 24.7%, (i.e., Benedict Effect) I am told that applications to enter seminaries this year is down. [Ed. note: i.e., Francis Effect] I don’t have official stats, but rather word of mouth via vocation directors.

All one can say is “by their fruits…”

And while we are on the subject of “fruits”, we have another sighting of “a spirit”, but this time, the Holy Spirit. On the Eponymous Flower website (see here) we are informed of a group of “good-natured Capuchins who want to take over an abandoned Capuchin friary with the blessing of the local mayor”. There is a problem however. The “problem” is that these “good-natured Capuchins” are affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, and naturally the Capuchins are being blocked from taking over the abandoned friary in the French medieval village of Conflans. But there is a twist to this story in that the ones doing the blocking are not the usual suspects. It turns out that “the mostly harmless local Ordinary doesn’t seem to mind.  He’d prefer to avoid conflict.” So who is doing the heavy lifting? Well, the followers of that other “anthropocentric theology”, i.e. materialist atheism are doing the heavy lifting in this case. It is the “socialists” who are leading the charge in this case. And the “tactics, objections and motivation” that the Socialists are using seems very familiar. Here is how the EF explains it:

What is interesting to me is the similarity between the tactics, objections and what motivates the Socialists and those within the Catholic Church who use such strident language to attack the Society.

So a number of questions arise at this point. The first question is what could possibly be the reason that the post-conciliar church has abandoned this fight and left it to the Socialists? For the answer to this question, one needs to look no further than the DICI website. In a post pertaining to French vocations (see here), we find out that:

Le Figaro of July 7, 2015, indicates that “the number of priests ordained in France has never been so low.” Indeed, the French bishops’ conference announced 68 ordinations of diocesan priests in 2015, down from 82 in 2014. Together with the 52 ordinations of priests from religious orders, this makes up 120 priests (diocesan and religious) who are ordained for the year 2015, as compared to 140 last year. This is the lowest number in the last 15 years.

In the next paragraph, we read:

The future is hardly brighter, for only 87 diocesan seminarians were ordained to the diaconate in 2015 and are due to become priests next year. As Figaro columnist Caroline Picquet writes, “the chronic drop in the number of priests in France has been concerning the bishops for a long time.

So the above “chronic” dearth of vocations that are “concerning the bishops for a long time” could lie behind the “passively aggressively” passive approach of the local ordinary, an approach which has created a situation where the Socialists have to do the heavy lifting.

Which brings us to the second question. How is it that the Socialists have co-opted post-conciliar language in their “struggle” to deny the Capuchins the friary in Conflans?

Very odd indeed.

But then again, maybe not.

Going forward, what we could be witnessing in the Capuchins of Conflans situation is “an arrangement”, whether formal or not, of how the post-conciliar church’s interests will be represented once the post-conciliar church is no longer with us.

And to be perfectly honest, this should not surprise the casual observer. The reason it should not surprise anyone really, is that both these “fractions”, i.e. neo-modernist’s and material atheists represent the same anthropocentric ideology. This ideology has been “integrated” into the post-conciliar church of man over the last 50 years.

And it cannot be said that it is Francis who is the chief architect of this new novelty. No, this novelty is much older than Francis. What is new with Francis however, is that he is the first to admit that these two fractions are really just varieties of the same ideology. Therefore, is it any wonder why the chief proponents of the “materialist atheistic theology of man” such as the Marxist dictator cum “President” of Bolivia would get along so well with the main proponent of the neo-modernist post-conciliar fraction of the same ideology, i.e. Francis?

I am not surprised.

And neither should you.