Vatican toadies? Culpably ignorant?

So eager to please their leader, who probably likes it that way.

In a children’s book in 2016, he gives a flippant version of how to look at the old mass:

Francis’ Vulgar Comments on the Latin Mass

It appears that a children’s book titled Dear Pope Francis is to be released on March 1.

[The blog] “Rorate Caeli” obtained and posted a section of the book that is not only disturbing, but provides a snapshot into the mind of Francis concerning the ancient Mass of the Church.

The excerpt:

“Dear Pope Francis, Were you ever [an] altar boy? Greetings from Alessio (Italy, age 9)”

His response:

“Dear Alessio, yes, I was an altar boy. And you? What part among the altar boys do you have? It’s easier to do now, you know: You might know that, when I was a kid, Mass was celebrated different than today. Back then, the priest faced the altar, which was next to the wall, and not the people. Then the book with which he said the Mass, the missal, was placed on the right side of the altar. But before reading of the Gospel it always had to be moved to the left side. That was my job: to carry it from right to left. It was exhausting! The book was heavy! I picked it up with all my energy but I wasn’t so strong; I picked it up once and fell down, so the priest had to help me. Some job I did!

The Mass wasn’t in Italian then. The priest spoke but I didn’t understand anything. and neither did my friends. So for fun we’d do imitations of the priest, messing up the words a bit to make up weird sayings in Spanish. We had fun, and we really enjoyed serving Mass.”

The blog’s commentary:

What, then, has Francis effectively taught this nine-year-old altar boy, and any youngster who reads the book?

1) The protestantized Novus Ordo [new
mass] is superior to the old, stodgy,”other-worldly” Tridentine [16th-century Council of Trent] Mass, where the priest faced the altar and not the people, and where the faithful allegedly could not understand what the priest said.

2) The Mass and things pertaining to the Mass can be the object of cheap amusement even by altar boys while they are serving. How contrary this is to the spirit of Catholicism.

Explaining the latter, i.e. old-time religion, using terms and expressions seldom heard in 2018:

The Gifts of Piety and Fear of the Lord, two of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, instill in us a reverential fear of God, which recognizes God’s greatness and our littleness, and a deep respect for those things that pertain to God, which must be treated in a reverential manner. These Gifts do not appear to be manifest in Francis. There is also no sense of the supernatural when Francis speaks of the Mass.

There is little or no such sense in the whole world, in which the supernatural gets little respect, other than when applied to goblins and witches. Otherwise, doesn’t sell.

Francis, the modernist Jesuit [the worst
kind {heh}], boasts to a nine-year-old youngster, and thousands of other youngsters who will be given a copy of this book, that, “messing up the words a bit to make up weird sayings” is an acceptable practice for an altar server. What really matters, “We had fun…”.

The excerpt from the book reminds us of the episode – captured on video – where Francis poked fun at the little altar boy properly folding his hands in prayer. “Are your hands stuck together?” asked Francis, grabbing the boys hands and moving apart and back.

Case for prosecution:

For Francis, some of the most sacred aspects of Catholic practice can be the object of sport: “We messed up the words” of the Mass, “We had fun,” “Are your hands stuck together?”

Who is this vulgar little man that our contemporary Cardinals elected in 2013?

He’s our churchly constitutional monarch, not always in sync with that role — crucial, unique, and limited, though it be.

What did Pope Francis know and for what reasons has he engaged in this “rare display of papal power.”

Transparency and accountability; accountability and transparency. These are the time-honored means of restoring credibility to an institution that has lost public trust. We hear the words often these days from Church leaders. But will we ever see more than the words? Will we actually see accountability and transparency in practice? That, too, is something we just don’t know.

Say it isn’t so, Holy Father. Have you acted this way for no good reason? In these times of stress and turmoil?

He’s having none of it, as explained in this detailed reportage about the whys, hows, at whose instigation.

Questions remain unanswered about the canonical process by which Bishop [Martin] Holley was removed.

While Pope Francis established in 2016 norms by which a bishop can be removed through a Vatican process, it is not clear whether that process was used in Holley’s case, or whether the Congregation for Bishops, on which Cardinal Wuerl [for whom he was an auxiliary bishop for
two years in Washington] sits, was involved [as Holley says].

Meanwhile, why isn’t it clear that process was used? The faithful don’t deserve to know? Francis recommends silence about his being the object of once-unimaginable public criticism, as by former ambassador to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano?

But about how the Memphis man was ousted, he is practicing that old devil secrecy. Ever with us, it seems, secrecy, secrecy, secrecy.

Sphinx-like pontiff.

I ask because it’s one of the big questions being pursued by investigators.

“These devices should be considered dangerous,” said William Sweeney, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He said the probe is “in its early stages,” and the agency is working quickly to analyze clues from the packages at its facility in Quantico, Va.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspected bombs were operational, officials said.

A cautious assessment that.

More caution:

When asked whether the homemade devices were designed to explode, Mr. O’Neill said law-enforcement officials are treating them as “live devices” and not as hoaxes. “This is something that should be taken seriously,” he said.

The devices are being treated is if they are “live.” Designed to explosive and not set to explode. Not armed, as sometimes is said.

More:

The FBI’s Mr. Sweeney said a powder found in the package delivered to CNN’s Manhattan office on Wednesday and addressed to former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan didn’t present a biological threat, but investigators were conducting further tests.

So far, nothing. But better safe than sorry, of course:

At the FBI facility in Quantico, Va., the suspected bombs will be tested for “everything under the sun,” a federal official said.

Go, FBI.