. . . But did he deliver?

Last March 13 was the ninth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. The moment Pope Francis came out of the lodge of Blessings and spoke his first words as Pope, a pontificate began that promised a lot and aroused many hopes. Now that we enter the tenth year of the pontificate, what are the promises that have been kept? And what will the legacy of Pope Francis be?

In his first speech, Pope Francis stressed that he wanted to begin a journey “bishop and people, people and bishop.” From the very beginning, Pope Francis wanted to mark his pontificate on the theme of the outgoing Church, which had also characterized his speech to the general congregations. And in those words, one could already find a push towards synodality, which led him to convene two special synods and…

The explainer dealt in church matters — Vatican Council II in the ‘sixties. But the comment might have come from a 2022 political operative.

In his [Vatican II Notebook], on November 10, 1962, Father [Marie-Dominique] Chenu[OP] notes this sentence by Father Giuseppe Dossetti, one of the main strategists on the progressive front: “The winning battle is run in dealing with the procedure.I have always won in this way.”

The author, Roberto de Mattei, comments:

In assemblies the decisional process  does not belong to the majority, but to the minority which controls the procedure. Democracy doesn’t exist in political society and even less so in religion.  

As for church matters,

Democracy in the Church, observed the philosopher, Marcel De Corte, is ecclesiastic Caesarism, the worst of all the regimes.

Specifically, says de Mattei, at the 2014 Synod on the Family…

To the back of the line with you, union blokes. You flunk.

CHICAGO — As COVID-19 cases rose in the fall of 2021 and the Chicago Teachers Union fought for enhanced safety protocols and testing, the union used the death of a 32-year-old Jensen Elementary parent as an example of the danger posed by COVID-19 in the city’s schools.

However, the Cook County Medical Examiner now says that parent died of drinking too much alcohol and not COVID-19.

And what else have they said, in pursuit of their goals, that’s also wrong? For which give them more F’s.

Having violated the first rule of their craft:

The first rule of investigative journalism is to be equally suspicious of everyone. If your mother says she loves you, check it out. (This is not necessarily the best or happiest way to live, but somebody’s gotta do it.)

But somewhere along the way the [NY] Times etc forgot the first rule. They forgot that their job is not to be an arm of the public health establishment, no matter how much they love The Science, or the Democratic Party, now matter how much they hate Donald Trump.

That said, they blew it.

 

Four days ago, from Phil Lawler (emphasis added):

A research team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has raised a new concern about the Covid epidemic. Their data show that “for some people, societal and lifestyle disruptions during the pandemic may have triggered inflammation in the brain that can affect mental health.”

The study found “higher levels of translocator protein in certain brain regions” among people who experienced “severe mood, mental, and fatigue symptoms.” These results were evident both in people who had contracted the virus and those who had escaped it. In other words, their research suggests that the brain inflammation might have been caused not by the disease, but by the lockdown.

We already know some of the costs of the lockdown: the jobs lost, the businesses ruined, the school-years missed, the strain on families, the spike in suicides and drug overdoses, the medical screenings postponed, the undetected…

Very, said an 18th-century pope:

Pope Benedict the Fourteenth, alarmed at the excessive facility wherewith dispensation were then obtained, renewed, by a solemn Constitution, (dated June 10, 1745,) the prohibition of eating fish and meat, at the same meal, on fasting days.

The same Pope, whose spirit of moderation has never been called in question, had no sooner ascended the Papal Throne, than he addressed an Encyclical Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic world, expressing his heartfelt grief at seeing the great relaxation that was introduced among the Faithful by indiscreet and unnecessary dispensations.

The Letter is dated May 30th, 1741. We extract from it the following passage:

The observance of Lent is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By it, we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. By it, we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it, we…

Now you see a U.S. president, now you see someone who thinks we are dumb people.

From Marc Thiessen: Remember the uproar last month when President Biden declared that the U.S. response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine would depend on whether it was a “minor incursion”? Critics rightly pointed out that Biden had effectively given Russian President Vladimir Putin a greenlight to invade eastern Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly rebuked Biden, tweeting, “There are no minor incursions.”

Biden had to quickly backtrack, declaring the next day that “any — any — assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.” Well, on Monday Putin sent assembled Russian units across the border into eastern Ukraine. And what was the Biden administration’s immediate reaction? To excuse Putin’s actions and downplay them as nothing more than a minor incursion (Washington Post).

Let’s go, Joe.