Catholic Church in Crisis? The View From the Pew

Traditionalists Pray for Return to Orthodoxy Amid Francis-Era Chaos

By Greg Maresca

 If there was one phrase to summarize the pontificate of Pope Francis, it occurred early on in his tenure when he told a group of young people in Paraguay, “Go out and make a mess.”

The Church descended into exactly that.

After Pope Benedict XVI died, The Babylon Bee’s headline proclaimed: “Francis officiates at funeral of last Catholic Pope.”  The Bee’s satire always stings.

Francis’s pontificate went on to be a prolonged penance that presided over a plethora of church closings, declining baptisms, confirmations, marriages, Mass attendance, and a precipitous drop in priestly ordinations.

Moreover, it underscored the deep canyon of differences between the West and the rest of the world, between tradition and modernism, liberalism and conservatism.  Pope Francis loved the poor so much that he wanted not only to keep them poor, but also to make more.

The Church stands at a crossroads, and the upcoming conclave that commences on May 7 in Vatican City will substantiate a roadmap for the future.  The next pope will either steer the Barque of Peter back on its salvific path or embrace modernism that Pope St. Pius X called “the synthesis of all heresies” and navigate the Church deeper into Her Passion.

Of the Church’s 252 cardinals, 135 are under age 80, with Pope Francis having appointed 108 eligible electors, stacking the deck to lengthen his postmodern legacy.

Some in the conclave want the Church to resemble them rather than Christ.  They are immersed in the Marxist zeitgeist of postmodern relativism that has redefined morality as personal and subjective, while admonishing those who defend biblical morality as intolerant and xenophobic. They desire the Church to follow a worldly agenda of environmentalism, unrestricted migration, and agnostic ecumenicism rather than conversion and the salvation of souls.

These men are indifferent to wherever modernism reigns, churches are increasingly empty; where traditionalism is the norm, the churches are mainly thriving.

For over 2,000 years, the papacy endures as Christ said it would, despite some rogues who held the Petrine office, who were more successors of Judas than St. Peter.

The choice is clear – orthodoxy and clarity or heterodoxy and confusion.

Is it too much to ask that the pope be authentically Catholic?

Traditionalists must look toward Africa. African Cardinal Robert Sarah, a staunch defender of tradition and the magisterium, turns 80 in June.  Sarah’s age will work against him. Sarah is the episcopate version of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Longtime American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a proponent of the Latin Mass and unafraid to question Pope Francis, is another stellar candidate.  For his efforts, Burke was evicted from his Vatican City apartment by Francis. Locally, Burke celebrated Mass at the former Carmelite Monastery in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, in August of 2019.  However, at 76 and being an American, his chances are slim.

Often, the pontiff does not typically come from what the pagan media endorses as “the favorites.”  While the new pope will emerge from the College of Cardinals, as it has since 1378, it is not a requirement.

The papacy is akin to the Speaker of the House of Representatives: one does not need to be an elected member of the House to serve as Speaker, nor does one have to be ordained through the sacrament of Holy Orders to be pope.

Church Canon Law states that any male baptized and in good moral standing is eligible for the papacy.  Provided he wasn’t 82 that devout cafeteria Catholic Joe Biden with his ardent support for abortion, gay marriage and transgenderism could have been the “modernist sleeper” choice of this conclave given his penchant for ballot manipulation blessings.

When the new pontiff greets the faithful standing on the Central Balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, many clerics who have faithfully served their flock for years would all be worthy. I am sure you know plenty of them, too.

The Holy Spirit indeed works in mysterious ways, and with the faithful clamoring at the gates of Heaven through prayer and fasting, anything is possible.

The next pope needs to immerse his pontificate in matters of faith, not politics.

Pope Francis did indeed create a mess.

It will be up to the next pontiff to clean it up.