considerations re pope francis

1. The resignation of Pope Benedict two years ago was in my opinion a coup d'etat. Popes don't resign. We had Pope John Paul the Great leading us through the worst years of the recent Culture Wars against Christianity in Western Europe and we hung on to him even when the irreligious Media and their political fellow travellers, were insisting that he was too debilitated by age and illness to lead us; We hung on to him as Pope I say, just so the world might understand that reverence for old age is no burden and that the elderly, whether neighbours, friends, brothers, sisters, grandads, invalids or Popes, are always a mystical and eternal gift. I say it again. Popes don't resign. The few exceptions in history only reinforce the rule. I suggest that Benedict was forced from office through a contrived series of pressures, ie basically by his Prime Minister and Cabinet not doing their job. There was lots of nonsense talk about Gay Mafias in the Vatican which was quietly let die after Benedict resigned. Smells of an orchestration of pressure. There was the arrest of Benedict's valet for supposedly leaking documents to the press. An 85 year old man's valet would be something of a confidante. The loss would be keenly felt. I believe these and other events may have been contrived to propel Pope Benedict into resigning.

2. When Bergoglio of Argentina was installed as Benedict's successor, with the name Pope Francis, lightning struck the Vatican. At first I thought the talk of a lightning strike was internet sensationalism. But the lightning was witnessed and photographed and we must accept it happened. Such things may mean nothing. But there is no tradition in Christianity for interpreting lightning striking a church as a good sign. Traditionally a lightning strike on a church may be taken to symbolise an expression of Satan's contempt at a time when Satan believes he has obtained a victory over Christianity. Some decades ago, the Anglican Christians of England appointed a Bishop in Durham. At his appointment part of Durham Cathedral was demolished by lightning. The Bishop of Durham later showed his hand by declaring: "Easter is a conjuring trick with bones." I think we may have one of those at the head of the Catholic Church now.

3. Pope John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict were in the habit of releasing doves over the crowds in Saint Peter's Square. It was a cutesy gesture with the doves occasionally going off message, flying back into the Pope's bedroom or landing on his head or whatever. Pope Francis released a dove from his window, and carrion birds immediately attacked the dove. Pope Francis now restricts himself to releasing balloons. The birds attacking Pope Francis dove, like the lightning strike, may mean nothing. But it's not a good sign.

4. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a few years ago, there occurred what is claimed to have been a modern eucharistic miracle when communion bread became visible as human flesh. There have been such claims before but they are comparatively rare in recent centuries. I must explain that Catholics make an act of faith that blessed bread truly becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ during the Communion ritual at our Mass ceremony. We consider this to be a daily miracle. There have been occasions in Church history, often as a priest was supposedly doubting the true presence of Jesus in Communion bread, when the bread became visibly human flesh and blood. These incidences have been investigated, some are Church approved and some are preserved and referred to as Eucharistic  Miracles. The Church has permitted belief in such visible eucharistic miracles but she has never required that any Christian believe in them, (The distinction I'm making here is that although the Catholic Church does proclaim consistently that the bread at Communion literally and miraculously becomes the body and blood of Jesus and we are enjoined to try and believe it, our Church does not make it an article of faith that anyone accept the real presence has ever been made visible in claimed eucharistic miracles by the bread actually being visibly seen as meat.) The modern case in Buenos Aires occurred under the jurisdiction of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. It was investigated by doctors who declared that the substance they were testing was heart muscle. This modern eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires meant that Bergoglio became known overnight to every Catholic Church Cardinal on the planet. The Cardinals elect the Pope. I am suggesting that the eucharistic miracle of Buenos Aires may have been staged to promote the reputation among Cardinal electors, of the man whom they would later appoint Pope Francis. I would add that I myself became aware of the Buenos Aires eucharistic miracle when it was being talked up by an expatriate native of my home town who is a self described Charismatic Christian called Doctor Joe McKenna. I would note that Doctor Joe Mckenna's father is Pat McKenna who is described on his gravestone in Kilcullen cemetery, as "Northern Brigade Commander of the IRA." Doctor Joe MacKenna's sister Breda MacKenna also presents herself on her occasional visits to Kilcullen as a Charismatic Christian. She has a particular spiel about being "on fire with love for the Catholic Church." Such characters showing up as champions of the genuineness of Bergoglio's supposed eucharistic miracle may not discredit the miracle itself. But they're not a good sign.

5. After taking office, Pope Francis announced that he would name the deceased 1960's  Pope John a saint along with our more recent Pope John Paul the Great. Pope John Paul the Great was well along the road to sainthood anyway with attested miracles through his intercession with God being claimed by various people. There was also a most exraordinary moment at his funeral when his coffin was held in the air before the crowd in Saint Peter's Square and a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds right at the moment of elevation to illumine the coffin. President George Bush, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and another senior South American politician claim to have seen this happen. Pope John Paul the Great was a monumentally well loved Pope and calls for his naming as a saint began as soon as he died with Italian mourners chanting: "Santo subito,,, a saint immediately." Conversely there was no real widespread or popular impetus beyond left wing factions for the process of sainthood for Pope John, who is indeed very popular with liberal leftists but unremembered by everyone else. No miracle has been attributed to Pope John's intercession. Pope Francis has got around the miracle requirement simply by cancelling the requirement for a miracle in the nomination of a saint. I believe Pope Francis naming of Pope John as a saint is a political gesture to left wing infiltrators of the Church. I would add that I don't accept Pope John ever really was a leftist but indubitably leftists have attempted to seize his reputation and to interpret him as one of their own.

6.Pope Francis has also laid aside the requirement for a miracle in naming as a saint another hero to the leftists, the deceased El Salvardoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Archbishop Romero was murdered in El Salvador in the 1980's. I doubt he is a saint in any sense beyond being a hero to left wingers.

7. Pope Francis visited an Immigration Centre on the island of Lampedusa several months ago. During that visit he called for humanitarian treatment of refugees. Unfortunately his call led Italian authorities to simply cease to enforce immigration law, creating a free for all rush on the Southern Boarders of Europe. I am saying specifically, that following Pope Francis' visit to Lampedusa, people traffickers were inspired by the Pope's words to adopt the novel strategy of directing boat loads of refugees towards the Italian coast, radioing the Italian coastguard, and saying: "We're abandoning ship. It's your fault if the people die." I am suggesting that Pope Francis single handedly while appearing to act compassionately, has unleashed a full scale people traffickers assault on Southern Europe and caused the deaths by drowning of thousands of people.

8. I disagree with Pope Francis vis a vis his opposition to the death penalty and I think he is incorrect in claiming his opposition to the death penalty is mandated by the Christian tradition.

9.  Soon after taking office Pope Francis appeared to pull the rug from under the Pro Life Movement regarding the sanctity of the lives of unborn children. I don't think this was a mistake. I think it was deliberate and is a measure of the man.

10. When Muslim murderers slaughtered fifteen people in a newspaper office in Paris two months ago, Pope Francis appeared to justify the Muslim attack commenting as follows: "If Doctor Gaspari here, a good friend, pronounces a curse word against my mother, then a punch awaits him." In two thousand years of Christianity, I don't think we've ever had such a vertent or inadvertent justification for Islamism from a Pope. I think it may be a bad sign.