The Legacy Of Pope Francis: Terrible, Ruinous, And Scandalous

What was the influence of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the late Pope Francis, as a priest and bishop in his native Argentina?

His influence as a priest and bishop, viewed now in retrospect, was a harbinger, in small and medium doses, of what would become his disastrous performance in Rome. He was an elliptical, sinuous, ambivalent man as evasive as a pendulum. He told each person what he knew they wanted to hear. Romano Amerio uses the expression "boustrofedonism" to refer to the zigzagging characteristic of modernists. That was him. In improperly human terms—which I use only to be didactic and brief—one might say that he went from "the right" to "the left" depending on his interlocutor. For which he deserved the diatribe of Don Quixote to Sancho: "This shows that you are a villain, in that you are capable of shouting ‘Long live the conqueror!’. Of course, as he gained power (and this was one of his disordered appetites), the pendulum stopped swinging and settled at the most terrifying place: a preferential option for the enemies of the Church. 

What is the opinion fellow Argentines have formed about Pope Francis’s person and stature as a man of religion?

Fellow Argentines can be categorized as follows: 

There are the papolaters, ridiculous and short-sighted figures who, in order to maintain a supposed "communion with the Papacy," are willing to approve and condone any nonsense; and go even further in their grave heterodoxies. The bishops belong to this species, as do certain imbecile laity who follow them, dazzled. 

There are those who attack him for ill-advised motives. The current government of Argentina, for example, and even before it was established, cannot bear the idea of ​​distributive justice, or the social function of private property, or the maintenance of the common good, or the rejection of usury. 

There are also those who defend him for the comprehensive demolition he has carried out; that is, for his constant abuse of the lex credendi, the lex orandi, and the lex vivendi. The worst enemies of Catholicism—Freemasons, atheists, Marxists—have never ceased to applaud its constant and furious attacks on the Truth. No Pope—or anyone else—has been more docile and accommodating to the world's perversions. 

What is the legacy of his ministry?

Terrible, ruinous, scandalous. He attacked the Truth through the four terrible possible means indicated by Father Leonardo Castellani S.J.: through error, ignorance, confusion, and lies. And a fifth should be added: through malice, through odium Fidei, through odium Christi. I will not attempt a summary of his long decade in office. I wrote four books and dozens of articles, before and during his tenure, all under my first and last name. I am not one for playing hide-and-seek with pseudonyms. But respectfully and responsibly, weighing and considering my words, I am in a position to say that his work has been destructive and devastating, corrosive and vandalistic.

Examples abound, but we will mention only two. His homily at the Angelus on Sunday, June 7, 2016, the Feast of Corpus Christi, implicitly denied the dogma of transubstantiation. And his choice of a pornographer, defender and blesser of unnatural things, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, to head the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Bergoglio fulfilled the tragedy expressed by English author Gilbert Keith Chesterton: if you take away the Supernatural Order, the Natural Order no longer remains. Nothing remains.

How did Francis’s papacy differ from those preceding?

I think the above may serve as an answer. But a didactic distinction occurs to me, also for the sake of brevitatis causae. The Popes after the Second Vatican Council (to establish a demarcation point and not aspire to cover everything) allowed the hermeneutic of continuity to be maintained, while still tolerating and promoting the hermeneutic of rupture. With Bergoglio, and by his express decision, this possibility disappears and is even punished and persecuted. He wanted a "church" that is not Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, but synodal, syncretistic, irenic, and apostatic. A church that transitions from Iscariotism to apostasy. The "Church of Judas," as Bernardo Fay called it. A church in which the Antichrist can feel comfortable. I omit comparisons with papacies preceding Vatican II, simply, as I said, for the sake of brevity. But if we were to make such a comparison, the outcome would be much more tragic.    

In what sense did his call to “hagan lio” make a mess?

It's a popular Argentine expression, which he addressed to young people during Youth Week in Brazil. And it defines them in their plebeian profile. Because it's a youthful expression, as the philosopher Jordan Bruno Genta warned. He was steeped in demagoguery, complicity with chaos, incitement to empty rebellion, conciliation with subversion, and abasement of conduct and style. Chesterton also said what is truly "revolutionary" is Order. Revolutionary here means a return to the Beginning. Bergoglio wanted to once again practice dialectical populism with those poor kids; but the farce came at a high cost. And it also became a paradox. There are many young people today who don't want to make a mess or a fuss but rather to move away from it and return to the sources of Tradition. Just look at the cavalcades and processions held under the Marian patronage of Our Lady of Christianity. This is just one example.

How will Pope Francis be remembered in history?

I lack sufficient elements for a prospective view; that is, to establish, looking to the future, what would be a correct historical balance, past or retrospective. Not without reason, some have seen in him the "beast of the earth" spoken of in the Book of Revelation, a sort of forerunner of the Antichrist. For others, he was the figure of the false shepherd foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Still others believe that these "positions" are far too grand for him, contending that he is simply terrible and forgettable example. A monstrous nightmare. A kind of Goya-esque painting: the sleep of reason produces monsters. If history is governed by those two laws that Pope Leo XIII recalled when quoting Cicero: "dare not to lie" and "do not fear to speak the truth," then it will have to make a conclusive judgment, highly and profoundly condemning Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Now let us pray fervently and maintain supernatural hope. 
 

Dr. Antonio Caponetto is an educator who holds a doctorate in philosophy. Among his books are  "La Iglesia traicionada", "No lo conozco. Del Iscariotismo a la apostasía" y "De Perón a Bergoglio".