The Shepherd who abandoned his flock

Pope Francis’ time as head of the Catholic Church can be summed up in one image. Easter Vigil 2020 in a ghostly Saint Peter’s Square where no Christian was allowed to set foot. His flock, millions of Christians were prisoners in their houses and the Pope turned a blind eye to the horror. He didn’t say a word, at a time when lowly parish priests across the world risked fines and jail time demanding that their parishioners be allowed to practice their faith freely, a right enshrined in the Constitution all over the so-called free world.

I do not believe in Satan, but that night I swear I saw the Devil walking triumphantly on deserted Vatican grounds.

The sheer mockery of a Pope blessing an empty square is something we must never forget.... or forgive, as far as I am concerned.

Cardinal Jose Maria Bergoglio only became Pope as a result of a coup against the rightful leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, who was forced to resign, an unprecedented move that stunned the faithful. Why did that happen? Because Benedict was a hardliner, also known as God’s Rottweiler, who would have never promoted a globalist agenda in Saint Peter’s Square. As much as I felt for Benedict’s plight, I think he made a great mistake accepting to go quietly. Maybe with Francis’ passing, those who were close to Benedict in his last years will break the silence and explain the sinister plot against the Catholic Church and its believers.

I left the Catholic Church many years ago and, maybe, I shouldn’t care either way, but in a world which makes no sense I use the rule of thumb. If the globalists want to destroy the Church maybe it is worth defending. Not only the Catholic one. In 2021, when people were allowed to break curfew to attend Easter Vigil, we visited all three Orthodox churches in my neighborhood, lit candles in our hands as is the custom here. It’s become a family tradition that we uphold every year because in our time of need we found solace among Orthodox believers.

Leftist Wikipedia will eagerly list all of Francis’ accomplishments as a globalist puppet - support for LGBTQ and for climate change, condemnation of “right-wing nationalism” while pleading for more immigration, with very little word on him going against the very doctrine he was supposed to defend and promote. In 2019, Pope Francis presided over a ceremony honoring an Amazonian idol known as Goddess Pachamama, in an act that was swiftly denounced as “idolatrous worship” of a pagan goddess. Now, you and I are allowed to study or be fascinated by whatever religious symbols of any exotic culture. The Pope is not. Let alone honor one at the Vatican. His job is to proclaim there is only one God, that of the Catholic Church. As they say, you had one job...

If all deities deserve to be honored and worshiped, where does it leave Jesus? He just becomes irrelevant, one of the many.

2020 was the year humanity was under attack and Christianity was one of the main targets. Easter 2020 was no accident, not an isolated event brought on by exceptional circumstances. If there were any doubts, they were dispelled by what happened around Christmas 2020. The terrified masses were presented with the new Savior, the Holy Vaccine. It did not offer eternal life like Christ, but some semblance of normal life. At least that was the feeling here in Orthodox Romania where the symbolism behind the hurried roll-out of the vaccine to coincide with Christmas was denounced by many conservative voices. As someone was quick to remind us today, Pope Francis said taking the vaccine was an act of love, in line with the globalists urging everyone to take the jab to save granny.

Even before the ascension of the Argentinian cardinal on St. Peter’s throne, the Catholic Church was losing steam and ever fewer believers went to Mass. The Catholic Church is dying and the Christian myth is fading, as it no longer resonates with modern people. The stories that caught like wildfire 2,000 years ago are now judged with a raised eyebrow. As Joseph Cambell said - “my definition of mythology is other people’s religion”. What we now describe as Greek or Egyptian mythology were once religions in good standing, with people going to temples and making offerings to some very weird divinities. At least, by our standards. Christianity will follow the same route. Jesus and the Virgin Mary will at some point retire and be free to enjoy retirement in the company of their peers, Zeus, Horus or Odin. Yet, the Christian faith needs to be allowed a decent death, when the time is right. And the time is not right at present, as there is no other myth to take its place. Many of us are working on a personal spirituality in various forms, but the masses need a coherent myth. The community at large needs a unifying myth that should point them to something larger than their ephemeral lives. “Man cannot stand a meaningless life”, Carl Jung once said. Without a Christian myth to sustain them, millions would find themselves ambling meaningless through this Valley of Tears.

The whole Western civilization was built on the Christian doctrine, whether we like it or not. For millennia, our civilization was based on the words of Jesus: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The attack on Christianity aimed to take God out of the equation. Where would that leave us? It would leave us with no higher authority than Caesar who these days goes by many names, like George Soros or Klaus Schwab.

The fact that Francis is now gone is no reason to rejoice. The Church he leaves behind is weakened and divided. The only good thing he ever did was surviving up to now, when the tide seems to be turning. The coming Conclave will show if his loyalists can win or the more seasoned cardinals will realize it no longer pays to be progressive. Christianity needs to survive until the new myth is born, whether it comes from the long-awaited aliens, from Musk’s Mars or the new spirituality without religion many are trying to define.

In another grave lapse of his duty to uphold Catholic doctrine, Pope Francis once told an Italian journalist Hell didn’t exist, leaving Vatican officials scrambling to deny and pretend the Pontiff was misquoted. Guess it would be fun if Francis were to discover Hell is real after all.