With The Lettergate Fiasco, We See Once Again That Personnel Is Policy

On Saturday, the Church and even the entire world were witnesses to the skulduggery of the Vatican Communications Office.  Today it was announced that Msgr Vigano, Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications resigned.  Apparently he is taking responsibility for the "lettergate" fiasco - their attempt at deception that blew up in their faces after the Pope Emeritus refused to be their dupe.

So now we know that Pope Francis is entirely innocent of the whole debacle for he accepted the resignation and rid the Vatican of that dastardly perpetrator - right?  Ehhh...not quite!  It seems that in his same letter in which he accepted Vigano's resignation from his prior position, Pope Francis created a new position in the same office, an "assessore" of the same office he held.  It's akin to "second in command".  That is Vigano's new role.  A devious mind might think that Vigano's still going to call the shots around there, with the new prefect serving as a "front-man" puppet.  But of course that would be the furthest thing from the minds of the Vaticanistas now, wouldn't it?  (Stop that snickering immediately, you cynical neo-pelagians!)

As the saying goes, "personnel is policy".  Once again we are left with no doubt regarding their policies.  Please pray for the Church and continue to shine the light on the cockroaches.

Pope Francis Appoints Pro-Abort To Pontifical Academy For Life

The maxim "personnel is policy" contains much truth.  With that in mind, faithful Catholics are aghast at the appointment of a known pro-abort to the Pontifical Academy for Life.  Recall that last autumn, Pope Francis dismissed all the members of that academy.  Now he is starting to reconstruct it to his liking.

The pro-abort's name is Nigel Bigger.  He is an Anglican minister who believes that baby-slaughter should be legal until 18 weeks.  He tried to diffuse our incredulity by claiming that is views on euthanasia conforms to Church teaching (forgive us if we look askance at that claim).  However, all who rightly claim the label "pro-life" are opposed to all forms of murder (murder being defined in Catholic moral theology as "the deliberate taking of innocent human life").  So clearly Pope Francis could have selected from thousands of faithful Catholics who adhere completely to the Church's Traditions regarding life and family.  He might have simply reappointed some former PAL members who were dismissed last autumn.  Why, oh why, did Pope Francis see fit to select someone who is at clear, sinful variance with the Church?  It's worth a reminder that last autumn Pope Francis did away with the requirement that all PAL members adhere to the Jerome Lejeune Oath.  When I wrote that post last November, I asked why the pope saw fit to eliminate that requirement.  I think we now have the answer to my earlier question.

One Peter Five has details of others who were (re)appointed to the PAL.  Two of the more vocal critics of Amoralis Lamentia were not reappointed.  Cardinal Caffarra, one of the four dubia cardinals, was reappointed; but his omission would have stunk to high heaven and would have been a public relations black eye to the pope.  Another troubling appointment was made: that of Anne-Marie Pelletier, a professor who joins the pope in dissenting from Church Tradition on family and marriage.

More and more the progressives at the Vatican are abandoning their facades of fidelity to Sacred Tradition.  In related news, Rorate Caeli informs us that this past Sunday, the Bishop of Santa Fe in Argentina (a Pope Francis appointee) conducted a Mass that can only be called sacrilege.  He announced during Mass that according to the norms of AL, adulterers would be admitted to Holy Communion at that Mass.  Indeed they were.  While he committed mortal sin, as did all those who received unworthily, he was correct in stating that his sacrilege was in conformity with Amoralis Lamentia.

To my friends who insist on wearing rose-colored glasses with regards to this pope, who persistantly think that starry-eyed naivete is a virtue: please cease lying to yourselves and each other.  The sooner you admit the truth, the sooner you can start praying and acting to preserve the Faith in yourselves and those around you.

Who Stays and Who Goes

Amoralis Lamentia has given us a view into the pope's mindset regarding the Deposit of Faith that he's tasked to defend.  That defense is not happening; we see quite the opposite occurring.  But if AL isn't enough, let's remember the maxim "personnel is policy".  It certainly applies in this case as one watches the personnel shifts in various Vatican organizations.  See who stays and who goes.  Particularly look at the conduct of those retaining their posts and those obtaining new posts.

The pope appointed a new apostolic nuncio to Mexico.  He is Archbishop Franco Coppola.  Mexico has been dealing with the topic of gay #mowwidge as has the United States.  The faithful Catholics there have been conducting marches to rally support for traditional marriage.  Coppola scolded their efforts, telling them not to march but to "dialog" with the supporters of evil.  In a sane world, a real bishop would have been encouraging faithful Catholics to step up their efforts and would have rebuked those shilling for perversion.  As you read the LifeSiteNews piece, it's clear that Coppola's sympathies are with the promoters of sodomy.

Getting back to Amoralis Lamentia, the pope last month praised a dissident theologian whose heresies provided some foundation for AL.  This happened during a Jesuit conference last month, and the theologian is Bernard Haring.  Apparently it was Haring who devised the aberrant definition of "discernment" that seems to be a favorite buzz word among the progressive elements.  This "discernment", according to Haring, "allows" for contraceptive use.  He carried on so much that Pope John Paul II forbade him to teach at any Catholic school and stripped him of his "Catholic theologian" title.  So now this pope is praising a dissident for the very behaviors that caused his sainted predessor to discipline him?

Meanwhile, the purge of the faithful prelates in Vatican organizations marches on.  From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, several faithful prelates were ejected.  These include U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, Austrilian Cardinal George Pell, and Canadian Cardinal Marc Oullet.  The latter still retains his headship of the Congregation of Bishops - for now.

Now let's look at the Pontifical Academy for Life.  Who got canned from that body?  All of them!  According to One Peter Five, the pope rewrote the statutes of that organization that effectively removed the entire membership.  Moreover, these new statutes state that members may be selected without regard to religious affiliation, and that the new members will not have to take the Jerome Lejeune Oath, an oath requiring members to defend the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.  Why was that oath excised?

There's an important "side note" in that One Peter Five link.  According to inside sources, many in the Vatican were supporting Hillary Clinton's bid for the US presidency.  If that's so, they were supporting sin.  To the extent that foreigners can interfere with our elections, I don't know.  If their support was more than trivial, can it be said that they sinned mortally?  Can it be said that this sin goes all the way to the top?

I suspect there will be more personnel shake-ups to admit more poison into Church structures.

Personnel Is Policy - Cardinal Muller Removed From CDF

Today it was announced that Pope Francis has removed Cardinal Gerhard Muller from his position as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  He will take post as Archbishop of Mainz.  His replacement at the CDF?  Cardinal Christophe Schonborn of Vienna: yes, this one.  He is also the prelate that overrode one of his priests when the latter blocked an openly gay man from sitting on a parish council - just two months after Cardinal Wuerl ousted Father Guarnizo for likewise being a faithful priest.  See here for more of Schonborn's destructive antics.

We knew this was just a matter of time, didn't we?  Cardinal Muller has been one of the few remaining voices of sanity and orthodoxy in the Vatican, much to the chagrin of many of his fellows and perhaps even Pope Francis.  Read here for an account of the many times he, as Prefect of the CDF, spoke truth to the lunacy spewing forth from the Vatican.  More than a year ago I predicted that Muller might well find himself in progressive cross-hairs; that has come to pass.  Surprise!!

As they say, "personnel is policy".  With all the faithful prelates being ejected from positions of influence in the Vatican in favor of progressives and de facto heretics, can there linger any reasonable doubt regarding the policies of Pope Francis?

Correction - There is reason to hope that this change has not happened and that the reporting was premature.