Is The Pope Trying To Get The Number Of Priestly Vocations To Tank?

When he makes statements like, “There are often young men who are psychologically unstable without knowing it and who look for strong structures to support them. For some it is the police or the army but for others it is the clergy,” and  “When a youngster is too rigid, too fundamentalist, I don’t feel confident (about him). Behind it there is something he himself does not understand. Keep your eyes open!”, what are we to glean from them?

Couple those statements with what is NOT said.  Notice that he voiced no concern for the seminarian who openly dissents from Church teaching regarding faith and morals, who is not devout, etc.  Then the meaning is all too clear.  Can all this give a clue as to why the pope and/or some in the Vatican obviously had an axe to grind against the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate?  Look at the video below.  Do they strike you as "neurotic"?  Under the previous two pontiffs, the number of vocations had been increasing.  Pray that good vocations aren't once again hindered as they were in the wake of Vatican II.

A Holy Year Of Mercy!

On March 13, Pope Francis announced a "holy year of mercy".  My friend at Harvesting the Fruit has some thoughts and I'll add my own.  What is the pope's idea of "mercy"?  Might this translation of his homily today provide a clue?  It looks like a rather choppy translation done by "google translate" but from this Radio Vatican site, I gather that he's chiding those who "close the Church's doors".   I don't know who he thinks would shun a sinner who wants to return to God; this sounds like one of his "straw man" arguments to me.  What is meant by "come to mass on Sunday but stay there and do no more".  I hope I'm wrong, but this sounds like a strange way of trying to justify distributing Holy Communion to those who may be in mortal sin.  That is not mercy!  Mercy must be sought and sought properly.  For that there is the Sacrament of Confession, the real channel of mercy for those in serious sin (and all of us when you get right down to it).

But if we're really going to talk about "mercy", may I suggest some worthy recipients of that?

• Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and their Sister counterparts.  Allow them to live their vocation and charisms unfettered
• Patricia Jannuzzi, the New Jersey high school teacher who was fired - by a Catholic high school - for upholding Catholic morality on her facebook page.

If they receive some "mercy", bring it on!  On the other hand, what they deserve is justice to right the immense wrongs done to them by their bishops.

Was Father Manelli Framed?

Father Stefano Manelli is one of two founders of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI).  This past year that order, devoted to the traditional Mass and by all accounts growing and thriving, was all but obliterated through the machinations of Father Fidenzio Volpi, Apostolic Commissioner of the FFI.  Father Volpi was appointed to that position by Pope Francis himself.  Owing to Volpi's "work", the FFI is a shadow of its former self.

Comes now the news from Rorate Caeli that Father Volpi has been found guilty of spreading "defamation and lies".  He'll have to pay 20,000 euros to the Manelli family as well as issue public apologies.  So now it appears that the FFI was deliberately reduced to tatters; for what reason we can only speculate.  Volpi apparently set about to destroy Father Manelli's good name; now his own is besmirched.

Now the question is, "will Pope Francis allow the FFI to reestablish itself and will they be allowed to pursue their holy calling?"  In short, will the pope do right by the FFI?

What Pope Francis Allowed To Be Destroyed

On December 8, 2013, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Father Fidenzio Volpi closed the seminary operated by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  The FFI was an order dedicated to the Mass in the Extraordinary Form and to other time-held traditions of Holy Mother Church.  They drew many vocations as you will see in the video posted below.  I and other bloggers have written about the draconian treatment meted out to this order, and to the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate.  The only motive that seems logical in the face of such behavior is the wanton destruction of the Deposit of Faith entrusted to Holy Mother Church by Our Lord.

Rorate Caeli has obtained video of the daily life within this seminary, taken by one of the seminarians on the very day the seminary was shuttered.  Please read Rorate's account of the horrid way in which these young men have been treated.  Circulate this widely.  Pray that sanity returns to those entrusted with guarding and shepherding the Church.  Now the video, as obtained and promulgated by Rorate Caeli.

Long Knives Out For Another Good Bishop AND Franciscan Friars Of The Immaculate

We've seen the unceremonious sacking of both Cardinal Burke and Bishop Livieres of Paraguay.  Now it looks as though Bishop Robert Finn is the latest in the progressive cross-hairs.  Eponymous Flower has listed some of his accomplishments in the Diocese of Kansas City - St Joseph.  Here are a few (please read the whole list)

• Promoted Summorum Pontificum and offered the Extraordinary Form of the Mass
• Raised vocations to a 40-year high (Bishop Livieres did that too.  Is increased vocations now considered to be a liability in the Church of Nice?  I suppose so, if the young men are orthodox).
• One that EF missed is that he formally asked the "National Catholic Reporter" to stop calling itself "Catholic", owing to its embrace of heresy and dissidence.  No doubt that set some teeth on edge at one of the "church of nice's" favorite rags.

Finn's administration has not always been stellar. In 2011 he failed to report to the authorities a priest who had pornography on his computer.  But why is Finn being fly-specked while someone like Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg FL is given a free pass?  Remember that the latter had to spend thousands of dollars to various, uh, "partners" in legal settlements AND he gave the green light to Michael Schiavo as the latter murdered his wife Terri in his diocese.

The Vatican recently sent Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergrast to "investigate" Bishop Finn while the latter was in Rome.  His investigation basically consisted of polling people by asking "do you think Finn is fit to be a leader"?  There's no hint that Prendergrast was the slightest bit interested in the 2011 incident.  So what is that about???

That's the story of the Vatican progressives baring their teeth at Bishop Finn.  Now let's look at their ongoing malicious vendetta against the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  Six of the Friars had sought incardination under other bishops and were awaiting dispensation from their vows to the FFI.  They did not receive those dispensations.  Rather, they received suspensions "a divinis".  That is a sanction reserved for the most grave matters; moreover, it is a sanction that is subject to strict due process under canon law.  Commissioner Fidenzio Volpi observed none of the due process regulations; he delivered the suspensions with no regard to the processes of Canon Law.

None of this is any accident.  Moreover, it is unreasonable to presume that Pope Francis had no knowledge of these matters.  Some, in attempts to give to the Pope the "benefit of the doubt" have to resort to all manners of denial and logical contortions to the point of engaging in intellectual and yes, spiritual, dishonesty.  It's high time that rose-colored glasses were stripped from all faces.  If we're going to lift up our Church and her leaders in prayer, we must be relentlessly honest about the faults of all concerned.  Else our prayers will be so much pious but ineffectual fluffy-puff-stuff.

Strange Double Standards From The Vatican

Two days ago came the news that a flagrantly dissenting priest of Ireland, Father Sean Fagan, has had all sanctions lifted.  Six years ago he had been silenced because he refused to cease his dissent in matters pertaining to sexual morality.  It has been said that he was an advocate for the liberalization of abortion.  The news report does not indicate any repentance on Father Fagan's part.  There are intimations that the lifting of sanctions came about as a result, at least in part, of intervention by Pope Francis.

Contrast this treatment with that of Father Stefano Maneli, a founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  They are the order that has been wildly successful in promoting the Traditional Latin Mass - until some malcontents managed to bend the ears of influential Vatican officials to stifle the order.  The elderly Father Maneli is essentially under "house arrest", forbidden to visit his parents' graves to celebrate his birthday.

I am having grave difficulty reconciling this strange double-standard.  One the one hand we have a flagrantly dissident priest having his sanctions lifted, out of the blue with no conditions placed upon him: conditions such as fidelity to the Magisterium, etc.  On the other hand we have draconian measures taken against a faithful religious order and no justice in sight for these Franciscans.  All this has occurred with the Pope's approval, if not at his direction.  How does this work?  Where's the "method to the madness"?  OR, what's the motivation to the madness?