PRIESTS AND BISHOPS AFRAID OF "PERSECUTION"

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Dear Bishop Charles

You will have read the Open Letter from over 80 international theologians, philosophers, scholars and academics addressed to you, as one of the bishops of the world, asking that you investigate their allegation against Pope Francis of the canonical delict of heresy.
By now you must also have noted that 1500 signatures have been added to that letter, and you will have received messages from the Catholic faithful of the Palmerston North Diocese, asking you to join with your fellow bishops to investigate the alleged heresies. 

You will know too that this is the third significant instance of influential voices within the Church questioning the ambiguities, doubt and confusion that characterise this pontificate.   

The accusation of heresy from such well-respected sources may be labelled extreme and the signatories 'extremist', but clearly demonstrates that 'extreme' is now the level of frustration, dismay and even anger registered by so many lay faithful - and priests and bishops who, like some spoken by Bishop Athanasius Schneider in response to the preceding papal controversies, are afraid of "persecution". 

But bishops surely have a duty to God and their people to convey to the Holy Father, in the spirit of filial correction which animated St Paul in his admonition to our first Pope, the sense of horror felt at what looks to be a deconstruction of the Church, symbolized so dramatically by the collapse of the spire and roof of that symbol of "The First Daughter of the Church", the cathedral of  Notre Dame, so recently.

Some Catholics have called Pope Francis reckless and wayward. But a Maori friend of mine who is very close to God says, "I just don't know about Pope Francis. He worries me. He's a crafty fox."

I believe she's much nearer the mark; the Holy Father is not 'reckless and wayward', but very deliberate and focused. Especially in sealing the Abu Dhabi declaration which submits Christians and Muslims to the core principles of freemasonry by prostrating himself - the world representative of Christ the King! - at the feet of Sudanese political leaders, he appears to advance the establishment of a 'World Church' of liberty, equality, fraternity and the religious indifferentism condemned by Pope Leo XIII.

Religious indifferentism will not secure the salvation of souls which must be the first concern of the Papacy and also, I know, of yours, Bishop Charles. 

The support of the world, the secular media, of lukewarm Catholics, or even the Catholic press, will be no support at all for anyone - much less a successor of St Peter -when he stands before Christ.

In February at the close of summit on clerical sex abuse, Cardinal Reinhold Marx affirmed the need for transparency in dealing with that crisis. 

If the hierarchy of the Catholic Church are not once again to be seen as standing idly by while the devil does his work and further fundamentals of the faith are undermined, then transparency - honesty deployed with courage - must be demonstrated now by our bishops.

I am not asking you to criticize the Pope. I'm simply asking you to investigate these charges - which may be found groundless. But as a bishop and shepherd of your flock, you will surely not believe a pope, by virtue of his election, to be beyond correction. We should remember the words of St Vincent di Lerins: God gives some popes to the Church, God tolerates some popes in the Church, God inflicts some Popes on the Church".Your faithful people of Palmerston North request and need your support in what they are experiencing as an affliction.

I humbly ask you, dear Bishop Charles, to join your fellow bishops in investigating these charges.  

Julia du Fresne