POPE FRANCIS WANTS LAY PEOPLE TO ELECT POPE

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Pope Francis - determined to finish off his hit job on the Church

'Progressive', 'liberal' Catholics who missed out on the Synod on Synodality need not go out and hang themselves with a halter, after all - Pope Francis is planning to let them in to the conclave to elect the next pope. 

So that the successors of the Apostles who were chosen by Jesus Christ Himself, and who from the earliest days of the Church were exclusively, by their consecration to the cardinalate, chosen by the Holy Spirit to elect the successor to the Chair of Peter, would be 25% random lay people. 

No. Not at all 'random' but hand-picked, like the Synodders were - 'progressives' who have better ideas than the Church magisterium. You know, Novus Ordo-ites who nod - and wink - at sin. But the sensus fidelium comprises only those lay people who believe all that the Church teaches. 'Progressives' who have better ideas than the Church are not sensus fidelium. Not even Catholics. 

Yet right after the Sin-nod Pope Francis writes yet another letter. His Ad theologiam promovendam (To Promote Theology) promotes a 'paradigm shift' - to no theology at all, or rather, theology the way you want it. Contextual theology instead of traditional theology. 

But you can't dismiss 2000 years of Church belief and teaching any more than you can dismiss the Mass believed in and taught by the Church for that length of time. Unless of course you're a Pope Francis, who seems to think that poping is all about consulting the world and suiting the world. But Our Lord says, They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world (Jn 17:16).

The Pope is eighty-six. He's not long for this world now, and it seems that by ushering non-Catholics, in effect, into the Sistine Chapel along with his personal pick of heresiarchs like Cupich, McElroy, Hollerich et al, he's in an all-fired hurry to finish off his hit job on the Church. 

Suffice it to say that the Remnant's 'breaking news' (story below) yesterday from respected Vatican journalist Diane Montagna, followed up by the Pillar, Crisis Magazine and other news outlets, has stirred up a bit of a hornets' nest in Rome. Italian Jesuit and canonist Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda has declared that his reported involvement in discussions on excluding octagenarians and including 25% laity in future papal conclaves is "a pure lie".  https://www.ncregister.com/cna/canon-lawyer-denies-involvement-in-papal-election-reform-calling-reports-a-pure-lie

For a Jesuit that's pretty unambiguous. But with the Jesuits' reputation among traditionalists in tatters, whom would you believe?

Cardinal Ghirlanda celebrates the Novus Ordo

And The Catholic Thing have lined up three theologians to give us the gen on this 'paradigm shift' in theology:  https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2023/11/07/three-theologians-on-the-popes-paradigm-shift-in-theology/

 

The Remnant has learned that a Vatican document is currently under review by Pope Francis that would reform the papal conclave to exclude cardinals over the age of eighty from its preparatory phase, radically reshape the General Congregations, and potentially revolutionize who elects the Pope by having laity and women religious comprise twenty-five percent of the vote.

Well-informed Vatican sources have confirmed to the Remnant that a series of meetings have been held at Santa Marta since late spring between Pope Francis and Italian Jesuit canonist Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, with one specific goal: to reform Pope John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution on the vacancy of the Apostolic See and election of the Roman Pontiff, Universi Dominici Gregis. 

 Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda has denied reports that he is involved in changing the papal election process to make it more synodal.https://www.ncregister.com/cna/canon-lawyer-denies-involvement-in-papal-election-reform-calling-reports-a-pure-lie

Since the end of August, these meetings have become more frequent and were held on a weekly basis until the start of the Synod assembly in early October. 

Professing to “return to the early Church”, the idea would be to have cardinal-electors, the majority of whom Pope Francis has chosen, comprise seventy-five percent of the vote, while the remaining twenty-five percent would be made up of laymen and women and religious sisters, papally appointed by Pope Francis in advance of the Apostolic See becoming vacant.

The document under review would exclude from the General Congregations preceding the beginning of a papal election all non-voting cardinals, that is, all cardinals who have reached the age of eighty. Many contend that the Pope is made in the General Congregations, as it is in this preparatory phase that the problems facing the Church, and the qualities needed in a suitable candidate, are discussed.

Given the long experience of the cardinals who are over eighty and the pivotal role they play in shaping the ideas of the cardinal-electors, their exclusion would widely be seen as wounding the Sacred College and the papal conclave. It would also reduce to an even smaller minority within the discussions those cardinals who had not been appointed by Pope Francis.

The document would also radically change the procedures and organization of the General Congregations, eliminating plenary sessions (wherein all the cardinals convene as a body) and establishing small working groups with a head to guide discussions, similar to the October 2023 synodal assembly.

While Pope Francis is said to be intent on reforming the papal conclave in a more “synodal” style, we are told he has not yet given a definitive “yes” to the document, which if promulgated will surely meet with considerable resistance from members of the Sacred College.

The Remnant has also learned that Cardinal Ghirlanda is seeking to convince Pope Francis to undertake a truly revolutionary act, by revolutionizing who elects the Pope. Professing to “return to the early Church”, the idea would be to have cardinal-electors, the majority of whom Pope Francis has chosen, comprise seventy-five percent of the vote, while the remaining twenty-five percent would be made up of laymen and women and religious sisters, papally appointed by Pope Francis in advance of the Apostolic See becoming vacant.

If promulgated, the document would widely be seen as representing an ecclesial and theological upheaval of papal elections. While Pope Francis is said to be intent on reforming the papal conclave in a more “synodal” style, we are told he has not yet given a definitive “yes” to the document which, if promulgated, will surely meet with considerable resistance from members of the Sacred College.

 

O Four Holy Crowned Martyrs, please pray for the Church