John Allen Advises Pope: Your Choice of Cardinals Could Backfire

This is interesting.

But some Vatican experts warn that by expanding the club’s membership to the peripheries, Francis’s plan for an all-inclusive church might just backfire... Not only are the 120 or so clerical members hand-picked by popes, they alone form the exclusive voting body to elect the next pope from among their clan.

The Jack Connors crowd is worried the new Cardinals are not going to buy into Pope Francis plan to finally open up membership in the Catholic Church to the people who were excluded by the 2000 years of Popes before him.

They are worried about the election of the next Pope.

We are too. And thanks to the internet, we have plenty of tar and feathers to get the job done.

I am still not sure who is on the list of excluded people.

I thought the Church was open to all Baptized Catholics and people going through RCIA and Sacrament prep to become one.

Maybe the Holy See should publish a list on their website. I'm not sure I'm invited. I've never see a welcome sign for me. Have you?

It looks like John Allen has seen the list.

Does anyone else know when your name goes on a list?

What behavior constitutes exclusion?

I know mortal sin excludes us from and the reception of the Eucharist but I thought all you had to do was show up ten minutes early and receive absolution. In fact, I am pretty sure that technically, if you arrive early and the priest can't do it because he is thinking about his homily, if you plan to grab him after Mass or even within the next few days, you can receive Communion and the properties in the Eucharist will be held in escrow until absolution.

TTC readers will let us know if I have it right.

I don't do it as a practice because I like my intimate union with Christ to be as flawless as possible. I've come to learn the benefits I receive when the union is flawless.

Let's make sure the plan of Pope Francis is understood. I've explained it before, but it bears repeating.

When you receive Properties in the Eucharist it is consumed into your soul, not your stomach. Your soul is a sanctuary that speaks to your intellect which then nurtures your animus.

Free will, which is afflicted by concupiscence also speaks to the intellect.

Concupiscence is desire.

When I watch and listen to Pope Francis, his theology perverts mortal sin into holiness.

For example:

I desire a new car. I can work for a new car or I can steal one. If I steal it, I may enjoy it for a while but not in the same way I would if I followed the law. In the back of my head, I know the pain I've caused to the person I took it from who payed for it. I would know its going to come back to haunt me some day. I know I've broken a commandment and my salvation is at risk.

All these worries also speak to my intellect and animus. It robs me of true joy. Gets me into trouble. But I have convinced myself I am entitled to a new car.

I know I can't receive the Blessed Sacrament with mortal sin on my soul but I am not 'excluded' from the Church.

The reasons for that are metaphysical. When you consume the Properties in the Eucharist into your soul in a state of mortal sin, the devil lies in waiting to do battle. Chapter 12 in the Book of Revelation describes the battle.

That battle brings spiritual and intellectual chaos that affects my animus.

The Catholic Church of the 2000 years before Pope Francis was there to absolve me of my sin, also represented in Revelation 12.

The reasons the law is set up to exclude us from Communion are not rooted in hatred for the sinner. It is the wisdom of a Church that knows what is not visible to the eye. It is God's mercy.


In the Pope Francis church, church teaching is perverted to mean stealing the car is actually holy.

I can do good things with the car. I can visit sick people and prisoners - help them not to feel lonely. I can get to work to earn cash to give to the poor. This makes me a good person. A good person is a holy person. When you break commandments, you are a good and holy person who shouldn't be excluded from Holy Communion. This is Pope Francis mercy.

The dame from the Daily Beast writes:

Days after rebuffing traditionalists as having ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s,’ Pope Francis chose a group of cardinals from the peripheries of the church. Why that move could haunt him.

I didn't realize Pope Francis named the group he was rebuffing as 'traditionalists'. I thought he did his usual and customary ambiguous insult with the nudge and the wink routine.

Everyone knows what he is talking about so why doesn't he just come out and name us?

What are 'traditionalists' anyway?

It's just more wordsymthing.

Does this look like the face of a traditionalist to you?

I have bucked 'traditions' all my life and I have the battle scars to prove it.

I keep telling an old joke to my children: The most horrifying thing about turning 40 is realizing your mother was right.

There's a reason why every culture respects elders. They have seen and tried it all. There is nothing new under the sun. The Truth never changes.

Here's my definition of what a 'traditionalist' is in the church of Pope Francis.

We are people without an agenda pursuing the Truth and who want the Truth taught and the mercy of the Church delivered to the people we love. We come to Mass to, quite literally, dissolve into Christ. To give ourselves completely to what is taking place in the Sanctuary - our presence in the Garden of Gethsemene to Christ's Resurrection. We want every microscopic substance of Divinity to have its effect upon us and in us until the next time we can consume Him again.

How's that for a tradition?

He has made an enemy of himself in our group. Knowing the history of 2000 years, his agenda of turning mortal sin into holiness is a loser.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Burke.

Here is Allen's spin on it. In a nutshell: Pope Francis summoned Cardinal Burke because the article mentioning the sissification of the Church and Angelina Jolie is the new role model for women of Pope Francis Church. The latter makes perfect sense to me given the materials coming out of the Curia but the former could not possibly be true as the meeting was scheduled ten days before the article came out.

Still, if I were a Pope out of touch with the 2000 years of traditions of the Church, and I were a man of good faith, I would ask why my agenda was so offensive to people who subscribe to those 'traditions'.

I hesitate to use the language of the Pope Francis Curia because it makes Truth and Sanctifying Grace a disposable ritual but I think it is effective in this context.

This pic of the meeting juxtaposted against the picture of the Pope greeting Angelina Jolie tells a little story.

Allen said:

The Vatican did not disclose any details about what was said in either encounter, but given the personalities involved, it’s a safe bet that Pope Francis had a fairly interesting day.

That is a no-brainer.

I've tapped the pulse of those who subscribe to the 2000 years of 'traditions' before Pope Francis. Judging from the supply of tar and feathers in their basements, it's fair to say interesting times lie ahead.