JOY has been a major motif of the phony post-Vatican II Church since the 1960s and you’ll come across some nauseating version of this happy-clappy love fest in almost every Catholic church today. It is no surprise then that Jorge Bergoglio’s first official writing as pretender to the papacy is an apostolic exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel. Here we have the Pope of the Balloon Church, the Prince of Hot Air, exhorting Catholics to be ever more joyful and to abandon true Catholicism.

Balloon Theology requires a great deal of rhetorical helium, and that’s largely what this apostolic exhortation is. But it is also a serious revolutionary document, masking hostility toward Catholic tradition behind a posture of openness. With statements such as “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence,” Francis burnishes his credentials as a revolutionary. He proposes a “revolution of tenderness”  — a brilliant and ominous expression if ever there was one, something that is sure to strike terror in the heart of the jihadist. Even deeply-rooted aspects of Catholicism must be changed in this “revolution of tenderness.” Evangelii Gaudium calls for re-evaluation of “certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some of which have deep historical roots.”

Many Catholic commentators are no doubt saying that this exhortation is “oh, so different” from the Francis of the infamous interviews. Don’t believe it. All the elements of Balloon Theology and Catholic apostasy present in those interviews are here. They are just not as readily accessible in this 48,000-word document.

Among the goodies buried within it are the Conciliar falsehoods that the Catholic Church is primarily for the poor, that the chief mission of the Church is to uproot poverty, that the Church is guilty of “excessive clericalism,” that Church authority should be decentralized and the papacy diminished, that the monarchical splendor of the Church is immoral, that women are entitled to positions of authority in the Church, that the Church has neglected women, that capitalism per se is evil and secular politicians can correct its deficiencies, that God’s covenant with the Jews has not ended and that religious freedom for all religions is a Catholic ideal. There is the familiar talk of ecumenical “dialogue” and disapproval of a “Catholic style of the past.”

For all his talk of tenderness, Bergoglio sniffs disparagingly at Catholics. He complains of those who have “an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige.” He prefers “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church … concerned with being at the centre and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.” This mention of those caught up in “a web of obsessions and procedures” is code for those who adhere to the Church’s time-honored liturgy and devotional practices.

As the writer Thomas Drolesky points out, Bergoglio frequently sets up straw men. We see this here when he refers to those caught up with the “ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy” as having no concern for the life of the people. He also speaks of the importance of the Catholic sacraments being available to all.  “Our church doors should always be open” so that those who seek God “will not find a closed door”; “nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason.” Catholic parishes are the most open institutions in most communities. There is no problem with physically closed doors. “Closed doors,” when taken in the context of Bergoglio’s other statements, is code for moral absolutes. Who complain of closed doors? The divorced, homosexuals, feminists, people of other faiths.

Drolesky calls Bergoglio the “universal public face of apostasy.” Evangelii Gaudium is further evidence of that.

— Comments —

T.D. writes:

And so another institution falls to liberalism.  Although not Catholic myself, these new developments fill me with trepidation.  It is now certain that in much of the West Christianity has no future.  I believe Lawrence Auster once said that orthodox religion will one day supplant liberalism; the question is which religion.  I believe that the answer is now obvious: Islam.

Laura writes:

No, no, the Catholic Church has not fallen.

The Church is a divine institution. It cannot be destroyed by human agency.

The anti-Catholic ideology that has broken into its inner sanctum cannot revoke Christ’s promises to the Church or change its fundamental teachings. No pope has the authority to overrule his predecessors or change the will of God.

The papacy is empty, but it will one day be filled again. In the meantime, the saints are still in heaven, the angels still surround us, the Mother of God still tenderly carries forth our petitions, and the miracle of the Eucharist remains the most pure and elemental form of divine love. If only one monk stood at the foot of the altar, whispering the ancient secrets of God and transforming bread into his Holy Body, the Church would be vital and alive. And Satan would hate it as much as ever. (That’s not to say we are close to anything like that.)

These developments should indeed fill us all with trepidation. For someday God will ask each one of us, Catholic and non-Catholic, “Where were you when they tried to destroy my Church?”

Kimberly writes:

“The papacy is empty, but it will one day be filled again.”

Do you mean this figuratively or in the sedevaticanist way?

Laura writes:

In the sedevacantist way.

Laura writes:

Here is a brief primer on sedevacantism.

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