What Legacy Will Pope Francis Leave Behind?

Pope Francis speaks during the weekly general audience at St. Peter's square in The Vatican on April 5, 2023. Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

With the recent hospitalisation of Pope Francis, speculation has once again turned to how much longer his papacy will last, given he is 86 years of age and in declining health.

In fact, 10 years ago last month, Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope. But there is no cause for celebration.

The Demos document (Greek for people)—a statement attributed to the late Cardinal George Pell on the state of the Church, described Francis’ papacy as “catastrophic.” Not long before his death, Pell described the situation in Rome as “the Wild West.”

The widely respected German Cardinal, Gerhard Müller, recently gave an interview stating that Francis allegedly “surrounds himself with a magic circle of people who are not prepared theologically.” He also alleged that the recent reforms of the Curia were disastrous, reducing it to “a business that works to provide assistance to “clients,” as if it were a multinational enterprise and no longer an ecclesial body.”

The Demos document declared that under Francis, there had been grave failures to support human rights in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hong Kong, mainland China, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Under the 2018 secret Vatican-China pact, there had been “no public support for the loyal Catholics in China who have been intermittently persecuted for their loyalty to the Papacy for more than 70 years.”

When the former Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, flew to Rome to discuss the issue with the Vatican, Pope Francis refused to meet with him. He has declined to meet the Dalai Lama or speak out against the persecution of the Uyghurs, which includes forcing their women to have abortions.

Fundamental Mission Forgotten

Cardinal Pell’s scathing Spectator article, published a day after his passing, spoke of the “toxic nightmare” of the upcoming October Synod on Synodality.

In the Synod documents, which Pell stated were “couched in neo-Marxist jargon,” there is no mention of the Church’s fundamental mission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (St Matthew 28: 19-20).

Stanza della Segnatura (Signature Room) Raphael Rooms, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.

Moreover, Pell, in his Campion College lecture last August, said it was “largely irrelevant to the preaching of the gospel and the threat of decline, being more concerned with the redistribution of power.”

The Synod doubles down on the failed experiment of aggiornamento (updating) that has taken place in the Church since the late 1960s, which has led to dwindling congregations, except in parishes and orders that are faithful to tradition and doctrine.

However, these areas of the Church have been under constant attack by Francis, especially with regard to the crackdown on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Rather than being a source of “disunity” within the Church as he claims, its wider celebration allowed a place in the Church for those who find in the traditional liturgy a sense of the sacred that is often not present in the tacky vernacular liturgies on offer in most parishes.

This has had the effect of breathing life into an otherwise moribund Church since most in attendance are young families.

However, Francis is literally driving them underground.

Will the Church Split?

But that is not the worst of it. Damian Thompson has pointed out that Francis himself, both before and after his election, has allegedly empowered and protected alleged predatory clergy and their accomplices.

La Nación, Argentina’s biggest daily newspaper, reported in 2019 that when Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had allegedly been active in promoting those who covered up clergy abuse in the past.

These include Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who in 2017 was appointed the Assessor of the Assets of the Holy See, despite seven priests—including three of Zanchetta’s vicar generals—formally accusing him of financial mismanagement, authoritarianism, and sexual misconduct.

Last year Zanchetta was found guilty of sexually abusing two seminarians, and Francis was forced to sack him.

Pope Francis leads the Easter Sunday mass on April 9, 2023, at St. Peter's square in The Vatican, as part of celebrations of the Holy Week. Andreas Solaro/AFP

Then there is the case of Theodore McCarrick, the retired Archbishop of Washington. Banished by Benedict XVI once he discovered that McCarrick had allegedly seduced seminarians, he found himself back in favour as soon as Francis was elected, travelling around the world as the Pope’s unofficial emissary and fundraiser.

Eventually, the New York Times revealed that McCarrick was being accused of child abuse, at which point Francis had no choice but to strip him of his title of cardinal.

Then there is Francis’ treatment of his Jesuit friend Father Mark Rupnik, a celebrity mosaic artist.

Earlier this month, he was allowed to co-celebrate Mass publicly. Meanwhile, claims that he allegedly grotesquely abused nuns have not been fully investigated because Francis refuses to lift the relevant statute of limitations.

The Jesuits have since confirmed that Rupnik was excommunicated in 2019, only for that to be lifted in 2021. There are reports Francis was involved in lifting the ex-communication.

As it is, Francis’ Synod is pushing the Church towards schism. On March 10, the ultra-liberal German bishops voted to allow gay blessings in church, in total defiance of the Pope.

If the Church does disintegrate, as has happened with the Anglican Church, then the blame must lay squarely with Pope Francis the Terrible.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.