For the last fifty years of her life, Mother Teresa (now St. Teresa of Calcutta) struggled with what she called the 'dark night of the soul' -- a period of spiritual doubt. It was shared by other saints, including Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux.
These struggles were not publicly known until St. Teresa was on the road to canonization, and her struggles were used by Pope Francis to illustrate that saints are not always perfect, but are always human.
For many Catholics, myself included, the recent actions and decrees of Pope Francis have led to our own personal dark nights of the soul.
He's taken...interesting and -- one could argue -- incorrect views on things like fossil fuels, the 'Pachamama' idolatry, to holding a luncheon for transgender women.
NEW - Pope Francis hosts transgender group for Vatican luncheon.pic.twitter.com/bQ5UdJgSae
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 22, 2023
The church is losing members at significant numbers -- down from 25 percent to 21 percent between 2010 and 2021. About 40% of Catholics attend church weekly. The median age of Catholics is now 49 -- up four years since 2007. And an astonishing 69% of Catholics do not believe the central teaching of the faith: that the Eucharist is the Body & Blood of Jesus, and not merely symbolic. The priesthood is now numbering around 31,000 -- down from 58,000 in the 1960s -- and only half are under the age of 70.
Things are going off the rails for Catholicism, and have been for a while.
Pope Francis is tasked with being the shepherd of the faithful. He is meant to be faithful, fair, and just while -- ultimately -- getting the faithful into the pews. He is failing in his duties as the head of the Church and Bishop of Rome.
Take, for example, his bitter and ardent war on the Latin Mass. His Traditionis custodes, has hampered the public celebration of the Latin Mass, and the Pope has called traditionally-minded Catholics 'rigid' and 'out of touch.'
Just like local bishops can discern not to implement Traditionis Custodes, right? https://t.co/zkyevgRsVw
— Eric Sammons (@EricRSammons) December 28, 2023
Among Latin Mass attendees, regular church attendance is much better, as is adherence to Church teaching on marriage, sexuality, birth control, the Eucharist, and Confession.
Latin Masses -- freed up under Benedict XVI -- are a draw. Instead of asking why, the Pope has decided to crush the Latin Mass.
I knew a few people who attended this occasionally: a 2 PM Sunday Mass, extremely low profile, not a rival community to the rest of the city's churches or a source of any notable division. No clear purpose to this beyond gratuity and spite.https://t.co/cdZYiwHGL5
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 1, 2024
Now, certainly, a case can be made for having a Mass in the local vernacular. So, too, can a case be made for disciplining those traditional groups that delve into sede vacantistism.
Yet there is also an equally valid case to be made for the Latin Mass, especially if the goal is to win hearts and minds to conversion to Catholicism.
Additionally, his refusal to discipline German bishops is a slap in the face and an injustice.
If a bishop can be removed for being a threat to unity (and I assume he can be), it’s time to boot out some German bishops https://t.co/g7nShMUql5
— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) November 11, 2023
Especially when he removes other bishops for being a threat to 'unity.'
And the fact that Fr. Marko Rupkin continues to enjoy good standing with the Vatican, despite expulsion from his order for lack of obedience.
I saw earlier that a memo went out to push back on Rupnik stuff post-Burke (“he’s not the only priest to be accused of sex abuse! why focus on him?!”)
— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) November 30, 2023
This. This is why. Because despite him demanding nuns drink his semen from a chalice, the Vatican can’t end its love affair. https://t.co/bOG3wUPfkb
This is all a backdrop against which the Pope's latest letter Fiducia supplicans. In the letter, the Pope argues for blessings for those in irregular or same-sex relationships.
Friends, please see my statement regarding ”Fiducia Supplicans” below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/jzs8a2uPwv
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) December 20, 2023
This was
While the media, invariably, misinterprets what the Pope says, the Pope has an obligation to avoid even the near occasion of scandal, something he has failed to do in this. And that's intentional.
And while we can dismiss the media spin as the media being, well, the media, we cannot spin what some priests and bishops are doing with Fiducia Supplicans.
Actions speak louder than word salads. pic.twitter.com/eWYj3pcrf5
— Eric Sammons (@EricRSammons) December 20, 2023
Case in point, left wing priest Fr. James Martin by blessing a gay married couple -- something we've been reassured Fiducia Supplicans does not allow.
And yet here we are.
In fact, Pope Francis has opened a can of worms that cannot be undone. By design.
The reported influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets for same-sex couples puts Pope Francis is a very difficult position, writes Christopher R. Altieri. https://t.co/gPapvsZEFO
— Catholic World Report (@cworldreport) January 1, 2024
Oh. Who could have seen this coming?
Two developments—both entirely foreseeable, one so easily avoidable as to be in essence an unforced error—are making the already improbable management of the Fiducia supplicans fiasco almost entirely impossible.
The first is the reported influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets for same-sex couples. Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper had the story over the weekend.
On paper, it oughtn’t be too difficult to turn them down. Fiducia supplicans, after all, countenances clerics granting unscripted blessings to different sorts of couples who “spontaneously” ask for them in various pastoral situations.
And he continues:
Basically, it puts the pope between a rock and a hard place.
He can’t refuse them without appearing stingy and legalistic—“rigid” is a word for it—but he can’t grant them without violating both the letter and the spirit of the very declaration that created the conundrum in the first place.
The second development is part of Fernandez’s very much sui generis charm offensive in the wake of Fiducia suplicans.
Almost from the get-go, Fernandez has tried to downplay the depth and breadth of resistance to his blessing scheme, giving the impression he was more than a little surprised by the cold reception it received and nonplussed by the vehemence of the pushback.
The Pope put himself in this position. Intentionally, as I have stated before. He's not a stupid man. He knew precisely what this paper would do.
The DDF can simply count the parchment requests, multiply by two, and it will have the first batch of hard empirical evidence of the number of souls Fiducia Supplicans has led astray. Very useful. https://t.co/gyKKKmAEQ2
— Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) January 1, 2024
But the important thing is they don't go to the Latin Mass. Let's not forget priorities here.
It's also causing conflict within the Church, especially with the African bishops, but also Ukranian bishops:
Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine: "We see the danger in ambiguous wording... What we missed in the document is that the Gospel calls sinners to conversion, & without a call to abandon the sinful life of homosexual couples, the blessing can look like approval."
— John Smithe (@JohnSmithe27669) December 20, 2023
The vagueness is by design.
The bishops of Nigeria join a growing chorus of African nations rejecting implementation of the Vatican declaration on blessing of homosexual unions/couples in irregular situations. https://t.co/CEd0Y2suLK
— Father V (@father_rmv) December 21, 2023
So on top of the moral confusion and conflict, there's a very real possibility for a schism over this paper.
Perhaps one of the most clear and concise responses to Fiducia Supplicans comes from Charles Chaput, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, who writes:
One of the standards the Church uses to measure the quality of her leaders is a simple line from Scripture: “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33). So it was for Paul. So it is now. So it is for local pastors and bishops, including the bishop of Rome. Confusion among the faithful can often be a matter of innocent individuals who hear but fail to understand the Word. Confused teaching, however, is another matter. It’s never excusable. The transmission of Christian truth requires prudence and patience because humans are not machines. But it also demands clarity and consistency. Deliberate or persistent ambiguity—anything that fuels misunderstanding or seems to leave an opening for objectively sinful behavior—is not of God. And it inevitably results in damage to individual souls and to our common Church life.
I mention this for a reason. A Protestant friend of mine, a Reformation scholar, sent a text to his Catholic friends on December 18 with the news that “Francis has unleashed chaos in your communion.” He was referring to the text Fiducia Supplicans (“On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings”). Rome’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández—a close colleague of Pope Francis—had just released it that day. The document is a doubleminded exercise in simultaneously affirming and undercutting Catholic teaching on the nature of blessings and their application to “irregular” relationships. And it was quickly interpreted as a significant change in Church practice. Father James Martin, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ concerns, was promptly photographed blessing a gay couple in a New York Times article.
'God is not the author of confusion but of peace' -- and that's how it should be.
But it isn't. And Francis is the author of that.
And, for me, a source of great despair. (And I'm sure I'm not alone).
It's very clear that I -- and the people at the Latin Mass parish I attended -- are not welcome in the Church. We are 'rigid' and 'inflexible' and a threat to 'unity.' Meanwhile, the Pope is lenient and conciliatory towards the likes of Fr. Rupnik, the German bishops, and Fr. Martin.
It doesn't matter how faithful we are, we are somehow the problem. It doesn't matter that we actually believe what the Church teaches, or that we attend Mass regularly, or that we skew younger than mainstream Catholics. The future of the Church is literally us, and we are being pushed away.
I am aware, keenly so, that we've had disastrous, unfaithful, and corrupt popes in the past. Some worse than Francis. However, I was not alive then. I am alive now, in 2024, when the Pope is laying out a path that undermines Catholic teaching while suppressing the one form of the Mass that puts rears in the pews and saves souls.
In a world where so much is turned on its head, my faith (I converted in 2005 at the age of 22) was an anchor from which I am now unmoored and adrift a world full of chaos, malice, and cruelty. Including from the Pope himself.
And I cannot abide fealty to a man who is hypocritical. Obedience comes with being Catholic, but everyone has a breaking point. I have reached mine.
Perhaps, unlike St. Teresa of Calcutta, my dark night of the soul won't last five decades. Maybe sanity will prevail and the next Pope will restore the church to what it was when I gladly joined her ranks 19 years ago.
Maybe, someday, I'll find my way back home.
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