#94: Pope Francis The Dictator? —Henry Sire (new)

#94: Pope Francis The Dictator? —Henry Sire (new)

This episode with “Marcantonio Colonna” (real name Dr. Henry Sire) is a do-over, owing to poor sound quality. The upside is that  got to hit topics I didn’t get to because of time constraints in the previous episode.

The pontificate of the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, as Pope Francis started off full of promise as one of reform and renewal. Most were happy to learn the new Pope was from Latin America, and many thought the Church could stand some fresh air and energy.

But things have take one bad turn after another. Never has a Roman Pontiff been the source of so much confusion, weaponized ambiguity, nor been seemingly motivated by such a political modus operandi. A spate of books have come out in the last year discussing what can no longer be denied: that the current papacy has been tainted by corruption, scandal, and (to take one example) the Holy Father’s refusal to address the stunning allegations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Space here forbids a full account of the problems Catholics around the world are now awakening to, but this interview with historian Dr. Henry Sire author is the-now worldwide publishing phenomenon, The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy, goes into greater detail, starting with Bergoglio’s handling of predator priests in his native Buenos Aires to to current problems. If you’ve been wincing as you wonder what the next confusing or vexing papal decision or directive is going to be, don’t miss this respectful conversation.

In this episode you will learn:

  • How the political philosophy of Argentine dictator Juan Perón, who ruled the country intermittently in the decades after World War II, strongly influenced young Jorge Bergoglio
  • Why Perónism, as a strategy for implementing an agenda, is neither conservative nor liberal: it is Machiavellian
  • How Pope Francis’s defenders do not answer the evidence, but change the subject or resort to ad hominem attacks
  • The ways in which a climate of fear reigns inside the walls of the Vatican
  • Specific names, places, and facts that must be confronted when assessing the level of dereliction of episcopal duty
  • How to stay hopeful and balanced in the meantime through intensified prayer and renewing the effort at understanding the perennial teachings of the Church

 

Resources recommended in this episode:

 

Question of the week

What is one practical thing you can do to strengthen your faith in the midst of the current turmoil in the Church?

 

 

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#93: Pope Francis The Dictator? —Dr. Henry Sire

#93: Pope Francis The Dictator? —Dr. Henry Sire

The pontificate of the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, as Pope Francis has not exactly met the excited hopes of Catholics around the world. Most were happy to learn the Holy Father was from Latin America, and many thought the Church could stand some fresh air and energy.

But things have not turned out so rosy. Never has a Roman Pontiff been the source of so much confusion, ambiguity, and been motivated by such an obviously politicized modus operandi. A spate of books have come out in the last year discussing what can no longer be denied: that the current papacy has been tainted by corruption, scandal, and (to take one example) the refusal to address the stunning allegations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Space here forbids a full account of the problems Catholics around the world are now awakening to, but this interview with Dr. Henry Sire (pen name Marcantonio Colonna), who wrote what is now a worldwide publishing phenomenon, The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy, goes into greater detail, starting with Bergoglio’s handling of predator priests in his native Buenos Aires. If you’ve been wincing along, wondering what the next confusing or vexing papal decision or directive is going to be, don’t miss this conversation.

 

In this episode you will learn:

  • How the political philosophy of Argentine dictator Juan Perón, who ruled the country intermittently in the decades after World War II, strongly influenced young Jorge Bergoglio
  • Why Perónism, as a strategy for implementing an agenda, is neither conservative nor liberal: it is Machiavellian
  • How Pope Francis’s defenders do not answer the evidence, but change the subject or resort to ad hominem attacks
  • The ways in which a climate of fear reigns inside the walls of the Vatican
  • Specific names, places, and facts that must be confronted when assessing the level of dereliction of episcopal duty
  • How to stay hopeful and balanced in the meantime through intensified prayer and renewing the effort at understanding the perennial teachings of the Church

 

Resources recommended in this episode:

 

Question of the week

What is one practical thing you can do to strengthen your faith in the midst of the current turmoil in the Church?

 

 

Comment below or on our Facebook page

“Like” us on Facebook HERE

Sign up to the waiting list for our upcoming premium site Coffin Nation. You’ll be the first to be notified!

Tweet to Patrick HERE

 

Don’t forget to Subscribe to the show in YouTube, as well as the full length podcast available in iTunes and other podcast directories, while you are there, please leave an honest review.

Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

            

 

 

 

Please share it using the social media buttons below.

#92: Has Pope Francis Changed the Church?—Ross Douthat

#92: Has Pope Francis Changed the Church?—Ross Douthat

Catholics have always understood that the Church teaches eternal verities. It goes like this: Jesus Christ was, and is, God; he founded the Church on Peter the rock (Matt 16:18): and gave the Church the gift of infallibility, the protection against error on matters of faith and morals.

Throughout the first 265 popes, there has been development and “change” in the sense of accidental or external change, but the papacy of Pope Francis seems to be very different. The changes appear to be more substantial than accidental: the controversial inclusion of “climate change” in the encyclical Laudato ‘Si in 2015; the confusion contained in section 8 and footnotes of Amoris Laetitia, the Apostolic Exhortation of 2016; the controversial inclusion of “climate change” as though it were settled science in the encyclical Laudato ‘Si i 2015; and scandal after scandal, like the Vatican Bank financial battles, the Chile bishops’ fiasco, and the revelations of the letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò—about which Pope Francis refuses to comment.

New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat sat down to talk about all the above. His new book is titled, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism.

 

In this episode you will learn:

  • In what sense the Church can change and not change
  • How Pope Francis acquired his reputation as a political pope
  • How then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio governed the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires as the key to understanding how he governs the universal Church
  • The vexing implications for the constant sense of flux and confusion that exist today
  • Whether Douthat things the Pope should resign

 

Resources recommended in this episode:

 

Question of the week

How has this pontificate affected your daily life, if at all?

 

 

Comment below or on our Facebook page

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Sign up to the waiting list for our upcoming premium site Coffin Nation. You’ll be the first to be notified!

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Don’t forget to Subscribe to the show in YouTube, as well as the full length podcast available in iTunes and other podcast directories, while you are there, please leave an honest review.

Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

            

 

 

 

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#91: The Death Penalty and the Sex Abuse Scandal—Dr. Michael Pakaluk

#91: The Death Penalty and the Sex Abuse Scandal—Dr. Michael Pakaluk

Michael Pakaluk is a father of 15 (not a typo—you can read the fascinating backstory in the memoir The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God about his late wife Ruth, who may one day be raised to the altars, but that’s another story). I mention that he’s the father of a sprawling passel of children because it is germane to this interview and to the essay he wrote in a recent edition of First Things magazine that got my attention.

Pakaluk connects to dots that don’t seem at first to have much in common: the change of phrasing in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty and the passive or abhorrent handling of the priestly abuse scandal.

The basic connection is an inability to exercise fatherly authority when it come to imposing punishments that involve separation, vengeance, and isolation. All of which distinguish true justice from what he calls “regulatory compliance.”

Bad fatherhood leads to weak and passive men, which in turn leads to doctrinal innovations and policies that are weak and passive, and hence dangerous for the Church, not to mention the victims of homosexual predators and other criminally behaving priests and bishops. Both deficiencies have made it harder for non-Catholics to accept the truth claims of the Church, and harder for Catholics to continue to trust their leaders.

 

In this episode you will learn:

  • Why vengeance is a virtue not a vice
  • How vengeance is not opposed to Christian meekness
  • How passivity in the face of evil is not a masculine trait and how this has wreaked havoc in the Church
  • The reason why saying “punishment is never retributive, but only deterrent” is a grave error
  • How the crisis of fatherhood in general helps explain the crisis among men who are called Father by their flock
  • Why a new emphasis on chastity in preaching and teaching needs to take root
  • How the weak passivity has influenced and been influenced by the theory of Hans Urs Von Balthasar of a possibly-empty hell

 

Resources recommended in this episode:

 

Question of the week

How has feminist ideology contributed to the crisis of masculinity in the Church and in the culture?

 

 

Comment below or on our Facebook page

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Sign up to the waiting list for our upcoming premium site Coffin Nation. You’ll be the first to be notified!

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Don’t forget to Subscribe to the show in YouTube, as well as the full length podcast available in iTunes and other podcast directories, while you are there, please leave an honest review.

Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

            

 

 

 

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