The Cult of Softness and the "Francis effect"
Paul Melanson
We need priests and Bishops who fear God more than they do men. Cowards
will not lead us out of the valley of death. Neither will homosexual
or effeminate clerics who cannot relate to men.
Only shepherds who have the spiritual strength, the Cardinal Gift of
Fortitude, to brave the risk of worldly criticism, will be able to lead
the Catholic Church out of the valley of the Culture of Death and back
on the road to the Civilization of Love (new age tower of babel!) which Pope John Paul II spoke of
so often (Paul is delusional).
Why have so many priests succumbed to fear? Why is it that their
preaching no longer points out sin? Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange provides us
with an answer:
"The reason for this is not difficult to find. A sermon is the result
of the combined effort of all the priest's powers; it reveals his entire
person; it is his struggle against the vices of the surrounding world."
In other words, if the preaching is unsound, it is because the
priest's spiritual life is unsound. Fr. Lagrange continues, "Everything
in the priest cooperates in his preaching - study, reflection, his
powers to compose and revise, the activity of his intellect, his
imagination, his memory, his feelings, his voice. Therefore, when he
preaches, the priest stands exposed for all to study; some will be
attracted, others will not. Some will accept what he says, others will
simply criticize. So if the priest approaches his task from the human
angle, he will say to himself: 'I cannot afford to lose my reputation;
people of weight in the parish who take offense easily must be spared
their feelings and not provoked; I must proceed warily so as not to
incur criticism.' In that way Christian eloquence is invaded by a
profane eloquence in which the preacher looks after his own interests,
not the glory of God or the saving of souls." (The Priest In Union With
Christ, p. 156).
The Cult of Softness (see here) continues to produce only rot within the Church.
The New York Times has confirmed what devout Catholics already know, that the "Francis effect" is a myth:
"...are Catholics actually coming back? In the United States, at least,
it hasn’t happened. New survey findings from Georgetown’s Center for
Applied Research in the Apostolate suggest that there has been no
Francis effect — at least, no positive one.
In 2008, 23 percent of American Catholics attended Mass each week. Eight
years later, weekly Mass attendance has held steady or marginally
declined, at 22 percent.
Of course, the United States is only one part of a global church. But the researchers
at Georgetown found that certain types of religious observance are
weaker now among young Catholics than they were under Benedict.
In 2008, 50 percent of millennials reported receiving ashes on Ash
Wednesday, and 46 percent said they made some sacrifice beyond
abstaining from meat on Fridays. This year, only 41 percent reported
receiving ashes and only 36 percent said they made an extra sacrifice,
according to CARA.
In spite of Francis’ personal popularity, young people seem to be drifting away from the faith."
Young people are naturally idealistic. They want to be challenged. They
need to be challenged with the hard demands of the Gospel, with the
truth.
But Francis offers only a non-dogmatic, Cotton-Candy Catholicism (?? Vatican II/Francis do not teach Catholicism). A
sacharrin "gospel" which appeals to worldly types but which is short on
substance. And while more and more youth are abandoning the Church,
rather than placing an emphasis on doctrinal truths, Francis offers unsound teaching
and meets with people like Simon Cazal, a homosexual activist who
claims to be married to another man while demanding that the Church
founded by Christ Jesus change its teaching on homosexuality to
accommodate the New Sodom. See here.
The Cult of Softness has failed. But Francis cannot steel himself to
admit this. He has succumbed to an alien ideology. He has decided to
genuflect before the spirit of Sodom while this demonic spirit continues
to wreak havoc within an already devastated vineyard. See here.
Father Peter Naranjo, Saint Mary's Church in Orange, Massachusetts on Twitter:
