Dust though art to dust though shall return. This must be said. According to Catholic dogma, he who through full knowledge and consent of the will commits a gravely sinful act, such as for example a pope promoting heresy, for example publicly denying the existence of hell, if he does not repent by the moment of actual death, that man will face a terrible judgment and descend into the eternal fires of hell, even heaven rejoicing at God’s infinite justice.
I pray retroactively as St. Padre Pio often did for others who had died, that Francis was repentant before his death last Monday. I am more confident that God will choose to retroactively apply actual grace from that prayer to help save Francis from damnation, on his death bed, than I am that Francis was not dammed. I will just say if a man habitually commits publicly grave mortal sins of any kind and shows little to no sign of repentance before death, regardless of whether or not he is a pope, regardless who he is, the traditional “mind of the Church” is that person is regarded as “probably” in hell.
God knows for certain, but we can draw a conclusion about probability, not to condemn Francis, but to warn others that hell is a real possibility for everyone, including popes, including a Public-Relations media “pope of mercy for the peoples.” I shake in fear for his soul.
This is a bitterly unhappy day. Unhappy because the pope died; bitter because of the unprecedented scandal of his papacy. The truth must be stated. We all have suffered the confusion, the disorientation, the perpetual perplex, and the narcissistic abuse of the last twelve, intense years. Francis never publicly reconciled with us. He never made amends. And by “us,” I mean Catholics committed to orthodoxy and the perennial Church. As well as more specifically Latin Mass Catholics
In mercy I will still pray for his soul, but this is not a time to celebrate his life with post-funeral receptions, as would ordinarily be done for the esteemed, with parties, eulogies, or posthumous accolades, as you especially see in traditionally Catholic festive cultures such as Ireland or the Philippines. As the secularist media and Francis-Church people are doing. This is not a time for wine and pasta in St. Peter’s square, in his honor, and projecting a Mother Nature light show photos onto the external walls of St. Peter’s Basilica (remember that?). It is a time for cold, bean soup in the kitchen and to retire early for bed, to move on tomorrow.
This is a time to mourn in an extraordinary way, not only the death of Francis, who held the title of pope while avoiding using it, but to mourn what his pontificate took away from the Church, that is the further loss of stability, orthodoxy, and the sacred. Including his suppression of Summorum Pontificum, the true Roman rite, a number of traditional religious communities, the clearly pro-life teachings of the John Paul II Institute in the U.S., the legacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and the like.
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Our Lady of Sorrows
Perhaps he chose to be buried away from the other popes because of shame in the suppression of much of the dignity of the papal office, ot the traditional place of the papacy, or perhaps as a form of penance after secretly reconciling to God. History will look back more clearly and be able to explain the significance of a tucked away, hidden tomb only marked by “Franciscus.” Would he want me to be able to find his grave to pray for him, if I ever visit Rome? I’m guessing no.
For everything there is a time. When he died, it was a time to pay our respects. Today was his funeral, to publicly pray for his soul. But after the funeral is sadly not a time to celebrate or admire his life as a whole, for this person, which would cause great scandal to the youth, but it is a time to celebrate we are temporarily relieved from the Reign of Terror.
We must forgive him, which means what is called “holy forgetfulness” of the nitty gritty drama and true abuse he and his pontificate caused us, but we must not look back. He has returned to his Maker. He is gone. He is no longer on this planet. As St. Paul said, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:13-14.
This precise moment is a time for us to heal and focus on Christ and the Faith, and not on papal scandal. To set aside actually clericalistic preoccupation with the controversies of the latest reigning conciliar pope, which is income-driven click bait, by Trad Inc., or the other extreme a pope-alotry cult of person surrounding a particular pope. No more celebrity, globe-trodding, world youth day, Time magazine man of the year popes, I pray.
May the next pope, in. addition to having orthodoxy and holiness, not stir up the “god of surprises,” so we can have a reprieve from traumatic triggers that spiral us out of spiritual peace every time we read the latest controversial headlines. That is one extra reason I support the election of Cardinal Sarah, because not only is that man about as solid as they come, he is very serious, sober, and plain, and would not submit to the Vatican elites making him into another PR pope.
Just imagine a very serious, quiet, out of the lime light pope…who is black. Who doesn’t draw attention to himself, let alone for his race. That contrast between being black and having a detached approach, that alone would send an astounding message. The fact the pope is black has nothing to do with being the pope. It would help contribute to one day ending the age of identify politics warfare, of left vs. right, at least inside the structure of the Church.
I would then be happy to better tune out controversial Vatican news about leftist innovations, about the pope this, and the pope that, to focus better on my faith, since I’m confident a Pope Sarah would not tolerate: communion for the divorced and remarried, homosexual couple blessings, the suppression of the TLM, so-called “synodality,” or whatever the modernist Church politicians have planned next.