I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that last summer I was singing praises of Leo coming out of the gait because he seemed to be deliberately sending positive signals to traditionalists with smells, bells, Latin, his somber demeanor, and especially his choice of papal name, that he may be “the one” to heal our wounds, reach out and comfort us, and restore our rights.
It is clear now he has done the exact opposite. Practically ZERO of the above, but yet again one slap after another to our sense of faith, the sensus fidelium, of millions of faithful Catholics. The vast majority of the traditional movement now do not have access to the TLM, offered by the FSSP, Institute, SSPX, or in a diocesan parish.
And Francis is to blame for banishing the true Roman rite from the mainstream structure. And by now we can safely say that Leo is also to blame for doing nothing about it.
Leo’s inactions communicate indifference, indifference being the worst kind of malice.
Leo should have written the SSPX Superior back himself, not ignored him let alone refuse to give direct feedback to their stated need for bishops. When the SSPX has for decades constantly maintained pastoral contacts with Rome seeking regularization, catching a lot of heat from certain quarters for doing so, and now reaches out once again directly to their Holy Father, they get crickets from Leo. Instead he has Child Porn Author Heretic Cardinal Tucho call the SSPX to the old Holy Office to give them a smack down.
The Art of Kissing Tucho threatened to excommunicate the entire SSPX, reading between the lines. Not a warning the bishops alone would be excommunicated.
That is narcissistic rage. Tucho is reportedly a homosexual, and by all signs acts the part.
Such an effeminate man trying to radically change Church doctrine even beyond the agenda of Francis, if you can even imagine that, is going to sooner or later emotionally retaliate to one of the groups most critical of him and his agenda. Leo turning the matter instead over to Tucho, without a fatherly communication to the group, once again on the verge of another “schism” seeking his audience to prevent it, communicates that he also is acting from a similar defensiveness and hurtful reaction to the same criticisms made about him.
To a large extent via the Internet, because most things are now communicated in part through the Internet.
If I could translate his cold, deafening silence at this very moment, his cold shoulder, all things considered, he is basically saying “I am angry your group still can’t get on board with the pastoral Council and new Mass, and I just don’t get why, so I’m going to ignore you. I turn my shoulder to your request to meet with me.”
This lacks sincerity, charity, and any clue about the Crisis, and how much that stems practically from the pastoral reforms and new liturgy. It hurts like a dagger plunged into one’s chest. This is spiritual martyrdom for all in or siding with the SSPX and Tradition, who have taken the time to study the Crisis.
My trust in Leo is now 0%. Until he restores the traditional Mass and starts making traditional restorations, it’s going to remain at 0%.
He is just the new hardened leader of the false conciliar church eclipsing the true Church. He is decidedly against the true remnant Church which adheres to Tradition. He is truth be told a Francis 2.0, in that he is just as harmful to the traditional movement. Being cold and indifferent to a group can be just as damaging as heated insults.
Leo is entrenched in the conciliar System since seminary, to the degree it seems he is closed-minded to the traditionalist critique of that novel System. He is also carrying out the St. Gallen Mafia agenda of “Francis Church.”
I hypothesized the other day about an AS IS agreement, in principle, hoping the next doctrinal discussions bear fruit. How can the SSPX stop trying? So I have no reservation about that.
But the more we learn about Leo, charity demanding on some level having given him at first the benefit of the doubt, the more outright heretical statements he makes (ex: he said recently that true ecumenism doesn’t seek conversion of others to the Church), the more he favors arch-modernists like James Martin while keeping us trads out in the bitter cold, I am forced to make the stark conclusion that Leo is essentially just like Francis and surely always will be, except for a miracle.
Except for formal circumstances that should require referring to him as Pope Leo, I’d rather just call him Leo, when the word pope literally means “father.” Calling him Pope Leo now literally gives me nausea.
Since the Church allows just calling him Leo, then that is what I will call him. We cannot nor should not trust him, on a personal level. Unless he changes. He is not even like a Pope Benedict or Pope John Paul II, who by comparison were popes we could at least sometimes feel trust and love towards.
But, distinct from basic charity and obedience to the Chair of St. Peter, how do you feel personal trust and love for a man who, at least in reference to traditional Catholics, to you and your family, is a frozen, cold statue?
Conclusion:
Consecrate bishops! We need traditional bishops!! Canon law allows it without papal mandate and without excommunication as long as the consecrating bishop is acting in good faith that it is necessary, which everyone and their dog can see is the case. It’s right there in the canon. As the Archbishop said in 1988, the excommunications would be utterly “null and void” because he sincerely believed there is a Crisis and state of necessity, with no desire to separate from the Church.
Lastly, consider these words from the Father of Orthodoxy:
“The true Church of Christ are those Catholics faithful to Tradition,” St. Athanasius