Christopher Ferrara is on a Roll

Christopher Ferrara over at The Remnant has been on quite the roll.  He is incisive, sometimes acerbic, but always sensibly Catholic.  Good stuff.  The past week or two have seen the posting of the following excellent articles, which I link below with a telltale excerpt: The PapalTrip to Korea: An Anguished Catholic’s Perspective In departing for Seoul, Pope Francis flew in a personal helicopter to a chartered jet embossed with a Vatican logo for the trip. During the flight an Alitalia crew provided first-class treatment to the Pope, who occupied “the first seat in business class with no one next to him,” and his large entourage. The service included a four-course Italian dinner... On arrival, the Pope walked down a long, red-carpeted airstair, and then a red carpet that appeared to be at least 200-feet-long, at the end of which he was greeted by leading South Korean dignitaries. But then, at the end of the red carpet, Francis squeezed into the back seat of a Kia Soul, the kind of car a high school student might drive, provided upon his specific request for the “the smallest South Korean car during his visit” (that model is actually the second-smallest). This was supposed to demonstrate the Pope’s humility and frugality—after a chartered flight with first-class dining that must have cost more than a million dollars for the Pope and his entourage. Is anybody really still buying this humility offensive? And how is it humble to refuse transportation suitable for a head of state in order to make a big show of riding around in a tin can during a trip that will cost tens of millions for chartered jets, rather sumptuous in-flight meals, security, food and accommodations on the ground, and the staging of massive public events? The whole spectacle is infuriating to anyone who recognizes that the manipulation of images typical of politicians is being applied to this pontificate, probably under the supervision of the Pope’s “PR genius” and “marketing mastermind,” Greg Burke. Stop theSynod! (An Online Petition) Over the next two months the microbes of the neo-Modernist rebound infection that is the “Francis effect” will be moving rapidly toward the site of what could be a devastating flare-up of the infection: the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. First they came for the Roman Rite, which they destroyed. Then they came for the Church Militant, which they disarmed and surrendered to the spirit of the age. Now, at the Synod, which threatens to become Vatican II rebooted, progressivist bishops and their apparatchiks will be coming for the moral law itself under the guise of a search for “pastoral solutions” to “challenges facing the family”—more of the seditious slogans by which the ideology of Vatican-II-ism has eclipsed the doctrines of the Faith. Alarmism? Read this: “The goal of the Synod of Bishops on the Family is not just to repeat doctrines but to find solutions for remarried divorcees and for everyone.” So says Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, no less than President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. But what “solutions” for the divorced and “remarried” do progressives like Paglia have in mind, given that for 2,000 years the Church has offered the only solution permitted by obedience to the teaching of Christ Himself: confession, absolution, and an end to adulterous relations, even if the couple must remain under one roof for the sake of the children. We do not need a Synod on the Family to “find” the same solution the Church has always insisted upon in fidelity to the Gospel, and which John Paul II reaffirmed unambiguously a mere 33 years ago in Familiaris Consortio. As the WorldLaughs, What Do We Do? As we see our Pope high-fiving a Protestant televangelist and prescribing ten rules for right living that Oprah would applaud, not one of which has anything to do with the Catholic Faith or eternal life, we realize that the embarrassing comedy of this papacy is not going to end. Indeed, it appears that Francis is just getting warmed up and that we may be dealing with a bottomless bag of tricks. Someone whose vocation or avocation is commenting on Church affairs has three ways to approach this unprecedented situation: First, simply ignore Francis entirely while bashing the bishops for following his lead. This appears to be the neo-Catholics’ prescription in keeping with their historical role as enablers of the post-conciliar revolution, which is clearly entering a new and probably terminal phase. Second, raise an objection every time Francis says or does something objectionable, which would be almost every day. (As one wag put it: “If he doesn’t talk he’s not a bad Pope.”) Third, limit one’s objections to papal stunts that have serious theological implications as opposed to being merely ridiculous.