Pope Francis condemns "cancel culture"... but does he walk the talk?

"Every morning before breakfast, Pope Francis says three stupid things. Believe it or not!" It's an old joke, but not without some truth. Yet it's also true that sufferers from alcoholism and dementia occasionally have moments of clarity. [Even President Brandon? Ed.]

One such moment apparently happened to Pope Bergoglio yesterday, during an address to the Vatican diplomatic corps, when Francis warned against attempts to "cancel culture", decrying "one-track thinking" which, he said, attempts to deny or rewrite history according to today’s standards.

Francis told the assembled dips that there was a "crisis of trust in multi-lateral diplomacy" which has led to "agendas increasingly dictated by a mindset that rejects the natural foundations of humanity and the cultural roots that constitute the identity of many peoples."

He didn't actually use the words "globalist" or "one-world", but his statement seems pretty clear and pretty argument, even to those who, like my goodself, have little time for the man who calls himself "pope". 

I have even less time for "Peter the Roman", aka Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the author of the sell-out of Chinese Christians, but even he gets things right now and then. Last month he expressed "concern" over a draft European Union communications manual that suggested not using the term Christmas. The manual, which the Vatican saw as an attempt to cancel Europe's Christian roots, was later withdrawn for revision. 

Francis warned his listeners of "a form of ideological colonization, one that leaves no room for freedom of expression and is now taking the form of the 'cancel culture' invading many circles and public institutions." He used the two words in English in the midst of a long speech in Italian. Pretty heavy stuff. But wait (as Vince Offer used tosay), there's more.

Pope Bergoglio went on to say that the cancel culture controversy is particularly sharp in English-speaking countries, such as the United States and Britain. (He didn't mention Canada, where the cancel culture thrives under Emperor Trudeau II.) Those who subscribe to and promote this culture, he said, risked cancelling identity "under the guise of defending diversity." Yes, he really said that.

In the Excited States of America, there have been conflicts over such acts of iconoclasm -- the physical manifestation of the cancel culture -- as the removal or decapitations of statues of historical figures such as Saint Junipero Serra, Christopher Columbus, and of course General Robert E. Lee. 

In Canada, besides the removal of statues, some loonie lefties have demanded -- and got -- the changing of the names of institutions such as schools and hospitals named after such historical figures as Egerton Ryerson and Sir John Eh Macdonald, saying they played a part in the destruction of indigenous cultures. 

While Pope Bergoglio did not mention any such examples of cancel culture, he did say that any historical situation must be interpreted not by today's standards, but in the context of its times. 

Quite so! But here's the irony, or should I say hypocrisy. While he preaches respect for tradition, he had been for months now campaigning ruthlessly to wipe from the history and culture of the Catholic Church the traditional Latin Mass, which the Council of Trent decreed can never be abrogated!

That was then -- 1570 to be exact -- but this Pope Bergoglio's now. Last July,, Francis moved to stamp out the Mass of All Time, once and for all. He issued a Motu Proprio -- kind of like an Executive Order in the American governmental system --which virtually bans the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in ordinary parish churches throughout the world. See "Traditional Catholics outraged: 'Pope Francis' nukes Traditional Latin Mass", WWW 17/7/21.

In Traditionis Custodes, Francis attempted to completely reverses the course set by Pope Benedict XVI, just fourteen years ago, in Summorum Pontificum, which specified the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate Mass according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, in the form known as the Tridentine Mass or Traditional Latin Mass, and administer most of the sacraments in the form used before the liturgical "reforms" that followed Vatican II. 

He said at the time that he was reversing Pope Benedict's attempt at "reforming the reform" had become a source of division in the Church, and been exploited by traditional Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council and its thoroughly modern liturgy. Am I the only one who sees a cognitive dissonance there?

But wait... Unfortunately,  there's more. A week before Christmas, Francis doubled down on his efforts to quash the old Latin Mass, forbidding the celebration of some sacraments according to the ancient rite. The Vatican repeated the excuse that it was necessary to let go of history and tradition, and to embrace everything that's new, for the sake of promoting diversity and inclusion, yada yada yada. But isn't that exactly the cancel culture he now condemns? 

Pope Bergoglio's crackdown on the Latin Mass has outraged his conservative and traditional Catholics. Many have gone so far to accuse him of heresy and watering down Catholic doctrine with his focus on the environment, migrants and "social justice". Where will it all end? There was a time when heretics were burned at the stake, but that's a part of Church history which we should forget... I suppose.

Further reading and viewing: "The most radical thing Pope Francis has ever done", WWW 17/7/21. Includes video commentary by Dr Taylor Marshall.