Pope Francis, the Consecration, the apology -- an assessment

In the course of the last two weeks, I have been asked several times what I think, now, about Pope Francis, his March 25th Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and his apology, yesterday, to the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples of Canada for the abuse of children at residential schools run by the Church.

I confessed, in "Did Francis' consecration of Russia work?" (WWW 28/3/22), that I am unsure what to think about the purported Act of Consecration performed  by the Pope (with a goodly number of bishops joining from their cathedrals around the world), on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Francis' lengthy prayer added a good deal of "progressive" political sentiment to the simple prayer requested by Our Lady of Fatima. At the same time, the words "consecrate", "Russia", and "Immaculate Heaert of Mary" were there. The full video is embedded in our post, so you can watch it and judge for yourself. 

After all, in Francis' words, "Who am I to judge?" Heaven knows. All we mere mortals can do -- those of us who believe in the Message of Fatima -- is to keep praying for the period of peace promised to us by the Blessed Virgin.

With regard to the Papal apology to the indigenous peoples of Canada, I will say first that sight should not be lost of the fact that the residential schools were established by the government of Canada with the aim of providing for the education and upbringing of poor children who were, by the standards of the mid-19th century, uncivilized.

About 70% of the schools were run by various Roman Catholic orders, and it was not only in the Catholic schools that abuses occurred. You can call it "white supremacy" if you like, but the sentiment of the day was that Christian civiliation (read: Western, European civilization) was superior to that of the rest of the world.

We ought not to condemn the residential schools system outright. 1000s of residential school "survivors" got a decent education and health care, and grew up to lead successful and comfortable lives -- some as legislators and judges -- as citizens of Canada. That there were abuses is a fact, but much good was done.

Nevertheless, Francis made a fulsome and apparently sincere apology on behalf of the Roman Catholics who sinned by abusing the children for whom they had the duty of care. He also said that he would visit to apologize in person, and see what could be done to make amends. 

That was all any pope could do. It should be noted that it is dogma that the Church Herself cannot sin. But members of the Church -- human beings, after all -- can sin and do sin. Even the Pope has to go to confession and ask forgiveness of God.

Francis has form when it comes to delivering apologies for wrongs committed by Catholic clerics. In August 0f 2018 he published an open letter to the laity, in which he wrote: With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.

But, as politicians in the liberal democracies are learning the hard way, the distemper of our times is such that there will be no end to demands for more apologies, and... wait for it... "reparations". Words, however sincere, are no longer enough. There must be money on the table... lots of it. 

The more apologies are made, the more "victims" come forward, saying that they should be paid thousands, even millions of dollars for wrongs done to their grandparents, great-grandparents, and ancestors back to Adam. 

I do not wish to impute motive to Pope Francis. I give him credit for trying to do good things, according to his conscience. I believe he is sometimes the victim of bad advice from bad people -- inside and outside the Church -- who have bad motives, such as the establishment of the Great Reset / New World Order. And I pray that God's will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven -- with or without Francis.

Further reading: "Memorandum for Next Conclave Calls Francis Pontificate 'A Disaster'", Breitbart News, 18/3/22.  Dr Thomas Williams shares a 2000-word memo being circulated among Catholic cardinals, signed by "Demos" (Greek for "people"), likely (Dr Williams says) a pseudonym for George Cardinal Pell of Australia.

Further viewing: "Bishop Fulton Sheen knew the secret to save Russia", VIDEO, The Kennedy Report, 23/3/22.