Francis in New Interview: “Walk in other People’s Shoes”!

Just in time for Lent!

Francis in New Interview:
“Walk in Other People’s Shoes”!

It’s almost Lent, and in case you were going to be thinking about Jesus Christ, your own soul, or a path of penance for the next 40 days, “Pope” Francis has taken steps to ensure that the focus will remain on him instead: He has graced the world with yet another one of his legendary interviews. (No one is counting anymore, but we must be somewhere around 5o now in total since 2013.)

On Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 28, the Italian homeless-run magazine Scarp de’ Tenis published its latest issue with a big picture of Francis on the cover behind the title, “Mettiamoci Nelle Scarpe Degli Altri” — “Let’s Walk in the Shoes of Others”. The issue can be purchased in electronic PDF format here.

Not a whole lot is known yet about the content of the 8-page interview, but going by an English summary put out by Vatican Radio, it is simply more of the same: excessive focus on the temporal world and its problems, to which only Naturalistic solutions are offered, with virtually no reference to the supernatural, such as God, Jesus Christ, salvation, souls, grace, virtue, or the last things. In other words, it’s another promo for Francis’ false “gospel of man”.

As far as that is concerned, the sacred words of our Blessed Lord are very relevant here, as well as those of St. John the Apostle:

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Lk 6:45)

“They are of the world: therefore of the world they speak, and the world heareth them.” (1 Jn 4:5)

The very title of the interview — “Let’s Walk in the Shoes of Others” — reveals the entire depth and brilliance of Francis’ theology: There’s nothing there, which also explains why he loves to speak in metaphors, a habit that only requires some linguistic creativity and no theological skills whatsoever. Some time ago, German journalist Alexander Kissler referred to Francis as a “U.N. Secretary General with a pectoral cross.” That is a pretty apt description of Mr. Bergoglio, except that even his pectoral cross leaves a lot to be desired, as it looks more like a bottle opener than anything else — although it is a fitting reflection of the man’s shoddy theology.

In essence, there is nothing that Francis says that couldn’t just as well be affirmed by a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Zoroastrian, a Jain, a Wiccan, an agnostic, or an atheist. One day people will figure out that if that is the case, nobody needs a “Pope”, a “Catholic Church”, or even a great variety of religions — they could all just come together under one false “Messiah” who preaches fraternity, dignity, and solidarity. See where this is going?

The other day the “Archbishop” of Miami, Mr. Thomas Wenski, claimed that Francis’ Modernist manifesto Evangelii Gaudium (2013) had a lot of parallels with Pope St. Pius X’s inaugural encyclical E Supremi (1903). This absurd claim is a good opportunity to allow the sainted Pope Pius X to speak once more against the Naturalist-Modernist drivel put out on a daily basis by Jorge Bergoglio.

The following quote is from St. Pius X’s landmark condemnation of Sillonism, which reads like it was penned directly in response to the Naturalism of “Pope” Francis today:

The same applies to the notion of Fraternity which [the Sillonists] found on the love of common interest or, beyond all philosophies and religions, on the mere notion of humanity, thus embracing with an equal love and tolerance all human beings and their miseries, whether these are intellectual, moral, or physical and temporal. But Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged, but in the zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement as well as for their material well-being. Catholic doctrine further tells us that love for our neighbor flows from our love for God, Who is Father to all, and goal of the whole human family; and in Jesus Christ whose members we are, to the point that in doing good to others we are doing good to Jesus Christ Himself. Any other kind of love is sheer illusion, sterile and fleeting.

Indeed, we have the human experience of pagan and secular societies of ages past to show that concern for common interests or affinities of nature weigh very little against the passions and wild desires of the heart. No, Venerable Brethren, there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity. Through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour, Christian charity embraces all men, comforts all, and leads all to the same faith [!] and same heavenly [!] happiness.

…

And now, overwhelmed with the deepest sadness, We ask Ourselves, Venerable Brethren, what has become of the Catholicism of the Sillon? Alas! this organization which formerly afforded such promising expectations, this limpid and impetuous stream, has been harnessed in its course by the modern enemies of the Church, and is now no more than a miserable affluent of the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world (if such a Church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer.

…

We wish to draw your attention, Venerable Brethren, to this distortion of the Gospel and to the sacred character of Our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, prevailing within the Sillon and elsewhere. As soon as the social question is being approached, it is the fashion in some quarters to first put aside the divinity of Jesus Christ, and then to mention only His unlimited clemency, His compassion for all human miseries, and His pressing exhortations to the love of our neighbor and to the brotherhood of men. True, Jesus has loved us with an immense, infinite love, and He came on earth to suffer and die so that, gathered around Him in justice and love, motivated by the same sentiments of mutual charity, all men might live in peace and happiness.

But for the realization of this temporal and eternal happiness, He has laid down with supreme authority the condition that we must belong to His Flock, that we must accept His doctrine, that we must practice virtue, and that we must accept the teaching and guidance of Peter and his successors.

Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them. Whilst He called to Himself in order to comfort them, those who toiled and suffered, it was not to preach to them the jealousy of a chimerical equality. Whilst He lifted up the lowly, it was not to instill in them the sentiment of a dignity independent from, and rebellious against, the duty of obedience. Whilst His heart overflowed with gentleness for the souls of good-will, He could also arm Himself with holy indignation against the profaners of the House of God, against the wretched men who scandalized the little ones, against the authorities who crush the people with the weight of heavy burdens without putting out a hand to lift them.

He was as strong as He was gentle. He reproved, threatened, chastised, knowing, and teaching us that fear is the beginning of wisdom, and that it is sometimes proper for a man to cut off an offending limb to save his body.

Finally, He did not announce for future society the reign of an ideal happiness from which suffering would be banished; but, by His lessons and by His example, He traced the path of the happiness which is possible on earth and of the perfect happiness in heaven: the royal way of the Cross. These are teachings that it would be wrong to apply only to one’s personal life in order to win eternal salvation; these are eminently social teachings, and they show in Our Lord Jesus Christ something quite different from an inconsistent and impotent humanitarianism.

(Pope St. Pius X, Apostolic Letter Notre Charge Apostolique [“Our Apostolic Mandate”], 1910; underlining and paragraph breaks added.)

Thus speaks a real Catholic Pope; and this true Gospel is infinitely far removed from the Christ-less, humanistic, one-size-fits-all religion preached by Francis and his predecessors since Vatican II.