The Blessing that Wasn’t: Francis omits “Papal” Benediction because it could offend Non-Catholics

The Francis Show in Palermo…

The Blessing that Wasn’t: Francis omits “Papal” Benediction because it could offend Non-Catholics

On Saturday, Sep. 15, the Francis Show made a stop in Sicily, with the “Pope” visiting the dioceses of Piazza Armerina and Palermo. As always, Francis had a lot to say, cranking out such incredible nuggets of wisdom as, “Those belonging to the mafia are not living as Christians”, and, “…those who give themselves find the meaning of life and win” (source). The Vatican web site has posted the entire program of the trip to Sicily here.

One of the highlights of this “apostolic journey” was a meeting with young people at Politeama Square in Palermo. Vatican News has released the video of the event (with English translation):

A curious thing happened at the end of the gathering. Instead of giving everyone his (putative) papal blessing, Francis decided that, since there were also Protestants and other unbelievers in the audience, he would omit it and instead say a prayer for them all.

Beginning in the above video at the 50:51 min mark, here is what Francis said:

Adesso vorrei darvi la benedizione. Io so che tra voi ci sono giovani cattolici, cristiani, di altre tradizioni religiose, e anche alcuni agnostici. Per questo darò la benedizione a tutti, e chiederò a Dio che benedica quel seme di inquietudine che è nel vostro cuore.

Signore, Signore Dio, guarda questi giovani. Tu conosci ognuno di loro, Tu sai cosa pensano, Tu sai che hanno voglia di andare avanti, di fare un mondo migliore. Signore, rendili ricercatori del bene e di felicità; rendili operosi nel cammino e nell’incontro con gli altri; rendili audaci nel servire; rendili umili nel cercare le radici e portarle avanti per dare frutti, avere identità, avere appartenenza. Il Signore, il Signore Dio accompagni tutti questi giovani nel cammino e benedica tutti. Amen.

[English translation by Novus Ordo Watch:]

Now I would like to give you the blessing. I know that among you there are young Catholics, Christians, those of other religious traditions, and even some agnostics. Therefore I will give the blessing to everyone, and I will ask God to bless that seed of restlessness that is in your heart.

Lord, Lord God, look at these young people. You know each one of them, You know what they think, You know that they want to move forward, to make a better world. Lord, make them seekers of good and of happiness; make them active in their journey and in their encounter with others; make them bold in serving; make them humble in seeking the roots and carrying them forward to bear fruit, to have identity, to have belonging. May the Lord, the Lord God, accompany all these young people on the journey and bless everyone. Amen.

(Source)

What was supposed to be a conferral of the papal benediction invoking the Most Holy Trinity thus became nothing more than a prayer for God to bless the youngsters present, a prayer that anyone else could have offered just as well. On top of that, it was a prayer entirely Naturalistic, a lowest-common-denominator petition to an interreligious “Lord God”, filled with a generous helping of Bergoglio’s favorite psycho-existentialist buzzwords: “journey”, “encounter”, “roots”, “moving forward”, “identity”, and “accompany”.

In other words: It is hard to see what the Dalai Lama would have said differently.

We notice also the striking absence of the Sign of the Cross, which is par for the course for this pseudo-pope. In fact, it has been evident for a long time that Francis has an aversion to making the Sign of the Cross over others. Instead of giving a proper blessing, most of the time Francis will simply impose his hand on someone’s head, shoulder, or arm, or even give a kiss. This can be seen in the following three sample videos:

Kisses, touches, caresses, and a big show — but no blessing. Yet the press, both Novus Ordo and secular, typically reports this obsessive-compulsive touching of others as Bergoglio “blessing” people, when in fact that is the one thing he does not do. It is a shameful trick Francis plays on souls, even on the disabled, who are already suffering so much from their handicap.

We must clarify one thing: Being only a layman (his ordinations to the priesthood and episcopacy having been invalid), Francis would not have been able to confer a true blessing in today’s meeting with the youth anyway, much less a papal one. However, that’s not even the main point. The much bigger problem is that the entire world, which believes him to be the Pope and thus the Vicar of Christ and head of the Catholic Church, perceives Bergoglio’s unwillingness to use the papal benediction as the Pope refusing to confer his blessing so as not to offend those who are not Catholic. In the eyes of almost everyone, it is another sellout of the Catholic Church to the errors of the world and its lord. Francis is once again humiliating and insulting Jesus Christ before the world.

Even if one wants to say that it is important for the world to see a supposed Pope asking God to bless those who are not Catholic, he could have done that in addition to giving the papal blessing; and he could have mentioned his usual jazz about roots, accompaniment, and encounter after praying for their conversion to the true Faith and the salvation of their souls. This did not happen, of course; and so what the world sees instead is, ostensibly, the Pope subjugating the Bride of Christ to Satan and his false religions (cf. 2 Cor 6:14-16).

Let us not forget, however, that Francis is a repeat offender in this regard. On Mar. 16, 2013, a mere three days after his election, the “Pope” omitted the usual benediction at the end of a meeting with journalists and decided to bless “in silence” and “from my heart” because many of the people in attendance were professing non-Catholics:

Pope Francis on Saturday offered a silent blessing to an audience of journalists and other news media workers, acknowledging that not all of them were Catholic or believers — a rare gesture for a pontiff and a sign of openness toward other faiths and engagement with the secular world.

“Given that many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I give this blessing from my heart, in silence, to each one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you, but knowing that each one of you is a child of God,” he said. “May God bless you.”

(Rachel Donadio, “With Blessing, Pope Shows an Openness to Other Faiths”, The New York Times, Mar. 16, 2013)

In Palermo, then, it was for at least the second time that Francis refused to pretend to give the papal blessing in order not to offend non-Catholics.

It is time he renounced his claim to the Papacy in order not to offend Catholics.

Image source: youtube.com (screenshot)
License: Fair use