Writing in Crisis magazine, Franciscan University Professor Timothy Williams expresses that which so many thousands of Catholics have been thinking now for decades: What's with all these bizarre papal apologies? Here's an excerpt:
Above all, busy contemplating their own faults, the Catholics of this earlier age did not engage in the public lamentation of other people’s presumed sins, which seems to be the “confession fashion” of our age. With at least the last three papacies, we have seen an avalanche of apologies, almost always on behalf of Catholics of a previous era, and without the historical context necessary to make sense of the actions or inactions of those believers. Pope St. John Paul II apologized so frequently and for such a wide variety of offenses that there is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to this one aspect of his pontificate. (And the page is far from complete.)
Pope Francis has taken this cult of “eorum culpa” to new heights, issuing strangely worded apologies that condemn Christians for the very things that are praiseworthy in Christianity. For example, according to the Pope, Christians should beg forgiveness “from the poor, from exploited women, [and] from children exploited as laborers,” even though, historically, no religion or other organization of any kind has ever done more for the poor, the exploited, women, and children.
Of what, ultimately, consists this fondness for issuing apologies on behalf of Christians (and specifically Catholics) of other eras? Sometimes, I ask myself whether these gestures are not just a kind of pharisaical prayer of self-praise and thanksgiving for one’s moral superiority: “The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican” (Luke 18:11). (Just add the prefix “Re-” to the last word, and voila!—moral aggiornamento.)
Can one even imagine a medieval pope issuing such apologies? READ ARTICLE HERE
REMNANT COMMENT: Isn't it refreshing to see that so many others can plainly see that the Emperor is buck naked. Professor Williams' concluding paragraph says it all:
The Catholics of the Middle Ages would not have understood this paradox, this profusion of apologies coupled with pious indifference. They had the habit of speaking bluntly about evil, and finding it in themselves, rather than in others. We would do well to follow the light of their example, living as we are in the true dark ages of humanity.
Amen to that, and to the author's ready admission that it's not just Francis. This has been going on for decades, long before anyone outside of Buenos Aires had ever heard the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The neo-Catholic coma has run its course, it would seem, and worldwide resistance is on the rise.
In the meantime, the horrific scandal continues as Peter rather pathetically caters to the world, personally removing the stigma attached even to grave sin and robbing the poor sinner of the spiritual and moral direction he needs to save his soul -- something for which future popes will surely apologize:
May God forgive Pope Francis for the confusion and lack of clarity he's causing among so many already lost sheep.