Ambiguity Cuts Both Ways
Since his appointment as Bishop of Rome, Jorge Bergoglio has sewn confusion through weaponized ambiguity. Now, ambiguity threatens his authority
Comfort with ambiguity is a strategic advantage. When you lack a clear vision of the outcome, or even of the current situation, moving forward will reveal what was previously hidden from you. As the Marines say, “in the absence of orders, take appropriate action.” They don’t say, “in the absence of orders, fret.”
Action.
Saturday, I posted about Fr. Altman’s sermon, Bergoglio Is Not Pope. In times of massive ambiguity, such clarity is like relief from a burning pain. It feels wonderful to have a suspicion confirmed, doesn’t it? Especially, a suspicion about a man who has used ambiguity as a club to bludgeon the faithful into doubt.
After all, Bergoglio is the man who, under the titles of Pope, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, and first among equals questioned whether Jesus of Nazareth was God, doubted the existence of hell, declared the canon of the Mass dating back to the 2nd century defective, mocked the idea of large Catholic families, rebuked a woman for helping a young man convert, declared Jesus is not the only way to God and heaven, and presided over demon worship at the Vatican. As he committed these atrocities against the faith, he demanded and demands that we obey his nefarious diktats because, “I am the pope.” Ambiguity, confusion, and doubt are Bergoglio’s art. Thanks to him and those of his ilk, 75 percent of American Catholics doubt the doctrine of Real Presence. It’s safe to assume that similar numbers of nominal Catholics doubt much more.
When a priest rises up to dismiss those ambiguities like a hot sun melting away pea-soup fog, we cheer.
But we shouldn’t. The world doesn’t work that way. If there is a theme to all my writing over the past seven years it is that nothing is ever as it seems.
Also on Saturday, I read Tim Flanders’s response to Fr. Altman’s sermon, and I was struck by my own rush to embrace confirming evidence. I should have known better. I should have listened to my inner cynic.
Tim Flanders might have been speaking to me when he wrote:
This is the ambiguity in which we must live as Catholics: holding fast to the deposit of faith, but realising that our ability to judge the pope is severely limited. We can judge what we are obliged to pass down to our children – otherwise we could not pass it down. But we are not obliged to pass down to our children an answer on the question of a heretical pope, nor to judge the current pope, since it is beyond the jurisdiction of the faithful to adjudicate these questions.
Curses! The fog didn’t lift. We were just driving through a clear patch. Visibility is back to zero.
It’s possible that Bergoglio is not pope according to heaven’s judgment, but heaven has not revealed its judgment to us. While St. Bellermine provided a logical method for the Church to identify and deal with a heretical pope, the Church has not moved. Therefore, we must carry on as if Bergoglio remains the vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome.
And that’s actually more consistent with faith than a clear-cut answer one way or the other. Faith is belief without physical proof, is it not? Via GotAnswers.com:
Thankfully, the Bible contains a clear definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Simply put, the biblical definition of faith is “trusting in something you cannot explicitly prove.”
We have faith in God and we have faith that the Church Christ founded will not succumb to hell’s jaws. No one said it would be easy. I wrote Saturday that we were never promised the Church would always have a faithful head. The idea of wicked pastors is centuries old, and it warns of the pain of ambiguity. We were promised a hierarchy, but not a good one. Or, as Epictetus wrote, everyone is entitled to a father, but not to a good one.
Our state of ambiguity, then, continues. And our ambiguity is compounded by the fact that, while we must continue to carry on as if Bergoglio is the true head of our Church, we must also refrain from following many of his teachings where they contradict the faith as handed down from the Apostles. We must resist, and we must do so openly and boldly, even if it means we suffer. “Passion” is suffering out of love, not getting a paycheck for doing whatever we want. The faith is worth suffering over.
So, I apologize if my post on Fr. Altman gave you false sense of clarity or led you to declare “we have no pope.” As far as we know, we do. But we also have a faith handed down through the ages, most recently from our parents and the faithful priests and bishops, like Bishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who is about to suffer greatly for his faith: the pope has decided to order him to resign. If he does not resign, the pope is likely to force the issue by laicizing him. One of America’s most faithful bishops will be removed from the priesthood for defending the faith from a wicked pastor.
Earlier, I wrote about taking action in the absence of orders, but that’s not really right. We have orders. And a promise. From Christ Jesus himself handed down in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Popes come and go. Some are later declared heretics; others are declared saints. But Christ gave us a commission and promised to be with us always to the end.
Therefore, we have our orders.