A bit late, but I still wanted to publish this:
‘Twas the night before
Christmas, and in St. Martha’s House
Not a creature was
stirring, not even a mouse;
The Cardinals crammed for
wooden seats in Paul VI Hall,
In front a humble throne
the color of a funerary pall;
The press were smug and
held their stead;
While heterodox headlines
danced in their heads;
The Ultramontanes rejoiced
that the Traddies had snapped,
And then settled their
brains for pontificate-long nap,
When out atrium there
arose such a clatter,
The Curia rose to curtsy
attention’s center.
He wore a white cassock
with a coat of arms,
And black trousers which
contained his Peronist card.
Of the Renaissance
frescoes above his head,
He made known that we
should share his dread.
Then he took to his
humble throne,
And the Argentine bishop
peered down his Italian nose,
If the press knew he was
hardly New World,
They would have cried
tears to fill a Salvation Army bowl.
More rapid than eagles
his acolytes they came,
And he howled of new
mercies, and called them by name:
"Now, Marx! now,
Kasper! now Schonborn and Cupich!
On, with Rahner!
on, with Martini!—not the stiff drink!
To the top of the edge of
the Leonine wall!
Let us announce our newly
merciful and humble Church to all!"
“He shut down the
Franciscans and will crush Peter’s priests, too,”
“But,” says another, “his
meeting with Bernard Fellay went through.”
“He gets blessings from
protestants,” bewails the traditionalist,
“You don’t get it,” says
the Zed “He’s just another Benedict.”
The penitent recalls 247
and 254 in the encyclical he read,
The priest replies, “Have
your evening prayers been said?”
As the faithful keep
their parishes in peace,
The Argentine perturbs them
with news of unease.
“We should ignore him and
not let ourselves be irked
Or delude ourselves in
hopes of the rebellion of Raymond Burke.”
“He is the Pontiff,”
retorts the wife, “He is guaranteed by the Godhead,
St Robert promises that
if he changes doctrine the Lord with strike him dead.”
With some concerns how
could the holidays be merry?
Would we lose the
Ratzinger reform and be at the mercy of Fr. Larry?
Poor Guido Marini, he is
broke without baroque,
Bereft of fiddlebacks and
mitres high as telescopes;
Even midnight Mass could
not be borne on the silver screen,
And a picnic table now
stands in the Chapel Sistine;
Obsessed with the
Pontiff, the neo-cons hound,
And through their
households the Mercy, not the Pater,
resounds.
The Martinian cardinals
lamented their success knowing their ideas were sterile,
No one believed them,
while the Traddies reproduce by the bushel;
“You’re too organized,
too structured, and spiritually cold,
You must toss up the
papers and be impoverished and bold.”
Dolan of the Big Apple
chuckled elate:
“When before was the
Curia accused of working too late?”
The scarlet men rose
irate when the Argentine took his leave,
And they all breathed a
sigh of relief;
He vested for Mass and turned
to the sacristy door,
Then turned again to the
Basilica, perhaps to say no more.
But I heard him exclaim,
ere he walked out of sight—
“Someday you’ll hear the Spirit, and know I’m right!”
I think Frankie is good for the Church. He has already snapped many of the more reasonable conservatives out of their ultramontine stupor.
ReplyDeleteLOB, you must be seeing better developments with the Neo-Con crowd than I. My view on the ground is seeing a trend of greater openness toward the NO from the soft-TLM crowd in the last two years which I take as a pivoting capitulation to ensure a safe place to land in case of being FFI-ed. Seems like more ultramontanism to me.
DeleteThe neocons are beyond hope. A number of NO conservatives and FSSP-style Trads have been rethinking their position in light of things like the synod. I don't think that they'd now go along with something just because someone told them the "Holy Father wishes it" as in the days of Paul VI.
DeleteI think that they'd at least demand proof.
I had a discussion on this topic somewhere in this blog: I must say that I disagree with both. It is not true that they just I don't think that they'd now go along with something just because someone told them the "Holy Father wishes it" as in the days of Paul VI: their Ultramontane forma mentis is too deeply rooted for that; nor they are becoming neocons -maybe some of them are.
DeleteWhat rather seems to me, at least looking at Spanish-speaking and Italian Tradistanis, is that many of them are becoming "neo-sedevacantists": more and more of them seem likeliy to believe that Bergoglio's election was a fraud, and that Ratzinger is still the true Pope; Antonio Socci's book has done even more damage among those milieus. And while there are also some folks more reasonable, who just don't like Francis and resist him, they are just waiting (even more strongly than before) for a new Pacelli to prostrate before him. So Ultramontanism is still going to do a lot of damage to the Church. And that is the reason I hope R. card. Burke will never become Pope!
K. e.
"He will crush Peter's priests too"...the next year will tell, but it's probably true.
ReplyDeleteWhat of those of St. Francis de Sales? Do you think Peter's are more of a target?
DeleteI can see St. Francis de Sales' ones being an easy target for extra reasons beyond Peter's...
Matthew, I guess with extra reasons you mean Cardinal Burke ...maybe. They are certainly more triumphalistic when it comes to celebrating Mass and the Pope doesn't like that, but I'm not entirely sure about the degree of Tradness of their priests.
DeleteThe ICRSS is probably not on Rome's radar because their clergy are not belligerent nor do they share a direct background with the FSSPX. I think in Rome's view, they are aesthetes who pick the old rite for its historical and artistic value. The FSSP clergy are formed more along the lines of the FSSPX and tend to keep alive the theological framework of the 1950s which the Curia dislikes. I do *not* see the FSSP being a target of Rome either, though. I picked them because I wanted a quick rhyme. The FSSP is generally on good behavior and they keep the FSSPX at bay, so bishops are content with them. The FFI got in trouble for reasons that I cannot imagine playing out in either the FSSP or the ICRSS, reasons which Rorate Caeli wouldn't admit are bad.
DeleteI'm not sure what reasons for the FFI intervention you are getting at, Rad Trad, maybe you could eleborate...
ReplyDeleteOf course I don't know what will happen with the FSSP and the following points don't necessarily mean that they will be crushed, but consider this:
-The results of the visitation will certainly be evaluated according to the standards of this pontificate.
-From what I know the FSSP wasn't invited by the pope to celebrate their 25th anniversary, although Fr. Berg was in Rome for the celebrations. The letter that they received and ostensibly think is a great encouragement isn't all that, either, and Francis didn't even sign it personally. Just consider who the pope has received in audience in the almost two years of his pontificate.