(LifeSiteNews) — A Swiss priest and former vicar general of the Diocese of Chur said that Pope Francis used “Marxist teaching” during his reign and stressed that the next Pope has to unite a divided Church.
In an op-ed for the Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ), Father Martin Grichting said that Francis caused division in the Church by trying to make “changes to the doctrine of the faith” by using Marxist tactics.
Father Grichting said Francis was “the antithesis of his predecessors,” Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who tried to overcome division and interpret the Second Vatican Council with a continuity hermeneutic.
Through his heterodoxy, Francis “antagonized significant parts of the Church, for example in Eastern Europe, the USA and Africa,” the priest wrote.
“Of course, as a Jesuit, he was shrewd enough not to simply turn the valid doctrine into its opposite,” he continued. “This would have led to an open schism.”
Changing the Church through heterodox ‘pastoral practice’
“Francis was faced with the dilemma of having to respect Church teaching while at the same time wanting to adapt it to the expectations of the post-Christian West,” Father Grichting said.
“In this regard, he chose an approach that showed a clear pattern over the course of his pontificate: in his Christmas address to the Curia in 2019, he emphasized that it was not a matter of ‘occupying spaces,’ but of ‘initiating processes.’”
“In this sense, he always emphasized the prevailing doctrine on the one hand. For example, the letter ‘Amoris laetitia’ from 2016 upheld the indissolubility of marriage. At the same time, however, Francis has initiated a contrary pastoral practice in which, following ‘pastoral discernment,’ believers living in extramarital partnerships are permitted to receive the Eucharist ‘in individual cases.’”
“Since then, the indissolubility of marriage has continued to apply in theory, but has been undermined by a contrary practice,” Father Grichting concluded.
The Swiss priest laid out how Francis used the same approach with homosexuality and “female ordinations.”
“It was also emphasized in ‘Amoris laetitia’ that there is ‘no foundation whatsoever for distinguishing between homosexual relationships and God’s plan for marriage and family, not even in a broader sense.’”
However, in 2023, Francis approved Fiducia supplicans, which “nevertheless permitted [homosexual] blessings.”
“This also initiated a practice contrary to Church teaching,” Father Grichting said. “Following the same pattern, Francis maintained the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood, as John Paul II had declared to be definitively binding,” the Swiss priest recalled.
“But in January 2025, Francis appointed a woman as ‘prefect’ of a Roman dicastery.”
“However, according to the doctrine affirmed by the Second Vatican Council, the exercise of ecclesiastical authority, such as that associated with the office of curia prefect, is subject to the condition that the office holder has been ordained a priest or bishop,” Father Grichting continued.
“Here, too, a ‘process has been initiated’ on a practical level that runs counter to Church teaching.”
READ: Priest: Pope Francis broke canon law, Catholic teaching by naming woman as dicastery prefect
Father Grichting summarized Francis’ approach to introducing heterodoxy:
The emphasis on traditional orthodoxy with the simultaneous introduction of a practice directed against it was justified, depending on the topic, with the need for pastoral prudence (marriage, homosexuality) or with the desire to bring about a sanctification of the Church (women’s question, “synodality”). However, this was always an attempt to initiate a process to change Church doctrine.
Pope Francis used the Marxist playbook
“Francis had already called for such an approach in 2013 in the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii gaudium’ with the subtitle ‘Reality is more important than the idea,’” Father Grichting stated. “This pseudo-philosophical theorem was nothing more than a translation of the Marxist doctrine of base (reality) and superstructure (idea).”
“Marx and Engels’ ‘Communist Manifesto’ of 1848 states:
Does it require profound insight to realize that with the conditions of men’s lives, with their social relations, with their social existence, their ideas, views, and concepts, in a word, their consciousness also changes? What does the history of ideas prove other than that spiritual production transforms with material production?”
Father Grichting likened Francis’s approach to that of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: “In this sense, a new base should now be created by initiating a practice that runs counter to the doctrine.”
“Over time, this changed base should then lead to a change in the Superstructure of church doctrine.”
“However, it is doubtful whether this will work,” he added.
“The Marxist model has failed because it is out of touch with reality. And where it has been able to survive temporarily, this was only possible through the use of force, which is not a good reference.”
The new Pope must unite the Church again
Father Grichting opined that the Universal Church “has largely proved resilient to this [Pope Francis’] approach.”
“The bishops have recalled John Paul II, who stated in 1984: ‘What is pastoral is not in contradiction with doctrine, nor can pastoral activity detach itself from the content of faith, from which it derives its substance and real strength.’”
“For the sake of the unity of the Church, it was prudent for the bishops to remain unwaveringly on the line of Church teaching and otherwise remain silent, even if this left the priests and the faithful alone,” he continued. “However, this approach was not able to prevent the coexistence of orthodox doctrine and contrary practice, particularly in parts of Europe.”
“The new pope will have to counter the resulting Anglicanization or Balkanization of the Universal Church. Otherwise, there is a risk of schism, because the unity of the Church is not only founded in its structure, but also in its doctrine, with which the Church’s practice must agree.”
“In his Herculean task of uniting a divided Church, the new head pastor would be well advised to take inspiration not from Karl Marx, but from [St.] Vincent of Lérins,” Father Grichting concluded.