Editor’s note: The following essay is the second in a two-part series on the prophecies of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, the ‘synodal church,’ and Pope Francis. Part one can be found HERE.
(LifeSiteNews) — The letters from my readers say far too often that Francis is not the rightful pope. And many even write to me asking me to finally accept this.
To my regret, however, I have to disappoint them on this point: I see no reason why Francis should be an illegitimate pope. On the contrary, his predecessor, Benedict XVI, recognized him, and none of the cardinals who were present at the conclave disputed his legitimate election afterwards; this leaves no room for conspiracy theories and other fictions.
Nevertheless, it has not happened for centuries that the validity of a papal election has been questioned by many. And this is not only a devastating signal, but also an alarming sign: because even if Francis is a legitimate pope, this also shows how highly controversial he is.
One thing is certain: Francis is not a guarantor of Church unity but a pope who polarizes and divides, and that is much worse than if he had been elected invalidly. An invalid election could at least be “healed” as long as the elected pope does not meet an opposing pope with a more solid claim.
With Francis, however, things are different: he may be Pope, but he is also the pope who is destroying the church at its core. He wants a new church, a “synodal” church, in short, the church that I called a “dark church” in my last column.
It is obvious that this church also has a “dark pope,” and Francis himself is demonstrating this everywhere. His pontificate is at odds with all other pontificates and thus with the Church of Christ; Francis does not let the Catholic faith shine but has made it the antithesis of his dark pontificate.
This can be seen in many of his decisions and probably most clearly in the disastrous decision to appoint Victor Fernández, of all people, to head the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. As a reminder, Fernández is the first “prefect of the faith” who was suspected of heresy before his appointment and who now officially proclaims heresies in office.
Ultimately, Fernandez is nothing more than one of the many predetermined breaking points that the Pope wants to use to ensure that the Church is different after his pontificate than it was before. In plain language, this means that Francis wants a Church that departs from the revealed faith and sacred tradition; in a word, he is the “worst case” on the throne of Peter.
The heretical document Fiducia supplicans, for which Fernández is responsible and which Francis – horribile dictu – approved himself, illustrates this very clearly: the “blessing” of irregular and homosexual couples propagated in it is incompatible with the Catholic faith!
Incidentally, the same applies to a Pope who fervently kisses the hand of a Muslim cleric, as happened recently in Jakarta. But it was only when Francis then also announced that all religions lead equally to God that the bottom fell out of the barrel.
American Bishop Joseph Strickland immediately accused Francis of heresy and was right to do so. Let us remember, Jesus Himself proclaimed the absolute opposite of what Francis dared to claim: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Francis cannot get past this either, making him the first pope to deny the redemptive work of Christ! Yes, he really is a dark pope!
But he could not be a dark pope and could remain even less so if he did not have dark supporters. These may be many bishops and, above all, many cardinals who, like Fernández, are his compliant creatures. Many of these dark brothers are very easy to recognize from the outside: they wear the idiosyncratic pectoral cross that Francis wears, and you could bet on which of them will be the quickest to make it disappear again as soon as this pontificate is history.
Until then, this cross is an acknowledgment of the dark church and its dark pope.
As we know, it does not show the crucified, but the Good Shepherd, and this, in turn, shows what Francis is actually about: he is concerned with a soft-spoken faith that suits “everyone, everyone,” and that is not too offensive to the left-wing mainstream. The “good shepherd” is much more pleasing than the crucified one; however, St. Paul already warned against this fatal error (1 Cor. 1, 23).
Certainly, if Francis were not a legitimate pope, all this would be easy to bear, which is probably why horrified Catholics like to rely on this narrative so much. However, as is so often the case, the truth is more complex, and part of this truth is that Francis is opening up a rift in the Church that is unlikely to close. Yes, he really is a dark pope.