At The Catholic Thing today, my friend Dr. Robert Royal asks the elephantine – nay, rather, mastodontic question: Is there something wrong in Rome?
The obvious answer is YES. Only a fool or fanatical ideologue (in the real sense) would deny it. The question to be asked next is, “What is wrong in Rome?”
Can everything be laid at the feet of Francis? No. The Enemy is really good at being an enemy. The best of men can be twisted and corrupted through the quest for, proximity to, and attainment of honors, influence and power. Corruptio optimi pessima.
We go forward also with the knowledge that, yes, there is something wrong in Rome because there has always been something wrong in Rome, just as we are reminded by Boccaccio in the Decameron’s second story, or as Hilaire Belloc said: “The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.”
So there’s simple human weakness – thanks Adam! And there’s the work of the Enemy. The Enemy is going to be very active in Rome. It stands to reason. Where better than there? There you have both the brightest and best as well as the less impressive in the dusty chandelier of humanity. No one, in any position, powerful or not, is entirely immune to the world, the flesh, and the Devil (cf. James 3:15).
We might get some traction scrabbling after and answer by saying that, if Francis is not the problem, those surrounding him are. Those who write his speeches and prep him for questions sure are.
“Personnel is policy”, as they quipped in the Reagan years. A leader such as a pope inherits secular, financial, diplomatic, religious personnel from his predecessor. Then he will make changes that reflects his policies, positions… beliefs, especially in the case of a pope. Look at those with whom Francis has surrounded himself, especially in key positions. He has gone through the Curia with a scythe, eliminating the vast majority of those aligned with the views and works of his two closest predecessors. More and more, all things that rise converge in him. Far from decentralizing governance, it seems that he is taking more and more control. And if institutions with visible governing figures remain? “Personnel is policy.”
In my own experiences in Rome, where my antennae are fully extended and spidey-sense tingling, I’ve had a dire feeling of gloom the closer I would get to St. Peter’s. The last time, I forced myself to go there only twice, for personal business at the “bank” and to see the head of the Swiss Guard, who is a friend, and attend the swearing in of the new Guards. Even then, I did not set foot even a single time inside the colonnade. It was as if there was an darkly invisible fog or blocking shield that felt depressing. Last October when I went to the Basilica, afterward I felt like I needed a long soak in something astringent. And to think that I used to say Mass in the Basilica every morning for years. Such a glorious place. Corruptio optimi pessima.
NB: When Pope Sixtus V set up the great obelisk in the center of the St. Peter’s Square it was exorcised and place as a kind of permanent exorcism to all who might approach the Basilica. The base is even inscribed, on the outward face, with a line from the rite of exorcism. Back in the day, clerics were encouraged to say prayers of exorcism as they approached. However, I think that that exorcism in the square – and in a lot of other places too – ought to be renewed. After all, manifestly demonic idols were brought in, venerated, and even placed on the MAIN ALTAR over the bones of the apostle.
My conversations with people regularly in Rome bear out a consistent impression: the ecclesial scene feels like East Germany. Everyone is on edge.
Things are the way they are in Rome right now because that’s the course Francis set. It is hard not to conclude that he wants things this way.
Is there something wrong in Rome?
There is no need to make a list of indicators of wrongness here.
Another great English convert, G.K. Chesterton responded to the question “What’s wrong with the world?” with the simple, “I am.”
Here is some rightness. Let us look to our own houses before we do anything else.
- Examine your consciences and GO TO CONFESSION!
- Stick to sacraments and use them well, invoke your married state, your confirmation, your baptism, your holy orders.
- Fast and give alms, take on penances in reparation for obvious wrongs.
- Seize opportunities for works of mercy.
- Pray for specific people, not just some group in general, especially if those people are particularly irksome, dangerous, wicked.
Robert Royal. I started this post with him and then started to ramble. Go over to The Catholic Thing and read his thoughts, especially on what Francis’s latest statements reveal and what might be coming in the Synod (“walking together”), now to be shrouded in secrecy in order to avoid “gossip” and “ideology”.
You can’t make this stuff up.
