Thirteen New Cardinals: Bad Luck for the Church?

As soon as I heart Pope Francis was raising thirteen prelates to cardinal, my heart sank. Is this the Church version of "stacking the court?" Most of them will be able to vote in the next conclave and the clear majority will be Francis appointees. So what kind of men are they?

We know the kind of men with whom Francis surrounds himself. Men like Paglia of the homoerotic mural whose artist (Ricardo Cinalli) says the only thing he wasn't allowed to include was actual copulation. And Paglia is the overseer of the demolition of the John Paul II Institute in Rome. (See here and here.)

Hmm...

And then there's Mariadaga, close advisor to the pope, who covered up for sex abuse in Honduras and is implicated in financial corruption. And don't forget the pope's personal theologian and Archbishop Fernandez who wrote,  Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing. Like the reviewer, you may want to take a shower if you read it. Even the review is filled with "ewww" moments.

Vatican expert Aldo Valli calls the thirteen men on the list "friends of Bergoglio." That is certainly not the same as "friends of the faith." One, Matteo Zuppi, is being hailed by Fr. James Martin as a big promoter of the LGBTQ agenda. That says it all about Zuppi (and Francis for that matter). Remember, Valli is the journalist who released the Vigano letter.

Mundabar's blog calls the pope's picks "atrocious" in a post titled The Apocalypse in Instalments (sic).

Really!  Daily installments in fact.

The upcoming Pan-Amazon synod...well...that appears to be measuring up as an apocalypse installment on steroids.

What's new with Francis, eh? New day, new apocalypse.

Crux News also weighed in on the new cardinals with the headline,  Pope announces surprise consistory, handing red hats to key allies. And many are relatively young and, sans conversion, bode evil for the Church in the coming decades. Among them are several pro-Islamists. What an irony that they will receive the red hat only two days before the Feast of the Holy Rosary on the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto that saved Christian Europe from Islam. Today, this pope seems to welcome the Islamic colonization of Europe. Has he forgotten Islam's promise that, "We will conquer your Rome?"

The real question, however, is what's up with the cardinals? Where is the formal opposition to Francis from those who still love and are called to defend the faith? When will the body of faithful cardinals take serious action against Pope Francis and his demolition of the Church? They seem to illustrate what poet William Butler Yeats (an occultist) said in his poem, The Second Coming, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity."

Where are the cardinals willing to be martyrs? Where is their collective voice to challenge Francis' invitation to the diabolical "Spiritus Mundi?" Are there so few that they have simply hunkered down in their diocesan foxholes to wait out the storm lobbing an occasional dubia or comment over the barricade?

Maybe I expect too much. Maybe they really are helpless in the face of a Dorian-like storm in the Church.

Dorian!

When I heard the hurricane baptized with that name, I immediately thought of The Portrait of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde about an evil man who makes a pact with the devil to remain forever young and beautiful while all his sins are recorded on the portrait in the attic. More and more, Rome seems to be the embodiment of Wilde's story filled with libertinism and corruption and...untouchable.
Although, it's important to remember that Dorian gets it in the end. Listen up you evil churchmen! The devil always demands his due.

Christians should never wallow in despair or discouragement! Our God reigns even over the dunghill.

I don't have any answers except this: pray, act, and suffer for the Church! And demand accountability. Stop financing the corruption. Give your money to apostolates that deserve them: orthodox religious orders, pro-life charities, and the poor. If you're supporting an organization that works for the poor, check the salary of the CEO. Decide for yourself if a charity that pays the CEO an exorbitant salary deserves your support.

N.B. Some of the links above support the resignation of Pope Francis. I don't. Things are bad enough without politicizing the Church and having the faithful lobbying for a pope's resignation. We've had bad popes before. If a resignation is demanded it should come through the magisterium using canon law to justify the pope's removal. It's not the laity's role!