Topsy and Tuptim Meet to Discuss Querida Amazonia -- Part II

Are those bitter herbs from the Amazon to
remind us that Lent is coming?

See Part I

Topsy and Tuptim have a date to discuss the latest Pope Francis exhortation, Querida Amazonia. They meet at the coffee shop and Topsy, who generally has her coffee with a large dose of half and half, orders an espresso strong and black. She carries her coffee and a muffin to the table where Tuptim is sitting thumbing through her highlighted copy of the exhortation.

Topsy: Hi lady! (She sits.) I'd rather have a good stiff drink to get through this, but instead I'll drink my coffee your way -- dark, strong, and bitter.

Tuptim: (Raising her eyebrows...) Not that you're getting bitter I hope? 

Topsy: Never! I just keep praying to St. Philip Neri to keep my sense of humor and to St. John Bosco to keep my balance. (She sighs.) Let's start with a prayer for the pope, whoever he is, and for poor Holy Mother Church. (They pray three Hail Mary's and the prayer to the Holy Spirit.)

Tuptim: Well...what did you think about the exhoration?

Topsy: It could have been a lot worse! But I think the collective sigh of relief is a little premature. I am enjoying the liberal press foaming at the mouth, though, because Francis didn't explicitly approve married clergy...and...all the rest.

Tuptim: I was sure relieved that he closed the door on ordaining women.

Topsy: (nodding) Temporarily at least. I think his statement on women's role in the Church is the most encouraging thing in the document. (Pulling a newspaper out of her bag and tossing it on the table.) I checked out the fishwrap to see what some of the liberals were saying. Michael Sean Winters put a positive spin on the doc. He isn't particularly happy that he and his cronies didn't get all they wanted...like married clergy and ordination of women to the diaconate, but he points out, accurately I think, that the pope didn't close any doors. He says he's encouraged that Francis is getting away from the ultramontanism of the past.

Thank God, we are spared this for now!

Tuptim: (looking puzzled) What the heck is ultramontanism?

Topsy: (Laughing) I had to look it up myself. (Thumbs through her notebook.) Ah...straight from the pages of Merriam-Webster: "favoring greater or absolute supremacy of papal over national or diocesan authority in the Roman Catholic Church."

Tuptim: That sounds ominous! What's he moving toward -- democracy in the Church where everyone votes on doctrine?

Topsy: (Raising her eyebrows) Good question. Winters thinks it's great that the pope is looking to the bishops to decide these things in (pauses and makes quote sign with her fingers) "the synodal process." In fact, he says (reading) "Francis wants us to move away from that monarchical model and engage the whole church in the process of discernment on issues like bringing back the female diaconate." He also said: "Instead of the synod being a consultative body that helps the pope form his own judgment, here he is giving the outcome of the synod's deliberations its own standing and status."

That sounds pretty alarming to me, especially when you realize how few of the world's bishops were involved in the synod. Will these little parochial synods become the vehicle for gutting doctrine and giving the Church an Amazonian...or German...or whatever face?

Tuptim: It sure sounds like majority rules. If Winter's is right, the exhortation is a set up for the same thing that happened with Amoris Laetitia. I got that impression myself when I read this in the introduction. (Looks for the quote.) Ah...here it is!:

I would like to officially present the Final Document, which sets forth the conclusions of the Synod, which profited from the participation of many people (slows down for emphasis) who know better than myself or the Roman Curia the problems and issues of the Amazon region, since they live there, they experience its suffering and they love it passionately....I have preferred not to cite the Final Document in this Exhortation, because I would encourage everyone to read it in full.

(Looking up.) It seems to me that this opens the door to dioceses approving the controversial stuff from the synod final report. And then, when they issue "guidelines" for its implementation, they can  wait for Francis to say..."Ah yes, you got it's exactly right; that's the authentic magisterium!" like he did with Amoris Laetitia. And then the clergy, like Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin, and the apostolic nuncio Christophe Pierre can say we all need to get on board with the "Francis magisterium."

Topsy: (nodding) Agreed! I read that paragraph and had an "uh-oh" moment. But the next paragraph is even worse! (She reads) :

May God grant that the entire Church be enriched and challenged by the work of the synodal assembly. May the pastors, consecrated men and women and lay faithful of the Amazon region strive to apply it, and may it inspire in some way every person of good will.

Exactly what is implied there? What exactly are all of us supposed to "apply" from the synod final document and how is it supposed to "inspire" us? Paragraph 111 proposes the ordination of married men....Wait a minute, I'll find it. (She flips through her notes,) Listen:

...we propose to establish criteria and dispositions on the part of the competent authority, in the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests suitable men recognized by the community, that have a fruitful Permanent Diaconate and receive appropriate formation for the presbyterate, being able to have a legitimately constituted and stable family, to sustain the life of the Christian community through preaching the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazonian region. In this connection, some were in favor of a universal treatment of this subject.

I wonder if we'll get "guidelines" from the Amazon bishops that allow ordination of married deacons despite the pope not explicitly approving it. They can easily frame it as being an inspired application of the pope's wonderful exhortation that respects their fuller understanding of the situation than the pope and the Roman curia. Can't you just see the pope praising them and calling guidelines like that the "authentic magisterium?"

Tuptim: Let's pray not. Did you read Bishop Schneider's analysis? 

Queridas Amazonia offers a "glimmer of hope,"
but contains "lamentable doctrinal ambiguities
and errors." Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Topsy: Just the headline about it offering a "glimmer of hope."

Tuptim: I haven't read it either yet, but I plan to. At least Francis didn't explicitly endorse all the bad stuff. But neither did he say any of it is out of bounds. This is one more typical ambiguous document that can do plenty of mischief.

They're both silent for a minute reflecting.

Topsy: Well... shall we get into Pope Francis' "dreams." What did you think of the pope formatting the document as four "dreams."

Tuptim: (Laughing) To be honest my immediate thought was that Francis' dreams are the world's nightmares. Actually, I thought it was just a little too cute. I wondered if he was trying to channel Martin Luther King.

Topsy: (Laughing and nodding) We think alike! I had the same thoughts. Are we being uncharitable?

Tuptim: (Shrugs and looks thoughtful.) I hope not, but as I read the chapter on the Social Dream, I thought it was extremely one-sided.  It demonized business interests as greedy, criminal, exploitive...and on and on and on...evil to the core. But I didn't see one word about foundations whose "philanthropy" to third world nations involves promoting all kinds of evil or governments like the U.S. under globalist presidents who linked foreign aid to population reduction.

Tuptim: Right! And the Vatican is on board with so many of those population controllers. Jeffrey Sachs has become a regular adviser at the Vatican to the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences. In fact, he was just there giving a talk on Restoring the ethical foundations of economics. As if he is an authority on ethics. Talk about someone who is an elitist whose idea of helping the poor is killing their children! And he's involved in the Vatican meeting in Assisi in late March on, get this, "the economy of Francis" which promotes, among other things, "sustainable development."

Topsy: Wow! And that's just a buzz word for population control and promoting contraception and abortion. Good grief! (She shakes her head.)  Catholic Relief Services is up to their necks in all that!

Tuptim: Shameful isn't it! Sachs is an international voice for population control! I saw him interviewed recently where he was pimping for contraception. He's been influential at the Vatican for years. And he gives the pope's exhortation, Laudato Si, credit for the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) being approved.  How is that not cooperation with evil?

Topsy: Omigosh! The U.N. meeting in Cairo in 1994 defined all those terms in the SDGs to include abortion and contraception. And Sachs is on record saying those are the best way to get rid of "unwanted children." I feel sick just thinking of the Vatican partnering with people like him.

Tuptim: Not to mention population guru Paul Ehrlich, the bug scientist who wrote that stupid book, The Population Bomb, in the 1960s that predicted we'd all starve to death by the 1980s.

Topsy: (Shaking her head...) So how come people like Sachs get a free pass and have the ear of the pope, while businesses that provide jobs, not to mention electricity, clean water, food, etc. are all devils destroying the environment? Do you think Sachs lives in a hovel with no running water or electricity? Does he use a bike for transportation for all his world travel? These people are such hypocrites!

Tuptim: Look... (She pulls up a youtube video on her phone.) Here's a video you can watch later showing Sachs sitting next to Sorondo, head of the Pontifical Academy of Science. I'll send you the link. He spends the whole video attacking Trump and the United States. Lots of praise for China though. Sorondo is next to him clapping and smiling as Sachs trashes everything about out country and our president. I can't help thinking this is a warning that the Vatican will be interfering big time in the 2020 election. Sachs hates Trump and will be pounding him at every opportunity he gets and the Vatican will give him plenty of opportunities.

Topsy: Makes me want to scream! Sachs is treated like a member of the hierarchy. He's been partnering with the Vatican since at least 2015 when he co-hosted a Vatican conference on climate change. Think about that! Here's a man at the center of Vatican economic and environmental policy who says abortion is a “lower-risk and lower-cost option” than child birth. I feel like we're watching a bad B movie!

Tuptim: Right! Blood-sucking vampire....Save money, kill your baby.



Topsy: The horrors mentioned in the first chapter of the exhortation talking about the suffering and exploitation of the people in the Amazon make you want to weep. But as I read it, I couldn't help wondering how much was true and how much was exaggerated. We've had so many lies coming out of Rome, it's hard to know what to believe. When you think of all the horrors happening right now in China...well...Pope Francis and his band of merry men practice selective indignation over the world's suffering.

Tuptim: (Thoughtfully) You're right...Remember the forced sterilizations in Peru that were linked to USAID. You think Sachs opposed that?

Topsy: And the tetanus vaccines from the World Health Organization that were laced with HCG to make women miscarry. Thank God the bishops of Kenya raised the alarm. It was definitely a population control project.

Tuptim: Well, you won't read any demonization about that; only about Donald Trump refusing to back the Paris Climate Accord, one of Francis' pet projects.

Topsy: I always have this lurking suspicion that with Francis it isn't really ever about the people. It seems that the pope and his minions use people to advance an entirely different agenda. I don't think the synod or the apostolic exhortation really have much to do with the Amazon. Does that sound cynical?

Tuptim: No, it sounds realistic. They remind me of liberals who ostentatiously carry their bibles and  blather on and on saying how much they care about children while they vote for abortion and infanticide. (Shaking her head...) It's a terrible thing when you feel like your pope is nothing but a shrewd politician using the Church to advance a worldly, socialist Utopia.

Topsy: As a matter of fact, the exhortation is filled with promotion of globalism. (Searching the document...) Here's one mention...(reads):

...we are reminded that it is possible to overcome the various colonizing mentalities and to build networks of solidarity and development. "The challenge, in short, is to ensure a globalization in solidarity, a globalization without marginalization."

That's a quote from John Paul II's 1998 message on the World Day of Peace. Certainly we should strive for international cooperation. We live in a global economy and many things like information technology, financial dealings, etc. cross borders. But you don't get the sense that John Paul II and Pope Francis mean the same thing when they discuss "globalization."

Tuptim: (Snorting...) It's hard to know what Pope Francis means when he says a lot of things. As I was reading, I kept writing in the margin, "What the heck does that mean?"

Topsy: I highlighted several paragraphs in Chapter I that I found really ironic...well...and hypocritical. For example, in paragraph 15, we have this statement:

It is not good for us to become inured to evil; it is not good when our social consciousness is dulled before “an exploitation that is leaving destruction and even death throughout our region…"

Of course, he's talking about the exploitation of the indigenous people. But how do you reconcile such a statement with honoring abortionists and bringing cheerleaders for population control to the Vatican as "experts." If that isn't being "inured to evil." I don't know what is!

And here's another, paragraph 25:

Nor can we exclude the possibility that members of the Church have been part of networks of corruption, at times to the point of agreeing to keep silent in exchange for economic assistance for ecclesial works. Precisely for this reason, proposals were made at the Synod to insist that “special attention be paid to the provenance of donations or other kinds of benefits, as well as to investments made by ecclesiastical institutions or individual Christians”

Note that he isn't talking about the Vatican, but about those other clerics who are corrupt. But the first thing that popped into my head was the misuse of the Papal Foundation to give $25 million to that scandalous dermatology hospital and the latest scandals coming out about the Peter's Pence collection. And frankly, I wonder how much money is being poured into the Vatican through Sachs, Soros, Gates, and all the other elitists who want one world government. Well, as Jesus said, "Physician, heal thyself."

Tuptim: And remember who the big fundraiser for the Vatican was -- McCarrick. Is that one of the reasons he was allowed to commit predatory atrocities for years...and years...and years! (Sighs...) If you read about the pope's Global Education Pact, you can see that progressives want to use education in the third world to reduce population, and they've got a lot of global millionaires ready to help fund the Vatican event. How many strings will be attached to that money?

Topsy: Maybe they'll fund drag queen story hours in third world schools. Melinda Gates wants "gender equality" and "reproductive rights" and what better way to get it than indoctrinate the children. To think that these are the folks who have the pope's ear! Somehow I doubt if Archbishop Sorondo mingles much with the smelly sheep! (Looks at her watch.) Well that pretty much brings us to the end of Chapter One. Shall we continue with the Pope's Cultural Dream and Ecological Dream next time?

Tuptim: Absolutely. And don't forget to bring your spade, garden gloves, and a bag of potting soil because this is where we'll be getting into Mother Earth and Laudato Si. Hey...that gives me a thought.... Let's meet at the cemetery and plant some daffodils first. We'll be reducing our carbon footprint. Then we can talk about the next part of the exhortation.

Topsy: Great idea! And we can pray for the dead too. It's good to remember the spiritual works of mercy. Especially with all the drivel about the end of the world coming in twelve years. If that's true you'd think the pope ought to be more concerned about preparing people to meet their maker.

Tuptim: That reminds me....I think I'll stop for confession on the way home. Want to join me?

Topsy: Absolutely!