What the Hell?

Charleston, SC

April 2, 2018

Is the Pope Catholic? 

Much like that other Socratic inquiry, “Does a bear sh*t in the woods?”,  this retort was till recently a stock affirmation of a blatantly obvious question or assertion.

It is now a genuine concern…

…particularly after the ostensible successor to St Peter reputedly (on Maundy Thursday, no less!) questioned the existence of hell:

“There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.”

What?!?

Christ asserted, on the first Holy Thursday, that it would have been better for Judas had he never been born. 

Apparently, according to Francis, it’s as if he never had been. 
What a break!

This pope makes a habit of spouting, like an uncontrolled fire-hose, confusing off-the-cuff comments that do more to undermine than to reinforce 2,000 years of Catholic teaching and Tradition. 

If he said what he is alleged to have said, he is now spraying rank heresy, raising not only the question of whether this pope is Catholic, but whether he is a valid pope.

Leaving the theology aside, one must if nothing else question his judgment…and his vision. 

He apparently has spent no time surveying the landscape of his own Church since the Second Vatican Council: banal vernacular liturgies, declining doctrinal adherence, indifferent Mass attendance, vanishing candidates for the priesthood, scandalous seminaries, and modern churches that are ugly as sin (assuming that still exists).

The Church Militant has become The Church Milquetoast.
Fortunately, referring to His Church, Christ assured that “the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”

Seems pretty clear…but perhaps Francis, like a typically wayward Supreme Court justice, adheres to a “Living Document” theory of the Gospel that contorts, inverts, and ultimately annihilates the plain text on the page.

But we need not rely solely on ecclesiastical deterioration to vouch for the existence of hell (after this missive, I may be positioned to do so from first-hand experience).

Anyone who has endured the TSA or wallowed in Atlanta traffic can easily make the case. 

Rap “music”, modern “art”, and contemporary “workspaces” are their own arguments. 

From what nether blueprint do we think the inside of a WalMart was contrived? Or the outside of almost any public building erected after 1940?

The evidence for hell abounds.

In his efforts to portray himself as Pope of the people, has Francis ever once asked his Italian neighbors how they suffer to obtain something as routine phone service? 

His Holiness can ask the chauffeur of his own Popemobile what he’s been thru when, after dodging Roman drivers, he (or whoever collects the papal cassock from the cleaners) returns looking like a member of Napoleon’s army on the retreat from Moscow.

I realize the Bishop of Rome is probably not squeezed into seat 64G paying for earplugs and stowing his chasuble under the seat in front of him, but he does endure Alitalia when he flies. 

That must at least raise the specter of Purgatory.
A few years ago, Flight AZ 4000 enabled a pontifical visit to Philadelphia. 

Did he not notice what life is like being a fan of any sports team in that city? Or how it is for the rest of us to interact with them? 
Moreover, if hell doesn’t exist, then North Philadelphia is a metaphysical impossibility.

For Heaven’s sake (assuming that still exists), the man lived in Argentina under both Juan Peron and Christina Kirchner! 
Hell’s bells, even St Thomas believed his own eyes.

Toward what, exactly, does the former Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires think a hundred year road paved with political good intentions has led us? Safe to say the destination pales in comparison only to the fury of a woman scorned.

Then again, as he said in an earlier baffling interview, “who am I to judge?”

Something must be freezing over to hear a pope speak as this one does.

As Baudelaire, who sure seemed to have first-hand knowledge, declared, “The Devil’s cleverest wile is to make men believe that he does not exist”.

Granted, Francis did not claim the Devil does not exist, nor did he speak ex cathreda, but that seems a logical follow-up question during his next impromptu chat with a reporter.

Another may be: what other infallible Church teaching can we feel free to doubt or discard? 

The Apostles Creed affirms that Christ “descended into Hell (‘ad infernos’).” 

Does that now require a re-write? 

Can one actively instilling such doubt be considered a true pope?
The mind boggles…

…but, meanwhile, we can at least still count on the bear.

JD