The Francis effect

Until the successor of Pope Francis, at the Vatican, is « vacant stays ». However, there are several tens of thousands of Catholics in the world who believe that the place of the pope is vacant of not less than 60 years. And there are several hundred thousand Catholics, a few with influence within the Church, who speak like « sedevacantists », but prefer to remain within the Catholic Church and promote their visions inside, where the influence is greater.

60 years have passed since the Vatican Council II, meant to modernize the Catholic Church, to open the doors of the church for as many individuals, as varied as possible, no matter how complicated their lives are. 60 years since the Catholic liturgy is held in national languages, and not in Latin, since the priest serves with his back to the altar and face to the believers, and not vice versa, since the popes became more « modern » in statements and more openings that started, from the 1960s, to extend from the universities. All the post-Vatican popes tried to stabilize the Catholic Church, but John Paul II was a pope too involved in the Cold War, and Benedict XVI decided to have a pontificate too short. Both were conservative pontiphs, who tried to slow down the rate of progressive evolution of the Church.

Some clergy, such as Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, wanted to fight the changes inside the church, said that the Vatican II council is « satanic », the result of an alliance between « the highest authorities of the church and the Masonic lodges. » He was excommunicated in 1988, shortly before he died. A similar position now has Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. « We have a deep church that infiltrated and occupied the Catholic Church. The members of this counter-biseric have transformed the Catholic Church into a globalist Woke support organization. » Vigano was excommunicated in 2024, accused of schism. Shortly after, the archbishop criticized the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, saying it was an expression of Satanism. It is not important that some visions similar to Vigano’s shares shares the US Administration’s ambassador Brian Burch. « Vigano may not always be right. But I am sure of one thing: Satan truly exists and he is. »

The resistance to reforming the Church in the second Vatican spirit gave birth to sufficiently conspiracy manifestations to marginalize this movement, but that does not mean that it is ignored. In 1965, French President Charles de Gaulle said about the Vatican II: « It is the most important event of the century, because you cannot change the prayers of millions of men and women without affecting the balance of the planet. »

In the 12 years of pontifying, Pope Francis wanted to reform the church much more, with the support of the progressive cardinal-the supporters up to 2103 of the popes woke up in the position of detractors of Francis and Vice versa. The new Pope-the first in Latin America and the first Jesuit, wanted to reform the Vatican bureaucracy, the Vatican finances, to cleanse the pedophile church and the scandals that were held, to straighten it. He announced and started this whole reform taking care of his image, as he did in the period before the pontificate, in Argentina and Rome – posed in the high humble prelate, taking care to be accompanied by a photographer in the buses or subway with which he was traveling, in his big Joia, to the Pie, This is the pontif that hundreds of millions of Catholics right now regrets now.

On the other hand, Pope Francis remained Bishop of Cordoba, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a relatively authoritarian and impulsive prelate, shows the obituary published by The Viewer. He said he was not for a church of the « doctors in law », but he was the pontiff who changed the Constitution and Criminal Code of the Vatican. The Commission for the Protection of Minors he set up was underfunded and without sufficient officials, as well as not to produce the major promised changes. Then, the Pope came to defend Latin American bishops accused of abuse, against the direction he officially gave. The Vatican State Secretariat lost millions of euros in real estate transactions in the UK and followed the « process of the century » at the Vatican. Cleaning in the Vatican finances thus came to bring the holy chair close to bankruptcy. Inside the church, Pope Francis began to be criticized for the more authoritarian tendencies, through the changes he imposed in the order of the Knights of Malta, in the opposite of Dei and Caritas Internationalis.

In 2023, Pope Francis made waves in the press of the world announcing that it allows Catholic priests to be able to celebrate same -sex marriages. He immediately took a step back, at the pressure of the bishops in Africa, and said that the blessing can also be received by homosexuals, but that the Church will not recognize their marriages. And thus became a fragmentation of the Catholic Church, which from the universal became more regional or national, depending on how much or little they agreed to take from the reform portion served by the Vatican. The pope said that the church will not discuss the possibility of women being able to enter the clergy, but has entrusted this project to the most vocal supporters of the progressive causes within the Catholic Church. He wanted to be a pope that puts less emphasis on dogma, but was criticized because he constantly checks whether the priests serve in the spirit of the Reformation of the 1960s or fall into the sin of Catholic traditionalism. He wanted to be a positive pope, but he became characterized by what criticizes rather than what he promoted. His position on immigration has better illustrated this, criticizing the anti-immigration approach of the former Trump administration, when the US was the destination of the famous « caravans » of immigrants, led by priests with the cross in hand along the central America. « The solution is migration. To open the gates in front of migration. In order for the migration policy to be good, they must have four things: illegal immigrants must be received, they must be helped, they must be promoted and they must be integrated, » said Pope. These contradictions characterized the pontificate of Pope Francis. He himself said, in Paraguay, in 2015: « Make disorder, but then help to order. » « In almost 12 years, Pope Francis has certainly disorderly. It is time for someone else to make orders, » writes The spectator.

Now, the Catholics are divided into three broad categories: those who want a continuator, those who want a pope to cancel the predecessor’s reforms and those who want only a new man in white to go out to the Balcony of Saint Peter, regardless of his ideological preferences. Here, Pope Francis was careful to name a large number of electric cardinals, with a good age under 80, to increase the chances of choosing a pope to continue his reforms in progressive spirit. Around 80% of the electrotors are appointed by the deceased Pope. What was a minority within the church turns, with the exchange of generations, in a majority. In 2005, at the Conclavul after the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Bergoglio received the second largest number of votes, after Joseph Ratzinger, due to the support of the « group of St Gallen » (of the progressive cardinal who were secret in Switzerland). What 20 years ago was a minority group seems to now control the Cardinal College, to build the Catholic Church of the third millennium.