Deference...

Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgement of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Rev.17:1-2.

"Very few, if any, of my Eastern Orthodox friends and acquaintances are impressed with this Pope. Instead of seeing a man who is supposed to seriously lead 1.2 billion Christians to the Kingdom of Heaven, they find an inept chairman of the world’s largest and most dysfunctional NGO. His off-the-cuff remarks to pressmen and individual Catholics are oftentimes confusing, if not scandalous. His liturgical style is grotesque, not to mention anti-traditional, and his priorities seem to be directed at accommodating the Church to the ways of the world rather than saving souls. Although the Orthodox are not without their own faults, can anyone imagine Patriarch Kirill of Moscow—head of the world’s largest Orthodox jurisdiction—wagging his finger at those in his flock attached to traditional doctrine, liturgy, and piety? Is there a single Orthodox patriarch in the world—save Bartholomew of Constantinople—who behaves like Francis? Heaven forbid.

"Mills wants Catholics to love the Pope as “their father.” The hard truth is that Francis does not project the authority, leadership, and love of a true father. He is the embarrassing loudmouthed uncle who is begrudgingly invited over on Thanksgiving. He’s family, so you love him; but you still hope your friends never see him."

So we have "inept," "scandalous," "grotesque," "anti-traditional," "embarrassing," "loud-mouthed," and "hope-your-friends-never-see-him." The deference is edifying! Of course, I would describe the liturgical books of 1962 as scandalous, grotesque, anti-traditional and would not dream of inviting any of my friends to a celebration in that rite - it would be like inviting friends for dinner and giving them leftovers - but we all know that the 1962 missal is so antient and so venerable, so it matters not a bit what nasty old Fred Phelps thinks. But exactly what do the tradunculi want in a pope in the modern world? A new Pius IX? A man so despised that on hearing of his demise Bismarck went out and bought an expensive claret. Maybe they should just exhume what's left of Pius XII, their last real pope, dress it in some cheap lace and speak for it as the oracles of their own contemptuous religion. I'm sure they'd enjoy dispensing anathemas left, right and centre and the custom of kissing the papal foot. Maybe, with the restored papal coronation, they could start dictating to secular rulers again and petulantly placing whole countries under interdict when they don't get their way. Whatever.

I make no secret of the fact that I dislike Bogroll. It's just because he's the pope. But I don't despise him in the way that the dutiful traddies do. Doesn't that say something?