On “the degraded Vatican culture”

by Christopher A. Ferrara
March 9, 2017

Beloved by the powers of this world, Francis has just made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine — the leading publication of the degenerate “rock culture” — for the second time. This time it’s the Italian edition, with a cover story under the headline “Francesco — Pop Pope.”



The “Pop Pope” has surrounded himself with an entourage of radical progressives whose candid photos tell us volumes about the character of the Church’s leadership under Francis. Let us examine a sampling of this strange gallery of ecclesial power-wielders:

Then there is Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, now head of the neutralized Pontifical Council for Life, who, as I discussed here, commissioned a blasphemous and obscene mural for the cathedral of his former diocese, featuring himself and one “Father Fabio” in the hideous work:

Every one of the prelates depicted, dutifully citing Amoris Laetitia (AL) as sole authority, supports the overthrow in practice of the teaching of John Paul II and all of Tradition on the impossibility of Holy Communion for people living in adultery. And every one of them has been elevated to a new level of prominence and authority by none other than the “Pop Pope.” 

Perhaps it suffices simply to look at the photos above to realize that the Church is now in grave danger from much of its own leadership, particularly within the Vatican apparatus. But concerning Paglia in particular, the always-insightful Maureen Mullarkey draws a larger lesson from the mural affair. She writes:

“Paglia’s narcissism — the urge to flaunt his liberation from the moral considerations he is pledged to honor — is stunning. It is a finger in the eye of congregants who trust in a priest’s fidelity to his vows. To place it in a public house of worship is treachery. It is also a declaration of Paglia’s own trust in his immunity from reprimand….”

Note well the phrase “immunity from reprimand.” Paglia, rainbow-colored sunglasses and all, knows quite well that his outrages will have no consequences, but on the contrary will be rewarded with power and influence. And this, Mullarkey notes, indicates a far deeper, endemic problem: “Ultimately, the core of the issue here is not about a mural at all. Not substantially. Nor is it even about Archbishop Paglia. It is about a degraded Vatican culture which props up a man like Paglia, awarding him authority when he should be handed sackcloth and ashes and packed off to a hermitage.”

We are witnessing at this very moment in history precisely the unparalleled crisis foretold in the Third Secret of Fatima, whose undisclosed portion was revealed in part by Benedict XVI in answer to a question concerning the Third Secret he himself had selected beforehand:

“As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope (Benedict XVI) and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church…”