Pray for Pope Francis and the Jesuits to become Better Leaders Today

Pope Francis delivered a homily in Quebec City on Friday about how we must not get stuck in the trap of secularism.

But, Pope Francis must know he is a huge problem for this within our Church.

Pope Francis's reign has seen constant promotion of clergy members that are not the most Catholic in their beliefs or actions, as well as not the most Catholic lay people in other positions of power.

His comments have often suggested ambivalence to certain key pillars of our Faith.

He has consistently attacked parts of our Church that uphold our Dogma and Doctrine, while growing closer with those who appear against our Dogma and Doctrine or publicly want to replace the Words of God.

And his Order for the latter part of last century and into the present-day have largely been at the center of destruction of Catholic education across the Americas.

For more context, you can read this article here that goes into more depth with some very helpful links.

But, on this day when we remember the great works of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, we must remember that the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Pope Francis himself have been behind much of the good in our world. 

And, this is what we should pray for on a day like today. We should pray to the Holy Spirit to guide the Jesuits and Pope Francis back into great defenders of our Faith and believers in our Dogma. 

For Pope Francis, he has been doing a much better job with this as of late. 

But, early on, many of his comments were mistranslated and taken out of context, and like a bad politician, instead of addressing these head on to stop the confusion, he let these topics simmer like a secular philosophy professor, despite so many of these topics having clear answers from the Word of God! By either ineptly or willfully leaving some questions on Catholic theology and teachings open ended, he created the momentum for the heathenous movements coming out of Germany and Luxembourg today. 

With the Jesuits, we can consistently see their demise in their magazine, America, which often calls into question certain definitive beliefs, and in their schools and how many have turned from great defenders of our Faith to places holding Planned Parenthood fundraisers, only stopping events like these and distancing themselves after the events become public knowledge to their Catholic alumni and donors. This is not to say America or some of their great schools are not good or not Catholic, but it is to say that they suffer from much more heretical acts than they should. 

The errors and destruction the Jesuits have done or allowed to have been done to our Church lately that has directly led to attacks on God’s infallible laws within out Church are caused by two things: one, people that support these heresies within their Order, and two, those who do not stop it like Pope Francis throughout much of his reign. 

Lastly, Pope Francis has often been attacking and changing the parts of our Church most loyal to God’s Words such as those that attend Traditional Latin Mass, Opus Dei, and the Sovereign Knights of Malta, and has overseen the “resignation” or coercive letting go of plenty of conservative clergymen from positions of power like Cardinal Robert Sarah from Prelate of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2021 and Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres from the Diocese of Arecibo in Puerto Rico in 2022. 

These attacks are often disproportionate against people that appear either conservative in the religious realm, or those in the political realm. For example, the amount of publicity Pope Francis has done with President Obama over re-establishing Cuban-US relations versus the constant pressures placed on President Trump and Pope Francis’s lack of proportional celebration when Roe v. Wade was overturned, a much more important issue theologically, has driven many people away from the Church and from Church teachings.

Politically, conservative and liberal may only be labels, but religiously, there are certain beliefs and teachings which we must be 100% conservative on, as in unchanging. So, being upset with a President over immigration and not with one on abortion, when the latter is a theologically decided question makes one question if secular bias has not seeped into papal policy under Pope Francis. 

Most glaring to those in the USA is the fact that Pope Francis created Bishop Walter McElroy of San Diego a cardinal instead of Archbishop José Gómez, the leader of the ecclesiastical province San Diego is in. Not only is this odd to create a suffragan bishop over the archbishop to a cardinal, but also, Archbishop José Gómez is the President of the USCCB and by default probably should be a cardinal! Furthermore, Bishop Walter McElroy often has a difficult time expressing Catholic beliefs or acting in a Catholic way for many beliefs which contradict with popular culture, to put it nicely. Archbishop José Gómez, meanwhile, is a great example of a “non-cafeteria” Catholic, as he has criticized pro-choice policies of President Biden and anti-immigration policies of President Trump, while writing extensively against the dangers of wokism, the new secular religion as he calls it. 

These missed opportunities and constant unequal criticism and discipline suggests Pope Francis is not serious about combatting secularism and makes his homily in Quebec City sort of slap in the face because he seems to be the progenitor of many of these horrible movements within our Church as well as horrible moves within our Church because he has been the one directing those.

But, there is hope!

First, Pope Francis is a believer in our Dogma and Doctrine. He has been doing better recently in speaking out against bad movements in our Church like those in Germany and elsewhere. Those that work in his central affairs have been taking note of this and are now tackling these issues head on too, such as with the Holy See Secretary of State’s Foreign Minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who finally spoke out against (somewhat) the Communist Party of China’s treatment of Catholics and its reneging on the PRC’s deal with the Holy See, as well as against the German synodal process. 

Pope Francis is also doing better with calling out abortion and pushing back against other sins now, as well as combatting secular ideology seeping into theological movements in the Church. 

We must remember that it was the Jesuits that for so long kept all of us on the straight and narrow through their education and strict caring for humanity, even being expelled from the great powers of Europe at different times for sticking up to their increasing secular policies such as enslaving indigenous peoples of the Americas, or trying to take more powers away from the Pope with regards to selecting the bishops and topics related to this, like taking away or taxing Church property.

The Jesuits created the environment where the Catholic Church became the largest denomination and so many top level Catholic schools exist throughout the world. We owe so much to them, and that is why we must pray today for the Jesuits to become the Great Defenders of the Faith they once were as a collective again, and for Pope Francis to better lead our Church against the heresies that threaten it from within and outside.

Imagine a Catholic Church where the Jesuits were the Jesuits of before, and where Pope Francis consistently pushed back against the sinning culture within our Church, and promoted those following our Church most reverently! 

So, let us pray today for the Holy Spirit to guide the Jesuits and Pope Francis to become better leaders in our Church.