Man reverted to Catholicism under Pope Benedict, now says ‘Rome is lost’ and praises Islam
Br. Seraphim Mary said the man’s ‘struggle seems rooted in needing an authority in matters of faith and morality in a time of mundane confusion.’ Thu Jun 10, 2021 – 3:50 pm EST
By Emily Mangiaracina
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June 10, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — An Anglo-Catholic religious revealed that a man who turned to Islam and then reverted back to Catholicism because of Pope Benedict XVI has once again embraced Islam because of his grievances with “Rome.”
“I gave pastoral care today to a Roman Catholic who had embraced Islam and returned to Catholicism due to the Papacy. He said, ‘that under Benedict XVI he saw genuine rules of play in a rudderless world’. Today he said that Rome is lost, and that the Qur’an is the road to truth,” tweeted Brother Seraphim Mary, OSF, who is an Oblate with the Franciscan Order of the Divine Compassion.
One Twitter user commented, “Fortunately, we don’t pick our Popes, we obey them”
Br. Seraphim Mary responded, “His point was more about providing clear doctrine, not blind obedience. The struggle seems rooted in needing an authority in matters of faith and morality in a time of mundane confusion.”
Many Catholics have observed that there has been an almost unceasing flurry of confusion over the meaning of Pope Francis’ public, and, at times, reported private statements and writings, which often elicit unorthodox interpretations of Catholic morals, and subsequent attempts at damage control.
This pattern led Carl Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, to concur with the opinion of First Things editor Matthew Schmitz that Pope Francis is “trying to soften Church teaching.” SUBSCRIBE to LifeSite’s daily headlines U.S. Canada World Catholic
“Personally, I see no way around that conclusion,” wrote Olson. “After all, if Francis never meant to change or soften Church teaching, why the constant reliance on Cardinal Kasper and other Germans, the two Synods, the regular confusion, the jostling and posturing, the endless ‘gestures,’ the angry address at the conclusion of the 2015 Synod, the often tortured and purposeful ambiguity of chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, and so forth?”
Among the most momentous examples of Pope Francis’s apparent break with the Church’s moral teaching are his endorsement of Holy Communion for the divorced and “remarried” in some cases, and his support of civil unions for homosexual couples.
Numerous Catholic clergy and laymen have called for clarification of Church teaching as a response to his persistent ambiguity or misleading statements on certain moral teachings.
Some Catholic commentators have co-opted the term “Francis effect” — originally used to describe the Pope’s ostensibly positive “reform” of the Church — and turned it on its head, claiming that the practice of Catholicism has weakened under Pope Francis.
Father Linus Clovis of Family Life International takes the “Francis Effect” to mean an undermining of traditional Catholic teaching, asserting that “traditional minded” clergy, and even laity, “[i]n holding to the traditional Catholic moral teaching and order,” “would soon be accused of being more Catholic than the pope.”
“This disarming of the clergy and hierarchy constitutes the Francis Effect,” he added.
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