It is important to take note of this personal testimony of me in order to understand my critical attitude toward the current course of the Church. All of the following articles are explained by my decision to follow Pope Francis only if he himself is fully faithful to the teachings of the Church. If doubts and ambiguities arise from the statements and actions of Pope Francis, they must be raised in order to find clarification.
It was the grace of God that led me to conversion in 1977 and answered my search for God in a wonderful way! The encounter with Jesus was the decisive turning point in my life and I turned away from a life that contradicted the commandments of God and also from some certain spiritual realms called esotericism or occultism! It became clear to me that these spiritual currents are incompatible with that Holy Spirit that led me to the knowledge of Christ and therefore I had to leave them.
A journey began with the Lord, who led me to the Catholic Church in 1980! How grateful I was to discover there all the wealth that came about through the observance of the Christian message! In addition to the Scriptures, I got to know the sacraments of the Church, the world of the saints opened up, the different religious practices and prayers delighted me, the richness of the spiritual doctrine, the apparitions of Mary, the works of spiritual and physical mercy, a clear doctrine of the Catholic faith, a hierarchically ordered Church with the Pope as the “servant of all servants”! In short, it was an enlightening encounter with the Holy Spirit, which led me to the faith and to follow Jesus. Sins were called sins and referred to forgiveness! I had arrived home, the Lord had led me to His Church! Rome, sweet home!
How have I rejoiced in the truth of the doctrine that I have accepted with conviction and with all my heart! The Catholic Church did not seem to me to be strict, but I experienced it in its truthfulness, wonderful priests and believers! The hierarchy of the Church, although I personally had not much to do with it, was self-evident and obvious to me!
Here and there I heard of difficulties in the Church from different problems, but the Popes John Paul ll. and Pope Benedict XVI were for me guarantors of the faith: Roma locuta, causa finita!
I moved in very believing circles and the Catholic world seemed to be in good order overall!
Then, surprisingly, Pope Benedict XV resigned in 2013 and I couldn’t believe it. For a long time I had to wrestle with it, because it was he who was a guarantor of me to confront the modern currents of the times intellectually and with firm faith!
Pope Francis of Argentina took office and things changed in the Church. Even the first interviews alienated me in terms of content, but I defended him as the new Pope! I was impressed by the simplicity of his person, by his humor, and I also experienced him three times during his travels: in the Holy Land in Bethlehem and twice in Ecuador!
But my astonishment grew, as there were often papal statements that no longer reflected the clear doctrine of the Church! The interviews Pope Francis often gave on his return journeys on a plane often revealed questionable positions. I wondered whether the Holy Father was always fully aware that many people listened to him and that his words had a different quality than the words of other believers! The clear water of Catholic doctrine, which I was accustomed to from Rome, flowed only rarely, and instead it was more often contradictory!
The papal ministry began to change and I wondered how much Jesuit-influence and personal habitudes such a ministry can endure! Slowly it dawned on me that there was a “different spirit” at work here, a spirit that no longer seemed to attach so much importance to the objective statements of the Magisterium, and instead concentrated more on the devotion to man! A spirit who looked at man less from God’s side, but more humanly on man! Later, the word came up from the “paradigma” that is carried out in this pontificate!
It was said that with St. John Paul II, a philosopher, had ascended the papal throne, with Benedict XVI a theologian, and with the present Pope more of a practitioner! Also, some did not tire of saying that there was no gap between the teachings of the previous and the present Pope, because one had to explain again and again some statements of Pope Francis to the faithful!
Clear Catholic doctrine, on the other hand, was heard, for example, from Cardinal Burke from the USA, and that which one reads in the books of Cardinal Sarah. Only a few pastors of the Church spoke publicly about the discrepancies in the statements of Pope Francis and the teachings of the Church!
It became increasingly clear to me that something foreign was working in the Catholic Church.
This was made very clear by the papal letter Amoris laetitia! It was the now very well-known footnote of the letter, which opened up the possibility that even those who live intimately in a second connection – while the valid sacramental marriage still exists – may also can go under circumstances to the Holy Communion. This was clearly different from the church’s previous teaching, which was unequivocally rejected by Cardinal Ratzinger in relation to a question from three German bishops pointing in the same direction!
Doctrine and practice diverged here recognizably and all attempts at explanation to bring this into unity with the church’s previous path were not convincing to me! That is why I was very grateful that four cardinals decided to formulate a so-called dubia and to ask the Pope specifically to answer it! It was precisely those doubts that had to arise after the Pope published Amoris Laetitia and which demanded an explanation so that the people of God would not be unsettled, and the clarity of Catholic moral doctrine came to light!
But the dubia did not receive an answer, as did many other letters to the Pope, who was asked by the signatories to clarify misunderstood statements, to protect marriage and family more!
While I had initially concluded that a pope from Latin America may have different behaviors than a Pope from Europe, it became clear to me that a “another spirit” was manifesting itself more and more! For me it was no longer individual misunderstood statements that came from the church leadership, but I discovered more and more this “other spirit” in which I no longer heard the voice of my Lord, the shepherd of the flock! The leadership of the Church had taken a different course: the ship had fallen into considerable trouble, the confusion in the Church became more and more intense!
So how should you call this “other spirit”? In any case, he is a modernist spirit, which subsequently leads to many diseases such as: loss of tradition, loss of transcendence, loss of identity of the Church, weakening of the mission, weakening of the pursuit of holiness, liturgical experiments, moral disorientation, loss of the clarity of doctrine, a spirit of increasing politicization of the Church, a spirit that puts aside the essentials and the less important ones in particular, a spirit that is increasingly the focus of man and no longer of God. It would take too long for my testimony to cite all examples where you can see this spirit at work. This may be demonstrated more concretely by other articles on this website.
It would be unfair to say that Pope Francis has brought this “other spirit” into the Church. He has been working before. But the last two popes, John Paul ll. and Benedict XVI, consciously counteracted this spirit. Pope Francis, on the other hand, has opened the door for him and is promoting him.
This is how a confused situation has arisen in the Church. Large parts of the ecclesial hierarchy follow the modern path that Fr. Francis takes, supports or tolerates. Shepherds, who are supposed to watch over the purity of doctrine and its corresponding practice, are hardly supportive for the faithful and are increasingly infected by the “spirit of the world”. This is devastating. In doing so, the leaders of the Church would have the task of resisting this “other spirit” and consolidating the faithful in the Holy Spirit. Instead, they weaken the church’s testimony.
One can see the devastating effects of this “other spirit” in connection with the intensity of an “anti-Christian spirit” which is becoming more effective in the world. He is trying to bring humanity under his influence. The effectiveness of this “other spirit” is already one of the manifestations of the “anti-Christian spirit” and influences the Church from within in order to make it increasingly willing to the antichristian spirit.
Then there were the pronouncements of Abu Dhabi, which said that God wants the diversity of religions. It is true that the Pope later, when Auxiliary Bishop Schneider addressed him to this erroneous statement, spoke of the permitted will of God, but then promoted the uncorrected version with its error. This was a serious attack against Jesus’ mission to the disciples and the mission of the church.
The Amazon Synod in October 2019 even showed idolatrous acts in the Vatican Gardens, in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Church of Santa Mary of Traspontina in the presence of the Pope. (1)
It is therefore necessary to ask the Lord to intervene to end the widening confusion in the Church so that she can resist the influences of darkness.
For me, I made the decision to pray for Pope Francis and to carry him in my heart. But I will not follow the path he wants to lead the Church. Whenever I notice the presence of this “other spirit,” I will resist it with God’s help, no matter by whom he works.
In our Catholic Church we have a sure doctrine and also a corresponding practice in dealing with people. Even if one learns new things and the Holy Spirit expands our knowledge, all this must be in the living continuity of the Church’s path to date. This is difficult to recognize in this pontificate, but is under attack in many areas.
The faithful, who want to remain faithful to the church’s previous path, need not justify themselves, but those who want to go differently do.
Of course, I remain faithful to the Church, which has given me so much in my life. You cannot simply leave Her once they She has been recognized as a haven of truth. She is also our holy Mother.
But it is now necessary to be particularly vigilant when a spirit of confusion has entered the church leadership and obviously also covers not a few bishops. It is precisely the love of the Church that does not simply overlook the present confusion. It becomes a call to go the path of holiness all the more intensely and to imply the Lord to give us soon a Pope who will bring the ship of the Church back on a clear and recognizable course.
It will take a lot of effort! With the help of the Holy Spirit, however, the Church will once again become more convincing, leaving no room for the “other Spirit” and clearly rejecting it. In this way, it can emerge stronger from the current crisis. Perhaps the church will be less in number, but stronger in faith and in devotion to God.
(1) these topics will be specifically addressed on the website because of their importance