"Francis has been totally orthodox..can only be faulted by faulty reading"

David, I quickly looked at Wikipedia and they had this to say about his appearance at the election of Pope Francis, it was a case of seniority, apparently:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfried_Danneels

 

Cardinal Daneels was a known leader of the St. Gellen group. He personally and publicly called it a "mafia." http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...ls-part-of-mafia-club-opposed-to-benedict-xvi

He was on the balcony with the new pope because, where he had failed to get him elected in 2005, he finally succeeded in his well documented papal electioneering in 2013.

He was made the second most important man at the Synod by the pope in thanks for his efforts to get him elected and because he was a leading proponent of the pope's desire to bring the divorced to back to Communion, something for which Daneels had been campaigning for since well before 1993.

https://cruxnow.com/church/2014/09/09/the-old-debate-on-divorce-has-a-new-wildcard-francis/

In fact, however, they date to October 1999 and that year’s Synod of Bishops on Europe, called by Pope John Paul II. At the time, luminaries of the left such as Cardinals Godfried Danneels of Brussels and Carlo Maria Martini of Milan were pushing to re-open a question that John Paul’s Vatican had declared closed five years before.​

In 1993, three German bishops had put out a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics who divorce and remarry without obtaining an annulment, a declaration from a church court that a marriage never existed because it didn’t meet one of the tests for validity, such as informed consent. The bishops said if such Catholics decide in conscience their first marriage was invalid, with the counsel of a priest, they can receive communion.​

His appearance on the balcony was not a coincidence. It was a statement that his position had finally won by getting "their man" in this position.

 

http://cathcon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/...+blogspot/ZMRq+(Catholic+Church+Conservation)

However, he did know precisely, as a former prefect of the CDF, the dark side of the Church. Paedophile priests, opaque finances and corruption were the "dirt" in the church which he wanted to eliminate. But they were persistent. "Of course I wanted to do more than I could." After all, he had sacked hundreds paedophile priests and smashed a homosexual old boy network in the Vatican. "Whether that has formed again, I do not know."​

The former Archbishop of Munich sharply judges the Catholic Church in Germany to the Court. He complains about "a well-established and highly paid Catholicism" along with "over dependence on unholy bureaucracy", a "theorization of faith" and a "lack of a living dynamism."​

 

During his meal last night, Pope Francis told the cardinals: may God forgive you for what you've done, the spokesman says.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/14/pope-francis-first-day

Pope Francis seems to realise the Holy Ghost played little part.

 

great stuff, catechist, but you're living in your own world of make believe. I think you must have gone to the same school as BrianK.

Pope Francis was freely elected by the individual Cardinals, guided by the Holy Spirit and I praise the Lord for the gift He has given us.

 

Marxism?

 

A friend drew it. There was a good reason for me using it for a short while... now I'm going to change it.

 

Do tell...

Who was the old Indian dude?

 

I'm puzzled. Are you saying that there was no St Gallen 'mafia' group? That Cardinal Daneels didn't allude to it?

 

My reply to catechist was to the two paragraphs by him that I quoted within it. I was not making any comment about the 'St Gallen group' and have no interest in it.

 

Few do, now that their job is done

 

But what catechist said is all linked to the St Gallen group.

 

Yes, I know, but that's the problem with all you people who are criticizing the Pope. You make comments about one thing or other and then add 'follow up' comments which simply do not follow from the earlier remarks.

The two paragraphs by catechist were pure speculation on his part. They were also untrue.

 

I think that it is difficult to be sure of the truth in this matter.
All the past distressing events in the Church, including Pope Benedict's resignation, coupled with prophecy through the years about Cardinals against cardinals etc and Pope Paul VI's 'the smoke of Satan has entered the church' makes one wonder.
How do we recognise the good vs the bad?

 

Its a woman, Mac..and she was a real person. I wanted to show it to someone and this was the only way I knew how. Going to change it back again later.

 

I'm so glad we have Papa Benedict's own words. If you want the truth get it straight "from the horses mouth"

 

He wasn't the only pope to utter those words...John Paul I also after accepting his election humbly exclaimed, "May God forgive you for what you have done," Papal conclave, August 1978

 

• Cardinal Martini was widely seen as the leader of the liberal group that might have sought for an alternative to Cardinal Ratzinger. But Vatican insiders know that Cardinal Martini was not at all favorably disposed toward his fellow Jesuit, Cardinal Bergoglio, and would never have supported his election.

• Since the St. Gallen group stopped meeting in 2006, it was not likely to be an important factor in the conclave of 2013, which elected Pope Francis. By that time Cardinal Martini was dead, and other members—Cardinals Silvestrini and Murphy-O’Connor—were too old to participate in the conclave.
• 
  
• In the days leading up to the 2013 conclave, virtually no one expected the election of Cardinal Bergoglio. If a group of cardinals had been working for years to generate enthusiasm about his candidacy, they must have been singularly inept
• 
  
• .https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=1115

 

I think it is also good to have some of those words here on the forum:



This is the cover of "Last Testament," an interview retired Pope Benedict XVI did with German author Peter Seewald. In the book the pope talks about events surrounding his resignation and says that practical governance was not his forte. (CNS photo/courtesyBloomsbury)


Pope Benedict insisted once again that he was not pressured by anyone or any event to resign and he did not feel he was running away from any problem.

"My weak point perhaps is a lack of resolve in governing and making decisions," he said. "Here, in reality, I am more a professor, one who reflects and meditates on spiritual questions. Practical governance was not my forte and this certainly was a weakness."

Pope Francis, on the other hand, "is a man of practical reform," the retired pope said. His personality and experience as a Jesuit provincial and archbishop have enabled him to take practical organizational steps.

The retired pope, who is 89, said he had no inkling that then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected his successor; "no one expected him."

"When I first heard his name, I was unsure," he said. "But when I saw how he spoke with God and with people, I truly was content. And happy."

Pope Benedict said it made no impression on him that the brand new pope chose to appear on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica without wearing the ermine-lined red mozzetta or cape. "What did touch me, though, was that even before going out onto the loggia, he tried to phone me."

Electing the first Jesuit pope and the first Latin American pope, the College of Cardinals showed that "the church is moving, dynamic, open, with the prospect of new developments before it," he said. "What is beautiful and encouraging is that even in our day things that no one expected happen and they demonstrate that the church is alive and brimming with new possibilities."



With a view to writing a biography, Seewald said he conducted his interview with Pope Benedict "shortly before and after" his resignation in February 2013. The book contains more than 500 questions and answers, covering the childhood of Joseph Ratzinger, his seminary and university years, his teaching career and his work at the Second Vatican Council. Seewald also asked about his years as a bishop in Germany, his work as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and his papacy.

Pope Benedict reviewed the text and approved its publication, Seewald said. The two met May 23 at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens, where the retired pope lives with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and a small group of consecrated women, who care for the household.

The only writing the retired pope does these days, he told Seewald, is a Sunday homily each week.

"You write sermons for four or five people?" Seewald asked. "Why not?" the retired pope replied. "Whether there are three or 20 or 1,000 (people), the word of God must always be present to people."

But writing any more than that, he said, "would simply be too arduous for me now."

Insisting "my hour had passed and I had given all I could," Pope Benedict said he never has regretted resigning, but he does regret hurting friends and faithful who were "really distressed and felt forsaken" by his stepping down.

While a pope, like any Christian, is called to take up his cross and follow Christ -- including bearing criticism and even scorn -- the retired pope said, "that doesn't mean, however, that he must die by the sword."

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he served 24 years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, working very closely with St. John Paul II.

Despite their closeness, Pope Benedict said he easily rejected the idea of taking the name John Paul III when it became clear in the conclave of 2005 that he was about to be elected St. John Paul's successor.

"I felt that would be inappropriate because a standard had been set there, which I couldn't match," Pope Benedict said. "I was a different character, cut from different cloth. I had a different sort of charisma, or rather a non-charisma."

In response to Seewald's repetition of the aphorism that "the loving God corrects every pope in his successor," the retired pope said Pope Francis' "direct contact with people," the way he wades into a crowd, is probably a correction, as is "the courage with which he exposes problems and searches for solutions."

When Pope Francis published his apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel") in November 2013, he sent Pope Benedict a copy bound in white, the color usually reserved for the pope's copy of a document.

The text came with "a beautiful personal letter" in Pope Francis' own handwriting, which, Pope Benedict said, "is much smaller than mine." The retired pope, whose handwriting is notoriously miniscule, said, "in comparison my handwriting is huge."

 

Spoken like true Saint.

Interesting

he said. "But when I saw how he spoke with God and with people, I truly was content. And happy."