Satire: A New Way to Combat the Crisis? and Reactions

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JMJ

The SSPX has published an article critical of the utilization of anonymous satire in addressing the Pope.

This article has raised the ire of a number of online anonymous bloggers and personalities (see Remnant).

The key element that Father X misses is that, while the name of the author of the article is unknown, the identity of the organization sponsoring the article is clearly known: The SSPX.



This is after-all, the key element and I will repeat it - while the individual identity of the author is unknown  - the identity of the sponsoring organization is crystal clear.

The same is when the following picture was created by the SSPX and given the Pope St. John Paul II:

Even if it was classified as satirical, which is debatable, it is clear who provided Pope St. John Paul II a copy of the image - it was Archbishop Lefebvre.  Just as it is clear which organization sponsored the work - the SSPX.

Father X ends his article with the following:

The atypical silence of the Society over the constant outrages of Francis in the months leading up to a possible regularization with Rome does not bode well for the future, for the Society itself and for tradition as a whole. If the price to pay for regularization is silence now, the cost to remain will be the same. Then, my friend SSPX-X, you will find out what it is like to fight in the trenches of tradition and keep your head down from enemy fire.

First, we have the 'atypical silence' of the Society. I find this amusing as ... well the SSPX is continually publishing articles on the core topics of the current crisis.  Id est, they've been expounding upon the issues wit Amoris Laetitia. Perhaps Father should read the French website as well.

So the 'atypical silence' is, in my opinion, a fantasy.  That the SSPX doesn't cry out and rent they cassocks at every crazy utterance of Pope Francis is clear. First it would accomplish nothing but stir up the emotions when it is necessary to know the underlying errors of Pope Francis et al.

Second, Fr. X claims that the 'price to pay for regularization is silence'.  Interestingly, the SSPX periodically tests the Roman resolve in allowing the SSPX to continue speak their mind on the various issues.  It was done a couple of times in 2011/2 and I suspect it continues now as articles critical of the post conciliar teaching continue.  A problem with Fr. X's thesis is that the SSPX continues to pay the price for its bravery - they remain uncompromising and unregularized.

Lastly, I would ask Fr. X - if he is aware of the issues with Amoris Laetitia etc, is he speaking out for the salvation of souls?

If not, why not?

His own soul is also at stake.

Finally, much of the anxiety of the SSPX is because the SSPX is not acting as some individuals would like.  Sorry, that's just too bad, the SSPX knows well the slippery slope that is created by unbridled criticism of the Pope.  Care must be taken in criticizing and correcting the Vicar of Christ.  For his own welfare as well as that of the Church.

P^3



Courtesy of SSPX.org

Satire: A New Way to Combat the Crisis?

February 16, 2017 

District of the USA

Posters criticising Pope Francis appeared throughout Rome on Feb. 4

In an age where anonymous dissent is celebrated, the Pope is not immune: satirical criticism has swept through Rome in recent weeks. 

Just over a week ago, Romans awoke to 200 posters plastered around the city. The posters, featuring a picture of a scowling Pope Francis on his throne wrapped in a thick coat read:
 

Ah Francis, you have intervened in Congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals... but where is your mercy?”

Now it has been learned that an earlier, but similarly-organized operation took place about a month ago. Cardinals awoke to the reception of a news bulletin, seemingly from L'Osservatore Romano, in their email inbox. This satirical message, made to look as if it came from the Vatican news agency arrived with the subject "Ha risposto!" (He responded).  

Dated January 17th, the email took aim at the lack of response of Pope Francis to the dubia of the four cardinals regarding Amoris Laetitia. The "newspaper" presented supposed answers from Pope Francis saying both “yes “ and “no” to every question of the dubia. In the column called Nostre Informazioni (Our Information), which - in the official version - contains the daily official acts of the pope, it was announced that Francis called 92-year-old Leftist Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari to discuss his responses to the dubia and has authorized him to share their conversation with the public. Scalfari is legendary for his past approximative interviews leaving educated readers with no way to know what the Pope really said. The email reports this answer from Scalfari: 
 

Some things you’ve said, I won’t report. Some things you’d have me report you didn’t actually say, but I’ll put them in so the reader understands who you are.”

The fake email reported that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, known to share the Pope’s views on the divorced and remarried, had reviewed the responses positively, while no comment is offered from Cardinal Gherard Müller, who as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, would ordinarily be given a voice on these subjects. This silence from Müller is due to the Pope “benevolently spar[ing] him the honor of expressing an opinion.” Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto - who in the past suggested the Pope could remove the cardinal's hat of the dubia’s authors - is reported of dying of joy after reading the Pope's answers.

To be abundantly clear, the contents of this email are intended to be satirical and amusing to a point. But what is real (and where the humor ends) is the sweeping sense of unrest throughout the Vatican. 

Who's Behind It All?
 

Of course, many are pointing fingers towards traditionalist Catholics. Cath.ch, a Swiss Catholic news website, could not help but speculate that the St. Pius X Center (responsible for the publication of SiSi NoNo, an organization independent of the SSPX), was responsible for the email. John Allen in the February 10 edition of Crux celebrates the humor of the piece.
 

'Satire may be mad and anarchic, but it presupposes an admitted superiority in certain things over others; it presupposes a standard.' wrote Chesterton."

And again, we could laugh too - if the subject was not so dramatic, if the person and function of the Pope were not involved, and if all this was not an expression of the chaos in Rome.

Is This a Proper Way to Combat the Crisis in the Church?

Further, and as we have touched on before, we cannot support this passive-aggressive and disrespectful method of "correcting" the Sovereign Pontiff. While privacy and confidentiality are not without their place, hiding behind a computer screen has, unfortunately, become an accepted method of public discource.  

Letters sent without signatures, anonymous emails, and posts on websites using pseudonyms are not done by men of fortitude and conviction in the truth. They are the acts of cowards, who like the mythological figure Eris, only seek to attain their goals - however noble they may be - through chaos.

An Official Response?

On February 13, in an odd note on the Vatican's daily press briefing, the Council of Cardinals, which Pope Francis has delegated to work with him on reform of the Roman Curia, published a statement of allegiance to the Pope:
 

In relation to recent events, the Council of Cardinals pledges its full support for the Pope’s work, assuring him at the same time of its adhesion and loyalty to the figure of the Pope and to his Magisterium.”

It would seem an unnecessary statement in a daily press briefing, akin to a mother telling her children during meal time, "I support your father's decisions wholeheartedly" without prior context or reason. But today, it is unsurprising, as an exceptional barometer of the havoc inside Vatican City during this pontificate.