Resentment is key to Pope’s thinking, Archbishop Chaput writes
March 15, 2024
» Continue to this story on First Things
CWN Editor's Note: In an essay for First Things, retired Archbishop Charles Chaput writes: “It becomes hard to avoid the conclusion that an undercurrent of resentment is one of the distinguishing and most regrettable marks of the Francis pontificate.”
While praising some aspects of the Pope’s leadership, the archbishop says that his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei—which was based on a draft written by Pope Benedict XVI—“stands in unhappy contrast to every other document of the Francis tenure.”
Archbishop Chaput sees resentment as a key theme of the Pope’s thinking, and adds that “the advisers, apologists, and ghostwriters who surround this pontificate have been instrumental in adding to the problem.” The archbishop devotes much of his essay to a critique of the thought of Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Mar. 17, 2024 1:33 AM ET USA
Outstanding article that allows Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) his place as one of the greatest Catholic thinkers of the 20th century. Archbishop Chaput ends his essay with this: "We rightly feel compassion for persons locked in sinful situations. But compassion is not a license to minimize, or excuse, or bless the destructive behaviors involved therein. ...No 'new paradigm' or 'development of doctrine' can result in an alibi for sin in the light of God’s Word and the" Church's wisdom. Bravo!
