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Ecclesiam Suam (1964 Encyclical on the Church’s Dialogue with the Modern World)
(on dialogue and apostolic work):
Dangers
88. But the danger remains. Indeed, the worker in the apostolate is under constant fire. The desire to come together as brothers must not lead to a watering down or whittling away of truth. Our dialogue must not weaken our attachment to our faith. Our apostolate must not make vague compromises concerning the principles which regulate and govern the profession of the Christian faith both in theory and in practice.
An immoderate desire to make peace and sink differences at all costs (irenism and syncretism) is ultimately nothing more than skepticism about the power and content of the Word of God which we desire to preach. The effective apostle is the man who is completely faithful to Christ's teaching. He alone can remain unaffected by the errors of the world around him, the man who lives his Christian life to the full.
Former President Barack Obama in Chicago on March 6. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images)
What do you call it when a politician tells you to put elections “back on a level playing field” by voting for a redistricting map gerrymandered to give Democrats 10 seats to Republicans’ one?
“Lying” doesn’t quite foot the bill. “Rank deception” is closer, but I think this kind of rhetoric calls for the big guns.
I’ll settle on “shameless Orwellian gaslighting,” because supporting the Virginia redistricting push in the name of “fairness” involves redefining basic words in the same manner as the oppressive government in George Orwell’s “1984,” and this rhetorical strategy seems designed to make people with rational concerns about the ballot initiative question their sanity.
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 20, 2026
Thirteen years after he introduced himself to the world as the new Bishop of Rome, and nearly a year after his death, Pope Francis remains an elusive figure: a man whose personality is not easy to understand. Having written two books and literally thousands of news briefs about the late Pontiff, I remain puzzled by several aspects of his life. Let me focus on three of these mysteries. If I understood them, maybe I would understand him better. But I don’t.
1. What happened in that confessional? When asked how he had first felt a calling to the priesthood, the late Pope said that one day when he was out with some of his friends, he decided to go to confession, and when he emerged from the confessional, he had decided that he would be a priest. As he told the story, it seems that he had not been thinking about the priesthood until that day, and then suddenly his trajectory was set. That sounds like a very dramatic encounter. Yet when he told the story, Pope Francis made it sound simple, almost prosaic, as if a light turned on and everything became obvious to him.
But what was it that flipped the switch? The story really doesn’t answer the question. He wasn’t thinking about the priesthood, and then he was. Did the priest say something that awakened the young man’s consciousness of a vocation? Or did the sacrament itself stir something within him? Had he gone to confession on an impulse, or did he have something particular on his mind? Pope Francis never provided any further details about that fateful day, so any theories we might devise about his vocation are based on our own pure speculation.
2. What changed his relations with the Jesuits? As a Jesuit provincial in Argentina, during a time of intense political and theological conflict, Father Bergoglio was not popular within the Society of Jesus. In fact he was more or less exiled after his term as provincial. The worldwide leader of the Society advised against making him a bishop, saying that Father Bergoglio’s personality made him unsuitable for ecclesiastical leadership.
Although he became Archbishop of Buenos Aires despite that negative recommendation, and eventually won a red hat, Cardinal Bergoglio remained at a distance from his Jesuit confreres. He did not spend much time with Jesuit leaders in Rome during his visits to the Eternal City (which were usually brief), and liberal Jesuits in particular continued to view him with suspicion. After the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, in which Cardinal Bergoglio was reportedly second in the voting, one very influential Jesuit cardinal told his brothers: “Better Ratzinger than Bergoglio.” Eight years later, when the next conclave chose Cardinal Bergoglio, there was a palpable nervousness among the Jesuit leadership.
Yet within weeks after assuming the papal throne, Pope Francis had evidently made his peace with his fellow Jesuits, who—led by Father Antonio Spadaro—were numbered among his most influential aides and most enthusiastic supporters. Had mutual suspicions been overcome by a shared sense of mission? Had the Society recognized a precious opportunity to advance under the first Jesuit Pontiff? Had Pope Francis recognized that the clout of the Jesuits could advance his agenda? Or did they realize that they had the same agenda all along?
3. Why did he never visit Argentina? Pope John Paul II began planning a trip to Poland soon after his election, and after protracted negotiations with the Communist regime, made his triumphant return eight months after becoming Pontiff. Pope Benedict XIV traveled to Cologne for World Youth Day (which admittedly had been planned much earlier) just weeks after he become Pontiff. But in the thirteen years of his reign Pope Francis never traveled back to Argentina.
During those years Pope Francis made dozens of trips abroad, visiting far-flung lands such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Myanmar and Egypt, Morocco, Madagascar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Dubai, and New Guinea—not to mention his numerous trips all around Europe. He might have added a visit to Argentina when he planned his visits to Brazil in 2013; to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay in 2015; to Mexico in 2016; to Colombia in 2017; or to Chile and Peru in 2018. But he never did make that visit back home.
When questions arose as to whether Pope Francis would eventually travel to Argentina, Vatican officials suggested that the Pope did not want to inject himself into the country’s political controversies. But Pope Francis did not shy away from controversies on other occasions, and the political climate in his homeland shifted several times during the course of his pontificate. Was he worried about what sort of welcome he would receive in his native land, or what sort of memories his presence might awaken? Yet another question remains unanswered.
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/three-unsolved-mysteries-pope-francis-left-behind/
N.B. More of everything is expected of the Pope. Including even-handedness. Bad form to involve himself so directly in US politics during the lead-up to the mid-terms. Trump is not entirely on the “wrong side”…
“So the Pope met with David Axelrod last week. David Axelrod. Obama's campaign architect. A man who is not Catholic, has never met a pope before, and whose entire career has been engineering political narratives for the American left.
“And then, by pure coincidence, the Pope immediately started lobbing shots at the Trump administration, and three US Cardinals popped up on 60 Minutes doing the same thing.
“All organically, I'm sure.
“I'm a practicing Catholic. I need you to understand that part. But in my opinion, Trump has all the right to lash out at him. Maybe you'll disagree, but in the end, Trump talks like Trump. Water is wet. I'm talking about MY Church being run like a DNC satellite office but with a golden throne.
“This is the same Vatican that watched governments padlock churches during COVID and said nothing. That let Biden take communion while funding abortion and said nothing. That fired Bishop Strickland for defending actual Church doctrine. That removed Bishop Fernández in Puerto Rico for defending religious exemptions THE CATECHISM ITSELF supports.
“But somehow Trump is the threat to human dignity.
“Pope Francis was bad. Leo has turned out to be worse. Francis at least was vague about his politics. Leo went and hired the consulting firm.
“The man has ignored the slaughter of Christians across Nigeria, the Sahel, India, Syria, Bangladesh, Pakistan. Hundreds of believers murdered, churches burned, pastors kidnapped. His response? Platitudes about dialogue.
“OF COURSE he won't even name who's doing the killing.
“But he'll fly across continents to make interfaith gestures the week after his people coordinated a media hit on a sitting US president.
“The weaponization of belief is obvious. You get the Pope to pick a fight with Trump, and suddenly millions of conservative Catholics have to choose between their faith and their vote.”
@Knesix
“They that now speak evil of you will be found out in the slanderers, liars, and calumniators, and ye shall be seen to be brighter than the sun…”
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 12:2-8
In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, in so much that they trod one upon another, Jesus began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. And so on.
Homily by St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople)
On Matthew x. 26.
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not, therefore: for] there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. It is as though He would say: It is comfort enough for you, if I, your Master and Lord, am a partaker in your reproach. But if it grieve you unto this present to hear these things, bethink you likewise that it is but a little while, and ye shall be free from that reproach. For what is it that grieveth you? is it that they call you tricksters and deceivers? Wait but a little while and all men shall call you the preservers and benefactors of the world. In a little while all the things which are dark now shall be made clear, and the falsehood of them that reproach you and your own goodness shall be shown in the light. For when that which cometh to pass shall itself show that ye are preservers and benefactors, and filled with all goodness, men will regard not the words of your gainsayers but the truth. They that now speak evil of you will be found out in the slanderers, liars, and calumniators, and ye shall be seen to be brighter than the sun; time shall make you known and shall preach you with a voice louder than the voice of a trumpet, and shall bring forward all men as the witnesses of your goodness. Let not, therefore, those things which are now spoken cast you down, but rather let the hope of the good things which are to come lift you up. For the things which regard you cannot be hidden.
