The Anniversary

Viva il Papa!

A black comedy.

Many years ago a black comedy titled The Anniversary starring Bette Davis was in theaters.  It's about an emasculating woman whose husband, a successful building contractor, has been dead for ten years. Joining her for the traditional annual celebration of her wedding anniversary are her three sons.  I loved the film because it reminded me of my own dysfunctional family.

I was reminded of the film today, the anniversary of Pope Francis' election, after reading some of the crackpots online and their analysis of his papacy and surprisingly, editorials on Pope Benedict and a recent statement from the retired Pontiff in support of Pope Francis.

Commedia diabolica - indeed.

Within hours of it's release, conspiracy theories that Benedict wasn't the author circulated, and today, dear Fr. Z hints that it just doesn't fit his style.

What I find so odd is that phrase, that it’s a, “stupid (stolto… foolish, moronic, idiotic) prejudice by which Pope Francis would be only a practical man, without specific theological or philosophical formation, whereas I would merely a theoretician of theology who would little understand the concrete life of a Christian today.” First, the style of the language is … how to put this… looser than what one might expect from Ratzinger. Second, it is self-referential… which anyone who has read Ratzinger over the years will recognize as something which he would vigorously avoid. As a matter of fact, there is a full doctoral thesis available in the topic of “self-referentiality in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger”. He abhors it. He doesn’t abhor his own experience as a starting point. In the past, I would have opined that he would avoid such a self-defensive reference. - Fr. Z

So what does that say to crackpots who follow Fr. Z?  Doesn't that fuel the conspiracy accounts?  Yes, yes it does.  And doesn't it suggest the Pope(s) are lying to people?  Doesn't it lead to doubt?  Doesn't it bring into question the 'orthodoxy' of Benedict's pontificate?  Obviously it does for some 'Vaticanists'.  This is where the rejection of Pope Francis takes you.  You cannot go after Pope Francis without defaming Pope Benedict.

As Benedict stated, “there is an internal continuity between the two pontificates.”

All the 'traditionalist/restorationists' are busy editorializing that 'claim' of continuity.  One Vatican  'authority' - Hillary White says she takes Benedict at his word.  Sounds like a good thing - but she takes her readers down a very bizarre rabbit hole with a narrative which maligns the orthodoxy and credibility of the Ratzinger papacy.  One commenter on White's column for The Remnant wrote: "Thank you Hilary White and the Remnant for clarifying the position of Benedict XVI."  Wow.  What kind of parallel magisterium are these people creating?

These people cannot be called 'restorationists', they are protestants promoting a complete rejection of Vatican II and the post-conciliar Popes.  

Steve Skojec told me that our willingness to go along with the whole “emeritus pope” charade was an error: “I think the problem is that we all went along with their game of make believe, and we shouldn’t have.” In fact, I am starting to think that the willingness of most Catholics to go along with the entire charade of post-conciliar Catholicism has been a grave error. By playing along, by pretending that we could be “conservative Catholics” in this New Paradigm that also includes “liberal Catholics” we have helped them perpetrate one the most monstrous frauds in human history.

[...] 

One of the things I’ve been saying is a blessing in disguise, and an enormous relief, about the Bergoglian era is that we can finally leave behind us the absurd situation of the Wojtyla/Ratzinger era. We were expected for all those years to pretend we were in the “New Springtime of Vatican II,” while we watched these wolves in shepherds’ clothing eating the sheep.

Now we can, at least, finally stop pretending that everything is just dandy under the New Paradigm of Merciful Conciliar Wonderfulness. For those still wondering, Bergoglio isn’t a shock, he isn’t even a surprise; he’s just the logical end result. This pontificate isn’t an anomaly; it was the only possible outcome, and it was as much the work of Joseph Ratzinger as Walter Kasper. - Remnant

Bette Davis - The Anniversary