“I affirm that Bergoglio is not the pope.”
These words were stated in a homily given on October 13 by Father Giorgio Maria Faré, a prominent Italian priest.*
Father Faré, a Discalced Carmelite Friar and holder of a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, made the affirmation after an intensive canonical and historical study of the events surrounding the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the subsequent papal conclave—and in the wake of his deep distress over the terrible damage Jorge Bergoglio has wrought in the past eleven years.
That distress is evident in what Father Faré describes as a “turning point” in his discernment on these matters, occurring on June 16 as he reflected on the Mass readings for that day.
The proclamation of this Word of God challenged me: at that moment I realized I was being called to make a fundamental choice. I had to decide whether to remain faithful to Sacred Scripture and to Jesus Christ or to succumb to the temptation of adapting to teaching built on compromises and half-truths…. We have reached a critical point: a priest must choose whether to preach what Sacred Scripture and the Church have always taught or to adhere to what the so-called “Pope Francis” teaches in his ordinary magisterium.
Coming to such a momentous conclusion and pondering his own future in light of it, Father Faré says near the end of his homily, “I am a Catholic priest, and I will continue to be one and do what a priest does. Clearly, I will no longer celebrate Holy Mass ‘with Francis our Pope.’”
As we have often stated, the Church is experiencing an unprecedented crisis. It can be helpful to see how other faithful clergy and laity are responding to it, and how at times very different approaches are leading to the same fundamental conclusion regarding the crisis and Bergoglio. Father Faré’s homily, essentially the paper produced by his study noted above, is somewhat long but well worth reading for a helpful perspective on the crisis in the Church today.
* We found Father Faré’s homily to be a sincere and thoughtful work, and are struck by his conclusion that Jorge Bergoglio is not a valid pope. However, we need to make it clear that we do not necessarily propose, affirm or deny any particular reasoning found in Father Faré’s homily. Our own belief in Bergoglio’s invalidity stems fundamentally from what we believe God has revealed to us in the Messages. The precise historical and canonical reasons for that invalidity are not something the Lord has addressed in those Messages, nor do we have the competence to thoroughly evaluate the reasons as laid out by Father Faré.
