-Updated June 11, 2017-
In an article called "Pelosi Questions President Trump's Fitness Then Lapses Into Insanity," journalist Onan Coca wrote:
Nancy Pelosi "repeatedly calls President Trump, President Bush. She routinely gets simple facts about the nation and world, wrong... butchering the English language and confusing... with her rambling nonsense."
"The same thing has happens with other anti-Trumpers, like Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The one common threat among all of them is their extreme old age. Science teaches us that as we age our abilities (both mental and physical) decline." (Freedom Outpost, June 11, 2017)
80 year old anti-Trumper Pope Francis, who in 2016 called Trump "not Christian," may fall into this select group.
Philosopher Edward Feser wrote:
Francis made "the statement that the death penalty is 'incomparably worse than' the crime for which an offender might be executed... Does any sane person really believe that executing Bundy was 'incomparably worse than' what Bundy himself did." (edwardfeser.blogspot, "The curious case of Pope Francis and the new natural lawyers, "June 3, 2017)
Feser bending over backwards to be charitable to Francis says the above remark could be "mere rhetorical flourish."
Another explanation could be that the 80 year old Pope may be experiencing dementia.
A reasonable way to look into Francis's possible senility is to compare the Pope to former President Reagan.
Reagan was accused of having dementia by the Left of his day as Pelosi is accusing Trump in the present moment of being mentally unfit.
In March 30,2015 The New York Times, 30 years after his presidency, said when "Ronald Reagan became the oldest elected president, his mental state was a political issue. His adversaries often suggested his penchant for contradictory statements, forgetting names and seeming absent-mindedness could be linked to dementia."
As dementia becomes worse, symptoms are more obvious and interfere with the ability to take care of oneself. Symptoms may include:
On June 17,2016 the LifeSiteNews wrote:
"Later in his reply Pope Francis spoke of couples preferring to cohabitate, and told priests not to tell them to marry, but to accompany them instead. 'They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.'"
Earlier in the article the Pope said “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.”
Pope Francis is telling priests to tell fornicators it's okay to sin if there is fidelity.
In an article called "Pelosi Questions President Trump's Fitness Then Lapses Into Insanity," journalist Onan Coca wrote:
Nancy Pelosi "repeatedly calls President Trump, President Bush. She routinely gets simple facts about the nation and world, wrong... butchering the English language and confusing... with her rambling nonsense."
"The same thing has happens with other anti-Trumpers, like Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The one common threat among all of them is their extreme old age. Science teaches us that as we age our abilities (both mental and physical) decline." (Freedom Outpost, June 11, 2017)
80 year old anti-Trumper Pope Francis, who in 2016 called Trump "not Christian," may fall into this select group.
Philosopher Edward Feser wrote:
Francis made "the statement that the death penalty is 'incomparably worse than' the crime for which an offender might be executed... Does any sane person really believe that executing Bundy was 'incomparably worse than' what Bundy himself did." (edwardfeser.blogspot, "The curious case of Pope Francis and the new natural lawyers, "June 3, 2017)
Feser bending over backwards to be charitable to Francis says the above remark could be "mere rhetorical flourish."
Another explanation could be that the 80 year old Pope may be experiencing dementia.
A reasonable way to look into Francis's possible senility is to compare the Pope to former President Reagan.
Reagan was accused of having dementia by the Left of his day as Pelosi is accusing Trump in the present moment of being mentally unfit.
In March 30,2015 The New York Times, 30 years after his presidency, said when "Ronald Reagan became the oldest elected president, his mental state was a political issue. His adversaries often suggested his penchant for contradictory statements, forgetting names and seeming absent-mindedness could be linked to dementia."
The media then and now reported Reagan's leftist adversaries claims that he was mentally impaired. The Times, March 2015, report's purpose was to claim to find a new scientific method showing the President's senility.
In 1980, Reagan said he would resign his office if he was found mentally unfit.
Craig Shirley, author of two historical books on the President responded to the The Times article by saying:
"Each year, Reagan went to the Mayo Clinic for a battery of tests, both physical and psychological and each year, he passed with flying colors... Stories abound about his total recall of important and not so important facts."
If the former president had not passed those tests or if he had spoken some of the things which Pope Francis has said, The Times and others would have had articles quoting his adversaries and psychological experts claiming Reagan was probably mentally unfit.
If the former president had not passed those tests or if he had spoken some of the things which Pope Francis has said, The Times and others would have had articles quoting his adversaries and psychological experts claiming Reagan was probably mentally unfit.
For example, if Reagan, instead of Francis, had accused the president of Paraguay of being a Nazi and Stalinist who kidnapped someone when the simplest of fact searches would show the opposite was the objective truth, would not the media have asked that the president of the United States receive a battery of psychological tests?
On June 13, 2016 Vatican expert Sandro Magister on his Chiesa website wrote:
"The name that Francis had 'not managed to grasp' was that of Edelio Murinigo, an official kidnapped more than a year before not by the regular army of Paraguay - as the pope had understood - but by a self-styled 'Ejército del pueblo paraguayo,' a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group active in the country since 2008.
"And yet, in spite of his stating and emphasizing his ignorance of the case, Francis had no qualms about using the few and confused facts he had grasped poorly a short time before to accuse that blameless president of Paraguay of nothing less than a crime compared with the worse misdeeds of the Nazis and Stalinists."
"And yet, in spite of his stating and emphasizing his ignorance of the case, Francis had no qualms about using the few and confused facts he had grasped poorly a short time before to accuse that blameless president of Paraguay of nothing less than a crime compared with the worse misdeeds of the Nazis and Stalinists."
The Chiesa website lists eight "mistakes, gaffes, memory lapses, urban legends... errors in the discourses of Francis" that would have the media quoting experts or adversaries claiming that person had Alzheimer if it were a certain former president.
Here are some examples from Magister's Article The Pope Is Not Infallible. Here Are Eight Proofs:
-"'As Benedict XVI said, 'the tolerance must be zero': thus Pope Francis in his interview with 'La Croix' of last May 16, concerning the sexual abuse of minors.
But if one searches through all the writings and discourses of pope Joseph Ratzinger, the formula 'zero tolerance' is simply not to be found."
-"In responding to the barrage of questions on 'Amoris Laetitia,' Francis pointed to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn as the right interpreter of the document...he added: 'He was secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.' Which is not true, because on this congregation Schönborn was and is only a member.
Moreover, in that same press conference, Francis replied with an improbable “I do not remember that footnote” to a question on the crucial footnote 351 of 'Amoris Laetitia,' the one that envisions “the help of the sacraments” for the divorced and remarried."
-"Pope Francis said:
'Paul VI - the great! - in a difficult situation, in Africa, allowed the nuns to use contraception for cases of violence.'
And he added that "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil, and in certain cases, as in those that I mentioned of the blessed Paul VI, [that] was clear."
...Now, that Paul VI explicitly gave this permission is not evident at all. No one has ever been able to cite a single word of his in this regard."
-"Another error, the imaginary citation that Francis put into the mouth of the composer Gustav Mahler in the speech - packed with admonitions - given to Communion and Liberation on March 7, 2015...In none of Mahler’s writings, in fact, can the phrase cited by Francis be found."
-"And finally, another phrase very dear to Jorge Mario Bergoglio but by an imaginary author: 'Ipse harmonia est.'
...But Francis didn’t give up, and twenty months later he came back to citing the motto, attributing a paternity to it himself: “‘Ipse harmonia est’, Saint Basil says.” And this time as well it ended up in the record without a footnote, because no one was able to discover where Saint Basil might have said those words." [http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351315?eng=y ]
Another example of confusion was the Pope equating Islamic violent conquest with Christian evangelization in stating that the "idea of conquest is inherent to the soul of Islam," then adding that "one could also interpret the end of Saint Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus sends out his disciples to all nations, as the same idea of conquest."
Islam expert Robert Spencer responding to this quote said "Pope Francis is profoundly confused. Christianity has no doctrine mandating warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. Islam does. And he is supposed to be the head of the Catholic Church, the largest Christian body in the world. He should thus be defending Christianity, not indulging in politically correct and fallacious moral equivalence."
[https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/05/pope-francis-the-idea-of-conquest-is-inherent-to-the-soul-of-islam-but-hey-one-can-see-christianity-that-way-too]
Here are some examples from Magister's Article The Pope Is Not Infallible. Here Are Eight Proofs:
But if one searches through all the writings and discourses of pope Joseph Ratzinger, the formula 'zero tolerance' is simply not to be found."
-"In responding to the barrage of questions on 'Amoris Laetitia,' Francis pointed to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn as the right interpreter of the document...he added: 'He was secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.' Which is not true, because on this congregation Schönborn was and is only a member.
Moreover, in that same press conference, Francis replied with an improbable “I do not remember that footnote” to a question on the crucial footnote 351 of 'Amoris Laetitia,' the one that envisions “the help of the sacraments” for the divorced and remarried."
-"Pope Francis said:
'Paul VI - the great! - in a difficult situation, in Africa, allowed the nuns to use contraception for cases of violence.'
And he added that "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil, and in certain cases, as in those that I mentioned of the blessed Paul VI, [that] was clear."
...Now, that Paul VI explicitly gave this permission is not evident at all. No one has ever been able to cite a single word of his in this regard."
-"Another error, the imaginary citation that Francis put into the mouth of the composer Gustav Mahler in the speech - packed with admonitions - given to Communion and Liberation on March 7, 2015...In none of Mahler’s writings, in fact, can the phrase cited by Francis be found."
-"And finally, another phrase very dear to Jorge Mario Bergoglio but by an imaginary author: 'Ipse harmonia est.'
...But Francis didn’t give up, and twenty months later he came back to citing the motto, attributing a paternity to it himself: “‘Ipse harmonia est’, Saint Basil says.” And this time as well it ended up in the record without a footnote, because no one was able to discover where Saint Basil might have said those words." [http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351315?eng=y ]
Another example of confusion was the Pope equating Islamic violent conquest with Christian evangelization in stating that the "idea of conquest is inherent to the soul of Islam," then adding that "one could also interpret the end of Saint Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus sends out his disciples to all nations, as the same idea of conquest."
Islam expert Robert Spencer responding to this quote said "Pope Francis is profoundly confused. Christianity has no doctrine mandating warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. Islam does. And he is supposed to be the head of the Catholic Church, the largest Christian body in the world. He should thus be defending Christianity, not indulging in politically correct and fallacious moral equivalence."
[https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/05/pope-francis-the-idea-of-conquest-is-inherent-to-the-soul-of-islam-but-hey-one-can-see-christianity-that-way-too]
Pope Francis was 76 in coming into office. He is now 80-years-old. Reagan was 69 in coming into office and left at age 77.
According to The New York Times Health Guide:
One symptom of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) includes:
- Forgetting recent events or conversations
As dementia becomes worse, symptoms are more obvious and interfere with the ability to take care of oneself. Symptoms may include:
- Forgetting details about current events
- Using the wrong word, not pronouncing words correctly, speaking in confusing sentences [http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/dementia/overview.html ]
On June 17,2016 the LifeSiteNews wrote:
"Later in his reply Pope Francis spoke of couples preferring to cohabitate, and told priests not to tell them to marry, but to accompany them instead. 'They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.'"
Earlier in the article the Pope said “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.”
Pope Francis is telling priests to tell fornicators it's okay to sin if there is fidelity.
The Pope at the beginning of his office knew the difference between infallible Catholic doctrine and his personal opinion. Francis appears to possibly be falling into dementia.
Pope Francis like President Reagan needs to say he will resign his office if he is found mentally unfit.
It appears at the very least the Bishops, Cardinals and Catholic media have to ask the Pope to receive a battery of psychological tests.
Pope Francis like President Reagan needs to say he will resign his office if he is found mentally unfit.
It appears at the very least the Bishops, Cardinals and Catholic media have to ask the Pope to receive a battery of psychological tests.
At worst they need to ask him to resign for his own good to get the care he needs and for the good of the Church.
Something is very wrong with a pope when he tells sinners not to repent, but to continue in their sin with a papal blessing.
Three commenters on the famous Fr. Z blog said it best:
Three commenters on the famous Fr. Z blog said it best:
-" Slam dunk, no wiggle room. It’s completely contrary to Catholic moral teaching and is godless, humanist nonsense. 'It’s OK to shack up… so long as you don’t cheat.' This from a Pope."
-"Pope Francis is not our 'crazy old uncle' who 'everyone knows' is a little off his rocker. When the Pope says something, he gets headlines in many media venues."
-"[O]ne can legitimately wonder if the Holy Father is suffering the signs of dementia... [stating] that people cohabitating are enjoying the grace of a sacramental marriage...[is] cuckoo." [ http://wdtprs.com/blog/2016/06/lawler-on-papal-off-the-cuff-remarks-wherein-fr-z-rants/ ]
The Fr. Z blog bends over backwards to be fair and respectful to Pope Francis, but does call a spade a spade. The blog's commenters are intelligent, well read and middle of the road faithful orthodox Catholics.
As stated before, the Pope at the beginning of his office seemed to know the difference between Catholic doctrine and his personal opinion.
Besides Francis's current apparent confusion between his opinion, Church teaching and objective facts, might the Pope's many expressions of anger at those who follow the teachings of Pope John Paul II and the 2,000 years teachings of the Catholic Church be another symptom of dementia?
Dementia.com says a symptom of mid-stage dementia is becoming "angry... perhaps owing to frustration, or they may become overly attached to a certain person." [http://www.dementia.com/symptoms.html]
Psychiatrist and anger expert Richard Fitzgibbons, October 3, at Lifesitenews.com wrote Pope Francis and the Vatican under his control have demonstrated attempts at "undermining" the 2,000 year old Church doctrine and in particular have shown expressions "of excessive anger at St. John Paul II's remarkable legacy... almost inexplicable."
Amoris Laetitia and Pope Francis's letter to the Argentinean Bishops according to Fitzgibbons an expert in cognitive therapy research, an author of a book on resolving anger and a consultor to the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy in the article says the pope "directly opposes St. John Paul II's... Familiaris Consortio, n. 84, and 2,000 years of Church teaching. [https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/exploring-the-excessive-anger-at-st.-john-paul-ii]
The New York Times article "Has Pope Francis Failed?" by Matthew Schmitz showed that the present pope is angry at those who uphold the 2,000 year old infallible teachings of the Church,
According to Schmitz, the current pope has called faithful Catholics:
-"little monsters"
-having an "obsession" with abortion
-"Pelagian" heretics
-those who "throw stones "
-"spiritual Alzheimer's"
Vatican expert Sandro Magister at chiesa.com showed that Francis and one of his closest friends is not just mad at faithful Catholics, but particularly angry at St. John Paul II.
The Vatican expert has presented solid evidence that Francis's intimate friend and ghostwriter of many parts of the Amoris Laetitia document, Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, did a paste and copy job.
Magister proved on chiesa.com that Fernandez did a cut and paste of some ten year old extreme anti-Pope John Paul II articles against Veritatis Splendor.
[http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351303?eng=y&refresh_ce ]
A decade ago, those articles forced then Archbishop Bergoglio to risk his own promising path to the papacy by fighting "tooth and nail" to save his intimate friend from charges of heresy and to save Fernandez from losing a promising clerical educational position due to those charges. [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2016/05/amoris-laetitia-was-copy-and-paste-of.html?m=1]
Besides the anger Francis appears to have for John Paul II and faithful Catholics it might be possible the pope's attachment to the archbishop may be another symptom of dementia which as dementia.com said is becoming "overly attached to a certain person."
It seems possible that the elderly pope is overly attached and influenced by the ideas of the younger ghostwriter of many parts of Amoris Laetitia.
Unfortunately, The Spectator, in the original May 25,2016 article "Pope used Argentinian' ghostwriter' for controversial document on family, claims Vatican expert," wrote that Fernandez is looked upon by other theologians as a "joke figure." [http://www.unsealed.org/2016/05/pope-used-silly-left-wing-ghostwriter.html?m=1]
The archbishop and friend of Francis didn't help his theological or priestly reputation by writing a silly book with the adult literature sounding title of "Heal Me with Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing."
It seems the Pope may be overly attached and surrounded by certain persons with unhealthy thought processes and strange conspiracy ideas.
The Vatican Insider usually a solid news source which has access to ranking Vatican insiders close to the Pope on October 19 wrote a tabloid like paranoid article.
It slandered anyone remotely criticizing questionable prudential actions where Francis has no expertise or promise of being guided by the Holy Spirit and the non-infallible teachings of his which contradict the teaching of scripture and all previous popes as being in a global conspiracy with Russian strongman Putin against the Pope.
Almost ironically, Phil Lawler, and his CatholicCulture.org, which defends Francis's teachings and even the Argentine norm of Amoris Laetitia yet when commenting on this article, said that it is "likely...people surrounding Pope Francis" have a "paranoid style" and have fallen into "conspiracy" thinking that "see enemies wherever there is resistance to their agenda." [https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1367]
It is also likely, that if those who surround Francis have fallen into paranoid and conspiracy thinking, that the Pope himself might exhibit this same types of fearful thought processes.
The Alzheimer's Foundation of America says individuals "with dementia may become paranoid."
Wikipedia says paranoia "is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety and fear... typically includes... beliefs of conspiracy."
EWTN commentator Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing said in the 2014 article "Pope Francis Needs New Friends" said:
"He's clearly in a bubble" with Cardinals like the German Kasper who wants "God to repeal the Laws of Non-contradiction" and radicals like the Honduran Maraiaga who were leading Francis to "connect... global poverty-with a kind of conspiracy theory about arms sales and war is simply bizarre."
These persons with unhealthy thought processes in the papal bubble around the elderly Pope who wrote Amoris Laetitia might not have told him many things including informing him of the famous 351 footnote.
Maybe he is lying when he said he forgot about the footnote.
Maybe the Pope and/or those who surround him wrote the document including the footnote and letter that attempts to overturn the standards that Jesus Christ proclaimed in the Gospel which the Church has held for 2,000 years according to the important journal First Things.
Maybe Francis has dementia and can't remember any of the above scenarios.
These seem to be the most likely scenarios to explain Francis saying:
"I don't remember the footnote."
On November 14, 2016 it was revealed that Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other Cardinals have specifically asked Pope Francis in a formal letter to deny heretical interpretations of Amoris Laetitia that are counter to Veritatis Splendor as well as sacred Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. If Francis refuses to respond he implicitly endorses heresy. 'The maxim of the law is 'Silence gives consent.' '
The Pope has three choices:
-To admit to error by silence
- To fight the errors his ambiguity in Amoris Laetitia brought into the Church
-To admit he is suffering from dementia and is being badly adviced by heretical advisers such as Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez.
Francis has chosen to remain silent and refuses to response to the letter.
Cardinal Burke on November 15, 2016, in an interview with the National Catholic Register, said the Pope is in danger of receiving "a formal act of correction of serious error" from the four Cardinals.
For the sake of the Church and for Francis's sake it is time to issue the correction.
The Fr. Z blog bends over backwards to be fair and respectful to Pope Francis, but does call a spade a spade. The blog's commenters are intelligent, well read and middle of the road faithful orthodox Catholics.
As stated before, the Pope at the beginning of his office seemed to know the difference between Catholic doctrine and his personal opinion.
Besides Francis's current apparent confusion between his opinion, Church teaching and objective facts, might the Pope's many expressions of anger at those who follow the teachings of Pope John Paul II and the 2,000 years teachings of the Catholic Church be another symptom of dementia?
Dementia.com says a symptom of mid-stage dementia is becoming "angry... perhaps owing to frustration, or they may become overly attached to a certain person." [http://www.dementia.com/symptoms.html]
Psychiatrist and anger expert Richard Fitzgibbons, October 3, at Lifesitenews.com wrote Pope Francis and the Vatican under his control have demonstrated attempts at "undermining" the 2,000 year old Church doctrine and in particular have shown expressions "of excessive anger at St. John Paul II's remarkable legacy... almost inexplicable."
Amoris Laetitia and Pope Francis's letter to the Argentinean Bishops according to Fitzgibbons an expert in cognitive therapy research, an author of a book on resolving anger and a consultor to the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy in the article says the pope "directly opposes St. John Paul II's... Familiaris Consortio, n. 84, and 2,000 years of Church teaching. [https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/exploring-the-excessive-anger-at-st.-john-paul-ii]
The New York Times article "Has Pope Francis Failed?" by Matthew Schmitz showed that the present pope is angry at those who uphold the 2,000 year old infallible teachings of the Church,
According to Schmitz, the current pope has called faithful Catholics:
-"little monsters"
-having an "obsession" with abortion
-"Pelagian" heretics
-those who "throw stones "
-"spiritual Alzheimer's"
Vatican expert Sandro Magister at chiesa.com showed that Francis and one of his closest friends is not just mad at faithful Catholics, but particularly angry at St. John Paul II.
The Vatican expert has presented solid evidence that Francis's intimate friend and ghostwriter of many parts of the Amoris Laetitia document, Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, did a paste and copy job.
Magister proved on chiesa.com that Fernandez did a cut and paste of some ten year old extreme anti-Pope John Paul II articles against Veritatis Splendor.
[http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1351303?eng=y&refresh_ce ]
A decade ago, those articles forced then Archbishop Bergoglio to risk his own promising path to the papacy by fighting "tooth and nail" to save his intimate friend from charges of heresy and to save Fernandez from losing a promising clerical educational position due to those charges. [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2016/05/amoris-laetitia-was-copy-and-paste-of.html?m=1]
Besides the anger Francis appears to have for John Paul II and faithful Catholics it might be possible the pope's attachment to the archbishop may be another symptom of dementia which as dementia.com said is becoming "overly attached to a certain person."
It seems possible that the elderly pope is overly attached and influenced by the ideas of the younger ghostwriter of many parts of Amoris Laetitia.
Unfortunately, The Spectator, in the original May 25,2016 article "Pope used Argentinian' ghostwriter' for controversial document on family, claims Vatican expert," wrote that Fernandez is looked upon by other theologians as a "joke figure." [http://www.unsealed.org/2016/05/pope-used-silly-left-wing-ghostwriter.html?m=1]
The archbishop and friend of Francis didn't help his theological or priestly reputation by writing a silly book with the adult literature sounding title of "Heal Me with Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing."
It seems the Pope may be overly attached and surrounded by certain persons with unhealthy thought processes and strange conspiracy ideas.
The Vatican Insider usually a solid news source which has access to ranking Vatican insiders close to the Pope on October 19 wrote a tabloid like paranoid article.
It slandered anyone remotely criticizing questionable prudential actions where Francis has no expertise or promise of being guided by the Holy Spirit and the non-infallible teachings of his which contradict the teaching of scripture and all previous popes as being in a global conspiracy with Russian strongman Putin against the Pope.
Almost ironically, Phil Lawler, and his CatholicCulture.org, which defends Francis's teachings and even the Argentine norm of Amoris Laetitia yet when commenting on this article, said that it is "likely...people surrounding Pope Francis" have a "paranoid style" and have fallen into "conspiracy" thinking that "see enemies wherever there is resistance to their agenda." [https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1367]
It is also likely, that if those who surround Francis have fallen into paranoid and conspiracy thinking, that the Pope himself might exhibit this same types of fearful thought processes.
The Alzheimer's Foundation of America says individuals "with dementia may become paranoid."
Wikipedia says paranoia "is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety and fear... typically includes... beliefs of conspiracy."
EWTN commentator Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing said in the 2014 article "Pope Francis Needs New Friends" said:
"He's clearly in a bubble" with Cardinals like the German Kasper who wants "God to repeal the Laws of Non-contradiction" and radicals like the Honduran Maraiaga who were leading Francis to "connect... global poverty-with a kind of conspiracy theory about arms sales and war is simply bizarre."
These persons with unhealthy thought processes in the papal bubble around the elderly Pope who wrote Amoris Laetitia might not have told him many things including informing him of the famous 351 footnote.
Maybe he is lying when he said he forgot about the footnote.
Maybe the Pope and/or those who surround him wrote the document including the footnote and letter that attempts to overturn the standards that Jesus Christ proclaimed in the Gospel which the Church has held for 2,000 years according to the important journal First Things.
Maybe Francis has dementia and can't remember any of the above scenarios.
These seem to be the most likely scenarios to explain Francis saying:
"I don't remember the footnote."
On November 14, 2016 it was revealed that Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other Cardinals have specifically asked Pope Francis in a formal letter to deny heretical interpretations of Amoris Laetitia that are counter to Veritatis Splendor as well as sacred Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. If Francis refuses to respond he implicitly endorses heresy. 'The maxim of the law is 'Silence gives consent.' '
The Pope has three choices:
-To admit to error by silence
- To fight the errors his ambiguity in Amoris Laetitia brought into the Church
-To admit he is suffering from dementia and is being badly adviced by heretical advisers such as Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez.
Francis has chosen to remain silent and refuses to response to the letter.
Cardinal Burke on November 15, 2016, in an interview with the National Catholic Register, said the Pope is in danger of receiving "a formal act of correction of serious error" from the four Cardinals.
For the sake of the Church and for Francis's sake it is time to issue the correction.
Comments
"Jesus answered: He it is to whom I shall reach bread dipped. And when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the morsel, Satan entered into him. And Jesus said to him: That which thou dost, do quickly." John 13:26-27 (ref. also Luke 22:3)
Then there is:
"Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." Matthew 16:23