Francis Quotes

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Thursday, September 19th, 2019

POPE FRANCIS ON "RIGIDITY"

Since his election to the papacy, Pope Francis has regularly, frequently and increasingly criticized what he calls “rigid priests” or clerics who are “rigid” in their ministry. He has also criticized the laity for being too “rigid”. He associates “rigidity” with being “Pharisaical”, “hypocritical” and “not-Catholic”. Pope Francis has said that rigid people are “sick” and “mentally ill” because they adhere too strongly to the letter of the law. He often associates rigidity with orthodox Catholics who adhere to the traditions of the Church, its ancient devotions and prayers, the Latin Mass, and a strong love for the Virgin Mary.

On September 7th, 2019, while speaking with the bishops of Mozambique about priestly formation and advising the bishops of Mozambique on choosing men for ministry, Pope Francis said:

“I would like to emphasize an attitude that I do not like, because it does not come from God―rigidity. Today it is fashionable, I do not know about here, but in other parts of the world it is fashionable, to find rigid people. Young, rigid priests, who want to save with rigidity, perhaps, I don’t know, but they take this attitude of rigidity and sometimes – excuse me – from the museum. They are afraid of everything, they are rigid. Be careful, and know that under any rigidity there are serious problems.”

This quote follows a regular pattern of serial and serious ridicule and over-exaggerated caricaturizing of those within the Church who are opposed to rabid Liberal and Modernist mindset of what is a constantly increasing and vociferous majority within the Church today. Here are just a few of the many other attacks on “rigidity” that Pope Francis has made over the years, against those who wish to adhere to the unchanging doctrines of Holy Mother Church.

Pope Francis on November 23th, 2015
“There are often young men who are psychologically unstable without knowing it and who look for strong structures to support them. For some it is the police or the army but for others it is the clergy,” the pope said. However, the pope said he personally finds it worrisome when a priest takes pride in being extremely devout. “When a youngster is too rigid, too fundamentalist, I don’t feel confident (about him). Behind it there is something he himself does not understand. Keep your eyes open!”

Pope Francis on April 20th, 2016
Vatican Insider reported that, at a conference in Rome to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of two Vatican II documents: Presbyterorum ordinis (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests) and Optatam Totius (Decree on Priestly Training), Pope Francis cautioned those gathered to be very careful in evaluating potential candidates for the priesthood. The Pope told clergy that they must think twice when a young man “is too confident, rigid and fundamentalist.” Hence, his invitation to them to beware when admitting candidates to the seminary: “There are mentally ill boys who seek strong structures that can protect them,” such as “the police, the army and the clergy.” Not all “good boys” are psychologically healthy. To emphasize the point, he recounted an eye-popping comment he once heard from a psychiatrist who screened candidates for the priesthood. “These boys are fine until they have settled, until they feel completely secure. Then the problems start. Father, have you ever asked yourself why there are policemen who are torturers?”

Pope Francis on July 9th, 2016
Pope Francis was talking to his fellow Jesuit friend, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, at the opening of a book collecting more than 200 homilies and addresses by Jorge Mario Bergoglio (the Pope’s name before his papal election), then the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, between 1999 and 2013. Fr. Spadaro had asked the pope to write an introduction, but Pope Francis preferred to have a conversation instead. As a result, the first fifteen pages of the book are taken up with their conversation on July 9th, 2016. Fr. Spadaro, who is director of the semi-official Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, asked the pope if he saw dangers in some of those calling for a “reform of the reform.”

Francis answers: “I ask myself about this. For example, I always try to understand what’s behind the people who are too young to have lived the pre-Conciliar (pre-Vatican II) liturgy, but who want it. Sometimes I’ve found myself in front of people who are too strict, who have a rigid attitude. And I wonder: How come such a rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something: insecurity, sometimes even more … Rigidity is defensive. True love is not rigid.”

Pope Francis on October 6th, 2016
In his morning homily at the Casa Santa Marta―where the pope resides and says his daily Mass―Pope Francis warned of two dangers―on one hand there are Christians who think God is just a set of rules and reduce Him to the law. Others, however, are content to lead a mediocre Christian life.

Vatican Radio published the following key points and quotes from the Pope’s homily:

“This attachment to the Law ignores the Holy Spirit. It does not grant that the redemption of Christ goes forward with the Holy Spirit. It ignores that there is only the Law. It is true that there are the Commandments and we have to follow the Commandments … But don’t reduce the Spirit and the Son to the Law. This was the problem of these people: they ignored the Holy Spirit, and they did not know to go forward. Closed, closed in precepts, saying: ‘We have to do this, we have to do that!’ At times, it can happen that we fall into this temptation … Do I know that if I go to Sunday Mass, if I do this, if I do that, is it enough?”

Pope Francis on October 24th, 2016
In another morning homily at the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae), Pope Francis again returned to the theme of rigidity today, saying those who unbendingly follow the law of God are “sick” and in need of the Lord’s help. In his morning homily at Casa Santa Marta, the Pope drew on today’s Gospel reading from Matthew in which Jesus’ healing of a crippled woman angered the Pharisees, leading him to denounce the leaders of the synagogue as “hypocrites”. This is an accusation Jesus often makes to those who follow the Law with rigidity, the Pope said. “The Law was not drawn up to enslave us but to set us free, to make us God’s children”, he said.

Vatican Radio published the following: summary of the homily:

Concealed by rigidity, Pope Francis said, there is always something else! That’s why Jesus uses the word ‘hypocrites!’: “Behind an attitude of rigidity there is always something else in the life of a person. Rigidity is not a gift of God. Meekness is; goodness is; benevolence is; forgiveness is. But rigidity isn’t!” the Pope said. In many cases, the Pope continued, rigidity conceals the leading of a double life; but, he pointed out, there can also be something sick [behind it]. Commenting on the difficulties and suffering that afflict a person who is sincere about realizing their rigidity, the Pope said this is because they lack the freedom of God’s children: “they do not know how to walk in the path indicated by God’s Law … They appear good because they follow the Law; but behind there is something that does not make them good. Either they’re bad, hypocrites or they are sick. They suffer!” Pope Francis went on to recall the parable of the prodigal son, saying that the elder son showed a certain type of goodness but behind it was “the pride of believing in one’s righteousness”. He was rigid and conducted his life following the Law but saw his father only as a master, the Pope said. “It is not easy to walk within the Law of the Lord without falling into rigidity” he added, and concluded with a prayer calling on “our brothers and sisters who think that by becoming rigid they are following the path of the Lord.”

Pope Francis on November 21st, 2016
In another daily homily at the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae), Pope Francis warned against the excessive rigidity of the Ten Commandments and said “God gives us the freedom to search our own conscience for commandments … I always try to understand what’s behind people who are too young to have seen Moses walk down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, and yet still they want to obey them,” Francis said. “Sometimes I find myself confronted with a very legalistic person who follows the Commandments and I ask myself, ‘Why so much rigidity?’ This rigidity in following the Commandments always hides something, insecurity or even something else … Behind an attitude of always feeling like you must follow the rigidity of the Commandments there is something else in the life of a person. The Commandments are not a gift of God. The Beatitudes are because they are not a list of rules that stiffen us and make us rigid―they make us feel good.”

Pope Francis on December 9th, 2016
Pope Francis―during his accustomed homily at daily Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae)―focused on the need for priests to serve as authentic mediators of God’s love, rather than as intermediaries ― “go-betweens” or “middle-men” ― concerned only with advancing their own interests. Jesus had a powerful message for the “go-betweens” of his day, who enjoyed to stroll the squares to be seen. “To make themselves important, intermediary priests must take the path of rigidity: often disconnected from the people, they do not know what human suffering is; they forget what they had learned at home, with dad’s work, with mom’s, grandfather’s, grandmother’s, his brothers’ ... They lose these things. They are rigid, [they are] those rigid ones that load upon the faithful so many things that they do not carry [themselves], as Jesus said to the intermediaries of his time ― rigidity. [They face] the people of God with a switch in their hand: ‘This cannot be, this cannot be ...’. And so many people approaching, looking for a bit of consolation, a little understanding, are chased away with this rigidity.” When a rigid, worldly priest becomes a functionary, he ends up making himself ridiculous.

Pope Francis on February 6th, 2017
Pope Francis once again decried a “rigid” approach to Christianity, in his homily at the morning Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae). God created the world and then created man, the Pope said, “To have someone ... with whom to share His fullness.” After Original Sin, to “set things right”, God sent His Son to redeem the world. This is the great challenge of Faith, the Pope said―to recognize the wonders of creation and redemption and to “receive the gift of the Father.” In this context the Pope said that some people are unable to receive the gift, and instead have “sought refuge in the rigidity of the Commandments.” He advised Christians to ask themselves: “Do I hide in the rigidity of the closed Commandments, that are more and more ‘safe,’ but that do not give joy, becaues they do not make you free?”

Pope Francis on May 5th, 2017
During his homily at his early morning Mass at his residence at the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae). Pope Francis, commenting on the reading from the Mass about the conversion of Saul, said Saul’s early life reminds him of “many young people in the Church today who have fallen into the temptation of rigidity. Some are honest, they are good and we must pray that the Lord help them grow along the path of meekness.” Others, the Pope said, use rigidity to cover up their weaknesses, sins and personality disorders and to assert themselves over others.“They are the rigid with the double life. They show themselves as beautiful, honest, but when no one is looking, they do bad things,” he said.

Pope Francis on May 18th, 2017
At his early morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae), the Pope said that the phrase “it’s always been done this way” reflects an attitude that “kills.” The pope said: “This kills freedom. It kills joy. It kills fidelity to the Holy Spirit, who always is at work, leading the Church.” Pope Francis concentrated on the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which recounts the heated debate in the early Christian community about Peter entering the homes of pagans, sharing the Gospel with them and baptizing them. Peter is courageous, the pope said. “He was able to accept God’s surprise” and to move in a new direction under the guidance of the Holy Spirit while other members of the community “certainly were afraid of this novelty.”

“The Spirit is a gift of God, of this God our Father, Who always surprises us … He always surprises us. And so, just as He had the creativity to make the world, He has the creativity to make new things each day. God surprises us.” Like the reaction to St. Peter, though, some members of the community will claim that following the promptings of the Spirit are “a scandal,” the pope said. Resistance to the Holy Spirit often takes the form of “No. It’s always been done this way and it must be done this way. Don’t bring us these novelties, Peter, calm down, take a pill to calm your nerves.” Of course, the pope said, it is possible that a new idea or way of doing things comes from “the spirit of the world or the spirit of the devil” and not from God. In response, the Church must ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of wise discernment. The Faith never changes … but it is in motion, it grows and spreads.” Christians need to ask for “the grace of discernment so they do not take the wrong path or fall into immobility, rigidity or a heart that is closed” to God’s surprises, he said.

Pope Francis on October 16th, 2018
In his homily during the daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis warns us to watch out for hypocrites, whose hearts are not open to grace. The Pope emphasized the difference between the love of the people for Jesus, who loved Him because He touched their hearts, and a little bit because of their own interest; and the hatred of the doctors of the Law, the Scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, who followed Him in order to catch Him in an error. They were the “pure” ones. They were truly an example of formality. But they lacked life. They were, so to speak, “starched.” They were rigid. They were scandalized by the things Jesus did when He forgave sins, when He healed on the Sabbath. They ripped their garments in indignation: “’Oh! What a scandal! This is not from God, because He should have done this!’ The people didn’t matter to them: the Law mattered to them, the prescriptions, the rubrics. But Jesus says: ‘You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, [but] inside you are filled with plunder and evil!’ Nice compliment, eh? They are not beautiful words, eh? Jesus distinguishes between appearances and internal reality. These lords are “doctors of appearances”―always perfect, always. But within, what is there? ... The Pharisees and doctors of the Law were rigid people, not disposed to change. But always, under or behind rigidity, there are problems, grave problems,” the Pope said. We intend to have the appearance of being a good Christian; we intend to appear a certain way, we put make-up on our souls. However, Pope Francis said, behind these appearances, “there are problems. Jesus is not there. The spirit of the world is there.” Finally, the Pope warned: ”Be careful around those who are rigid. Be careful around Christians – be they laity, priests, bishops – who present themselves as so ‘perfect,’ rigid. Be careful. There’s no Spirit of God there. They lack the spirit of liberty.”

EXAMINATION AND RESPONSE TO THE QUOTES OF POPE FRANCIS

Assessing Pope Francis’ Rigid Stance on Rigidity!
So what can be said of what Pope Francis has said? Is his rigid stance on the evils of rigidity a good or a bad thing? As always―following the example of St. Thomas Aquinas―careful distinctions have to be made. Just as, according to St. Thomas, there is no person that is totally evil―likewise, there is no argument that is totally wrong, though it may be more or less wrong, more or less misguided, more or less illogical.

However, one also has to look at the motives behind certain arguments and look to see who or what will profit from the argument being made. One has to look at the qualities, or inclinations, or “track-record” of the one making the argument―for “self-advantage” or an advantage for the cause that one supports is never too far distanced when motives are concerned.

First of All―Is God Rigid?
Pope Francis―just recently, on September 7th, 2019―said: “I would like to emphasize an attitude that I do not like, because it does not come from God―rigidity.” Almost a year earlier―on October 16th, 2018―he had said: “Be careful around those who are rigid. Be careful around Christians – be they laity, priests, bishops – who present themselves as so ‘perfect,’ rigid. Be careful. There’s no Spirit of God there!” Thus, Francis disassociates God from all rigidity―”it does not come from God … There’s no spirit of God there!” Is this true or not?

A God of Change or No Change―That is the Question?
At first glance it seems that God is not rigid. There are many instances in Holy Scripture that seem to indicate this. We see it the case of the Chosen People under Moses, wandering in the desert and offending God numerous times. We see God preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha, but Abraham continually bargains with God, getting God to change the conditions for sparing Sodom and Gomorrha (Genesis 18:17-33). Later, during the Exodus from Egypt, God tells Moses that He will destroy the Chosen People and start afresh with Moses and his descendants―but Moses pleads with God on behalf of the sinful Chosen People and God seems to “change” His mind and spares them (Exodus 32:9-14).

Yet both the Old and New Testaments speak of a God with Whom there is no change: “I am the Lord, and I change not!” (Malachy 3:6). “The Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17). Our Lord Himself implies the same thing when He says: “Do not think that I am come to destroy [change] the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy [change], but to fulfill!” (Matthew 5:17).

Check Out This Rigid God!
The whole 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus manifests the rigidity of God with regard to His being obeyed and His Commandments being followed. Pope Francis would do well to read that chapter several times. Here it is:

“I am the Lord your God! You shall not make to yourselves any idol or graven thing, neither shall you erect pillars, nor set up a remarkable stone in your land, to adore it—for I am the Lord your God! Keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary—I am the Lord! If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and who have broken the chains of your necks, that you might go upright. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, then …” (Leviticus 26:1-14).

“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments, so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then I also will do these things to you― I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you.

“But if you will not yet for all this obey Me―then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit.

“If you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to Me, then I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you the beasts of the held, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate.

“And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me―then I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! After I shall have broken the staff of your bread―so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven and give it out by weight―you shall eat and shall not be filled.

“But if you will not for all this hearken to Me, but will walk against Me―then I will also go against you with opposite fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins, so that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. Insomuch that I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and will receive no more your sweet odors. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths all the days of her desolation: when you shall be in the enemy’s land, she shall keep a Sabbath, and rest in the Sabbaths of her desolation, because she did not rest in your Sabbaths when you dwelt therein.

“And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, and they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you.

“And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins.

“But I will remember My covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. I will remember also the land, which, when she shall be left by them, shall enjoy her Sabbaths, being desolate for them. And they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected My judgments, and despised My laws. And yet for all that when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether, neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed, and I should make void My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. And I will remember My former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:14-45).

Yet the pope said that resistance to the Holy Spirit often takes the form of “No. It’s always been done this way and it must be done this way!” Well, isn’t God saying (in Leviticus) it’s either My way or the highway? But the Pope said that the phrase “it’s always been done this way” reflects an attitude that “kills.” Well, having read Leviticus, perhaps the pope is right―because God is saying it must always be done this way―My way―or I will destroy you: “if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments, so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, then I also will do these things to you― I will quickly visit you with burning heat, which shall consume your lives ... You shall fall down before your enemies … I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will make you few in number … I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! … I will destroy your land … I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. And as to them that shall remain of you, they shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume them. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk against them, and bring them into their enemies’ land ― then shall they pray for their sins.” (Leviticus 26:14-41).