My opinion on the current Pope

I understand that there is some interest in my opinion regarding the current Pope.

First of all, I must write disclaimers. I am of the opinion that this is an internal affair of the Catholic Church, and that they should completely disregard any and all outsiders in such matters. One of the main mistakes the Church has been making, in my opinion, is to take into consideration the opinions of those who are not Catholics, nor wish to become so, regardless of any changes the Church were to introduce to its doctrine and practice. The Church should, in my opinion, pay attention only to its own most holy members, and completely disregard any call for “reforms” that come from the outside. As far as the outsiders are concerned, the Church could become a socialist gay club and change the official flag of Vatican to the rainbow one, and it still wouldn’t be enough, because next it would be pressured to accept Muhammad as a prophet and Qur’an as a holy scripture.

And this is where we come to my opinion, which should be taken by the Church with all the reservations due when considering opinions of outsiders.

I perceived Benedict as a holy person even before he was elected Pope. There is air of spirituality, power and subtlety that makes me smile and be glad that the Church has a truly holy man at its head. Whether Catholics would interpret this as my confirmation that he was truly anointed by the Holy Spirit, is beside the point. That’s what I perceived and I can testify to that. With Francis, I feel revulsion. He is spiritually empty, dry, and I feel instinctual dislike of him even when he is, formally speaking, correct in some matter, because a person so drastically lacking any kind of holiness can hardly improve religious doctrine. I also feel great contempt for his vapid demagoguery and pandering to the enemies of the Church at the expense of its traditionalist believers.

I think Benedict tried to weed out some terrible aberrations from the Church, and found such opposition to his efforts that he simply gave up, surrendered the fate of Church to God, and devoted his life to prayer. If the Catholics want to interpret my opinion in the matter as considering Benedict the true Pope, and Francis the antipope, I would consider it close enough to the truth and wouldn’t express significant opposition to such interpretation. I would also not object if my words were interpreted to mean that Benedict is a saintly person and Francis is a godless demon. That is also close enough to my opinion for me not to object.

Essentially, it is my position that ideological differences do not preclude my support to some religious organization if it strives to attain something that I perceive as spiritually valuable. I also feel sadness if positive efforts of others are thwarted, or if I see evil thriving.

This should of course not be interpreted as interference into the internal affairs of others, but since I felt some Catholics wondering about my opinion in this matter, I decided it is for the best if I just write it down and offer it as such.