This from www.theatlantic.com: "The new pope's choices stir high hopes among liberal Catholics and intense uncertainty among conservatives. Deep divisions may lie ahead.

"Now we have a Pope Francesco in the flesh, and elements of Murphy’s vision have come to pass, or so it seems: the attention-grabbing breaks with papal protocol, the interventions in global politics, the reopening of moral issues that his predecessors had deemed settled, and the blend of public humility and skillful exploitation—including the cashiering of opponents—of the papal office and its powers.

The Church is not yet in the grip of a revolution. The limits, theological and practical, on papal power are still present, and the man who was Jorge Bergoglio has not done anything that explicitly puts them to the test. But his moves and choices (and the media coverage thereof) have generated a revolutionary atmosphere around Catholicism. For the moment, at least, there is a sense that a new springtime has arrived for the Church’s progressives. And among some conservative Catholics, there is a feeling of uncertainty absent since the often-chaotic aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s and ’70s.

"... the conservatives’ very theology makes it impossible for them to effectively resist a liberalizing pope, and anyway they have no other place to go."   FULL ARTICLE HERE

REMNANT COMMENT: First of all, what do you think: Springtime, or Winter going forward under Pope Francis? And secondly, if things go from bad to worse will the neo-Catholics finally take a stand? 

Jacqueline Klimas of the The Washington Times writes: "Soon there may only be atheists in the foxholes. Christians are leaving the U.S. military or are discouraged from joining in the first place because of a "hostile work environment" that doesn't let them express their beliefs openly, religious freedom advocates say. Michael Berry, senior counsel at the Liberty Institute, a Texas-based legal organization dedicated to defending religious liberty in America, said recent high-profile cases of military chaplains facing punishment for private counseling sessions that reflected the teachings of their religion could cause devout Americans who are qualified for military service to think twice about joining the military." READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

REMNANT COMMENT: I wonder which neo-barbarian hordes are going to crush America first. Well played, by the way, liberal elites!  You and your militant secularism are transforming the U.S. Military into a place fit for murderers, rapists and criminals.  Support the troops? Really?

Sham “Schism” Exposed

"The neo-Catholic establishment really must cease its spiteful calumnies of the Society’s adherents, whose heroic perseverance in the traditions of the Faith will certainly be vindicated by history, as their neo-Catholic hecklers undoubtedly suspect."

I have long argued—here, for example—that the “lack of full communion” attributed to the Society of Saint Pius X, even though its clergy and laity are obviously Catholics under no sentence of excommunication, is nothing but an ad hoc contrivance designed to perpetuate the unjust persecution of this group of the faithful by creating a rather silly special category of “double secret probation” in the Church applicable only to them. I have also argued that the mere issuance of a technical decree regularizing the Society’s canonical status is all that is necessary to eliminate the illusory “lack of full communion.”

According to a story at CNN.com this morning, “Islam, the world's fastest-growing faith, will leap from 1.6 billion (in 2010) to 2.76 billion by 2050, according to the Pew study. At that time, Muslims will make up nearly one-third of the world's total projected population of about 9 billion people.

“Christianity is expected to grow, too, but not at Islam's explosive rate. The Pew study predicts Christians will increase from 2.17 billion to 2.92 billion, composing more than 31% of the world's population.

“This means that by 2050, more than 6 out of 10 people on Earth will be Christian or Muslim.” READ FULL REPORT HERE

REMNANT COMMENT: Interesting! Lowly Islam—disorganized, warring tribes, without even a claimant to the position of visible head— giving its ancient nemesis, Christianity, a serious run for its money.

Isn’t it something how faith really can move mountains, even the false variety. But poor old beleaguered Christianity doesn’t stand a chance this time around. Thanks to the debilitating and faith-destroying Spirit of Vatican II, the Crescent looms high over the Cross.

What this report does not touch on, by the way, is the almighty power of raw secularism, which at the moment seems to be dominating the world and its “great monothesitic religions”. How did we end up with homosexual ‘marriage’, for example, in a world inhabited by practitioners of religions that oppose it in peril of their souls?

If you want something to fear in the future you needn’t look to religion but rather to that Ape of God, to irreligion, to the supreme deity worshipped by the practitioners of unholy militant Secularism (read: atheism). Now that’s the stuff of global nightmares!

Today from France.com: "Pope Francis’ liberal credentials have taken a blow after the Vatican reportedly refused to accept the nomination of the new French ambassador, a close aide of President François Hollande, because he is gay.

"Laurent Stefanini, a senior diplomat and French President François Hollande’s chief of protocol, was nominated in early January but the Vatican has yet to accept his credentials, officials in Paris said.

"Normally a new ambassador’s credentials are accepted within a month and a half. The Vatican does not usually explicitly refuse an envoy’s credentials, but a prolonged silence after a nomination is interpreted as a rejection...

"A French presidential aide said that the choice of the 54-year-old to represent France at the Vatican resulted from “a wish by the president and a cabinet decision” and that the president regarded him as "one of our best diplomats." Libération daily headlined its article on the story with 'The Pope tarnishes his image'." FULL FRANCE.COM REPORT HERE

REMNANT COMMENT: This is so typical of the sacrilegious effrontery routinely served up by the dangerous secularist regime that is modern, self-destructing France. One can only hope that such brazen Christophobia from the former eldest daughter of the Catholic Church will help Pope Francis realize that the politics of appeasement will only encourage the evil conquerors of holy Christendom to step up their attacks on Christ's holy Church.  Pope Francis must judge, and judge quickly and justly for all the world to see. France's attempted finger-in-the-eye of the Vatican should make it pretty obvious how effective Francis's famous refusal to judge has been so far.

That the Vatican has thus far rejected this diplomatic appointment is a good sign, of course, and demonstrates once again why the loyal Catholic opposition must not fear to raise its voice in respectful protest, promising the Vatican that when they set politics aside in favor of Tradition they will have no more loyal defenders in the world than traditional Catholics; but when they shirk their sacred duty before God and Tradition out of fear of a world gone mad they will be hard pressed to find harsher critics than us.