non veni pacem

From the presser back from Poland today.

Antoine Marie Izoarde, i.Media: “Holy Father, before all I make the congratulations to you and Father Lombardi and also to Fr. Spadaro for the feast of St. Ignatius, if you allow me. The question is a little difficult: Catholics are a bit in shock, and not only in France, after the barbarous assassination of Fr. Jacques Hamel – as you know well – in his church while celebrating the Holy Mass. Four days ago you here told us that all religions want peace. But this holy, 86-year-old priest was clearly killed in the name of Islam. So Holy Father, I have two brief questions: why do you, when you speak of these violent events, always speak of terrorists, but never of Islam, never use the word Islam? And then, aside from prayer and dialogue, which are obviously essential, what concrete initiatives can you advise or suggest in order to counteract Islamic violence? Thank you, Holiness.”
Pope Francis: “I don’t like to speak of Islamic violence, because every day, when I browse the newspapers, I see violence, here in Italy… this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law… and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence . . . and no, not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent. It is like a fruit salad; there’s everything. There are violent persons of this religion… this is true: I believe that in pretty much every religion there is always a small group of fundamentalists. Fundamentalists. We have them. When fundamentalism comes to kill, it can kill with the language — the Apostle James says this, not me — and even with a knife, no? I do not believe it is right to identify Islam with violence. This is not right or true. I had a long conversation with the imam, the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar University, and I know how they think . . . They seek peace, encounter . . . The nuncio to an African country told me that the capital where he is there is a trail of people, always full, at the Jubilee Holy Door. And some approach the confessionals — Catholics — others to the benches to pray, but the majority go forward, to pray at the altar of Our Lady… these are Muslims, who want to make the Jubilee. They are brothers, they live… When I was in Central Africa, I went to them, and even the imam came up on the Popemobile… We can coexist well… But there are fundamentalist groups, and even I ask… there is a question… How many young people, how many young people of our Europe, whom we have left empty of ideals, who do not have work… they take drugs, alcohol, or go there to enlist in fundamentalist groups. One can say that the so-called ISIS, but it is an Islamic State which presents itself as violent . . . because when they show us their identity cards, they show us how on the Libyan coast how they slit the Egyptians’ throats or other things… But this is a fundamentalist group which is called ISIS… but you cannot say, I do not believe, that it is true or right that Islam is terrorist.”

I’m at a loss where to start.  He really said it all.
Catholic Fundamentalists are just as bad as Jihadists.
 

Because the FFIs certainly needed to be destroyed, right? Now we have a model to go forward.
Francis has issued the apostolic constitution VULTUM DEI QUAERERE on women’s contemplative life HERE.
There are copious amounts of totally sound teaching, so the Pollyannas will have plenty to crow about.  At first, there is just a modest sprinkling of the Francisinsults we’ve grown accustomed to.

#4.  Communities of prayer, especially contemplative communities…do not propose a more perfect fulfilment of the Gospel.
#11.  Among the most perilous temptations faced by contemplatives is…the temptation to listlessness, mere routine, lack of enthusiasm and paralyzing lethargy…little by little this leads to “a tomb psychology… [that] develops and slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum. Disillusioned with reality, with the Church and with themselves, they experience a constant temptation to cling to a faint melancholy, lacking in hope, which seizes the heart like ‘the most precious of the devil’s potions’.”
#19. The entire Church, and especially communities completely devoted to contemplation, need to rediscover the centrality of the word of God.
#21. Your entire day, both personal and in community, ought to be organized around the word of God. Thus your communities and fraternities will become schools where the word is carefully listened to, put into practice and proclaimed to all those who encounter you.

That’s just for starters.  It really kicks in around #24.  Then, in case you thought the program was merely a suggestion, he lays out exactly how this is going to go down. Which is to say, exactly like the Commie re-education camps you might expect from Francis.
More to come.

Please please please go read “Defeating Jihad – The Winnable War”  by Dr. Sebastian Gorka HERE.  Excluding the exhibits and technical info, it’s 155 pages and a very easy read. His conclusions/gameplan I’m afraid don’t go far enough, but he does a masterful job of laying out the NATURE OF THE PROBLEM, and then draws parallels common to other totalitarian ideologies.
For years, I’ve recommended “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright HERE.  It still stands as the comprehensive guide to the Salafist/Wahhabist strain of Sunni Islam.  But it is thick and intimidating, and we are now at the point where literally everyone needs to get in the game and educate themselves.
Gorka’s book can be read in an afternoon and understood by an average fifth grader.  Said fifth grader would then be educated enough to avoid making any statement as delusional as the one at the top of this post.
Said fifth grader would also be more qualified in counterterrorism than the entire Obama DOD/DOJ, who have expunged all reference to Islamic Terrorism AKA Jihad from every training manual, every policy, every directive.  If you are an expert in this field, and you acknowledge the role of Islam as CENTRAL to the problem, you are barred from teaching any classes, delivering seminars, speeches etc. to anyone in Fedgov.  At some point, conduct like this moves beyond head-in-the-sand delusion, crossing over to criminal negligence at best and intentional sabotage at worst.
Folks, it’s game time.  It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not.  Shit is about to go down on a scale not seen since, well, I’m not even sure.  This hateful totalitarian ideology cannot be reasoned with, bought off, pacified in any way, except with your blood.  More are arriving daily, and more are being homegrown daily.  Their means of recruiting demonstrate a level of psychological insight and technological expertise which will not be easy to defeat.
Have you begun to consider the odds of a planned coordinated simultaneous attack across multiple soft targets in North America?  Not Wall Street and government buildings, but rather schools, shopping malls, busses and trains, youth sports tournaments, dance recitals, outdoor concert venues, Main Street in downtown Middle America. Are you doing anything, anything at all to prep for this?  Are you responsible only for yourself, or do you have a family?  If you have a family, it’s your duty to educate and prepare them as best you can.  You will not be permitted the excuse of, “How was I supposed to know?”
GET. IN. THE. GAME.

I stole the title from one of the slides in Ann Barnhardt’s spectacular video on Diabolical Narcissism HERE.  The video itself is three hours long, and worth every minute of your time.
I’ve been meaning to write for some time about the root cause of all the madness – the inversion of the First Commandment (title of this post).  Note well, not the expungement of the commandment, but rather its diabolical inversion at the command of the satanically influenced secular world to worship self as if we were god.  The root goes wayyyy back, more than 500 years, and we won’t trace all that in this post.  Let’s just focus on the current phase of the collapse, which is the entirety of the Second Vatican Council – all of it – but especially its attack on the Mass.
Which brings us to the current event of Cardinal Sarah’s appeal for ad orientem, and the ensuing admonishment from his boss.
Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat.  This is not a trivial event. On the contrary, it is most revealing, both in the subject matter and in the way it played out.  Don’t let anyone tell you this is about style, preferences, fashion, etc.  Don’t let anyone tell you this is just rearranging deck chairs.  I mean, of COURSE it’s rearranging deck chairs, but that doesn’t mean we should shrug our shoulders and waste the teachable moment.
This is about the most diabolical change in the Mass of Paul IV… and that’s really saying something, because there sure is a lot to choose from.  It doesn’t matter that the change wasn’t mandated, and it doesn’t matter that the rubrics suggest the change wasn’t made at all.  The only thing that matters is that the priest standing at table facing the people was the end result, almost instantaneously in all the churches of the world.  Paul VI himself was doing it in Rome before the missal was even promulgated.  No time for citations… go look it up.
The change to versus populum flattened the liturgy, led us to focus on the priest and on ourselves instead of God, supported all the SJW nonsense by making it about “the community”.  There are a hundred books written about this. It’s so obvious, that even with no knowledge of history, if someone sees ad orientem for the first time, and you explain that we are all facing God and worshipping him together, and this person has at least a shred of Sensus Catholicus, THEY INSTANTLY GET IT, and wonder how it had never occurred to them before.
So yes, what I’m saying is that this is the actual most destructive thing about the N.O.
Not communion in the hand, though also an abomination.
Not EMHCs, though also an abomination.
Not female altar boys, though also an abomination.
Not the awful music, though also an abomination.
Not 27 “Eucharistic Prayers”, though also an abomination.
Not the butchered Offertory, though also an abomination.
Not the loss of Latin, although lamentable, especially the near loss of chant.
Not the removal of tabernacles, although a corollary to versus populum.
No.  None of these has had a more devastating effect than versus populum.  None of these has contributed more to the dethroning of God and the deification of man.  And it’s exactly as the marxist masonic modernist infiltrators wanted.
Now back to current events.

I want to make an appeal to all priests. You may have read my article in L’Osservatore Romano one year ago (12 June 2015) or my interview with the journal Famille Chrétienne in May of this year. On both occasions I said that I believe that it is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction—Eastwards or at least towards the apse—to the Lord who comes, in those parts of the liturgical rites when we are addressing God. This practice is permitted by current liturgical legislation. It is perfectly legitimate in the modern rite. Indeed, I think it is a very important step in ensuring that in our celebrations the Lord is truly at the centre.
And so, dear Fathers, I humbly and fraternally ask you to implement this practice wherever possible, with prudence and with the necessary catechesis, certainly, but also with a pastor’s confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people. Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’ (see: Introit, Mass of Wednesday of the first week of Advent) may be a very good time to do this.

Cardinal Sarah, speaking at a conference, in an unofficial role, made an appeal to priests for a return to ad orientem as part of the effort of “reform of the reform”, a project he says Pope Francis encouraged him on.  He noted it is already permitted.  So no rule change, and no mandate, only an “appeal”.
But he is the prefect of the CDW; why didn’t he just mandate it?  Hahahaha.  I don’t think so.  This was the only way he could get it out there, and it was brilliant.
Now let’s look at the very revealing reaction. At warp speed, and for only the second time in this pontificate, +Lombardi is sent out to issue a retraction (the other time was the “denial” supposedly from the lips of the pope emeritus regarding Fatima shenanigans).  The retraction didn’t even bother to get the facts of the matter right, and actually made the situation muddier.  But what it tells us about the heretics in charge is this:  They get it.  They know, with absolute certainty, that the imposition of versus populum was ESSENTIAL to destroying the rite, the dethroning of God, and the deification of self.  There is no way they can allow even a suggestion of a return to ad orientem, because that would threaten the whole paradigm.
Then, +Sarah doubled down by authorizing the publication of the full text, UNEDITED, even after the rebuke. HERE
It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens this Advent. I know this seems like a circus sideshow given everything else going on under the big tent, but I’ve already explained why that’s not true.  Priests and bishops now have air cover from +Sarah, should they dare to embrace it.  Since we really are talking about an effort that will produce conversions, we could see a movement.  Those priests and bishops also know that they will be persecuted without mercy.  But hey, we’re only talking about the salvation of ACTUAL SOULS.
 

As in silver, the metal commodity.  I know it’s been a slow news week.
Well my friends, silver is the new black.
Metals are where investors go for safety.  During the height of the financial crisis, gold topped $1800 and Silver went to nearly $50.  It took several years for the prices to recede.  In fact, silver prices only returned to “normal” late in 2015, and gold actually never did sell down to where it was before the crisis.
I’m no expert in this field, but I can do basic math. Silver started the year around $13 and crept to $16-$17 as Brexit neared, fluctuating with each passing act of jihad or the Fed.  Then the Brexit vote and boom.

Gold is up too, but not as much.  The 30 day move for silver of 16.3%, bringing the six month growth to 46%.  And of course this is against the USD; against GBP it’s higher yet.
The reason I like silver is its practicality for use as actual currency.  In a SHTF scenario, this attribute gives silver a huge advantage at street level.  If you need basic necessities, would you be better off carrying coins worth $20 or $1400 each?
Oh, and unless you have physical possession of your metals, you have nothing.  Your “shares” in metal “funds” might as well be used to line the birdcage.
So what are the other factors causing the metals rise, and particularly silver?  Like I said, I’m no expert.  But maybe reality is starting to sink in.
Imminent jihad in the form of mass coordinated attacks, not lone wolf, which will make 9/11 look like a picnic.  Imminent collapse of banks and governments, because we know the money isn’t really there.  Imminent race riots in the U.S. with the possibility of Martial Law.  Two political conventions in the next three weeks, with any manner of possible shenanigans going on.
Think about it.  Would you say it is more or less likely we have a coordinated attack on U.S. soil before the elections?  Not like 9/11, where the targets symbolized the evils of finance and government.  I’m talking about middle America: multiple cities, multiple soft targets, triggering real terror.  Shopping malls, grocery stores, sporting events, schools.  How much would it take to bring this country to a screeching halt, where people would be afraid to go outside?  What happens after that?
Lastly, as I remarked to a deeply Christian but non-Catholic friend on Saturday, “and there’s a heretic in Rome who wears white.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”
Amazing that 99% of Catholics have not.

With Blessed Francis of the Humble Ambition now proclaiming his disdain for lopping off heads, while at the same time, lopping off heads, it’s a good time for some reflection.
It is all going to get much, much worse before it gets better.  I mean, I’m sustained daily by the knowledge that we win in the end.  We’re assured of that.  But we are not assured that it won’t get nearly unbearable before the end comes.
No, in fact we are assured it WILL get VERY NEARLY UNBEARABLE.  Matthew 24:

[21] For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. [22] And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. [23] Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. [24] For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. [25] Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

Even the elect would eventually be deceived.  Meditate on that.  All of humanity alive at the end would fall for the deception and be damned, if the tribulation were allowed to continue for long enough. Only God, because he is perfect justice and perfect mercy, brings the curtain down before they succumb to the deception.
Which brings me to an Ann Barnhardt pearl from 21 Oct 2014: Sorting and Sifting.

So I’m getting all kinds of emails from people who feel themselves losing their faith, considering going sedevacantist or just giving up on the entire idea of the Church qua church altogether. This is obviously very, very bad, and is the doing of satan.  This is what happened right after the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Mass in late ARSH 1968.  Many, many Catholics saw the Holy and August Sacrifice of the Mass turned into – sometimes literally – a clown show in the space of just a few short months, and simply walked away.  “I didn’t leave the Church – the Church left me.” Now satan wants to finish what was started 45 years ago.  What we are seeing today is the coming to full fruition of the Modernist-Freemasonic-Communist-Homosexualist war of aggression against God and His Church.

Of course it goes back Waaaaay farther than 45 years ago.  More like 500 years ago.  But you know what she’s saying.  45 years ago is when we started sprinting toward this.

The Catholic Church is God desperately chasing after YOU, God doing everything He possibly, possibly can short of taking away your free will and coercing you.  Here is God coming down on the altar at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, miraculously and supernaturally changing bread and wine into His Physical Substance so that He can be near us, among us and even inside of us PHYSICALLY.  Here is God giving us a concrete means of confessing our sins TO HIM and receiving pardon and absolution FROM HIM so that we actually, physically hear the words, “I absolve you…” through the supernatural reality of the priesthood and the sacrament of confession.  God is the actor. God is the driver. God is the smitten Lover, and we are the quarry.
Are you sure you want to walk away from that because, after a century of attack, foretold and prophesied repeatedly by no less than His Mother, we now have a Church infested with stupid, seemingly faithless men, including the pope himself?  Really?

It is a really good essay, and needed even more now than it was 21 months ago.
Please go read (or re-read) all of it over THERE.
 

So you really thought she was going to be charged?  You’re kidding, right?
What’s that?  You say the FBI didn’t even need to prove intent, that the mere presence of the private server, its being set up and made functional itself was a criminal act?  Because said server, functioning as intended, would NECESSARILY cause classified documents to become unsecured?
Please stop.  None of this is relevant.  The only thing that’s relevant is that the republic is dead, because the Rule of Law is dead.
Remember THIS?

The central doctrine of a just republic is The Rule of Law, which has several components (even wiki gets this right):

1. The republic is governed by laws, not by the will of its leaders
2. All citizens are subject to the law, including the law makers
3. Equal protection under the law

Without getting into the dozens of examples I could cite, let’s just say the Rule of Law has been dead or badly broken since at least 2010.  So everyone with a functioning brain should have been able to glean, for quite some time now, that we were careening seriously off the rails.

Stop being surprised, and start understanding.  The rules do not apply to the ruling the class.  The rules are only for peasants.
It’s now just a matter of time.

I’ve read it, re-read it, read commentary, tried to put it out of my mind.  But it’s hard.
I had been eagerly awaiting the 29 June celebration of the 65th anniversary of Benedict’s priestly ordination.  It would be a rare public appearance for the Pope Emeritus, and an even rarer occasion to hear him speak.  In fact, it would be his very first public statement since the last day of his pontificate.
This was going to be interesting, given the events of the past three years, and most especially the last few months.
Full unofficial English transcript HERE and some commentary HERE that’s hard to argue with.
First red flag right off the bat, no prepared text.  His remarks were ‘off the cuff’.  Was he told to speak off the cuff?  This was a fairly momentous event; you would think he would have prepared a statement.
Here is the money quote.  I’ve highlighted the thrice betrayal.

Thanks above all to you, Holy Father! Your goodness… moves me, it really carries me interiorly. More than in the Vatican Gardens, with their beauty, your goodness as the place where I live: I feel protected. Thank you, too, for the word of appreciation, for everything. And we hope that you will carry us all forward on this way of Divine Mercy, showing the way of Jesus, toward Jesus, towards God.

Read it and weep. Literally weep, because Benedict has just put his seal of approval on the whole sorry axis of evil that is the Bergoglio pogrom. Abandon all hope, ye who thought the Expanded Petrine Thought Experiment was actually going somewhere.
Yes, yes, I know Benedict is a modernist too.  But I just can’t get over the gushing.
I’ve been trying to come up with more to say, but I got nothin’.  Go click on the link above, Louie says it all.
I wonder how many prelates were also hoping for something more?  If they were hoping for a signal to attack, they are as disappointed as I am.

Why? Why? Why?

Vatican City, 2 July 2016 – Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has sent a telegram of condolences on behalf of the Holy Father following the terrorist attack that took place yesterday in a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which twenty civilians and six of the attackers died.
“Deeply saddened by the senseless violence perpetrated against innocent victims in Dhaka, His Holiness Pope Francis expresses heartfelt condolences and condemns such barbarous acts as offences against God and humanity. In commending the dead to God’s mercy, His Holiness gives the assurance of his prayers for the grieving families and the wounded”.

Holy Father, thank you for condemning the indeed barbarous acts.  But calling it senseless violence isn’t helpful, it’s obfuscating.  Because to the perpetrators, it all made perfect sense.  It was an Islamic terrorist attack:

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) – The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were slain. The dramatic crisis ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead.
The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government revert to Islamic rule.
Friday night’s attack was coordinated, with the attackers brandishing assault rifles as they shouted “Allahu Akbar” and stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s Gulshan area. About 35 were trapped inside.
“The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran,” the Islamic holy book, according to Rezaul Karim, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside. “Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night.”
The others, he said, “were tortured.”
“All the hostages were killed last night. The terrorists used sharp weapons to kill them brutally,” said Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters in a news conference Saturday night.

If you thinks it’s senseless, because it doesn’t make sense to YOU, then it’s YOUR duty to get some learning on the Islam and stop blaming guns and ammo.
Also today, the pope continued his disparagement of nations and citizens who would dare put the interests – nay, the survival – of their nation and fellow citizens above tender caresses of the invading hordes:

Pope sends video message to the participants in the fourth edition of “Together for Europe”, which took place in Munich, Germany from 30 June to 1 July and concluded this morning with a large demonstration in KarlsPlatz. HERE
“It is time to get together, to face the problems of our day with a true European spirit. Apart from some visible walls, other invisible walls are being strengthened which tend to divide our continent. These walls are being built in people’s hearts. They are walls made of fear and aggression, a failure to understand people of different backgrounds or faith. They are walls of political and economic selfishness, without respect for the life and dignity of every person.”

And the beat goes on.

This is another game changer. HERE

“The problem is a person that has a condition, that has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge? And we must accompany them well…this is what the catechism says, a clear catechism.”

Sounds a lot like three years ago, when Francis put an abrupt end to the +Ricca affair:

“A gay person who is seeking God, who is of good will – well, who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says one must not marginalize these persons, they must be integrated into society.”

Sounds almost identical, right? No new news?
Wrong.
First, with regard to the +Ricca scandal, the second quote above was in response to questions about +Ricca’s retaining his new appointment after his scandal broke HERE.  We were dealing here with a single individual, credibly accused of grossly immoral acts.  The inference from the pope’s comment was that +Ricca had repented and was now seeking to live chastely.  That’s the only thing “who is of good will” could mean. (Right?)
This event was, at the time, the crowning achievement of the fledgling pontificate in the eyes of the secular world.  It was used to promote all manner of misinformation about the pope changing Church teaching on homosexuality.”No he didn’t,” the Pollyannas cried, and of course they were right, but missing the point.  Not only did he not (could not) change doctrine, but also the fact that he was speaking about an individual case, meant that he *might* not have intended the tidal wave it caused.  He might have been speaking only about +Ricca.  It wasn’t plausible, but it was possible.

 
Now, it sure would have been nice if there was a clarification issued by the Vatican after The Advocate named Francis person of the year.  It would have been nice if there were clarifications, corrections, retractions, denials, etc on a whole host of other things in the past three years.  But the fact remains, no one could then have claimed with moral certainty that the pope meant we should not judge all “gays” in general, despite them persisting in the “gay” lifestyle.
Now, that has changed. Now he is clearly talking about everyone with SSA, including those choosing to live the sinful lifestyle.  Because we know through AL that Francis does not believe in objective sinfulness.  Remember, he was responding to a question that was specifically referencing the Orlando terrorist attack.

Cindy Wooden, CNS: Holiness, within the past few days Cardinal Marx…said that the Catholic Church must ask forgiveness to the gay community for having marginalized these people. In the days following the shooting in Orlando, many have said that the Christian community had something to do with this hate toward these people. What do you think?
Pope Francis: I will repeat what I said on my first trip. I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally…The problem is a person that has a condition, that has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge?

There is much more to his response and I wrote another post on this if you want to see the whole thing.  He’s taken the lead from Obama on the apology tour. The point here is, he is responding to a question which references a group of people who were actively engaged in, or actively pursuing, OBJECTIVE MORTAL SIN at the very moment of their demise.  
First of all, you can’t “accompany” anyone when they’re DEAD.  So a word or two about Islamic terror might have been nice.  But we know that’s never going to happen, with Francis dueling Obama on the race to the left in that arena.  If you go read the whole thing, you’ll see that Francis couldn’t resist blaming guns, too.
But beyond that, he has now clearly extended the mantle of mercy to unrepentant mortal sinners, as if God himself won’t judge them.  It’s the same theme that runs through Chapter Eight of AL condoning fornication, adultery and cohabitation, so we know Francis totally owns that too, along with Abp. Kissy Kissy.  All the enemies of Truth can point to this and say “LOOK… this proves we were right all along.”  NO H8! LOVE WINS!
The sinner is blameless, there is no repentance required, go on sinning because the commandments are just lofty unattainable ideals, but above all be nice and use less air conditioning.
The Gospel according to Francis.