The text begins by evoking Pope Benedict XVI's last general audience before his abdication, in which the pontiff expressed his unshakable confidence that the barque of the Church, guided by the Lord, would withstand the storms of history and would not sink. However, the author, Dominic J. Grigio, contrasts this hope with the brutal reality of the subsequent pontificate. Under Francis' command, the perception is that the barque is being "deliberately steered onto the rocks". Faithful Catholics, described as those who simply love the Traditional Latin Mass and the perennial doctrines of the Church, have been thrown overboard, becoming targets of scorn and punitive measures merely for their fidelity to Tradition.
🌩️ The Arrogant Indifference Towards Schism
The summary highlights Pope Francis' inexplicably sanguine stance in the face of the chaos instilled. The text directly cites Francis' response to those who raised legitimate concerns: "In the Church, there is always the option for schism, always. But it is an option that the Lord leaves to human freedom. I am not afraid of schisms... I pray that schisms do not happen, but I am not afraid of them." Grigio classifies this attitude as an arrogant contempt for the divisions sown by the pontiff himself. The practical result of this irresponsibility was the abandonment of the Church by many faithful, who, disillusioned, migrated to Orthodoxy, to sedevacantist sects, or simply lost their faith, abandoning religion.
⚓ The Search for a Safe Path in the Bergoglian Storm
Faced with the storm provoked by Bergoglio, the author questions where the Lord might be. Recovering the early Christian symbolism of the anchor (Hebrews 6:18-19), hope and firmness are sought. The text relates the importance of the "Catholic scent" (sensus fidei), developed through the study of doctrine, which has become sensitive to the presence of doctrinal errors. During the current pontificate, the faithful have been subjected to an almost weekly attack of heresies and "weaponised ambiguity".
A painful example cited is the Synod on the Family and the exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The author mentions the suffering of faithful who, even when abandoned by their spouses, remained faithful to their marriage vows, only to see their sacrifice denigrated by Francis' manipulative provisions opening communion to the civilly remarried. The crisis intensified when the Pope obstinately refused to answer the dubia of the four cardinals (Caffarra, Burke, Brandmüller, and Meisner), who pointed out the glaring disparities between Amoris Laetitia and St. John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor. By doing so, Francis "threw away the time-honoured means of resolving magisterial confusion".
📚 The Rediscovery of Perennial Doctrine as an Anchor
To avoid succumbing to the collapse of teaching authority, the author found refuge in traditional catechisms and dogmatic works: the Catechism of St. Pius X, the Baltimore Catechism, the Penny Catechism, Fr. Ludwig Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, and Denzinger's Enchiridion Symbolorum. While Francis chastises doctrine, calling it "cold", "abstract", and "a pile of dead stones to be thrown at others", the author rediscovers that, on the contrary, sacred doctrine is alive with divine fire, preserving apostolic teaching from corruption by human sin and ideological agendas.
⚠️ The Rupture and the Paradigm Shift
The critical analysis of the text points out that the more one compares Francis' innovative and ideological teaching with perennial doctrine, the more obvious the attempt to force personal opinions and prejudices into the Church becomes. Despite the insistence of Francis and his accomplices on "continuity", the reality is a rupture. Cardinal Parolin, a close collaborator of the Pope, inadvertently admitted this rupture by calling Amoris Laetitia "a paradigm shift".
The author uses Thomas Kuhn's concept to explain that a paradigm shift represents a revolutionary and discontinuous break. This constitutes a solemn transgression of the restrictions on papal authority defined in the First Vatican Council (Pastor Aeternus), which establishes that the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter to reveal new doctrines, but to religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation transmitted by the apostles.
📜 The Violation of Dei Verbum and the Modernist Heresy
The text argues that Francis' pontificate implements the modernist agenda of prioritizing personal experience over Divine Revelation. Recalling Dei Verbum (paragraph 10) of Vatican II, the author reminds us that the Magisterium is not above the Word of God, but serves it, and that Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium are indissolubly linked.
Under Francis, this union has been dissolved in the "solvent of his personal experience", often justified by the euphemism of the "God of surprises". This personal experience of the Pope is described as shaped by anti-Catholic influences: liberal Protestantism, the Jesuit progressivism of Martini and Rahner, and the secular globalist agenda. The result is the "quintessence of heresy" in the Greek sense of haíresis: a voluntary and divisive choice of beliefs that contradict the Deposit of Faith. Professor Claudio Pierantoni is cited, classifying this as "the most disastrous pontificate, from a doctrinal point of view, in the entire history of the Catholic Church".
🛡️ The Book "The Disastrous Pontificate" as a Tool for Defense
Motivated by the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum of St. John Paul II, which entrusts all the faithful with the responsibility of guarding the deposit of faith, Grigio wrote the book The Disastrous Pontificate. The goal is to anchor readers in authentic doctrine so that they can withstand the storm. The work is structured in rigorous sections that dissect "The Errors of Pope Francis", conducting a doctrinal analysis inspired by Ludwig Ott, covering from anthropology to soteriology. Additionally, it presents "Sources", an exhaustive compendium that contrasts the errors with Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, inspired by Denzinger, and concludes with "Questionable Words and Deeds", a chronological section that exposes the pervasive influence of these aberrations and their consequences, following Christ's warning about "false prophets" (Mt 7:15-16).
🕯️ Conclusion: Cardinal Pell's Legacy and the Call to Vigilance
In the end, the author pays tribute to the late Cardinal George Pell, whose famous "Demos Memorandum" inspired the book's title. Pell, who observed the disaster from within the Vatican, described the pontificate as "a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe". The book is not merely a critique, but a "clarion call" urging the faithful to remain vigilant, anchored in grace and truth, awaiting a future successor of Peter to restore the Church that Francis has so disastrously confused. Finally, it is noted that Dominic J. Grigio is a pseudonym for a Catholic cleric in good standing, who conceals his identity for fear of reprisals against himself and his diocese, which in itself evidences the climate of persecution instilled.