As Though Millions In The Media Cried Out In Terror

And were suddenly silenced.

Have you noticed a drop-off in papal coverage lately? After all the trou-dropping over how the Holy Father will be a shoe-in to lead the Catholic Church out of the bondage of Her Catholicism, things have gone quiet. You had one story about Pope Francis hugging a guy with a disfiguring disease, but the steady flow of "controversial" statements has dried up.

Why so?

Well, let's look at what the Vicar of Christ has been up to, mostly per Zenit:

First, he dropped a letter to Archbishop Marchetto about how he appreciates His Excellency's work on the history of Vatican II. In doing so, the Pope mentioned that he is a believer in the hermeneutic of continuity (you know, that thing that Pope Benedict was big on). Since much of +Marchetto's work has been to refute the so-called Bologna School and their interpretation of Vatican II (aka- "Vatican II changed all that"), this is a pretty big deal.

Second, reading from the same script as Cardinal Sarah's recent comments, Pope Francis dropped the following comments in his homily. Apologies for not being able to find the whole thing at a single source:

Recalling the first reading from the first book of Maccabees, Pope Francis highlighted “perverse roots” of worldliness that were exemplified by those who broke the Law of the Covenant. They abandoned their own traditions in favor of those of the Gentiles in order to enthusiastically “negotiate” their beliefs which the Pope called “a spirit of adolescent progressivism.”

“They believe that to go forward in any type of choice was better than to remain in the habits of fidelity,” he said, adding that they negotiated the faithfulness of God to His people.

“This is called apostasy, adultery.” They are not, in fact, negotiating a few values; they negotiate the very essence of their being: that faithfulness of the Lord.”

The Holy Father stressed in his homily that this apostasy is a fruit of the devil, who wants the move the people of God towards this spirit of worldliness. This spirit, in turn, progresses. The people begin to pick up the habits of the pagans, and ultimately, the King orders everyone to abandon their customs under pain of death.

“It is not the beautiful globalization of unity of all Nations, each one with their own customs, instead it is the globalization of hegemonic uniformity, it is the single thought. And this sole thought is the fruit of worldliness,” the Pope said.

Not only that, but Catholic Culture says he included a reference to Robert Hugh Benson's classic novel, Lord of the World, which freaking rules even when not being quoted by a pope:

“Still today, the spirit of worldliness leads us to progressivism, to this uniformity of thought” … Negotiating one's fidelity to God is like negotiating one's identity, Pope Francis said. He then made reference to the 20th-century novel Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson, in which the author speaks of the spirit of the world that leads to apostasy “almost as though it were a prophecy, as though he envisioned what would happen” … 

Finally, per Rorate, Pope Francis made one of his famous phone calls. This time, it was to Mario Palmaro, a noted Catholic of the "traditionalist" stripe. The Holy Father thanked Mr. Palmaro for some criticisms he had recently thrown the Sovereign Pontiff's way.

None of these fit the media narrative for the Pope, which is why all such stories will be buried in the pile with tales of excommed heretics and attacks on the Culture of Death.

Just take it as another cautionary note on how you can't get real Church news from the usual suspects.