AF (After Francis)

I've been thinking about this a lot what with Pope Francis being on the cover of all these magazines lately.

Part of the reason that the Church was thrust into so much chaos after Vatican II was that the dissenters used the image of the fake John XXIII to insist that heresy and schism was ok. This narrative was a sacred icon for just about every faux Catholic movement (and still is to a large extent).

"If only John XXIII had lived longer, we'd have had women priests, disco liturgy, contraceptives, and full acceptance of the idea that all religions are equal and everyone is going to heaven."

That's the general preaching of these folks. It made it easy to villify Paul VI. John Paul II's personality made it more difficult to make the commentary fit, but it was still promoted *cough*McBrien*cough*.

All this came down in an age where media was rising but was not yet fully ascendant in forming the opinions of the masses. I would also submit that there was a lot more critical thinking back then and it would have been harder to pass of stories about such absurdities as "the Pope abolished sin" as anything other than lunacy.

Imagine what things will look like after Pope Francis. God forbid something happen to the Holy Father, but just consider what that will look like with all the current stories floating around about how the whole purpose of Pope Francis's pontificate is to overthrow the Church. Remember that the whole reason His Holiness was initially considered for Time's Man of the Year was that he "rejected Church dogma."

Despite what people think, Pope Benedict wasn't a "traditionalist," yet he is revile as such by those with an axe to grind. Consider what the reaction will be if someone of even a moderate leaning (like Pope Benedict) succeeds Pope Francis. All hell is going to break loose. The new narrative will be:

"If only Pope Francis hadn't died! We'd have women priests...blahblahblah!"

Only this time it will be 1000 times worse because now every heretic and schismatic with an internet account can blast their madness over facebook and twitter. Every Candida Moss/Richard McBrien in the world will have special feature articles at CNN and MSNBC and so forth to spew venom about the new pontiff. Every prelate who supports the new pope will be condemned and the others will be emboldened to increase the pace to de jure schism.

It will be a worse poopstorm than we've ever seen. And it will inevitably happen. So get ready.