Fr. Joachim Heimerl: Francis and John Paul II – The Church Has An Elephant In The Room (April 18, 2025)

By Fr. Joachim Heimerl, Stilum Curiae, (Complicit Clergy), April 18, 2025

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the death of Pope Saint John Paul II, the church media outdid each other with tributes and, of course, as in his life, also with criticism. The greatest Pope of the 20th century is laboriously worked over by narrow-minded people.

What they didn’t talk about, however, was the huge elephant in the room: what would John Paul II say about his successor, Francis?

The interesting thing here is not so much that Francis wants to eliminate the legacy of John Paul II, but rather what constitutes the papacy: continuity in Catholic doctrine and ecclesiastical tradition.

Everyone knows that things are going badly with Francis: he deviates from much of what all the Popes have taught, and at times crosses the boundaries of heresy. There is no trace of compatibility between his pontificate and that of John Paul II. On the contrary, it is a papacy that finds itself isolated within itself and within a new Church.

The way Francis campaigns against the traditional liturgy is the best illustration of this: he fights the only form of the Mass that has represented authentic faith since late antiquity. If John Paul II and Benedict XVI adopted a “hermeneutic of continuity” in the “old” and “new” Mass, Francis confirms the opposite: it is a fundamental break with ecclesiastical tradition and, ultimately, with everything Catholic. His fight against the Holy Mass is his fight against the Church of the past!

As if to reaffirm this, the Pope has now announced an “ecclesiastical assembly” that will take place in 2028. In all likelihood, he won’t live to see this event, but that’s not what interests him. On the contrary, Francis wants to show with this announcement what the ultimate goal of his pontificate is, thereby also committing his successor. The—purely Protestant!—term “ecclesiastical assembly” speaks for itself here; it is as alien to the Church as the so-called “synodality” with which Francis wants to establish widespread apostasy as “Catholic” doctrine.

No, one cannot really speak of a question of continuity between this Pope and John Paul II.

But even though this is so obvious you could touch it with your hands, most Catholics bury their heads in the sand and remain silent about the enormous elephant in the room: Francis represents a neo-Church that has broken with the old one, and this “obsolete” Church is in turn symbolized by his predecessor John Paul II.

But John Paul II could only seemingly conceal the internal rupture that had occurred after the Second Vatican Council. It is true that he insisted on the traditional faith and provided it with a “sure guide” in the Universal Catechism. Yet, even this could not counteract the evaporation of Catholicism. How could this happen? Much of what had been part of the Catholic Church for more than 2,000 years had disappeared after the Second Vatican Council or suddenly seemed somehow distorted: the liturgy and the administration of the sacraments had changed not only ritually but also substantially. And although they remained valid, they have barely been recognized since then.

Let’s be honest: the 260 Popes who ruled before the Second Vatican Council could hardly identify with what we so naturally call “Catholic” today. On the other hand, anyone here who speaks of a “development” of “Catholicism” is just resorting to a cheap “theological” trick. Do you think Pius V or Pius X would approve of the way we celebrate Mass? Or John Paul II of the “blessing” of homosexual couples that Francis has “permitted,” defying divine commandment? Of course not!

In this sense, the Church faces a serious problem, certainly in the form of a double rupture, which could likely continue and be consolidated in future pontificates; Francis has already addressed this. But this and only this is the elephant in the room, and as long as this elephant remains, it will block a renewal of the Church that presupposes a convergence with its Tradition. The neo-Church that Francis wants to build, on the other hand, only leads down the wrong path, or, let’s say, to an “elephant’s path.”

Republished from Stilum Curiae

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