Does Pope Francis have an Identical Twin?

I hope you like the tabloid headline. More about that at the end. First of all, thank you, Pastor Emeritus, for your kind message following my most recent post.

A mixture of technical problems and a draining away of inspiration has prevented me from posting for some time. I’ve found a way round the problems. But as to the lack of inspiration, I think it was due mainly to a reluctance to say what I have been feeling about the new papal regime under which we are living. I’m glad that others have felt able to articulate their views.

Pope Francis says some beautiful, inspiring things, but he also says really awful things which it is pretty clear are emboldening those who reject major elements of the Church’s teaching. This is horrible.

And as for the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Immaculate, and the appointment of the man alleged to have been the chief dissident to the post of Secretary General of the order …. well! In a way, the thing that I found almost more chilling than his appointment, was the statement that for the period of the commissariamento this man would be the sole spokesman of the order. That is grim.

Thank God for the academics who have set out, with such precision, their case against the decision of Pope Francis to forbid these Franciscans to exercise (without permission) their right of offering the Holy Mass in the ancient form. Sandro Magister has the details here.

I think it was the FFI bombshell that “emancipated” me. I know what I think and feel about all this. But I have been searching for a word to describe it that is as little emotionally charged as possible. We need cool heads. I will make do – and, I stress, make do - with the word “exasperated”. The acknowledgment to myself of even this somewhat underpowered expression of my feelings has, rather oddly, liberated me from a sense of oppression. Some people refer to the pope as Francis the Confusing. He has moved on, for me, to Francis the Exasperating. If he continues like this, a stronger adjective may be in order, even from me.

The title of my post comes from those silly, spooky films where Good Twin has an identical Bad Twin, locked away in secret in the attic, but escaping at frequent intervals to cause confusion and mayhem. At last, when all is revealed, everyone starts to wonder: Which Twin was responsible for what? And more to the point, which one is this Twin?

Oh, I think I need to get out more!