A couple of weeks ago, Pope Francis again made headlines. Shortly after leaving hospital for colon surgery, he restricted the use of the so-called Latin Mass, creating a furore in Catholic circles – not just amongst bloggers but bishops.
The widely-read conservative blog Rorate Caeli declared: “Francis HATES all that is good and beautiful. Francis HATES the Catholicism practiced by his mother and grandmother.” An auxiliary bishop in the Netherlands, Rob Mutsaerts, posted a long denunciation of the Pope on his blog. “How dictatorial, how unpastoral, how unmerciful do you want to be!” he wrote.
Several elderly cardinals were horrified. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a former high-ranking member of the Vatican Curia, wrote: “Instead of appreciating the smell of the sheep, the shepherd here hits them hard with his crook.”