From a November 5 post in the Argentinian blog Caminante-Wanderer, extremely well-informed in local (now universal) matters...
Three small anecdotes that serve as a thermometer of the state of certain sectors of the Church.The three episodes took place in the past 24 hours, and all in the same place, the seminary of an extremely important Argentine Archdiocese.
First Episode: the Father Abbot of the most important Benedictine monastery in the country [Rorate note: the most influential Abbey in Argentina is the Abbey of St. Benedict, in Luján] , for whom I have always had venerable respect, delivers a conference that could, in general terms, be entitled: "The commentary of Pope Bergoglio to Dorotheus of Gaza." He begins by saying that the Holy Father knows this Father of the Church by heart, and he presents his theory: the repeated request that Bergoglio presents to all who approach him, "Pray for me", is the logical theological consequence of the deep knowledge that the Pope has of Dorotheus. And he justify his nonsense by quoting several texts. At the end of his conference he makes the following affirmation: "The only thing that Vatican II did not change in the Divine Office was the initial supplication, 'O my God, come to my aid.' [Deus in adjutorium meum intende] And it is precisely that what should be changed. It is not, 'come to my aid' anymore, but rather, 'O my God, aid my brother, because by aiding my brother you aid me.' " ... This most reverend Abbot transforms [the Pope] into a great patrologist. I recall, as a conclusion, a fact that is widely known in the Vatican and that any of you can verify: Bergoglio has referred on several occasions - the first one being in the address to the Cardinals immediately after his election, then on May 19, 2013, or on October 4 of the same year - to the Father of the Church who defines the Holy Spirit as "Ipse harmonia est". But there is a problem with that: there is no Father of the Church who has ever pronounced this phrase. Even in the Holy See, where all papal speeches are organized for publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, they have not been able to find him, and it leaves them no option, then, other than to leave it without including the mandatory footnote reference. Lord Abbot, the only Father of the Church whom Pope Bergoglio knows is the one that he himself made up.Second Episode: A discussion in which over ten Argentinian and Chilean priests take part. There are moderate progressives, not very bright progressives, and not very bright neoconservatives. All of them with doctorates, and professors in important theology schools.One of them reads [aloud] an e-mail message that has just arrived. He says, "Father X (he names a well-known Argentinian canon lawyer who is in the Roman Rota [Rorate note: the Pope named Fr. Alejandro Bunge auditor of the Rota in April 2013]) tells me that Francis created on September 20, before the Synod, a commission of canon lawyers to set up a procedure in order to speed up the processes of matrimonial nullity." Someone says, "Were they expecting the resistance of the conservatives during the Synod?" "Yes, of course it was expected," he answers. "It will be hard. The problem is that those who advise the Pope are doing things wrongly. They will move towards a change in the pastoral practice, leaving doctrine as it is. And what must be done is to change doctrine because, if it is not changed, in three hundred or four hundred years they could move everything backwards."Third Episode: the same discussion, somewhat later. Who speaks now is a priest with regular, or rather, daily, contact with the Holy Father. "The last thing he told me before I came was to pray so that he can effect profound and definitive changes in the Church in such a way that they can never again be modified."Francis will go all the way. [Source, in Spanish]
