[NB: Some of the entries for more recent posts, below, are still under construction. I wanted to get all the links up to date on one page, but I still need to write summary headings for some posts.]
I have written more posts than I ever expected about the impact Pope Francis’s papal “style” has had on the world, on large numbers of Catholics, and on my own faith. Here I am presenting the full scope of my writings on this topic (so far), in order to give my one or two readers a handle on so much material. In a word: Begin at the beginning, read very carefully, and take the links seriously as evidence and conceptual echo.
I was going to indicate which posts are perhaps unpalatably long, but if you’ve come this far, you might be interested enough just to look for yourself. I will, however, indicate which posts I consider essential reading (***) in order to understand my position.
A final note: Do I actually believe what I’m writing, or am I just trying to sound smart and get attention for myself as a blogger? As the “awesome in its own way” post below explains, I’ve “been there, done that” as far as blogging fame goes, so I’m not interested in a fan base. As for my intellectual honesty concerning my, admittedly byzantine, theory of Pope Francis, I can only say that I believe it despite myself (i.e despite my codgitative hunches). You will notice that my tone towards Pope Francis has gone from baffled but deferential, to openly hostile but stoically loyal, to what I hope is a more measured tone of sympathetic anguish (like the meme face, “y u no?!”). At the end of the day, this exchange probably best captures my feelings.
Ho-hum. Happy reading.
*** Papa Frankie and “the interview”… – Posted on September 30, 2013 – Wherein I “out” myself as a Catholic curmudgeon.
*** Papa Frankie is at it again… – Posted on October 1, 2013 – Wherein my gall rises.
In which I praise Pope Francis… – Posted on October 2, 2013 – Wherein I try to quell my disquiet by looking on the bright side.
*** “Traduttore, traditore…” – Posted on October 2, 2013 – Wherein I try to drown my problems in mistranslations.
“I was cured, all right…” – Posted on October 3, 2013 – Wherein I realize resistance may be futile.
Papal motion sickness… – Posted on October 3, 2013 – Wherein I get vertigo from peeking into Bergoglio’s past.
*** Catholic is as Catholic does… – Posted on October 4, 2013 – Wherein I see my “Pope Guido” problem as a grace for living out what it means to be Catholic, and try my darndest to hang onto my faith.
*** “This isn’t Denzinger.” – Posted on October 6, 2013 – Wherein the scales, as it were, fall from my eyes and I realize things are not going to get better.
The Emmaus Pope… – Posted on October 6, 2013 – Wherein I discover perhaps my earliest key to unlocking the mystery of Pope Francis.
Pope Francis Weather Forecast! – Posted on October 7, 2013 – Wherein I try to focus on the good and blow off some steam.
*** Before I remember to forget again… – Posted on October 7, 2013 – Wherein I reach new heights of indignation and stand my ground as a faithful Catholic–indeed, as “a son of the Church.”
*** It sure would suck to be this guy… – Posted on October 8, 2013 – Wherein I hit bottom, feel utterly stricken and isolated, and yet still manage to lift my voice to the Lord.
*** Relax, it’s all part of the process… – Posted on October 8, 2013 – Wherein I find encouragement from some guy in Rome (heh) and regain my confidence as one of my key hunches about Francis is further confirmed.
*** Silly, Quixote, windmills are for kids… – Posted on October 9, 2013 – Wherein a fellow victim of “Pope Guido” gives me comfort, even as I stagger back into despair.
Oh, you know how teenagers are… – Posted on October 10, 2013 – Wherein I try to allegorize the, or at least one fundamental, problem as I see it.
*** Meet the new boss, same enough as the old bosses… – Posted on October 11, 2013 – Wherein, having identified whence the nettles actually grow, I push back against the Empire of Soft Ultramontanism.
*** Little graces, big God… – Posted on October 12, 2013 – Wherein I am given peace, focus on the (scripted) good, and yet cannot deny I see sharks circling just as ominously as ever.
*** Mystical mystification… – Posted on October 13, 2013 – Wherein I articulate what has become one of the essential keys to unlocking the enigma of Pope Francis.
*** Just say the right thing… – Posted on October 14, 2013 – Wherein I go toe to toe with some of the Pope’s most egregious howlers.
Now, this is my Pope! – Posted on October 14, 2013 – Wherein I try once more to focus on the good, and clarify some things about my “obsession” of late.
Awesome in its own way! – Posted on October 15, 2013 – Wherein I realize I may not be in as hermetic an echo chamber as I’d imagined, and discover that making waves can make others sick.
*** My money’s on the Queen… – Posted on October 16, 2013 – Wherein I denounce soft-ultramontanist tribalism and reaffirm my commitment to encourage the confused and wounded.
*** Stick to the script! – Posted on October 16, 2013 – Wherein I take great umbrage at one of the Pope Francis’s most doctrinnaire malapalisms, and deepen and integrate a few of my main insights into his papacy.
*** The battle within… (part 1) – Posted on October 17, 2013 – Wherein I achieve my first truly theoretical grasp of how to explain the Pope’s confusing, erratic witness.
WARNING! The following post contains graphic and disturbing images! NSFW! – Posted on October 18, 2013 – Wherein I add a splash of realism to what the Pope may or may not have meant, on or off the cuff.
A brief reminder from that old stalwart, Radio Replies… – Posted on October 18, 2013 – Wherein I add a little more color to a key malapapalism, and realize (albeit tacitly) that Catholics without a genuine sense of their own heritage are just Protestants.
*** No greater offering… – Posted on October 18, 2013 – Wherein I once more cry out from the depths and reaffirm my faith in “the Catholic God.”
*** The battle within… (part 2) – Posted on October 19, 2013 – Wherein I deepen my insight into the papal schizophrenia that has been jarring many of us.
*** The F1 F/X redux… – Posted on October 21, 2013 – Wherein I smell a rat and realize that one of my Francisian keys opens a darker door than I had at first wanted to see.
*** More cheery news from the Codgitator… – Posted on October 22, 2013 – Wherein I situate my disquiet with Pope Francis in the large context of a crisis of glibness. And then force myself smile, like a spiritual son of the Church should.
¡Hagan lío! – Posted on October 24, 2013 – Wherein I give a dramatic example of how this “messy” Pope is making things harder for faithful Catholics, even if “he doesn’t mean to.”
Scout’s honor: this fills me with pity for Pope Francis… – Posted on October 24, 2013 – Wherein I–wait for it–have pity on Pope Francis.
At the end of the day… – Posted on October 25, 2013 – Wherein I make a resolution to stave off the crazy-making by trying to focus only on what Pope Francis does, rather than what bizarre theologumena he may be running under the hood.
*** A fascinating glimpse… – Posted on October 26, 2013 – Wherein I push back against my old foe, soft ultramontanism, tease out some of our anti-ideological Pope’s own ideology, but then admit a gloomy possibility.
*** Fixed prayers fix prayer… – Posted on October 27, 2013 – Wherein I achieve a spiritual breakthrough, of sorts, and defend traditional piety on radically salvific grounds. Ents of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your souls!
“God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” – I Cor 14:33 – Posted on October 29, 2013 – Wherein I am found panting from some recent online skirmishes and provide a quick update to my reader(s).
*** Here’s to the hermeneutic of continuity! Wassail! – Posted on October 30, 2013 – Wherein I, lacking the papal decoder ring that so many others seem to have gotten when Bergoglio became pope, resort to the superimposed light of traditional Catholic analysis, and note more of the same troubling rhetorical harmonies in the Pope’s words and the words of his closest advisors–and, on top of all that, invent a drinking game to enjoy the peccadilloes of the shamans of the Spirit of Vatican II.
*** This is my Pope! Axios! – Posted on October 30, 2013 – Wherein I praise Pope Francis for taking his papal duties with the utmost seriousness and zest, confess my faults, and stumble upon an awesome image of a reptile pontiff.
*** Meanwhile, in the Land of Catholicism WOW! … – Posted on November 1, 2013 – Wherein I draw upon magisterial tradition to put a leading Shaman of the Spirit of Vatican II in his place, and relish the security of being embraced by the communion of saints.
*** Chalk one up for the panicky bedwetters… – Posted on November 3, 2013 – Wherein I note the irony of soft ultramontanists literally trying to be more Catholic than the Pope.
On one other variety of bullshit… – Posted on November 3, 2013 – Wherein I try to be parsimonious about the pope’s hand-puppetry and first get to know Cardinal Vapid.
*** Papal bling photo caption contest? – Posted on November 4, 2013 – Wherein I try to be light-hearted but still note some grave peculiarities in Pope Lite.
*** To be Catholic is to be traditional… – Posted on November 4, 2013 – Wherein I explain once more how to stay sane by staying simply Catholic. Flip the script!
Lovely… – Posted on November 4, 2013 – Wherein I try to stay light-hearted but still note how a pope of surprises is no worse than a predictable pope. In fact, much worse.
You’ve got to hand it to the Eye of the Tiber… – Posted on November 5, 2013 – “The message is the medium.” Wherein I poke fun at the MSM and folk apologists at once. #Newman
Hither tumbleth yet another turd… – Posted on November 7, 2013 – Wherein I note how Pope “¡Hagan lío!” Francis makes things too easy for the enemies of the Church.
Stat orbis dum volvitur crux… – Posted on November 9, 2013 – Wherein I scratch and scratch and scratch and scratch at the Orwellian slipperiness of this papacy for a good smell and quite literally find Eastern Orthodox love among the ruins.
*** The Second Vatican Conchshell… – Posted on November 10, 2013 – Wherein I find a relic which makes sense of the past half-century.
Fun for the whole family… – Posted on November 12, 2013 – Wherein I stumble upon a Mass from Peronistan that displays a disturbing “flair for the new.”
*** Kind of a big deal…. – Posted on November 14, 2013 – Wherein I rejoice that the Scalfari encounter was finally removed, and note the painful irony that has been confirmed for Team Ultramontane.
Hope springs eternal… – Posted on November 15, 2013 – Wherein **
*** “You may not be interested in the dialectic…” – Posted on November 15, 2013 – Wherein I note one more case of the Friends of Francis Effect, and agree with an Ent that to make truth optional is to make it your enemy.
Looks like somebody forgot to take his meds… – Posted on November 18, 2013 – Wherein I
How dare they! – Posted on November 18, 2013 – Wherein I
*** “Thou art Peter…” – Posted on November 19, 2013 – Wherein I
The pope, the papacy, and the love of God… – Posted on November 20, 2013 – Wherein I
Honest question… – Posted on November 20, 2013 – Wherein I
*** “Do a barrel roll!” – Posted on November 22, 2013 – Wherein I
The ball is still in play… – Posted on November 22, 2013 – Wherein I
Keep it coming… – Posted on November 24, 2013 – Wherein I
*** Everyone hates the bass player… – Posted on November 26, 2013 – Wherein I
“Burned”… – Posted on November 26, 2013 – Wherein I
Updates from the outermost frontiers… – Posted on November 27, 2013 – Wherein I
*** I’m not dead yet… – Posted on December 3, 2013 – Wherein I **
“All things are ready, if our minds be so.” – Posted on December 5, 2013 – Wherein I experience consolation and encouragement from the prayers of readers and pretend to be well read by citing Shakespeare.
*** The axe of St. Boniface… – Posted on December 9, 2013 – Wherein I try to make a meta-sense of Evangelii Gaudium, but end up just staring at all the Legos on the floor.
Stay tuned!
FideCogitActio : "Omnis per gratiam" fidescogitactio @ gmail . com 
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You might be interested in reading my article titled “I Know Not the Man”: Pope Francis, The Natural Child of Pope Benedict XVI, to be found on my website here: http://www.waragainstbeing.com/node/49
Also on Pope Francis: The Descent into Darkness: Pope Francis and the Deconstruction of the Human Heart, to be found here: http://www.waragainstbeing.com/node/47
I’ve had your site recommend here and I’ve got node 47 on my reading list in my browser! Can’t wait, thank you for your efforts!
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You were saying what I and many others were starting to think, then realizing it, then fuming about it long before I finally said I can’t be silent anymore! Even if I was just a voice crying out and no one paid attention, I have to at least do that much, and I joined the blogging ranks too only six weeks ago. I’ve since found out that we are far from alone. Thanks for what you’re doing.
It’s hard not to speak out in some cases. My motto is Sirach 4:28. I realize that my reactions were at times excessive, but it’s not like this pope has gone out of his way to stop unsettling the faithful. Sorry, Francis, but constancy and confidence in the Faith is NOT complacency. If anything, the perpetual self-questioning and readjusting of certain things given us in the Faith–the perpetual maintenance of a ray of doubt, as he recommends–is actually quite Pelagian, as if we must constantly “work on the Faith” rather than embrace it and “work out our salvation”.