Can Pope Leo afford to keep Cardinals Fernández and Parolin in post if he wants to clean up the mess left by Francis?

The frog in hot water and the threat of heretics to the Pope

The Pope reviews documents in a context of a threat from heretics to the Pope. The Pope reviews documents in an informal meeting, reflecting the climate of analysis in the Church.

They say Francis cooked the Church over a slow fire. No abrupt impositions: doctrinal ambiguity, boundless openness, and language that seemed pastoral but was eroding its foundations. Like the frog that doesn't jump if the water is heated slowly.

Well, Leo XIV seems to be replicating the strategy... but in the opposite direction.

Without explosions or epic headlines, something worse—for ecclesial progressivism—than an anti-modernist crusade has begun: it has begun to heal, to rebuild, to look to the wounded, to think about the faith of the simple. And they won't forgive it.

The proof is in the article written this week by José Manuel Vidal in Religión Digital: a piece that neither informs nor analyzes, but rather threatens. Openly.

Can Pope Leo afford to keep Cardinals Fernández and Parolin in post if he wants to clean up the mess left by Francis?

The threats, in black and white

There they are, without concealment:

They tell the Pope that he cannot remove Tucho Fernández from the Doctrine of the Faith, except to promote him to Bishop or something of "similar substance."

They demand that he dismiss Parolin and Peña Parra as soon as possible.

And, in case he doesn't remember what he owes to certain friendly press, they remind him—again—of the accusations prior to the conclave, emphasizing that only Religión Digital defended him.

Translation: We owe it to you to be there. Don't forget to whom you owe loyalty.

It's grotesque: we at InfoVaticana decided not to dwell on that past since he was elected Pope, out of respect for his office and to avoid hindering his mission. But the press, which claims to be "close" to the new Pope, reminds him of it daily, like a credit note they intend to cash in. They tell him: "Without us, you wouldn't be there. Behave yourself."

Castling is not weakness: It's calculation

Vidal's text repeats like a mantra that Leo XIV has opted for "castling." Like in chess: move a few pieces, protect oneself, don't attack yet. But that's not what they fear. What scares them is that the Pope has begun to move. That he's seeing. That he's thinking. That he's discerning.

And when one begins to look, to speak with victims, to listen to the faithful base of the Church, one can end up cleansing. Not for ideology, but for justice.

That's what they don't tolerate. They want him paralyzed. They demand that he bless everything that came before with his signature. That he not look back. That he remain silent. That he not listen to those who wept during years of confusion and abandonment.

The height of delirium: demanding obedience while preaching the abolition of the papacy.

And all this—pay attention—is done by a media outlet that just published a lengthy article entitled "Reimagining a Church of Jesus without a papacy?" Yes, you read that right.

This paragraph is from today: 

See 

Having lost their last best hope Francis, modernists move from "re-imagining the Papacy" to "re-imagining this Church without the Papacy". The logical conclusion of the Synodal Path.

The Catholic institution, with the pope at its head, is an immense mess made up of good will, ancestral beliefs and prejudices, contradictory interests, and rival ambitions for power. An immense vicious circle that imprisons the Gospel and obscures the future: theology legitimizes the clerical system, and the clerical system, with a plenipotentiary pope, defends theology.

After marking the Pope, demanding gestures, imposing loyalties, and threatening to incite international progressivism against him if he doesn't obey... they dedicate themselves to theorizing about how to abolish the papacy.

Not reform it. Not purify it. Abolish it.

And they say this in all seriousness, in the name of "Jesus," of "humanity," of the "new synodal paradigm," and with the support of theologians who deny the Petrine institution, the Magisterium, and even the existence of a binding truth.

Does this group have the legitimacy to impose anything? None.

And we're not the only ones saying this. We're talking about people who have even publicly insulted Saint Teresa of Calcutta, as José Manuel Vidal himself has done in the past. Everything that doesn't fit into their agenda gets in their way: whether it's a holy nun or a prudent Pope.

Will it be enough?

We don't yet know if Leo XIV's slow pace will be enough to repair so much damage. But we do know one thing: the other side is nervous. They're restless. Their script is shaky. And they keep writing editorials like this week's to remind the Pope who they think is in charge of this game.

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