The Name of St. Francis Exploited to Push Ecology

David Martin | The Daily Knight

There prevails today a false notion about St. Francis of Assisi in that he is sometimes seen as an ecologist who was one with the earth and who left institutionalized religion to join the animals.

This description rather rings true of Pope Francis who continually surrounds himself with beastly politicians who promote animal behavior, whereas St. Francis was the exact opposite. His holiness and oneness with Heaven moved even the animals to show goodness and peace, this of course being the special arrangement of God to show us just how holy the saint was!

The irony of course is that Pope Francis named himself after St. Francis whose religion he doesn’t relate to and with whom he has nothing in common. St. Francis was completely detached from the world and his environmental surroundings and was enraptured with the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas Francis is completely merged with the world and the environment, which he calls “our common home.”

St. Francis was completely divested of worldly and financial interests and abided only with the poor and the persecuted, whereas Francis is one with the world and colludes with high-minded pro-abortion billionaires, atheists, and globalists who persecute the poor. He has gone so far as to say that when these internationalists speak “our duty is to obey” them.

St. Francis Strictly Followed the Rule

St. Francis adored the Almighty Creator ad orientum, whereas Francis turns his back on the tabernacle and bows to the planet.

St. Francis was austere and strictly followed the rule of religion, whereas Francis habitually breaks the rule.

St. Francis did not welcome or admit homosexuals into his order but barred them, whereas Francis is all about welcoming and blessing homosexuals as they are, even holding LGBT blessings right in the Vatican so the whole world can see.

St. Francis didn’t so much as allow the least scandal to worm its way into his order, whereas Francis throughout his tenure has used his authority to appoint notorious homosexuals, globalists, and abortion advocates to the highest positions in the Vatican and has bid them to “educate” the Church with their antilife “sustainable” ideology.

St. Francis strictly held to the dogmatic truth that there exists One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church outside of which no one can be saved, but Francis says, “God wills diversity of religions” and called Martin Luther a “faithful witness to the Gospel.”

St. Francis strictly adhered to the doctrine and tradition of the Faith, whereas Francis says it is time to put away doctrine and tradition and press toward a secular New World Order.

St. Francis was a mystic who worked miracles and who revered the miracles of Christ, but Francis denies the miracle of the loaves (Mt. 14: 19,20), saying it wasn’t a “magic trick” but was simply the Gospel’s way of saying ‘the people all had something to eat.’

St. Francis revered the Mother of God and her sanctity from birth, while Francis says she was not born a saint. In an audience on December 21, 2018, he referred to St. Joseph and Our Lady, saying: “Let us not think it was easy for them: saints are not born, they become thus, and this is true for them too.”

St. Francis taught that the human soul lives on for eternity, but Francis says that the souls of those in mortal sin simply disappear upon death without enduring eternal punishment. “They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.” (Heresy)

St. Francis and the saints of history revolved around the command of Christ that we go out and “Teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt. 28: 19, 20), but Francis disagrees, saying that we must not infringe on indigenous cultures.

St. Francis dedicated his life to bringing the Faith to others for their conversion, but Pope Francis is against converting others to the Catholic Faith and has repeatedly told Catholics not to “proselytize” or convert Jews, Muslims, or indigenous peoples.

The paradox is that Francis named himself after St. Francis when he is the very antithesis of him. Francis’ ploy is to paint him up as an ecologist and then identify with him to give himself ‘credibility’ in his push for ecology. Not to mention it’s part of his ‘sheep’s cloak’ to present himself as a man of peace and mercy.

Pacifist, Ecologist, Ecumenist

17 years ago, the late Archbishop of Bologna Cardinal Giacomo Biffi said that Antichrist presents himself as a “pacifist, ecologist, and ecumenist.” He said this at a Lenten retreat he conducted on March 3rd, 2007, to Benedict XVI and the leaders of the Roman Curia. After the retreat, the Pope praised Biffi, saying he had delivered a “very accurate and precise diagnosis of our situation today.”

If we didn’t know any better, it was probably Benedict who used Biffi to air this truth out for the Church seeing that this force of Antichrist was soon to become the key issue in the Church.

Cardinal Biffi’s assertion is drawn from the work of the Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. Using Soloviev, Biffi wanted to put the Pope and the Curia on guard against being weakened by the spirit of the age. His point was that in every age huge numbers of people adopt various “enthusiasms” which they put great stock in, but Biffi warned that Antichrist is in these enthusiasms insofar that they distract us from Christ and his doctrine, which must be kept at the center of our work.

“Today,” said the Cardinal, “we run the risk of having a Christianity that puts aside Jesus, the Cross, and the Resurrection and replaces it with ‘a mere set of values.’” Cardinal Biffi pointed out that Antichrist dilutes the truths of the faith, accommodating every interest, thus becoming more and more popular. But the true members of the Church see through this deception, saying, “You have given us everything except the one thing that we want: Jesus Christ.”

Political Ear Ringing

What sinners especially want to hear today is that they need not leave their worldly and sinful lives but may live it out to the full with the confidence that mercy and forgiveness is theirs. So, to gain their popularity, Francis preaches ecology and oneness with the world and all its fun and has gone so far as to elevate this seductive teaching to the level of “doctrine.”

Related to Animals?

In his 2015 recyclical Laudato Si, Francis says we are related to the animals, and he feigns identity with St. Francis by citing how he would call the animals “brothers” or would “preach to the birds,” but the saint knew very well that animals are not related to us and that they don’t need preaching for salvation. This was just his affectionate way of suggesting that while we use animals for meat, fur and milk, we should still be kind to them and see them as pet friends.

But Pope Francis twists and places a literal spin on these anecdotes to push ecology and the idea that we’re “related” to animals because he identifies with animals and their beastly ways. There is a huge difference between being down to earth and of the earth. The radiant Jesus in the Manger was humbly down to earth, but the pernicious nest of environmentalist snakes that Francis relates to are of the earth. They “decry” man’s abuse of the planet to provide an excuse to depopulate the planet because they are agents of antilife.

Pope Francis Disagrees with Genesis

Pope Francis is sharply at odds with the Church’s 2000-year teaching that man is the only creature made in the image of God and that he was given dominion over the animals to use as he sees fit for meat, milk, fir, plowing, etc. Holy Scripture makes it clear:

“Let the fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand. And everything that moves and lives shall be meat for you.” (Genesis 9: 2,3)

St. Francis, the popes, and saints through the ages have understood this clear teaching in the literal sense, but Francis says this is a ‘false interpretation’ of Genesis. He twists the scripture by saying this means we must have “care for our common home,” but that’s not what God said! There is nothing in Holy Scripture or in Church teaching about “caring for our common home.” Living the Faith is about having care for our soul by cleaning it up by renouncing the world so we can ready ourselves for our entry into Heaven, which is our true common home.

The Need for a Spiritually Clean Environment

What Christ requires is that His Church promote a spiritually clean environment in keeping with His words through St. Paul that we refrain ourselves “from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22). It was precisely this purity of life that St. Francis promoted, but the Church under Francis hasn’t ceased from spewing forth all manner of spiritual pollution and rot unto the murder of souls. Given the exploitation of his name, it would seem that St. Francis would be the first to say something about this. And quite apparently, he has!

Prophecy of St. Francis

Though it’s not particularly well known, St. Francis of Assisi prophesied concerning a destroyer pope that would one day capture the Throne of Peter. The saint was obviously speaking of a man of the distant future since as of 2005 such a man had not yet occupied the Papal Chair.

Before his death in 1226, St. Francis called together the friars of his Order and detailed a prophecy of what was to come in the latter days concerning a future pope. The following is taken from Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi, R. Washbourne Publishing House, 1882, pp. 248-250, with imprimatur by His Excellency William Bernard, Bishop of Birmingham. The source of this prophecy is the Opuscula or Writings of St. Francis (1623) by Fr. Luke Wadding, history’s foremost historian and scholar on St. Francis of Assisi.

"At the time of this tribulation, a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavor to draw many into error.... Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true pastor, but a destroyer.”

In the late 1800s, some prominent Franciscans disavowed the prophecy of St. Francis on the basis that it lacked credibility and that it was *contrary to St. Francis’ style of writing, but this denial of the prophecy was grounded in the fear that it might sully the reputation of the Order. These “scholars” can be compared to the false Fatima devotees who are ashamed of the Fatima message and who seek to bury the Third Secret and Our Lady’s message concerning the need to Consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

The prophecy of St. Francis is found in the first 8-volumes of the Opuscula of St. Francis that Fr. Wadding himself penned. Fr. Luke Wadding founded St. Isidore’s College in Rome and was highly esteemed by three popes who sought his assistance and advise.

*Which it wasn’t, but if people insist it was it could easily be argued that a slight differentiation in style could be attributed to the fact that this was a divinely inspired prophecy and not the mere work of a holy man.