Playing nero et rubrum

I don't know why I'm playing this game, but ... anyways, a dear dear friend, out of deep troublement in heart, asked me my reactions to these ... could we call them leaked quotes? Anyways, these so-far uncorroborable and heavily snipped words, attributed by Zenit to be attributed by mostly-unnamed people to our Holy Father the inimitable Franciscus I PP... I can't tell, I can't guess how reliable the attribution is, I can't actually tell what the questions were all about to which (as is alluded) he was responding. Anyways, I did that, and then though "oh, I just wrote a 'blog post. Why not post it?"

... However, some excerpts of the Pope's discourse were released thanks in part to several priests who spoke to the press following the meeting. [there is no official transcript. fun.] Some even managed to record [in what medium?] the Pope's words. In addition to several phrases reported by a few Italian news agencies this morning, the 78 year old Pontiff touched upon the theme, for example, on the "traditional rite" with which Benedict XVI granted to celebrate Mass. Through the Motu Propio Summorum Pontificum, published in 2007, the now Pope Emeritus allowed the possibility of celebrating the Mass according the liturgical books edited by John XXIII in 1962, notwithstanding that the "ordinary" form of celebration in the Catholic Church would always remain that established by Paul VI in 1970. [modulo: the ordinary form has been revised since then and will always be subject to the pope's authority to revise again; otherwise, nothing new there]

Pope Francis explained that this gesture by his predecessor, "a man of communion", was meant to offer "a courageous hand to Lefebvrians and traditionalists", as well as to those who wished to celebrate the Mass according to the ancient rites. [His Holiness is free to opine on His Holiness' motives and intentions; whether the former does any good service in voicing opinion...] The so-called "Tridentine" Mass – the Pope said – is an "extraordinary form of the Roman Rite", one that was approved following the Second Vatican Council. Thus, it is not deemed a distinct rite, but rather a "different form of the same right". [infra solis nihil novum]

However, the Pope noted that there are priests and bishops who speak of a "reform of the reform." [I think we can expect Bergoglio to suffer some misapprehension on what this means. He may hear the words but he doesn't necessarily hear what one is meaning to say; I'm sure different people mean different things by it anyways. For another e.g., when he talks of "capitalism", he doesn't mean "free market"] Some of them are "saints" and speak "in good faith." But this [the idea? speaking of it? which?? the article obscures] "is mistaken", the Holy Father said. He then referred to the case of some bishops who accepted "traditionalist" seminarians who were kicked out of other dioceses, without finding out information on them, because "they presented themselves very well, very devout." They were then ordained, but these were later revealed to have "psychological and moral problems." [This sounds like a good example of "don't publish your passwords". If a person has an inordinate attachment to the idea that he is called to priesthood, and knows that being a traditionalist is a password to some bishop's good will, then we can expect that bishop to be duped some of the time. It isn't even suggested that there is a connection between apparent disorder and a true love of tradition.]

excerpted ZENIT, which for some reason I feel compelled to acknowledge for purposes of copyright law.

I also feel compelled to ask what the reliability/slant/interest of zenit is (of which many had heard, but few knew where it lay...)? So far as I know, they are a "news agency", so that it is their business to produce news, whether there is any to hand or not.

But in any case, God Bless our Pope and preserve him from error.