I am not a deacon, priest, bishop, or Cardinal but under Catholic canon law as a lay Catholic male above the age of 18, I am legally entitled to stand for election to the Papacy. I want you to know what I would do if I was elected as your Pope. Within these pages, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are my promises to you. Welcome, in the name of Jesus, to “The Manifesto for a Lay Pope.”
Above : One of the ‘bad guys’ that US Secretary of State for War Pete Hegseth needs money to kill
On Weds March 18th 2026 The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to the U.S. Congress to fund the war in Iran.
This is an example of what Mr.Hegseth wants to buy.
Tomahawk subsonic land cruise missile ……. $ 3.5 000 000
The image above shows the aftermath of the US Tomahawk cruise missile which destroyed the Shajareh Tayyebeth girls elementary school in Minab, Iran on the first day of the 2026 Iran war killing between 175 and 180 people , most of whom were schoolchildren between 7 and 12 years of age. ” It takes money to kill bad guys ”
Imagine what the $200 billion ( thats $200 000 000 000 ) that Mr Hegseth is hoping to spend on weapons that butcher women and children could be spent on . The national average full-time teacher salary in the US stands at $74,200……….. Do the maths !
But Mr Hegseth needs the money to, in his words, ”kill the bad guys”
Above : One of the ‘bad guys’ that US Secretary of State for War Pete Hegseth needs money to kill
And what about nurses ….. Imagine how many additional nurses could be recruited if $200, 000 000 000 were spent on saving lives rather than annihilating them. The national average full time nurse salary in the US stands at $91000 ………. Do the maths !
But Mr Hegseth needs the money to, in his words, ”kill the bad guys”
Above : One of the ‘bad guys’ that US Secretary of State for War Pete Hegseth needs money to kill
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ( USCCB ) have strongly criticised the US/Israel war in Iran urging an immediate de-escalation, diplomacy, and prayer to avoid a “tragedy of immense proportions”.
Pope Leo has urged all Catholics to pray that “the roar of bombs might cease, that weapons might fall silent, and that a space for dialogue might open, in which the voice of the peoples may be heard.”
”Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions, I make a heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm. May diplomacy regain its proper role, and may the well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice, be upheld. And let us continue to pray for peace.”
On March 6th 2026, Kevin Clarke of America magazine reminded us of the Catholic concept of a just war …. He wrote ”War-making must be a last resort, all peaceful avenues of resolution having been exhausted. The use of force must be proportional, that is, the suffering it prevents must be greater than the misery it is likely to create. The conflict cannot be the cause of more disorder and evil than those it seeks to address. In conflict, belligerents must discriminate between combatant and noncombatant, taking all measures to protect the latter.”
The US/Israeli war in Iran, unsanctioned by the UN or Congress, meets none of the criteria above. All Christians must unite to condemn this affront to humanity.
Manifesto for a Lay Pope. My promise to you; If I am elected Pope I will decree that:
All Catholics must divest themselves of any shares in Companies which manufacture weapons of war under threat of ex communication if they do not.
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
Bishop Robert Barron you are a member of Donald Trumps presidential committee on Religious freedom . What do you say to him when he withdrew USAID resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent men women and children. Your silence is deafening ! Did you not hear the cock crow for the first time.
What do you say to him when innocent American citizens were murdered by Trump’s ICE assassins. Your silence is deafening ! Did you not hear the cock crow for the second time
What do you say to him as his stomach churning support for Netanyahu’s savage genocide in Gaza sees children blown to pieces by American military hardware. Your silence is deafening ! Do you not hear the cock crowing for the third time.
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
Following the bombing of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Aug. 25, 2025 which took the lives of at least 20 people including 5 journalists Caritas Internationalis condemned “the man-made famine and assault on Gaza City”
“This is not war. It is the systematic destruction of civilian life,” the Catholic aid organization declared adding that Caritas Internationalis bears witness to this horror. “The siege of Gaza has become a machinery of annihilation, sustained by impunity and the silence, or complicity, of powerful nations.”
“Famine here is not a natural disaster but the outcome of a deliberate strategy: blocking aid, bombing food convoys, destroying infrastructure, and denying basic needs,”
Condemning the : “hollow declarations and empty platitudes” of the international community the Catholic Charity stated that “Civilians, mostly children and women, are being starved, bombed, and erased. Influential governments, corporations, and multinationals have enabled this catastrophe through military support, financial aid, and diplomatic cover.”
The Catholic Church must stop praying about the genocide in Gaza and start to do something to stop the slaughter. There are over a billion Catholics on this Earth. Pope Leo must sanction the savage Netanyahu by immediately decreeing that every Catholic on the planet must boycott Israeli goods and services. Innocents are being slaughtered as you read this . Prayers are not enough. In the name of God Act now Pope Leo !
Stop the slaughter – boycott Israeli goods and services now
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
Speaking to the Pontifical Council for the Laity on June 17th, 2016 the Holy Father said :“We need lay people who take risks, who get their hands dirty, who are not afraid of making mistakes, who go forward. We need lay people with a vision of the future, not confined to the little things of life.”
Be honest ! Did you know that Catholic Canon Law states that any Catholic baptised male who has reached the age of Reason may be considered for election to the Papacy. I wrote a letter to Pope Francis, which I share with you below, asking for his advice on how I may be included on the list of those being considered to succeed him. I forwarded it by e mail to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. I did this some months ago now and to date have not received a reply. This is hardly surprising ….. I would love to have been a fly on the wall of the offices that received this correspondence. After the laughter had died down it would have been interesting to see which bin it ended up in. After all when the hope of the majority of Catholics world wide for Married priests and women Deacons is laughed away by a small Clericalist elite within our Church it is ludicrous to imagine that a lay Catholic committed to continuing the reforms of Pope Francis could be elected to succeed him. So why don’t I just give up ? I will tell you why.
It is critical that the successor to Pope Francis is committed to continuing the reforms he has implemented and those in the planning stage particularly in relation to his efforts to extinguish clericalism and promote a more inclusive outward looking Church. Those who have actively and vehemently opposed Francis’ Pontificate ( those who the Pope himself said ”want me dead ” ) are vigorously and relentlessly engaged in working to ensure that whoever takes over from him will be a figurehead for dismantling Francis’ reforms and returning Mother Church to the clutches of a clericalist hierarchy that facilitated a culture of world wide sexual abuse the scale of which should have consigned the Catholic Church to the darkest pages of history.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, professor of theology at Manhattan College said: “There is no doubt that clericalism is at the root of the abuse crisis. Clericalism is isolating and insular — it cuts off the ‘oxygen’ of genuine solidarity and sharing-of-life with laypeople by creating a separate class, even a separate caste, within the church.”
Pope Francis has made his views on clericalism painfully clear. “Clericalism” he said ” is a perversion of the priesthood: it is a perversion. ”
“Clericalism, far from giving impetus to various contributions and proposals, gradually extinguishes the prophetic flame to which the entire Church is called to bear witness. Clericalism forgets that the visibility and the sacramentality of the Church belong to all the faithful people of God (cf. Lumen Gentium, 9-14), not only to the few chosen and enlightened.”
The People of God are crying out for the hierarchy to be dismantled and for clerics to become what Jesus ordained them to be , servants of the people and not the powerful unaccountable overlords that they have become. Appointing a Lay Catholic to the Papacy is a significant step in the right direction
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has targeted clericalism as an illness in the church, an ailment that pretends “the church” means “priests and bishops,” that ignores or minimizes the God-given grace and talents of laypeople and that emphasizes the authority of clerics over their obligation of service. (Cindy Wooden, America Magazine, Aug 22, 2018 )
Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concluded that “clericalism is at the center of a tightly interconnected cluster of contributing factors” to the worldwide Catholic Church abuse scandal and added that “Clericalism is linked to a sense of entitlement, superiority and exclusion, and abuse of power,”
Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany once said :
“Sexual abuse has only one origin, [and it is] in the wrong use of power in our church,”
That power has been abused for too long. Giving the People of God an active participation in the life of the Church means nothing unless it results in the detraction from its current hierarchy. The synod on synodality means nothing unless it results in the absolute destruction of corrupt privileged elitist clericalism.
So I am sending my letter one more time , in the hope that the Holy Spirit guides it to some soul who won’t propel it into the nearest bin, in the hope that my Sisters and Brothers in our beloved Church will awaken to the grave threat of a forthcoming Clericalist Pope and in the hope that our Church will be Graced with a successor to my beloved Francis who will continue his Christ centred reforms.
Letter to Pope Francis
‘‘ Dear Papa Francesco , my Brother in Christ!
When you were asked about your vocation recently you said:
“ I heard just like a voice, a call ……..”
You said it was like a voice …. but not a voice.
During the pandemic lockdown I was awakened at 3am by a call. It too was like a voice… but not a voice. It was as if I was feeling it rather than hearing it …. I felt the words “Who can be Pope?
” I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit !
My previous understanding was that only privileged, elitist Cardinals could become the Pope but prompted by the Holy Spirit I did some research and to my surprise I learned that any Catholic male who has reached the age of Reason can become so.
The “Calling ” awoke me around 3am over a number of weeks and each time I wrote about what I “ Felt ”.
As I have said I truly believe that what was happening was the actual guidance of the Holy Spirit urging me to mission, to vocation. Prompted by this I began to write a blog which I entitled ‘Manifesto for a Lay Pope’ . Please read a little if you have time. It can be found at ‘thelaypope.com’
The Truthful conclusion of the grave concerns you have raised about clericalism is to open up all positions within Mother Church to the Laity. This includes the Papacy. The Holy Spirit advises me that I have a right, in Catholic Canon Law, as a baptized male who has reached the age of Reason to put myself forward to be considered as Head of the Catholic Church after you my beloved Brother. I therefore ask for your advice and guidance about what I have to do to progress my candidacy.
I suggest that including a lay person on the list alongside Cardinals is very much in accord with your Christ centred reforms of the Church. As Cindy Wooden in America magazine wrote ;
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has targeted clericalism as an illness in the church, an ailment that pretends “the church” means “priests and bishops,” that ignores or minimizes the God-given grace and talents of laypeople and that emphasizes the authority of clerics over their obligation of service.
Of course I do not expect to be the only Lay Catholic to be included ( as I am far from the best lay person for this role) Some process would need to be arrived at to choose the most appropriate Lay candidate to join the list of Cardinals.
It would be good to speak with you about what I have written .
You are often in my prayers.
Peace and Love
God Bless you Brother, ”
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
“The hour comes, the hour has come, in which the vocation of the woman is completed in fullness, the hour in which the woman acquires in society an influence, an irradiation, a power never before reached. It is for this reason, at this moment in which humanity is experiencing such a profound transformation, that women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to help humanity not to decay” Saint Paul VI
Speaking at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Oct 25th 2023 Pope Francis said:
“Here I would like to emphasize that, among God’s holy and faithful people, faith is transmitted in dialect, and generally in a feminine dialect….. This is not only because the Church is mother and it is precisely women who best reflect her,” , but also because “it is women who know how to hope, know how to discover the resources of the church and of the faithful people, who take risks beyond the limit, perhaps with fear but courageously.”
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
contact details: thelaypope@yahoo.com
Manifesto for a Lay Pope. My promise to you; If I am elected Pope I will decree that:
The ordination of women will be enshrined within Catholic Canon Law
As a Christian you will have said these words countless times “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. “ Have you ever stopped for a moment to consider what they mean. When Jesus gave us our sacred prayer, the Our Father , He was gifting us a profound revelation. It is thus:
If Gods will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven we create Heaven on Earth . Earth becomes Heaven .
The fundamental role of Christians is to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth . How do we do that. We do so by fulfilling Gods Will.
Gods Will is Peace, Patience, Compassion, Kindness, Gentleness, Meekness, Humility, Gratitude, Joy, Truth, Beauty, Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Hope, Health, Grace ,Wisdom and unrelenting service to the poor and those in need . Most of all, most of all Gods Will is Love, poured out and overflowing from Heaven through Jesus and the Holy Spirit into our hearts , souls and minds so that all those whose lives we touch may be touched by His Love through us.
This is to fulfill the only commandment that Jesus gave us :
” Love God and Love one another as I have Loved you”
The Holy Spirit gave us a blueprint for Earth to become Heaven . When the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of the Risen Christ at Pentecost ” like the rush of a mighty wind :” (Acts 2: v2 ), their eyes, hearts and minds were suddenly opened and they knew , without question , what they had to do to fulfill the Will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven ….. to create Heaven on Earth: This is what they did, ignited by tongues of fire, in the name of the Holy Spirit and Jesus to fulfill Gods will and create Heaven on Earth:
“Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need”( Acts 4:32-35)
This is not a blueprint for Capitalism. It is a blueprint for Socialism. It is Gods Will. If we are to fulfill our commitment as Christians to achieve Gods Will for Earth to become Heaven every Christian on Earth needs to strive to achieve a society that prioritises the poor, the sick, the vulnerable and those in need . We must follow the blueprint above given to the Early Church as a Divine gift to achieve Heaven on Earth .
“Glory be the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be…… LOVE without end. Amen”
Peace and Love
thelaypope.com
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
Since I published this post I have responded to some thoughtful comments sent by some who have read it . I will share these with you as I think they are helpful and interesting :
Comment:Jesus kingdom is not of this world: John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
My response : Thanks for taking the time to read my post. You make a legitimate point. I think at that time , before the Resurrection, this was true. All changed after Christ rose from the dead. From that point on Heaven on Earth became a possibility. The Holy Spirit gave the early Church a blueprint for the economic system necessary to achieve this and we have spent over 2000 years unraveling it to the extent that we now have more billionaires on the planet than ever before at the same time as billions of people on the planet do not have access to safe, clean drinking water and 24000 people die each day from hunger. We are compelled as Christians to make the Earth Gods Kingdom so that as was the case in The early Church no one is in need.
Comment:I see nothing in the article that relates to any political system. Individuals are capable of following those verses in any political structure.
My response:Thanks for taking the time to read my post. The Disciples established a system whereby everything anyone owned was shared amongst all so that no one was in need. As of 2024 the worlds billionaires are worth £11.2 trillion. This amount could end world hunger 40 times over if it were shared as the disciples shared their wealth. Thats not what happens within Capitalism. The Capitalists political structure is the antithesis of the verses I posted. in my humble opinion the nearest political system to that which the Holy Spirit guided the early Church to adopt, as described in my post, is the ideal of Socialism.
It is difficult to imagine any good news associated with the war in Ukraine and the carnage being inflicted upon Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but there is light on the horizon. Recent reports have announced that global defence order books at companies like Britain’s BAE Systems are bulging with eye watering profits attracting significant investor interest. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute total global military expenditure soared to a new high in 2022 of $2.24 trillion and in the first 6 months of this year combined backlogs at the 15 largest butchers was at $764 billion . MSCIs global benchmark for this blood thirsty sectors stocks is up 25% over the past 12 months. So if you want to make an obscene amount of money investing in the slaughter of innocent men women and children defence seems like a safe haven . Here are some of the pictures included in the shareholders prospectus for those hungry investors literally looking to make a quick kill from this opportunity.
Peace and Love
thelaypope.com
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
“Wisdom means knowing how to make room for silence, so as to be capable of listening to ourselves and to others. It means knowing how to give up some of the time passed in front of the telephone screen to look at the light in the eyes of others, in one’s own heart, in God’s gaze upon us.” Pope Francis
Peace and Love
thelaypope.com
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
”Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, That my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, That my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, That I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, To defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, That I always may be holy.” St Augustine
‘The fruit of the spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, goodness, Faithfulness, gentleness and self -control ‘ ( Galatians 5:22-23)
I believe in the Holy Spirit. Not as a concept . I believe in the Holy Spirit in reality…. active in our lives even as you read this. If you have experienced the actual intervention of the Holy Spirit, as I have , you will know that the experience is not always a gentle ‘dove like ‘ encounter. The Apostles experienced the Holy Spirit’s revelation ”like the rush of a mighty wind” (Cor 2:2 ) . For me the revelation of the Spirit comes with a disturbing sense of unease , often a surprising sense that something is not quite right … something just feels out of place. As Pope Francis has said there is something of the ‘Odour of the Devil’ lingering . Almost as if the Holy Spirit was saying ” you need to take a look at this “
I have learned over the years to stop and listen when this happens because I know that ”When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and will declare to you the things that are to come” (John16:13)
I have to admit however that despite my confidence in recognising when the Holy Spirit is active in my life revealing the Truth that John talks of I was shocked when the source of the ‘Odour of the Devil ‘ was the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) hosting of the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress as part of its three year-long Eucharistic Revival, meant to “restore devotion and understanding to this great mystery.” Why in God’s name would the Holy Spirit instill deep within me a sense of unease regarding an initiative whose mission statement is : ”To renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist”.
The project was prompted by a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, in which only 31% of Catholics responded that they believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Ostensibly the multi million dollar event is aimed at restoring lay Catholics’ devotion to the Eucharist, and according to Bishop Andrew Cozzens the organisers are “hoping to have 80,000 to 100,000 people go to Indianapolis, July 17 to 21, 2024, a gathering of the American church. We want the whole church to be there. This idea that we would come together with our many cultures, with our many ages and generations, and that we would celebrate unity, we would experience a transforming encounter, and then we would be sent on mission—that’s going to be the focus of this event. We need to become like the early church and become missionaries again.”
So why the unease, why the sense that something is just not right, why the ‘odour of the Devil’.
It began with comment that Catholic Traditionalist and veteran Pope Francis critic Taylor Marshall made in relation to Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and the driving force behind the Eucharistic Revival project. Marshall said the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had let Barron in so they : ” …can use his persona and his reach and his platform to baptise their own agenda. “
When Pope Francis underwent colon surgery and said that : ” There were those who wanted me dead” he was widely understood to be referring to a small but powerful number of Bishops within the USCCBs ranks who had become increasingly vocal and vicious in their criticism of his Papacy. If they are using Bishop Barron to baptise their own agenda then you can guarantee that the main objective of the Eucharistic Revival is not : ”To renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist”. Their Mission statement should more accurately read ” To empower an elite group within the USCCB to seize control of the agenda of the Church , wipe away the current Popes reforms and any memory of him and return it to a pre Vatican 2 state controlled by an unassailable power hungry clerical elite ”
Bishop Barron may well be an unwitting accomplice in the real mission but the strings of his formidable media empire ( Word on Fire ) are already being pulled by those reeking of the ‘Odour of the Devil’ who are intent on making receipt of the Eucharistby the faithful “a prize for the perfect” in direct contradiction to Pope Francis.
According to Bishop Barron:
”The Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life, its the centre..the beginning and the end of Christian life…its the real presence of Jesus Body Blood Soul and Divinity… there is nothing more important .. there is nothing more important than the Eucharist”
The problem is, according to the Pew Research Centre , ”nearly’ seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say they personally believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.” Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.”
This means that 69% of Catholics in the survey don’t agree with Bishop Barron that the Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus Body Blood Soul and Divinity. I agree with the 69%. I believe that the Eucharist is a beautiful gift from my Saviour, ”a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”, the means by which I am able to come together to share a sacred meal with my Brothers and Sisters , regardless if they are perfect or not. The Eucharist is sacred to me not because it is the real flesh and blood of my Saviour Jesus Christ but because at the Last Supper Jesus asked me to take part in this sacred meal in memory of Him and in doing so He gave me the greatest gift of all, He gave me the Mass. It does not matter if I am part of the 31% of Catholics who believe that the Eucharist is the ”the real presence of Jesus Body Blood Soul and Divinity…” or I am one of the 69% who dont believe that the Eucharist actually becomes the body and blood of Christ . What matters is that when we attend mass together we are in the ”real presence of Jesus Body Blood Soul and Divinity” as soon as we walk through the door : ”For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. If at Mass we partake of this sacred meal or not, believing in Transubstantiation or not Jesus is still in our midst, in communion with the faithful gathered together , comforting us, healing us, nourishing us , allowing us to experience His Love, Peace and Joy , a lived experience of Heaven on Earth in His Divine presence.
I believe Bishop Barron, though well meaning, is mistaken when he says that ”The Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life, its the centre..the beginning and the end of Christian life”
The source and summit of Christian life, its centre…the beginning and the end of Christian life is not the Eucharist …. It is …………………… Love.
” if Holy Scripture proclaims that God is love, and that love is of God, and works this in us that we abide in God and He in us, and that hereby we know this, because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is God, who is love. Next, if there be among the gifts of God none greater than love, and there” is no greater gift of God than the Holy Spirit, what follows more naturally than that He is Himself love, who is called both God and of God? And if the love by which the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, ineffably demonstrates the communion of both, what is more suitable than that He should be specially called love, who is the Spirit common to both? For this is the sounder thing both to believe and to understand, that the Holy Spirit is not alone love in that Trinity, yet is not specially called love to no purpose.” (St Augustine)
The ‘odour of the devil’ permeates the Eucharistic Revival because it will weaponise the Eucharist to exclude those deemed by a clerical elite to be ‘unworthy’ of receiving it. Bishop Andrew Cozzens tells us that ” missionary conversion is what we’re seeking through the eucharistic revival. The last year [of the revival], we want to just help facilitate that. We want to give lots of resources to people to help teach them how to be missionaries in their daily life as they experience this fire. “this encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist” will move Catholics who have been part of this experience to be missionary disciples who would in turn lead others to the faith.”
And who is this ‘missionary conversion ‘ aimed at if not the 69% of Catholics who do not believe in Transubstantiation. What happens to those who, despite the fire of Bishop Barrons formidable media empire and the likes of EWTN and the influence of various Hollywood mega stars, nevertheless remain steadfast in their faithful respect of the Eucharist as symbolic rather than Transubstantive. What is to be done with the 69% of Catholics who refuse to be consumed by this missionary zeal, who receive the Eucharist in good faith but are considered by the missionaries to continue to receive the Eucharist ‘unworthily’ because they do not believe they are receiving the actual flesh and blood of Christ. This is where the ‘Odour of the Devil’ becomes pretty overwhelming. This is when the clerical elite who have defined that the only way to receive the Eucharist ‘worthily’ is to do so in the belief that the Eucharist is the real flesh and blood of Christ start to decide who can and who cannot take part in this sacred meal and ultimately who is allowed at Mass.
If, through the eye watering resources and finances pouring into the Eucharistic Revival a small number of Clerics are allowed to weaponise the Eucharist and they decide who of the faithful are properly disposed to receive the Eucharist then all of Pope Francis’s efforts to combat clericalism will have been to no avail. Much of his Papacy has been dedicated to addressing Clericalism. He has said that:
” Clericalism is a whip, it is a scourge, it is a form of wordliness that defiles and damages the face of the Lord’s bride….it enslaves God’s holy and faithful people”
and described the faithful people of God as “patiently and humbly enduring the scorn, mistreatment, and marginalization of institutionalized clericalism.”
Given the world wide clerical abuse horrors that engulfed and almost destroyed our Catholic Communion there is grave danger in enabling clerics to establish any foundation of unassailable power within Mother Church. For those small but powerful group of clerics in the USCCB the route to unassailable power lies in The Eucharistic Revival . If we allow them to define the nature of the Eucharist and who and who is not worthy to receive it ; if we capitulate to their tyrannical rule and insistence on subservience to them we are complicit in all of the horrors that will ensue as a result.
This is why the so called Eucharistic revival is so dangerous. Let us be Truthful here. We must be honest . The multi million dollar extravaganza of the so called Eucharistic revival is not a mission to celebrate the wonder and centrality of the Eucharist at the Heart of the Catholic faith . It is a synically calculated plan to weaponise the sacrament and tear apart the reforms of Pope Francis in order to re assert the power and centrality of elite and exclusive clericalism within the Catholic Church. It is not the Sacrament that those manipulating Bishop Barron’s deep faith and the Eucharistic revival seek to exalt it is the unassailable elitism of those who perform the Sacrament… it is themselves . Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany once said :
“Sexual abuse has only one origin, [and it is] in the wrong use of power in our church,”
The logic of those weaponising the Holy Eucharist is painfully simple . If you exalt the Eucharist above all else , even above Love , and only clerics can define the nature of our sacramental participation then their elite and privileged power base becomes unassailable. Empowering an elite hungry for power and unaccountable hierarchy would plunge Catholicism back into the horror of the darkest days of our Faith when the power base of Clericalism was so unassailable and unaccountable that a sinister minority of global predatory clerics felt it their privilege to sexually prey upon children at will and in doing so almost cast Mother Church into the Fires of Hell.
“Just as the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees became fossilised into an unbending set of codes that oppressed the people, so within the Church has the ascendancy of clergy over laity hardened into a separation of roles which has too often manifested itself as a tyranny” ( , Catholic Scholar , Cecilia A. Hatt , August 20, 2022)
In the Eucharist, the Pope said, “everyone can experience this loving and concrete attention of the Lord.”
Those manipulating Bishop Barron and the Eucharistic Revival would make our Church a fortress to repel those who most need her Love and protection. In their control the Eucharist would only be allowed for those that they , not Christ , deem worthy to receive it. They would make the Church into what Pope Francis warned against ”a bureaucratic customs house, constantly inspecting and questioning, hindering the working of the Holy Spirit and the growth of God’s people.” To consolidate their power and control all masses would soon revert to Latin contrary to the guidance of Vatican 2 and in direct contradiction of Pope Francis’ Divinely guided instructions. Then they will come for the LGTBQ+ community, those who are divorced and remarried, the 69% of Catholics who do not agree with their interpretation of the nature of the Eucharist would soon find themselves excluded. Catholics across the world would be forced to kneel not before the Eucharist, but in powerless subservience to their elite self promoting institutional power, that very same institutional power that plunged the Church into a child sexual abuse abyss from which it still has not fully emerged. They will purge the Church of anyone who does not capitulate to what they dictate. Theirs will be a much smaller, hollow and Christless Church but that will not matter because they will be the powerful unassailable elite that they long to be. God help their flock if we stand by and let this happen.
So I appeal to my Brother, Bishop Robert Barron, in the name of the Holy Spirit, to seize the Eucharistic Revival back from that small group who reek of the‘ Odour of the Devil’ in the USCCB , from those who would weaponise the Eucharist and to wrestle control from those who seek: ” To empower an elite group within the USCCB to seize control of the agenda of the Church , wipe away the current Popes reforms and any memory of him and return it to a pre Vatican 2 halcyon state controlled by an unassailable power hungry clerical elite ” I appeal to him in the name of the Holy Spirit to make the missionary goal of those he ‘sets on fire’ to be about offering the World an encounter with the living Christ through Love and not a debate about the nature of the sacred meal that Christ has gifted his beloved Church. I appeal to him to acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit that ”a loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist” is a reality if you believe in transubstantiation or not . I ask him to announce and proclaim throughout his formidable empire that all are welcome to receive the Love of God during the sacred communion of mass when Christ Himself is in our midst regardless of how they perceive the constitution of the Eucharist. I appeal to him to proclaim that ”Love is the source and summit of Christian life, its the centre..the beginning and the end of Christian life”
Most importantly of all I appeal to all of my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to wake up and to recognise the ‘Odour of the Devil’ permeating the so called American Eucharistic Revival. Be attentive to the intervention of the Holy Spirit calling you to take an active role in combatting the scourge of those seeking to weaponise the Eucharist and those who demand that you kneel before them and not God. Join Pope Francis in combatting the scourge of Clericalism. Please share this post with your family and friends
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Manifesto for a Lay Pope 