The Last Word

Brer Bergoglio

and the Briar Patch Gospel

By Father Celatus Remnant Columnist

For traditional Catholics there is but one go-to English version of the Bible, namely, the Douay Rheims.

Translated from the ancient Latin Vulgate of the great biblical scholar Saint Jerome, which itself goes back to the late fourth century, the Douay Rheims has served the Church for more than four centuries.

But for non-traditional Catholics and non-Catholics there is a plethora of choices azmong English versions, numbering in the hundreds.

Among these are some that claim that they make the Sacred Scriptures more relevant to our modern time, such as the Cotton Patch Gospel. Written by the Koinonia Farm founder, this version recasts the Gospels into a Deep South setting, geographically and culturally.

For example:

One day John the Baptizer showed up and started preaching in the rural areas of Georgia. "Reshape your lives," he said "because God’s new order of the Spirit is confronting you…This guy John was dressed in blue jeans and a leather jacket, and he was living on corn bread and collard greens. Folks were coming to him from Atlanta and all over north Georgia and the backwater of the Chattahoochee. And as they owned up to their crooked ways he dipped them in the Chattahoochee.

When John noticed a lot of Protestants and Catholics showing up for his dipping, he said to them, "You sons of snakes, who put the heat on you to run from the fury about to break over your heads? You must give some proof that you’ve had a change of heart.

And don’t think that you can feed yourselves that ‘we-good-white-people’ stuff, because I’m tell you that if God wants to he can make white folks out of this pile of rocks. (Matthew 3)

When it comes to English versions of the Bible, clearly the Cotton Patch Gospel is nothing short of an abomination. But so too is the Briar Patch Gospel of Jorge Bergoglio, which includes the Blessed Mother shaking her fist and calling God a liar over the death of her Son, the Sharing of Bread non-miracle in which more than 5,000 people pulled matzah out of their toga pockets, and most recently a new and improved modernist rendition of the Lord’s Prayer. Remember these words of Francis this past Advent:

The French have changed the text and their translation says "don’t let me fall into temptation." It’s me who falls. It’s not Him who pushes me into temptation, as if I fell. A father doesn’t do that. A father helps you to get up right away. The one who leads into temptation is Satan.

Francis was commenting on a change to the official French translation of the Pater Noster prayer. Since then the Italian bishops have similarly changed their official version to read the Italian equivalent of "abandon us not into temptation." Without doubt other conferences of bishops will soon follow suit.

The public response to the comment of Francis was swift and predictable: liberals loved it, neo-Catholics spun it, and traditionalists rejected it. Some regard this as old news now, by modern standards.

But we were reminded of the Bergoglian Briar Patch version of the Pater Noster on the First Sunday of Lent:

At that time, Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.

But He answered and said, It is written, ‘Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took Him into the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He has given His angels charge concerning You; and upon their hands they shall bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, It is written further, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said to Him, All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, ‘The Lord your God shall you worship and Him only shall you serve.’ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Notice in the Gospel text of the Mass cited above, accurately rendered in the Douay Rheims version, that Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit, namely the Holy Spirit of God, to be tempted by the devil. But wait! According to the Bergoglian Briar Patch Gospel, like a good father, God would never lead anyone into temptation. Quite the opposite, the BBP version recasts Satan as the one who leads into temptation. Applying this view to our text, it would follow that it was a Satan, an unclean spirit, not the Holy Spirit, who led Jesus to be tempted by the devil. Uh oh! Another Gospel incident and warning springs to mind:

The Pharisees said: This man casteth not out the devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Matthew 12)

Attributing activity of the Holy Spirit to that of an unclean spirit, Satan himself, is a most serious matter. In light of this we find it appropriate to paraphrase what our Lord said to the tempter: Begone, Bergoglio! ■