I do not think that Francis’ horrific rhetoric should be ignored, but rather explained, because what every one of his episodes provides is an opportunity for catechesis. Even if just one or two people learn and have a lightbulb go on above their head when unpacking his staggering, malignant stupidity, it is worth it. It is certainly better than nothing. For example, when he was recently in the Philippines, a little girl asked him why God permits terrible things like child prostitution to happen. And, of course, Francis, being dumb and apparently profoundly uncatechized in Catholicism, said, “She is the only one who has put forward a question for which there is no answer—.”

Um, no. The answer is because God Almighty, because He LOVES US, holds our wills SACRED and will not ever overcome our will or coerce us, because the second He does that, we are no longer subjects, but objects. Plastic chessmen. Love CANNOT be coerced. It has to be freely given and freely returned, and that freedom includes the freedom to reject The Lover and to choose evil. A third of the angels chose evil. We choose evil with every sin. And, paradoxically, it is precisely in that reality that we KNOW that we are loved more than we can ever, ever comprehend.

But now somewhere in the Philippines there is a little girl who thinks that God is an indifferent “divine watchmaker” and that the Church has no answer to her question, when in fact it is a children’s Penny Catechism 101 topic.

This is why I pray for God to remove Pope Francis from office.