H/T for the video to the excellent Voice of the Family and LifeSiteNews.com

Some time ago, I was visiting a monastery of nuns in central Italy, and was told that since it was a special feast day for the Abbess, we would be having a little festa, with a special guest, a Vatican cardinal who was an oblate of their monastery. He was going to be staying in the monastery guest house across the hall from my room, and we would be sharing all our meals together.

This was someone whose name I knew instantly, and knew as one of the “good ones” and something of a celebrity among believing Catholic journalists, so I was very excited. I told the nuns that for me it was like being told I would be dining for three days with a favourite movie star. The cardinal was a wonderful dinner companion and we had some truly edifying conversations and it was an experience I will never forget.

Inevitably, the conversation came round to the subject of the Bergoglian pontificate. Even though it was still only a few months since Conclave Night, I expressed my reservations about the direction things were taking. I said, “What I and my Catholic friends fear is that the spirit of 1976 has returned.”

My dinner companion looked thoughtful at this and paused as though considering possible answers. I was glad that he decided on candour: “Yes, that is the spirit that has returned to the Church. We must pray very hard for the times to come.”

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