8.173. Pope Francis said: “Let us let ourselves be infected by the people.” Isn’t that just a call to be more empathetic and less clerical?
During a September 2014 in-flight press conference, Antipope Francis made the shocking statement:
“Let us let ourselves be infected by the people.”
He was referring to the clergy and hierarchy becoming more connected to ordinary people and their experiences. While that may sound like a call for humility or closeness, in truth, this statement reveals the essence of the Vatican II revolution: that the Church should learn from the world, rather than teach it; that she should absorb the values of the age, rather than sanctify the nations and call them to repentance.
This idea is not only scandalous, but theologically backwards. The Church is the immaculate Bride of Christ, the teacher of truth, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). She is tasked with infecting the world with grace, not being infected by the world’s errors, passions, and ideologies.
This mentality has led to:
The abandonment of clear moral teaching, in favor of “discernment”
The embrace of modernism, feminism, environmentalism, and relativism
The justification of false religions and sinful lifestyles under the banner of “accompaniment”
As Pope St. Pius X warned in Pascendi (1907), modernists aim to reshape the Church to reflect modern man, not to call modern man to eternal truth.
| Category | Traditional Catholic Teaching | Francis / Vatican II Mentality | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission of the Church | To convert the world and sanctify sinners | To walk with the world and learn from it | Reverses the Church’s divine commission |
| Purity | The Church is holy and must remain untainted by error | The Church should “be infected” by worldly experience | Contradicts her nature as the spotless Bride of Christ |
| Clergy’s Role | To teach, sanctify, and govern in the name of Christ | To blend in, listen, and “learn” from the people | Destroys hierarchical teaching and moral clarity |
| World’s Influence | Must be resisted and corrected | Welcomed and “discerned” as part of lived experience | Encourages modernist compromise with error |
| Fruits | Sanctity, missionary zeal, conversion of souls | Confusion, loss of faith, celebration of sin | “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7:16) |
Summary:
When Francis says “Let us let ourselves be infected by the people”, he is not calling the Church to love—it already does that perfectly. He is calling the Church to lower herself, to become a mirror of the modern world, and to submit herself to the values of fallen man.
This is not humility. This is apostasy.
The true Catholic Church elevates, purifies, and judges the world, offering it salvation in Christ. She does not seek to be infected by sin, but to destroy sin through grace.
As Pope St. Pius X taught:
“The Church does not adapt herself to the age. She elevates the age to herself.”
Further reading:
Pascendi Dominici Gregis (On the Doctrine of the Modernists) by Pope Pius X - 1907