Nine years into Pope Francis’ reign on the throne of St. Peter, one of his closest collaborators anonymously circulated a memorandum among fellow cardinals that delivered a stark verdict: “Commentators of every school…agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.” The critique focused on the pontiff's undermining of the Church’s bedrock of magisterial clarity and consistency, supplanting the time-honored maxim Roma locuta, causa finita est—“Rome has spoken; the case is closed”—with a prevailing ethos of erroneous teaching and ambiguity: Roma loquitur, confusio augetur—“Rome speaks; confusion grows.” In a time when the Deposit of Faith demands unwavering guardianship, this book stands as a solemn act of fidelity to the apostolic charge on all the faithful: to preserve the integrity of faith and morals for the sake of the salvation of souls. Spanning the breadth of sacred doctrine, it rigorously juxtaposes the teachings of Pope Francis with Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the perennial Magisterium.
PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK
“The catastrophic turmoil the Catholic Church experienced from 2013 to 2025 is directly attributable to things Pope Francis said and did. This important book sets forth in careful detail Pope Francis’ specific statements and decisions that contradict Catholic doctrine and conflict with the perennial practice of the Church.”—The Rev. Gerald E. Murray, J.C.D., Pastor, St. Joseph Church, New York, NY
“It is possible for popes to teach in a misleading or even erroneous way when not speaking ex cathedra. Although this is extremely rare in Church history, it has happened in a handful of cases…. As this book demonstrates, Pope Francis clearly outdid them in the number and gravity of his problematic statements and actions. One does not have to agree with everything in the book (and I don’t) in order to see the force of its cumulative case.”—Edward Feser, Professor of Philosophy, Pasadena City College
“This comprehensive study clearly shows that the pontificate of the late Pope Francis generated a great deal of confusion throughout various areas of Church teaching…. I heartily recommend this work for its clarity and the strength of its arguments.”—Eduardo Echeverria, author of Pope Francis: The Legacy of Vatican II
“A full-scale, dispassionately clinical analysis of Bergoglio’s rule, identifying through the entire pontificate countless divergences from Catholic truth.”—John Rist, author of Infallibility, Integrity and Obedience: The Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church, 1848–2023
“Not a few Catholics viewed the many troubling pronouncements of Pope Francis as merely ambiguous, imprecise, or poorly translated. Grave though such deficiencies would be, readers of this book will discover—sorrowfully—that the reality is far more serious…. This volume will prove indispensable to the future pontiff and council tasked with restoring what has been compromised…. Every page of The Disastrous Pontificate reveals an author of manifest fidelity, animated by profound love for Christ and His Church, and endowed with theological erudition.”—Michael Sirilla, Professor of Systematic and Dogmatic Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville
“This remarkable book is both exhaustive and exhausting. Exhaustive, in that it records, explains, and provides refutation for every misstep and misstatement made by Pope Francis. Exhausting, because there is so very much material to cover. Here in one massive volume is a thorough catalogue of the ways in which the late Pontiff confused the faithful, along with a defense of the truths he undermined.”—Philip F. Lawler, author of Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis Is Misleading His Flock
“Meticulous, dispassionate, and charitable, this book bears invaluable witness to what has certainly been the most disastrous pontificate, from the doctrinal point of view, in the entire history of the Catholic Church.”—Claudio Pierantoni, former Professor of Medieval Philosophy, University of Chile
“This book demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt the sharp contradiction between Francis’s teachings and those of the Gospels, the authentic Magisterium of the Church, and the greatest Popes and theologians of the past.” —Dr. Josef Seifert, president emeritus of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family
