During my short foray into active Tweeting (that’s a whole other story), I had an unexpected interaction with Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, a high-level Vatican operative. Spadaro is a close friend of Pope Francis and is often understood to be speaking for him.

What occasioned this exchange was my response to papal biographer Austen Ivereigh’s ridiculous Commonweal article comparing those who threw the Pachamama idols in the Tiber to… wait for it… ISIS terrorists.

Ivereigh did not respond at all, but Fr. Spadaro jumped in to defend Ivereigh’s inflammatory accusation, an accusation that insults and smears every faithful Catholic who is deeply troubled by the scandalous events of the Amazon Synod.

Here are the screenshots; please note how abruptly the exchange with Spadaro ended, and then ponder why.

After this question, complete silence. Nothing. I waited a day and then tried again:

Still nothing. Other concerned Catholics had also joined in on the thread, asking for clarification. The response to every one of us was silence, and continues to be.

So…to the myriad examples of the pope and his inner circle refusing to clarify questions—from the dubia (years of complete silence) to the Viganò charges (“I will not say a single word”) to the McCarrick files (still waiting) to the “Pachamama” identity debacle and more—I now can add my own personal experience of this refusal to clarify, answer, or explain.

In the sea of confusion that marks this “make a mess!” pontificate, the intentionality of that confusion is one thing that has been made very clear.

I guess that’s something?

But meanwhile….Many Catholic faithful are left feeling like children whose father has abandoned us.

We will keep the Faith of our Fathers anyway.