‘Disorderly, confused, omnipotent, and charismatic’ Francis compares similarly to the vindictive abuser, Marcial Maciel

video source: Gloria.TV News, A Very Interesting Analysis of Pope Francis’ Personality, 15 March 2018

First of all, the doubt has been removed that Bergoglio may speak in a disorderly way only in Italian but not in Spanish, the language that is most natural to him.

We have received messages from Argentina:

“Even in Spanish Francis is rather disorderly when he improvises, although perhaps a bit less than in Italian.

And from Spain:

“He is disorderly and confused even when he speaks in Spanish. Sometimes he does not finish his sentences. He uses many expressions typical of Argentina, excessively local and informal.”

Having established this, an Italian reader has gone to the heart of the matter like this:

“I believe that Bergoglio’s disorderly and sloppy improvisation is intentional. His jumping from tangent to tangent makes it difficult for the interlocutor to come to grips with anything. This is the case, for example, of the inflight interviews, which he constructs and measures with undoubted political and manipulative skill. A skill that however in the end turns out to be to be short-lived, at least when the journalist presses him.

“As for his recent autobiographical account, the fact that he describes as an age of 'omnipotence' the period in which he was a superior makes one think. It reveals an affective approach to power that turns out to be problematic to say the least. The periods that he calls ‘dark’ in his life are in practice those in which he has no position of authority.”

[...]

Also from Italy:

“From an overall perspective, I would say this. There is in Bergoglio the typically Jesuit formative-cultural element, oriented more to the image than to the concept, heightened by a personality that seeks impact rather than real sharing - in keeping with his authoritarianism - all supported by a very acute psychological penetration.

"However, the way in which he has recounted his life reveals a basic ambivalence. That which is the exercise of a power of suggestion and of impression is, at the same time, the expression of an unresolved, fragile personality, with pockets of poorly digested rancor. His political and psychological skills allow him to manage this instability socially. But the result is not constructive. I think that with Pope Francis it may never be possible to define in a clear and crisp manner - and even he does not know this - how much in him is the calculated exercise of a consciously destabilizing power, aimed at setting 'processes' in motion, and how much is the expression of a personality like his own, unstable and thirsty for compensation."

And finally, for now:

“In many ways Bergoglio reminds me of Marcial Maciel, the charismatic founder of the Legionaries of Christ. He too, the pope, must be deciphered from a psychological rather than a theological point of view. I am convinced that part of his secret lies in his family of origin, of which, on balance, we know very little and about which he himself says little and in an evasive manner. I am struck, among other things, by the figure of his sister, Maria Elena [in the photo], with that homeless look and oddball mannerisms.

Both Bergoglio and Maciel have, had in common a strong personality, charismatic, but with that surface charisma proper to unstable personalities. Both are, were allergic to going deeper, to intellectual work. Both are, were masters of the art of dissimulation and with a special intuition in grasping the vulnerable points of interlocutors and bending them to themselves. Both with a mental energy out of the ordinary. Both implacable and vindictive towards the enemies, when these are weaker than they.”

(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)

‘Bergoglio Disclosed. Tell Me How You Speak and I Will Tell You Who You Are’, Settimo Cielo (2 March 2018)