Christ the King? Or Prime Minister?

The current Superior General of SSPX, Fr. Pagliarani, raises a question about ecclesiology which in his opinion (and that of Abp. Lefebvre) actually began with Vatican II.

...Archbishop Lefebvre provides us with an answer. He said that the structure of the new Mass corresponded to a democratic Church, and no longer hierarchical and monarchical one. The synodal church of the Franciscan dream is truly democratic. He himself gave the image he had of it: that of an inverted pyramid. Could there be a clearer manifestation of what he meant by synodality? It is a Church that has been turned on its head. But let us insist, this is only a development of the seeds already planted at the Council....

That's not all.  The interviewer pushed back:

Do you not think you are forcing your reading of the current reality, wanting to bring everything back to the principles of the Second Vatican Council, held more than 50 years ago?

Fr. Pagliarani responds.

...Cardinal Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa and coordinator of the “C6” group of cardinals. He says that, "After the Second Vatican Council, the methods and content of evangelization and Christian education change. The liturgy is changing... The missionary perspective changes: the missionary must establish an evangelizing dialogue... Social action changes, it is no longer only charity and the development of services, but also the struggle for justice, human rights and liberation... Everything changes in the Church according to the renewed pastoral model."...

So here's his bottom line.

 ...the Church that emerged from the Council is pluralistic. It is a Church that is no longer based on an eternal and revealed Truth, taught from above by Authority. We have before us a Church that is listening and therefore necessarily listening to voices that may differ from each other. To make a comparison, in a democratic system, there is always a place - at least apparent - for opposition. They are part of the system because they show that we can discuss, have a different opinion, that there is room for everyone. This, of course, can promote democratic dialogue, but not the restoration of an absolute and universal Truth and an eternal moral law. Thus, error can be taught freely alongside a real but structurally ineffective opposition which is unable to replace the errors with truth. It is therefore from the pluralist system itself that we must emerge, and this system has as its cause, the Second Vatican Council....

Well, now.  If what Fr. Pagliarani proposes is true, Houston, we have a problem.  The Pope is not a Prime Minister, he is the successor of Peter and rules the Church absolutely.  The Protestants revolted against this power, albeit they 'dressed it up' a bit with some other irrelevant complaints.

It may be that Fr. Pagliarani's formulation is precisely accurate; it is more likely that it is stretched a bit.  Not without some cause; Pp. Francis is the cause of much angst, and that seems to be deliberate.

Another log to toss on the fire.  Ugh.