"[Francis & Leo] did not follow Pico della Mirandola's views on autonomy—they fell victim to them...Manent argues that Pope Francis’s globalist and highly individualized framework...has eroded the Church's authority to command obedience to objective truth"

Google AI overview: What views of Pico did Francis and Leo follow according to Kraynak and Pierre Manet?

According to prominent conservative political philosophers Robert Kraynak and Pierre Manent, Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIII did not follow Pico della Mirandola's views on autonomy—they fell victim to them.

Both Kraynak and Manent are leading critics of how the modern Catholic Church has integrated human rights language. While mainstream theologians argue that the popes only adopted Pico's concept of dignity while rejecting his autonomy, Kraynak and Manent argue that this separation is philosophically impossible. By adopting "human rights" and "dignity" into official Catholic social teaching, Leo XIII started, and Pope Francis completed, a dangerous surrender to the very concept of Renaissance autonomy Pico invented.

Their respective critiques outline how they interpret this philosophical drift:

1. Robert Kraynak: The "Trojan Horse" of Inherent Worth

In his seminal work Christian Faith and Modern Democracy, Robert Kraynak argues that the concept of "human dignity" used by modern popes is a secularized counterfeit of true Christian doctrine.

• The Traditional View vs. Pico: Historically, the Church taught that man’s dignity is conditional—it is rooted in being created in the image of God, but is severely fractured by Original Sin and must be restored through grace and virtue. Pico changed this by asserting that man is dignified simply by having an open-ended, autonomous power to choose.
• The Critique of Leo and Francis: Kraynak argues that when Pope Leo XIII began using "rights" language in Rerum Novarum, and when Pope Francis codified "inalienable dignity" in Dignitas Infinita, they accidentally swallowed Pico's premise. By teaching that dignity can never be lost regardless of a person's moral actions, the popes adopted a view of the self that elevates human choice and autonomy above human duty to God's natural law.

2. Pierre Manent: The Dissolution of "Political and Spiritual Form"

The French philosopher Pierre Manent looks at this through the lens of political philosophy and the "science of political forms." Manent argues that modern papal teaching has completely succumbed to the modern "empire of autonomy."

• Pico as the Blueprint for Modernity: Manent views Pico's Oration as the literal birth certificate of modern, secular humanism—the idea that humanity has no fixed nature, no inherent boundaries, and is completely autonomous.
• The Critique of Pope Francis: Manent argues that Pope Francis’s globalist and highly individualized framework (seen in documents like Amoris Laetitia and his environmental encyclicals) represents the total victory of Pico-style autonomy over traditional Catholic structure. When Francis prioritizes individual conscience and continuous "discernment" over absolute moral laws and institutional forms, Manent believes the Pope is operating under the modern assumption that human freedom is autonomous and self-actualizing. By trying to accompany a world defined by radical personal autonomy, the modern papacy has eroded the Church's authority to command obedience to objective truth.

Summary: The Ultimate Philosophical Trap

According to Kraynak and Manent, you cannot separate Pico’s dignity from Pico’s autonomy. By tracking the progression from Leo XIII’s initial introduction of rights language to Pope Francis’s deeply subjectivist pastoral theology, both thinkers conclude that the modern papacy has unknowingly allowed Pico's radical, self-shaping human autonomy to rewrite the foundations of Catholic moral theology.

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia and for the restoration of the Church.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

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I ask all The Catholic Monitor readers to also pray for the end of this war. Watch "Trump Calls Putin To Get Iran War Offramp! w/ Scott Ritter" on YouTube: ...Read more Please Pray for Trump to end the Iran War: Watch "Trump Calls Putin To Get Iran War Offramp! w/ Scott Ritter" on YouTubeFranklin & Graham calls on Christians to pray for 'end to the bloodshed' ahead of Trump-Putin summit...7mo

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Conclave Notes:

Has the Trad Media fallen into a COVID-like mass formation with Leo XVI? While it's humorous to see the former anti-Francis Trad pundits suddenly acting like teen age girls infatuated with Leo, it could lead to a Trojan Horse effect

It appears that a group of Bishops or Cardinals needs to give Leo XIV Dubia questions on if he still supports "Invalid and Sacrilegious" Confession

"Prevost’s reported support...allowing divorced & civilly 'remarried'...to receive Holy Communion": “Whoever…helps...promulgation of heresy…is suspected of heresy.” - The Catholic Monitor

-- Open letter urges Pope Leo XIV to correct ‘scandalous incoherence’ in Amoris Laetitia...[Wow! Even notorious Popesplainer Fr.] Harrison warns that Pope Francis taught a ‘dangerous self-contradiction’ on Communion for the divorced and ‘remarried,’ petitioning Pope Leo to correct the record. [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/08/open-letter-urges-pope-leo-xiv-to.html]

--  Dr. Seifert, regarded as one of the greatest living Catholic philosophers, founding Rector of the International Academy of Philosopher & friend of John Paul II, to Cardinals: INVESTIGATE FRANCIS' HERESIES, VALIDITY BEFORE THE CONCLAVE.."If Francis is found guilty of heresy or apostasy, then: - His cardinal appointments would be invalid" [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/dr-seifert-philosopher-personal-friend.html] 

-- Are the Cardinals who will participate in the upcoming conclave authentically appointed & morally justified in voting, or will the shadow of Francis's possible illegitimacy cast itself over the next papacy?  [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/are-cardinals-who-will-participate-in.html]

-- 5 Dubia Questions for 1P5's Steve Skojec & All faithful Catholics especially Francis is definitely Pope Cardinals, Bishops & pundits [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/06/5-dubia-questions-for-steve-skojec.html]

Francis Notes:

l– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html

– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1

– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1

What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the [J6] DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 

Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.

Pray an Our Father now for America.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.