(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis, according to Catholic journalist Sohrab Ahmari, was actually a “trad icon.”

Ahmari, who founded Compact magazine with the assistance of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, made the argument in a recent short essay in First Things. Ahmari now is the editor at UnHerd.

The Catholic convert noted that Pope Francis “was an Argentine Jesuit who couldn’t stop talking about the climate, seemed to wink at divorce, and framed young traditionalist priests as latter-day Pharisees who’d merely substituted Saturno hats for wide phylacteries.”

But still, “it’s clear that Francis was just the pontiff we needed. The substance of his message was far more ‘trad’ than critics appreciated. And his governing style challenged us to practice what we preached about authority,” Ahmari claimed.

Making sweeping statements about “trads,” Ahmari claims the “trads” “couldn’t get past the surface to glimpse the rebuke to post-Enlightenment modernity at the heart of his teaching.

Join Bishop Strickland’s novena for a holy pope:

Last year, for example, when Jordan Peterson chided Francis for prioritizing climate change at the expense of “salvation,” conservative Catholic outlets and personalities raced to cheer the Canadian pop psychologist.

Ahmari also said there was a “veritable anti-Francis cottage industry” that would accuse the pope of being a communist at any chance.

The Catholic writer praised Pope Francis for his words about neoliberalism and the problems of capitalism, although Ahmari largely ignored the crackdown on the Latin Mass and the widespread confusion caused by Fiducia Supplicans, which endorsed the idea of “blessing” same-sex “couples.”

“He could be a mean dad,” Ahmari wrote. “Still, negative polarization being the monstrous force that it is, the trad critics at times seemed bent on vindicating Francis’s caricature of them, with the more fevered corners descending into full-on anti-Semitism, apologia for slavery, and soft sedevacantism.” For the anti-semitism claims, Ahmari cited a video of Taylor Marshall commenting on Ben Shapiro’s dismissive comments about Jesus Christ.

For the “slavery” claim, he cited the accurate comment by well-respected Dominic priest Fr. Thomas Crean, explaining the difference between indentured servitude and chattel slavery. “Scripture teaches that slavery strictly considered as the duty to work in perpetuity for another is not intrinsically immoral, though to be excluded where possible. The same applies to capital punishment,” Fr. Crean wrote. This interpretation is widely accepted in Catholic circles, as seen by this Catholic Answers explanation.

Finally, Ahmari cites liberal Catholic writer Mike Lewis to claim Bishop Joseph Strickland supports some form of sedevacantism that he does not.

Ahmari’s article completely ignores the crackdown on the Latin Mass, which sent faithful practicing Catholics literally to the margins of some dioceses (such as in Washington, D.C.) while banishing others to gyms. It also glosses over the confusion caused by Amoris Laetitia and the numerous questionable statements by Pope Francis over the years on homosexuality and salvation.

In fact, Ahmari’s conclusion stands in contrast to dissident Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin, a supporter of Pope Francis. Soon after the pope’s death, Fr. Martin described Pope Francis as an “imperfect” “champion” for “LGBTQ people.”

Likewise, well-respected Catholic prelates have pointed out Pope Francis caused confusion in the Catholic Church.

Also writing in First Things, Philadelphia emeritus Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote:

He had no direct involvement in the Second Vatican Council and seemed to resent the legacy of his immediate predecessors who did; men who worked and suffered to incarnate the council’s teachings faithfully into Catholic life. His personality tended toward the temperamental and autocratic. He resisted even loyal criticism. He had a pattern of ambiguity and loose words that sowed confusion and conflict.

Likewise, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan hinted at the problems of the last papacy.

Asked for what he wanted in the next people, Cardinal Dolan stated he wanted the “the warmth, heart and smile” of Pope Francis but “more clarity in teaching, more refinement of the Church’s tradition, more digging in the treasures of the past to remind us what Jesus expects of us.”

The papal conclave begins May 7.