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Gee, what do you suppose happened in the 1960s that started this “erosion of the Catholic Faith in Germany”?

One notes in particular in traditionally Catholic regions a very strong decline in participation at Sunday Mass, not to mention the sacramental life.  Where in the 1960s everywhere just about all the faithful still participated at Holy Mass every Sunday, today there are often less than 10 percent.  Ever fewer people seek the sacraments.  The Sacrament of Penance has almost disappeared.  Ever fewer Catholics receive Confirmation or contract Catholic Matrimony.  The number of vocations to priestly ministry and the consecrated life has sharply diminished.  In consideration of these facts, one can speak truly of an erosion of the Catholic Faith in Germany.

Pope Francis, addressing the German bishops, Nov. 2015

Many of the actions of worldlings, which at first sight may appear innocent, have a natural and fatal tendency to pervert the morals of the just; and therefore, we must keep as much as possible at a distance from their society. --- Ismael was a figure of the synagogue, which persecuted the Church of Christ in her birth.

Fr. George Leo Haydock, scriptural commentary, Genesis 21, Upon Abraham sending away Ismael with his mother, Agar.

Ecumenism, Love, Hatred, and St. John the Evangelist

In his encyclical Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI makes notable appeal to the teaching of the Apostle and Evangelist John to distinguish between true and false charity toward non-Catholic Christians:

"These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment "Love one another," altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ's teaching: "If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you." For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repugnant to the opinions of the rest? And in what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Federation of the faithful? For example, those who affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy, made up of bishops, priests and ministers, has been divinely constituted, and those who assert that it has been brought in little by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that marvelous conversion of the bread and wine, which is called transubstantiation, and those who affirm that Christ is present only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of a sacrifice, and those who say that it is nothing more than the memorial or commemoration of the Lord's Supper; those who believe it to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning with Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their images, and those who urge that such a veneration is not to be made use of, for it is contrary to the honor due to Jesus Christ, "the one mediator of God and men." How so great a variety of opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We know not; that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one law of belief and one faith of Christians. But We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it."

No one understands charity better than St. John, but he understood that the theological virtue of charity must be founded on the theological virtue of faith, and therefore anything that undermines the faith of necessity undermines charity. And therefore he commands us to avoid contact with those who would undermine the faith.

In general one can see that love necessarily cause the one loving to hate anything which threatens to destroy what is loved. Thus, since we naturally love health, therefore we naturally hate disease; since we naturally love life, we naturally hate anything that destroys our lives, and so on. And charity is no exception the supernatural love of God above all things necessarily implies hatred of sin, which is directly opposed to that charity, and error which is opposed to the faith on which it is founded.

But ecumenists have difficulty seeing this. Even if they would perhaps hesitate to use such strong words, they would probably agree with the non-Catholic New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann’s judgement on St. John, in his critique of Benedict's Deus Caritas Est:

"[The] Johannine communities fell far short of exhibiting the love that [Pope Benedict XVI] recommends to the contemporary church. For not only does the First Letter of John—from which the encyclical takes its theme and exhortation—restrict brotherhood to those of orthodox belief, but the Second Letter of John, which quite predictably is not mentioned in the encyclical, takes the same approach and pushes it even further. In verses 9 through 11 of this very brief letter, its author, who identifies himself only as ‘the Elder,’ commands the community to receive into their homes only those brothers who confess Christ’s coming in the flesh. Any present or former brothers who have a different opinion concerning Christ’s incarnation should be spurned. Indeed, “John” forbids the members of his communities even to greet them. He deems this precautionary measure necessary, lest the community of right belief become infected by the evil doctrines and consequent guilt of its dissident brothers. How strange it is to encounter such harsh and hate-filled expostulations in a letter overflowing with assurances of mutual love and attesting to a community’s unanimous recognition of sacred truth!"

Lüdemann’s reasoning is precisely the sort of thing that one is likely to hear from contemporary ecumenists. And the reason is clear: they are not motivated by the supernatural virtue of charity, founded on the one true faith, but rather by a vague benevolence, founded on modernism and indifferentism. And like every kind of love, this vague benevolence causes a hatred of everything that threatens the object of love; they do not (like St. John) hate heresy, rather they hate “fanaticism” and “fundamentalism.” In other words they hate the perennial claim of the Catholic Church to teach the truth.

COMMENT: This was copied from the conservative Catholic blog, Rorate Caeli. It is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, because what it says concerning the virtues of Faith and Charity is a truth that traditional Catholic already knows and has defended over the last fifty years but, nevertheless we do not tire of hearing it repeated from time to time. It is also interesting because it politely affirms that Pope Benedict, and a fortiori, Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II, by professing the heresy of ecumenism, are heretics who "are not motivated by the supernatural virtue of charity, founded on the one true faith" and therefore "hate the perennial claim of the Catholic Church to teach the truth." It is a hopeful sign that younger conservative Catholics recognize that it is first and foremost the Faith that must be defended by keeping the immemorial ecclesiastical traditions that make that Faith known and communicable to others. At this time when established publication, that claim to be traditional are content with the crumbs offered by Benedict XVI and continually heap praise upon him and his Motu Proprio, Summormum Pontificum, fail to recognize that the battle has always been and will continue to be the Faith itself that Modernists and Neo-modernists aim to destroy. These younger conservative Catholics will hopefully become the radical traditionalists that are so desperately needed at this time in the Church Militant. The Novus Ordo Church keeps two fast days during Lent and abstains on Fridays which is a penitential practice unworthy of the name. Let us keep faithfully the traditional penances during Lent as an act of reparation for our own sins and the welfare of the Church. If traditional Catholics do not do it, it will not be done.

Pope’s Address to Italian National Committee for Bioethics

The ecclesial and the civil community meet in this area and are called to collaborate, according to their respective various competencies

January 28, 2016 | ZANIT | StaffFrancis

I am happy to be able to express the Church’s appreciation for the fact that the National Committee for Bioethics has been instituted for the past 25 years in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.  Noted by all is how sensitive the Church is to ethical subjects, but perhaps it is not as clear to all that the Church does not claim any privileged space in this field, rather, she is satisfied when the civil conscience is able to reflect, discern and work, at various levels, on the basis of free and open rationality and of the constitutive values of the person and of society. In fact, this responsible civil maturity is precisely the sign that the sowing of the Gospel — this yes, revealed and entrusted to the Church — has borne fruit, succeeding in promoting research of the true, the good and the beautiful in the complex human and ethical questions. In essence, it is about serving man, the whole man, all men and women......

COMMENT: This is the opening comment made to the Italian National Committee for Bioethics by Pope Francis. The Church founded by Jesus Christ was established by God to "teach all nations" but Francis' Novus Ordo Church is reduced to one voice among many expressing only a natural philosophy. His Novus Ordo Church is “satisfied” when “civil conscience is able to reflect.... on the basis of free and open rationality.” He even says that “responsible civil maturity is precisely the sign” that the Church “sowing of the Gospel... has borne fruit.” The philosophy of Francis has nothing to do with the “true, good and beautiful.” This is Pelagianism that looks to the perfectibility of natural virtue. It is a philosophy that is antithetical to the Gospel message because the “essence” of the Gospel message is not about “serving man” but rather, it is the revelation by God about God for the purpose that man may know, love and serve God, be adopted as his children by grace, and be happy with Him for all eternity. It is because Francis has turned his face from God that the world has plastered his image on the cover of countless magazines. But Jesus Christ addressed His Father for those who believed in His revelation saying, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine” (John 17:9). Pope Francis prays for the “world” because it is his. “Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).

Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus

Jesus covered with blood and with much sadness said to Mother Pierina: “See how much I suffer. I am understood by so few: what ingratitude on the part of those who say they love Me! I have given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I have given My Face as a sensible object of My sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that It be honored by a special feast on Shrove Tuesday. The feast will be preceded by a novena during which the faithful will make reparation to Me, uniting themselves with My sorrow.”

[This year, the feast occurs on February 9 (Shrove Tuesday). The Alpha-Omega novena beings today, Sexagesima Sunday]

"I firmly wish that My face reflecting the intimate pains of my soul, the suffering and love of My heart, be more honored! Whoever gazes upon Me already consoles Me."

Our Lord to Sister Pierina

"All those who, attracted by My love, and venerating My countenance, shall receive, by virtue of My humanity, a brilliant and vivid impression of My divinity. This splendor shall enlighten the depths of their souls, so that in eternal glory the celestial court shall marvel at the marked likeness of their features with My Divine countenance."

Our Lord to St. Gertrude

OFFERING OF THE HOLY FACE TO APPEASE GOD'S JUSTICE AND DRAW DOWN MERCY UPON US

ETERNAL Father, turn away Thine angry gaze from all guilty people whose faces have become unsightly in Thine eyes. Look instead upon the face of Thy Beloved Son, for this is the Face of Him in Whom Thou art well pleased. We now offer Thee this Holy face of Jesus Christ, covered with shame and disfigured by bloody bruises, in reparation for the crimes of our age, in order to appease Thine anger, justly provoked against us. Because Thy Divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon His head all the sins of His people that they might be spared, we now beg of Thee, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. Amen.

Archconfraternity of the Holy Face

Promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ to Those Devoted to His Holy Face

1. I will give them contrition so perfect, that their very sins shall be changed in My sight into jewels of precious gold .

2. None of these persons shall ever be separated from Me.

3. In offering My Face to My Father, they will appease His anger, and they will purchase as with celestial coin, pardon for poor sinners.

4. I will open My Mouth to plead with My Father to grant all the petitions that they will present to Me.

5. I will illuminate them with My light. I will consume them with My love. I will render them fruitful of good works.

6. They will, as the pious Veronica, wipe My adorable Face outraged by sin, and I will imprint My divine Features in their souls.

7. At their death, I will renew in them the image of God effaced by sin.

8. By resemblance to My Face, they will shine more than many others in eternal life, and the brilliancy of My Face will fill them with joy.

These inestimable promises are drawn from the works of St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde and from the writings of Sister Marie de Saint Pierre, a Carmelite who died at Tours, in the odor of sanctity.

Martin Luther - Prophet?

I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist.

Martin Luther

The pope is a mere tormentor of conscience. The assembly of his greased and religious crew in praying was altogether like the croaking of frogs, which edified nothing at all.

Martin Luther, Table Talk

Pope Francis apostasies from Catholic Faith & Converts to Lutheran Church;

No Word at this point when he plans to officially vacate Chair of Peter!

The Holy Father Francis in Lund, Sweden, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Vatican Radio confirms (Pope Francis to travel to Sweden for joint Reformation commemoration) that the event on October 31 is intended to kick off a whole year of events marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
The Pope will lead the “common worship service” along with two Lutheran leaders: Lutheran World Federation (LWF) President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan and LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge. It will be held in Lund cathedral, a medieval cathedral held by the Lutherans from the 1530's to the present day.
The common worship will be based on the controversial “Common Prayer” liturgical order published earlier this month by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). This "order" contains prayers and passages extolling Martin Luther and the Reformation.

Martin Luther was a drunkard, glutton, incontinent, blasphemer, and heretic - he is known by his fruit and his friends!

A lass, unless the high, rare gift is hers, can no more do without a man than she can do without eating, drinking, sleeping, and other natural necessities. So also, again, a man cannot do without a woman. The reason is this: It is as deeply implanted in nature to beget children as to eat and drink. Therefore has God given and furnished the body its members, veins, fluids, and everything that serves that end. Now whoso wishes to check this and not let it go, as nature wills and must, what else does he do but forbid nature to be nature, fire to burn, water to wet, and man either to eat or drink or sleep? From this I conclude, then, that such nuns in convents must unwillingly be chaste and reluctantly make shift to do without men. If they are there unwillingly, they lose this life and the life to come, must have hell on earth and beyond also. Further, where there is unwilling chastity, the work of nature is not suspended, flesh becomes seminific, as God created it, and so also do the veins run their course according to their kind. Then does a flowing ensue and the secret sin, which St. Paul, (1 Cor. 6, 9, Gal. V, 19) calls uncleanness and luxury. And, to speak out grossly, for the sake of the miserable necessity, if the flowing is not into flesh, it will be into one's shirt. The people are then ashamed to accuse themselves of such a thing, and to confess it. Hence it follows that, in their heart, they blaspheme God and you (who brought them into the convent), curse their state, and are at enmity with all who helped them thereto; and such a one, in such a need, would likely take a shepherd swain in marriage, who otherwise perhaps would hardly have taken a count. "See, that is what the devil wanted when he taught you to stifle nature, to force it, whose will it is to be unforced." For God's works are so open to view, that women must be used either for marriage or for whoredom.

Martin Luther, Sermon on Incontinency and Religious State, quoted by Rev. Heinrich Denifle, Luther and Lutherdom

I abhor divorce so greatly that I prefer bigamy to it, but whether it be allowed, I do not venture to decide. [......] I would even rather permit the King (Henry VIII of England) to take another queen in addition to the first, and, after the example of the old fathers and Kings, to have two wives or queens at the same time.

Martin Luther, he later decided that bigamy was acceptable!

The end of Christian perfection is charity, by means of which one is attached to God. And to this attachment by means of charity, every one, if he desires to attain salvation, is in duty hound. It is effected by keeping the commandments and by union with the will of God. Thus is everything excluded that is contrary to the essence and the habit of charity, namely mortal sin.

St. Albert the Great

Now they don’t even “profess the Faith”!

They say we live for pleasure . . . and there is some truth in their words, many among the Cardinals and other officials do live this kind of life. We must enter new paths: temperance, chastity, innocence, zeal for the Faith, ardor in the cause of religion, contempt for death, and the desire for Martyrdom have exalted the Roman Church and made her mistress of the world. It is not enough to profess the Faith, to preach to the people, to denounce vice, and to extol virtue. We must make ourselves like those who have sacrificed their very lives for the heritage of the Lord.

Pope Pius II, 1463

A little slip? - “The Two Popes for Whom I Coordinate the Work of the Congregation…”

Müller denies that CDF received heresy accusations against pope

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt |  NCR | Jan. 6, 2016

[…..] Müller has co-authored a book on poverty with liberation theologian Gustavo Gutièrrez. The book was written because Müller is convinced that, rightly understood, liberation theology is a blessing for Latin America. "That is why I greatly appreciate Gustavo Gutièrrez' life work -- and not because I want to score points in leftist-liberal circles," he said. The interviewer said that Francis' critics have accused him of not appreciating doctrine sufficiently. Some of his critics had even called him a heretic. "I assure them that they are wrong -- not only ex officio, but from personal experience," Müller said. "A heretic is a Catholic who obstinately denies a revealed truth that the church has declared to be true and that Catholics are obliged to believe." Is it true that the CDF had received accusations of heresy against Francis?

"No!" Müller replied. The German cardinal was appointed to CDF by Pope Benedict XVI. What has changed under Pope Francis?

"Nothing," Müller said. "The two popes for whom I coordinate the work of the Congregation are different people. That enriches the church." The CDF's job is to protect the faith against heresies or schismatic tendencies, Müller said but added, "We must also raise our voice against the inner secularization of the church." [……]

Apology Racket – Pope Francis is so holy that he has to confess someone else’s sins!

Pope apologises for Catholic behaviour in the past which has not reflected Gospel values

In the ceremony celebrated in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, marking the conclusion of  ecumenical week, Francis encouraged Catholics to forgive other Christians who may have offended them recently or in the past and prayed for persecuted Christians

iacopo scaramuzzi | rome | Jan. 25, 2016

During this evening´s ecumenical celebration of Vespers in the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, which marked the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis asked for “forgiveness for the behaviour of Catholics towards Christians of other Churches which has not reflected Gospel values” during the course of history and invited “all Catholic brothers and sisters to forgive other Christians who may have offended them recently or in the past”. [….]

With friends like Pope Francis, who needs enemies?

“Pope Francis asked me not to convert.”

Eugenio Scalfari, 90 year old atheist, journalist, former editor of L’espresso, former member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, founder of La Repubblica newspaper, friend of the pope.

Would you please put that in writing just what “Catholic creed” their talking about?

Pope not a heretic

Emphasizing his actions and words must be interpreted within the framework of the Catholic creed

Vatican City | Jan. 8, 2016

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has not received any accusations of heresy against Pope Francis, according to its Prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Cardinal Müller was responding to questions from the Germany weekly Die Zeit, NCR Online reports. The interviewer noted that Francis' critics have accused him of not appreciating doctrine sufficiently and that some had even called him a heretic. "I assure them that they are wrong – not only ex officio, but from personal experience," Cardinal Müller said. "A heretic is a Catholic who obstinately denies a revealed truth that the church has declared to be true and that Catholics are obliged to believe." "Is it true that the CDF had received accusations of heresy against Francis?" the interviewer asked. "No!" Müller replied. On the contrary, it is a great joy to witness Pope Francis' steadfast commitment to the poor, Cardinal Müller told Die Zeit. ...

Modernism vs. Neo-modernism: A difference in method, an agreement in ends

The heresy of Modernism denies dogma directly. Neo-modernism is a more subtle heresy. The end remains the denial of dogma but the method of denial is indirect. Dogma, the revelation of God that forms the formal objects of divine and Catholic faith, is formulated in categorical propositions that are always and everywhere true or false. There are two methods the Neo-modernist employs to destroy dogma. The first method is to change the category of dogma from truth-falsehood to the category of authority-obedience. They treat dogma as if it were laws, commands, precepts, injunctions, etc., etc., etc., and then limit the universal truth with all the moral restrictions that apply to laws, etc. For example, the dogma that the sacrament of baptism is necessary for salvation is treated as a law and therefore as a law, it does not bind in cases of impossibility, necessity, unreasonable burden, psychological impediment, etc., etc.

The second method is to corrupt the dogmatic proposition be changing the meaning of the terms OR altering the universality of the copula. An excellent example of this corruption of terminology can be seen in Benedict/Ratzinger’s treatment of the word, substance.

“…the medieval concept of substance has long since become inaccessible to us. In so far as we use the concept of substance at all today we understand thereby the ultimate particles of matter, and the chemically complex mixture that is bread certainly does not fall into that category.”

Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future, p. 14

It is impossible to affirm the Catholic dogma that “Lord Jesus Christ... is consubstantial with the Father” or the Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation if the concept of “substance” is rejected in the sense as used by scholastic theologians found in the perennial realist philosophical tradition. And so we have Benedict/Ratzinger writing:

“Eucharistic devotion such as is noted in the silent visit by the devout in church must not be thought of as a conversation with God. This would assume that God was present there locally and in a confined way. To justify such an assertion shows a lack of understanding of the Christological mysteries of the very concept of God. This is repugnant to the serious thinking of the man who knows about the omnipresence of God. To go to church on the ground that one can visit God who is present there is a senseless act which modern man rightfully rejects.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Die Sacramentale Begrundung Christliche Existenz

The Catholic Church infallibly teaches:

“By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

Council of Trent, Session XIII, chapter IV

“If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema.”

Council of Trent, Session XII, Canon I

Benedict/Ratzinger’s affirmation of these dogmas is done within the corrupted context of mutilating the meaning of the terms. The entire hermeneutic of discontinuity/rupture vs. the hermeneutic of reform proposed by Benedict/Ratzinger is predicated upon accepting or rejecting his false philosophy which ultimately elevates the accident of relationship to overthrow the concept of substance. Reciting the Credo is no longer evidence of the Catholic faith without clearly defining every term.

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning –

The true Revelation of God is both a Definite and Certain participation in God’s own knowledge. IT is this fundamental truth of revelation that our Neo-Modernist hierarchy reject!

What, then, is the knowledge which God has restored to man through revelation but a definite knowledge, a participation of His own? The truth which has been revealed, what is it in the mind of God who reveals it, but one, harmonious and distinct? What was that know ledge as revealed by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but one, harmonious and distinct? What was the conception of that knowledge in inspired men, but one, harmonious and distinct also? And what was that knowledge when communicated by those who were inspired to those who believed, but one, harmonious and distinct as before? And what is this unity and harmony and distinctness of knowledge, which God revealed of Himself through Jesus Christ, but the faith we confess in our creed? Our baptismal faith, its substance and its letter, the explicit and the implicit meaning, article by article, is as definite, severe, and precise, as any problem in science. It is of the nature of truth to be so; and where definiteness ends, knowledge ceases. Observe, then, the distinction between finite knowledge and definite knowledge. Is not science definite? And yet it is also finite. The theory of gravitation, definite as it is, it is finite too. [……] Go through the whole range of physical sciences, what is it but an example of the same condition of knowledge, definiteness in conception with finiteness of reach? [….] If we have not a definite knowledge of what we believe, we may be sure we have no true knowledge of it.

But, further, it is evident that knowledge must also be certain. When we speak of certainty, we mean one of two things. Sometimes we say, that a thing is certain; at other times, that we are certain. When we say a truth is certain, we mean, that the proofs of that truth are either self-evident, or so clear as to exclude all doubt. This is certainty on the part of the object proposed to our intelligence. But when we say we are certain, we mean that we are inwardly convinced, by the application of our reason to the matter before us, of the sufficiency of the evidence to prove the truth of it. In us, certainty is rather a moral feeling, a complex state of mind. As light manifests itself by its own nature, but sight is the illumination of the eye; so certainty means truth with its evidences illuminating the intelligence, or, in other words, the intelligence possessed by truth with its evidences.

This we call certainty. I ask, then, is there not this twofold certainty in the revelation which God has given? Was not the revelation which God gave of Himself through Jesus Christ made certain on His part by direct evidence of the divine act which revealed it? Is it not also certain on our part by the apprehension and faith of the Church? Was not God manifest in the flesh that He might reveal Himself? Did not God dwell on earth that He might teach His truth? Has not God spoken to man that man might know Him? Did not God work miracles that man might believe that He was present? What evidence on the part of God was wanting that men might know that Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God? And if there was certainty on the part of God who revealed, was there not certainty also on the part of those that heard? Look back into the sacred history. Had not Prophets and Seers certainty of that which they beheld and heard? […..] What, then, is the first condition of faith but certainty? He that has not certain faith has no faith. We are told that to crave for certainty implies a morbid disposition. Did not Abraham, and Moses, and Daniel, the Apostles and Evangelists desire certainty in faith, and crave to know beyond doubt that God spake to them, and know with definite clearness what God said? Was this a morbid craving? Surely this is not to reproved. But rather the contrary disposition worthy of rebuke. How can we venture to content ourselves with uncertainty in matters where the truth and honour of God and the salvation of our own souls are at stake? This truly is not without sin. […..] And yet, what is the very idea of Revelation but a Divine assurance of Truth? Where faith begins uncertainty ends. Because faith terminates upon the veracity of God; and what God has spoken and authenticated to us by Divine authority cannot be uncertain.

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Grounds of Faith

Cardinal Kasper affirms that the Church has no intention of keeping any Jew out of Hell!

Jews and Christians, a special relationship is strengthened

walter kasper

Today, Pope Francis visits Rome’s Synagogue. After John Paul II and Benedict XVI’s, this will be the third papal visit to the Roman Jewish community. This gesture, perhaps like no other, shows the historic change that has taken place in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. While the Fourth Lateran Council 800 years ago confined Jews to a ghetto, today, the Popes visit the former Jewish ghetto to exchange the Biblical greeting of peace, “Shalom”, with the Jewish community.
Fifty years ago, the Second Vatican Council issued the “Nostra Aetate” declaration, launching fraternal relations between Christians and Jews. The Pontifical Commission for religious Relations with the Jews published followed this up with an important document on 10 December 2015. It recalls the complex and often painful history of these relations, and importantly, importantly mentioning the Holocaust: the State-organised assassination of two thirds of Europe’s Jews during the National Socialist regime, an event which has left a deep wound among the Jewish people.
The cause of this change in relations is mentioned in the title of this new document too. In his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes that God’s call to the Jewish people is definitive. The Jews were not therefore disowned as had often been claimed in the past. God’s alliance with them is still valid. The relationship between Jews and Christians in one of a kind. It is distinct from Christianity’s relations with any other religion. Jews and Christians share a common spiritual legacy in the writings of the Old Testament. Both are brothers and sisters who, in the Old Testament, have common fathers and mothers in the faith. Jesus himself, his mother Mary and all the apostles were Jews.
The last Council rejected the discrimination of Jews in a decisive manner, denouncing past persecutions and severely condemning every form of anti-Semitism. Since then, wherever Jews and Christians live together, relations are cordial, there is dialogue and cooperation in practical humanitarian questions and common concern for peace in a Holy Land afflicted by bloody conflict. Provocations by die hard fanatics, who are a constant cause of unease, are condemned by Jews and Christians alike, who have a direct relationship in a dialogue that has been going on for decades.
It is interesting that the recent document goes a step beyond what was achieved during the Second Vatican Council, addressing questions which are sensitive for Jews and linked to the mission towards the Jews. The question generated serious dismay in 2007, when Benedict XVI reintroduced the Old Rite in the Good Friday liturgy, in exceptional cases. The Rite involves a prayer “for the conversion of the Jews”, which no longer appears in this form in the post-conciliar liturgy, customary almost everywhere. This is a sensitive issue for Christians too as it is linked to the question of universal salvation in Jesus Christ, which is fundamental for the faith. The document presents the solution found back then, in agreement with the Pope: there is no specific institutional Christian missionary action towards the Jews; however, Christians must bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ, to the Jews; and they must do so with humility and sensitivity, showing respect for the Jewish faith.
That a declaration by 25 orthodox Jewish rabbis was issued a week before this document was published is a special cause of joy. There was clearly a certain degree of agreement over both declarations and these are renewed testimonies of the relationship of trust that has developed.
Together, these documents can be taken to say: at a time when violent conflicts that threaten peace in the world, are growing under the pretext of religion, Jews and Christians bear testimony to the fact that, despite their difficult history, friendly cooperation and a common commitment in favour of justice and peace in the world, are possible. Pope Francis’ visit to the Synagogue of Rome will take this common testimony in favour of Shalom - of world peace - further, boosting it.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.

St. Paul, Letter to the Galatians, 1:8-9

Traditional Catholic Faithful - ‘Rebels without a Pause’

Another vindictive sermon by Pope Francis in which he again maligns those Catholics who, knowing “Absolute Truth,” are faithful to dogmatic truth and the necessary ecclesiastical traditions, as “idolaters,” committing the sin of “divination,” and “obstinate rebels”! The charges again are gratuitously offered without evidence which is, by definition, the sin of calumny. Whatever spirit possesses Francis cannot be from God!

Pope Francis: obstinate Christians are rebels and idolaters

Vatican Radio | Homilies | January 16, 2015

Christians who say “it’s always been done that way,” and stop there have hearts closed to the surprises of the Holy Spirit. They are idolaters and rebels will never arrive at the fullness of the truth. That was the message of Pope Francis at Mass on Monday morning at the chapel in the Casa Santa Marta.

In the first reading, Saul was rejected by God as King of Israel because he disobeyed, preferring to listen to the people rather than the will of God. The people, after a victory in battle, wanted to offer a sacrifice of the best animals to God, because, he said, “it’s always been done that way.” But God, this time, did not want that. The prophet Samuel rebuked Saul: “Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord?” Jesus teaches us the same thing in the Gospel, the Pope explained. When the doctors of the law criticized Him because His disciples did not fast “as had always been done,” Jesus responded with these examples from daily life: “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

“What does this mean? That He changes the law? No! That the law is at the service of man, who is at the service of God – and so man ought to have an open heart. ‘It’s always been done this way’ is a closed heart, and Jesus tells us, ‘I will send you the Holy Spirit and He will lead you into the fullness of truth.’ If you have a heart closed to the newness of the Spirit, you will never reach the full truth. And your Christian life will be a half-and-half life, a patched life, mended with new things, but on a structure that is not open to the voice of the Lord—a closed heart, so that you are not able to change the wineskins.”

This, the Pope emphasized, was the sin of Saul, for which he was rejected by God. “It is the sin of so many Christians who cling to what has always been done and who do not change the wineskins. And they end up with half a life, [a life that is] patched, mended, meaningless.” The sin, he said, “is a closed heart,” that “does not hear the voice of the Lord, that is not open to the newness of the Lord, to the Spirit that always surprises us.” This rebellion, says Samuel, is “the sin of divination,” and obstinacy is the sin of idolatry:

“Christians who obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,' this is the path, this is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as if they went about by guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the Word of the Lord.’ Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! The sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God.”

Pope Francis noted that in Jesus’ time, good Israelites were in the habit of fasting. “But there is another reality,” he said. “There is the Holy Spirit who leads us into the full truth. And for this reason he needs an open heart, a heart that will not stubbornly remain in the sin of idolatry of oneself,” imagining that my own opinion is more important than the surprise of the Holy Spirit.

“This is the message the Church gives us today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: ‘New wine in new wineskins.’ Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God. May the Lord grant us the grace of an open heart, of a heart open to the voice of the Spirit, which knows how to discern what should not change, because it is fundamental, from what should change in order to be able to receive the newness of the Spirit.”

"A Dark Cloud of Fog Instead of a Head"

I saw a strange church being built against every rule.... No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above... There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox church of Rome, which seems of the same kind... I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions. There was something proud, presumptuous, and violent about it, and they seemed to be very successful. I did not see a single Angel or a single saint helping in the work. But far away in the background, I saw a laughing figure which said: 'Do build it as solid as you can; we will pull it to the ground'.... Among the strangest things that I saw, were long processions of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities. A few had only a body, with a dark cloud of fog instead of a head. Others had only a head, their bodies and hearts were like thick vapors. Some were lame; others were paralytics; others were asleep or staggering.

Blessed Anna-Katarina Emmerick, Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy

Irate with Pope Francis? Worry about it if you are not!

Only the person who becomes irate without reason, sins. Whoever becomes irate for a just reason is not guilty. Because, if ire were lacking, the science of God would not progress, judgments would not be sound, and crimes would not be repressed. Further, the person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all the good, to do wrong.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily

Ire may be understood in two ways. In one way, as a simple movement of the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: “Ire, when it has a cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.”

In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice, as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment of reason.

St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae

What was soon to be called, "The Spirit of Vatican II" - the corruption of faith and worship

Religion must be renovated. That is the persuasion of all those who, today, are still dealing with religion, whether they be outside of its concrete expression: a faith, and observance, a community, or be within a religious profession or discussion. It all depends on what one intends for renovation.

Pope Paul VI, August 12, 1964

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

Pope Francis Believes:

In the call to be evangelisers, all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities discover a privileged setting for closer cooperation. For this to be effective, we need to stop being self-enclosed, exclusive, and bent on imposing a uniformity based on merely human calculations. Our shared commitment to proclaiming the Gospel enables us to overcome proselytism and competition in all their forms. All of us are at the service of the one Gospel.

In this moment of prayer for unity, I would also like to remember our martyrs, the martyrs of today. They are witnesses to Jesus Christ, and they are persecuted and killed because they are Christians. Those who persecute them make no distinction between the religious communities to which they belong. They are Christians and for that they are persecuted. This, brothers and sisters, is the ecumenism of blood.

Mindful of this testimony given by our martyrs today, and with this joyful certainty, I offer a cordial and fraternal greeting to His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Grace David Moxon, the personal representative in Rome of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the representatives of the various Churches and Ecclesial Communions gathered here to celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.

Pope Francis to ecumenical gathering

The Catholic Church Infallibly Teaches:

The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the "eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41), unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.

Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino (1441)

Pope Francis Insults Cardinal Bagnasco for his opposition to the legal approval of homosexual marriages by the Italian government. Apparently the Cardinal and Italian episcopate have offended his closest friends!

Cardinal Bagnasco, Italian Bishops' Conference chairman, in favor of Natural Marriage - Pope humiliates him

[Background: the Italian Parliament is about to approve the civil recognition of same-sex "couples". Only a few faithful bishops are supporting the millions of Catholics who are protesting it - led by the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Bagnasco. Pope Francis does not like it.]

The Pope “cancels” Bagnasco, supporter of “Family Day”

Carlo Tecce | Il Fatto Quotidiano | January 20, 2016

Francis will not meet the Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) as planned. He was not pleased at being drawn into Italian political issues. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has eliminated Cardinal Bagnasco from his agenda of official meetings, so, [there will be] no audience tomorrow morning. The private meeting fixed a week ago by the permanent Episcopal Council, appeared and then disappeared from the internal “Bollettino - Prefettura della Casa Pontificia”. The is the umpteenth episode and perhaps the most clamorous, which sanctions the distance between the Church of Francis and the Church of the Bishops presided over by Bagnasco himself. The motive: the Cardinal’s media-exposure – and consequently that of the Italian Bishops - on behalf of the “Family Day” scheduled for the 30th of January. The Argentinean Pontiff can no longer put up with the political activism of the Bishops’ Conference, accustomed to amending law texts, and is angered because Bagnasco himself has dragged him into the public debate about the public event against Civil Unions. The Pope did not authorize the public demonstration nor the pressures on Parliament.

Rorate Caeli

Since Proselytism is ‘Out of the Question,’ for Pope Francis the “Common Good” and the “Best Solution for Everyone” does not include their salvation!

Dialogue is not negotiating in order to try and get one’s piece of the cake. Dialogue is to seek the common good, for everyone; it is to discuss together and think of the best solutions for everyone.

Pope Francis, defining "dialogue" to the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI)

Virtue cannot grow in the company of vice. If the one is to flourish, the other must perish. Clear away, then, what is superfluous and vicious, and that which is wholesome and virtuous will at once spring up. Whatever you withhold from your lusts will turn to the profit and advantage of your spiritual life. Therefore let us take heed to cut down by a diligent self-examination the noxious growth of, faults, vices, and defects, if we wish to see the flowers of every virtue bloom forth in the garden of our souls.

St. Bernard

He cometh therefore to Simon Peter. And Peter saith to him: Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered, and said to him: What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith to him: Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him: If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. [...] When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit; and he testified, and said: Amen, amen I say to you, one of you shall betray me. John 13:6-8, 21

COMMENT: The immemorial ecclesiastical tradition in the Mandatum for washing only the feet of men is of divine and apostolic origin. Pope Francis does not possess the authority to corrupt this tradition in the "received and approved rites customarily used in the solemn administration of the sacraments." The rite itself was created in a liturgical setting of the Pasch and the First Mass during which the Apostles were consecrated as priests and bishops of the Church, and the implication of the rite pertains to this consecration. Now Francis, speaking in the personal "I," can dictate whatever he wants regarding the man-made Novus Ordo Liturgy for that is a creation of men for men. The spiritual significance of the Mandatum is unintelligible to Francis. Unless, of course, Francis is vicious?

The Pope decrees that not only men may be chosen for the washing of the feet in the Liturgy of Holy Thursday

Vatican City, 21 January 2016 (VIS) – The Holy Father has written a letter, dated 20 December and published today, to Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in which he decrees that from now on, the people chosen for the washing of the feet in the liturgy of Holy Thursday may be selected from all the People of God, and not only men and boys.

The Pope writes to the cardinal that he has for some time reflected on the "rite of the washing of the feet contained in the Liturgy of the Mass in Coena Domini, with the intention of improving the way in which it is performed so that it might express more fully the meaning of Jesus' gesture in the Cenacle, His giving of Himself unto the end for the salvation of the world, His limitless charity".

"After careful consideration", he continues, "I have decided to make a change to the Roman Missal. I therefore decree that the section according to which those persons chosen for the Washing of the feet must be men or boys, so that from now on the Pastors of the Church may choose the participants in the rite from among all the members of the People of God. I also recommend that an adequate explanation of the rite itself be provided to those who are chosen". [.....]

“Through the deceit of evil men….. (who are) most certainly going to perish forever…”

Now we come to another very fertile cause of the evils by which, we are sorry to see, the contemporary Church being afflicted. This is indifferentism, or that wicked opinion which has grown up on all sides through the deceit of evil men. According to this opinion, the eternal salvation of the soul can be attained by any kind of profession of faith, as long as a man’s morals are in line with the standard of justice and honesty. You must drive out from the people entrusted to your care this most deplorable error on a matter so obviously important and so completely clear. For, since the Apostle has warned that there is one God, one faith, one baptism, those who pretend that the way to [eternal] beatitude starts from any religion at all should be afraid and should seriously think over the fact that, according to the testimony of the Savior Himself, they are against Christ because they are not for Christ; and that they are miserably scattering because they are not gathering with Him; and that consequently, they are most certainly going to perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith and keep it whole and inviolate.

Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos

Catholic Dogma: Only the sacrament of Baptism received by those who hold the true faith can make men “children of God” and members of His Church!

In this crowd, in this range of religious, there is only one certainty we have for all: we are all children of God. I hope you will spread my prayer request for this month: That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice. I have confidence in your prayers.

Pope Francis the Indifferent, Prayer intention for January 2016

More Bergoglian Carnage: Priestly celibacy, homosexual clergy to be the next battlefields in this Pontificate
Married Priests - The Germany-Brazil Axis
In the accounts of a German theologian and a Brazilian bishop, Francis’s plan to allow local exceptions to the norm of clerical celibacy.... beginning with the Amazon.
ROME | Sandro Magister, Chiesa | January 12, 2016

An exchange of letters, a conversation, and an innovation already become law confirm the intentions of Pope Francis to extend the presence of married clergy in the Catholic Church, as already anticipated in this article from www.chiesa: "The Next Synod Is Already in the Works. On Married Priests" (9-12-2015)
The exchange of letters took place through the initiative of a high-ranking German theologian, Wunibald Müller, 65, who in December of 2013 wrote an open letter to the pope, prominently displayed on the official website of the episcopal conference of Germany under the title “Pope Francis, open the door,” asking him to remove the stricture of celibacy for priests.
Müller is not just anyone. He is a psychologist and a prolific writer. He founded and directs the “Recollectio-Haus” at the Benedictine abbey of Münsterschwarzach in the diocese of Würzburg, for the care of priests and religious in existential crisis, financed by another seven dioceses (Augsburg, Freiburg, Limburg, Mainz, Munich-Freising, Paderborn, Rottenburg-Stuttgart) and with the spiritual assistance of the most widely read Benedictine not only in Germany but in the world, Anselm Grün.
Müller’s stance is represented well by the titles of his undergraduate and doctoral theses: “The priest as spiritual guide of homosexual persons” and “Homosexuality, a challenge for theology and the care of souls.”
Not having received a reply to his first missive, in April of 2014 Müller took another shot with a second letter to Jorge Mario Bergoglio. And almost twenty months later, the pope finally responded to him.
Last November 25, the “Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur,” the press agency of the German bishops, published news of the correspondence and of signals of “openness” from the pope. And on January 4, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” interviewed Müller and asked him for more details:
Q: You wrote a letter to Pope Francis.
A: I asked for a relaxation of celibacy. There should be married priests as well as celibate, homosexual as well as heterosexual.
Q: And the response?
A: Francis thanked me for my reflections, which made me very happy. He says that my proposals cannot be realized for the universal Church, but I think that this does not rule out solutions at the regional level. Francis has asked the Brazilian bishop Erwin Kräutler to find out if in his diocese there are married men, of proven experience, who could be ordained priests. The pope is seeking places where something can be changed that can then develop a dynamic of its own.

Just where do they suppose David Bowie is right now?

A “celebrity psychic” named Uri Geller said of Bowie: “I was profoundly impressed by his deep understanding of mysticism, the mysterious and the universe. There is no doubt in my mind that David believed in Heaven.” I am not impressed by this, especially in light of the fact that three years ago Bowie produced an adult-rated video impersonating Jesus in pornographic positions. A statement of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Righteous said: “The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women.” But when Bowie died, L’Osservatore Romano, aching to be the Church of What’s Happening Now, eulogized the genius of Bowie, excusing his “ambiguous image” as one of his “excesses” but then remarking his “personal sobriety, even in his dry, almost thread-like body.”

The impulsive effusions of grief from the Holy See remind one of an extravagant tribute that the editor of L’Osservatore Romano paid to the crooner Michael Jackson when he died of acute Propofol and Benzodiazepine intoxication. The headline asked as if it were Holy Saturday: “But will he actually be dead?” Ignoring the epicene Jackson’s mockery of Jesus in his video “Thriller,” the Vatican newspaper lauded the star as a “great dancer” (“grande ballerina”) and declared that he would “never die in the imagination of his fans.” According to L’Osservatore, Jackson’s transgenderizing surgeries were “a process of self definition that was beyond race.” As for Jackson’s piroquettes with young boys, the unofficial voice of the Holy See commented: “Everybody knows his problems with the law after the pedophilia accusations. But no accusation, however serious or shameful, is enough to tarnish his myth among his millions of fans throughout the entire world.” [……]

Young people are embarrassed when their mothers try to be “cool.” These youths may tread wrong paths unadvisedly on occasion, for such is the indiscretion of nascent years, but they want their mothers to be mature and not adolescent. Mother Church appears ridiculous as Adolescent Church, as in the case of the Holy See lamenting David Bowie. The insatiable desire for approval by pop culture is beneath the dignity of the Church as the Mother of Nations.

One thinks of the breathless Catholic News Service commentary in 2009 on the murder of the fashion designer Gianni Versace, whose obsequies in a Miami church were attended by men dressed as women, and whose final Requiem in the Duomo of Milan featured Elton John and “Sting” sobbing on each other’s shoulders: “Versace was noted for his sensual lines and eye-catching combinations of textural shades.” This simply is the diction of political correctness and it compromises the prophetic charism of the Church; for, as sages have observed one way or another, political correctness is the speech of those who are terrified by what might happen if they spoke the truth.

Rev. George Rutler, Commenting on Vatican eulogy on the death of David Bowie

“The singer’s profound spirituality - He prayed every morning”!

David Bowie: “I'd like to live in Assisi, it’s like being in heaven”

vatican insider staff | rome |13/01/2016

“I’d like to live in Assisi, it’s like being in heaven.” David Bowie, the “White Duke”, said this in an article written by Giuseppe Ballaris and published in Italian newspaper La Stampa on 16 September 1995. “I adore Italy,” the singer said, “my new house is going to be near Assisi or Todi. I want to get closer to Giotto. I’m obsessed with art: for me, it’s like being in heaven.”
The friars at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi quoted this statement on the sanfrancesco.org website, a statement which underlines the singer’s profound spirituality. He prayed every morning. 

The Lutherans have converted the Novus Ordo Catholics

Press Release: A joint Catholic-Lutheran “Common Prayer” for 500 years of Reformation

GENEVA/VATICAN CITY | January 11, 2016 - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) have invited Lutheran churches and Catholic bishops’ conferences across the world to make use of a jointly-developed Common Prayer to prepare commemorations for the 500 years of the Reformation in 2017.

In a joint letter today to the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences and to LWF member church bishops, presidents and other leaders, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge and PCPCU President Kurt Cardinal Koch introduce the Common Prayer for Lutheran-Catholic common commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. The document is the first jointly developed liturgical order prepared by a liturgical task force of the Lutheran Catholic Commission on Unity of the LWF and PCPCU. It is based on the recent study report From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, and is calling the Catholic and Lutheran communities for joint prayer in this commemoration.

The Common Prayer includes materials that can be adapted to local liturgical and musical traditions of churches in the two Christian traditions.” This common prayer marks a very special moment in our common journey from conflict to communion. We are grateful for being able to invite you to participate in this journey in witnessing to the grace of God in the world,” Junge and Koch write to the Lutheran and Catholic Church leaders. [……]

Ecumenical Talking Points for Novus Ordo Catholics and traditional Lutherans

Luther in his own words

The "Miracle of the Red Thread"- The Talmud Confirms the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross

by Giuseppe Nardi, posted on Eponymous Flower Blog

Talmud and Zohar report that the Jewish high priest offered animal sacrifices only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the

"Day of Atonement," entering the Holy of Holies of the Temple  (see also Heb 9: 6-7). He asked for forgiveness for the sins of the Jews, who were once called Israelites. The Zohar is the most important font of Kabbalah, a Jewish secret doctrine. Both scriptures mention "the miracle of the red thread."

The Zohar  is included in the commentary to Vayikra, as the Book of Leviticus or Third Book of Moses in Hebrew reads:

"On this day, all sins will be forgiven [...] the impurities of the souls and bodies [...] all of them, on that day [...] God forgives Israel and freed it from all sins. On this day, the priest prays for himself, his house, the priests, and for all and for the sanctuary  for forgiveness [...]  they would know whether the priest had success by the red thread. "(Vayikra, 3).

If the thread discolored to white from red, there was rejoicing among all the people. If it remained red, there was general dejection, because it was the sign that the sacrifice of the High Priest and his prayers were not heard by God.

The priests and people knew that God had not forgiven the sins.

The emergence of the Zohar is now dated by the research in the 13th century and its  authorship is attributed to Mosche de León. It is not  Orthodox Judaism, that affirms  Shimon ben Jochais, a Talmudic Rabbi of the 2nd century AD.

The prophet Isaiah alluded to this "thread", without expressly describing it. That was for the Jews not even necessary. They knew how to interpret the words:

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool "(Isaiah 1:18).

For 40 years   the miracle ceased

The Talmud reports that this great miracle of divine confirmation of the acceptance of the priestly sacrifice and therefore the forgiveness of sins, had already ceased for forty years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

"Originally they fastened the thread at the gate of the outer [temple] Court. Were it white, the people rejoiced, when it was not know they were troubled. [...] For forty years before the destruction of the Temple the red thread was no longer white, but remained red."(Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 31b). The same is reported in the Jerusalem Talmud (yYom 6,3,43c).

The Talmud is the central font of Judaism after the denial and execution of Christ. The quoted passage is goes back to the time of the Pharisee Rabbi Gamaliel II, who died in the year 114 AD. Gamaliel was responsible for the final expulsion of the Jewish Christians from the synagogue and  cursing them as heretics.

The temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans under the high command of Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasian, who himself was later emperor. The "miracle of the red thread" therefore, had no longer occurred since the year 30 AD. This is exactly the time when Jesus was crucified at Calvary. The New Testament, which was written by Jews who saw Christ and followed him, teaches that the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ replaced the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant. The old temple had lost its meaning and the animal sacrifice their effectiveness. In place of the old covenant, a new covenant was entered.

It this evidence that Cardinal Müller never reads his mail or is he just another liar?

See Fr. Waters' Last Letter to the head of CDF!

Müller denies that CDF received heresy accusations against pope

Christa Pongrats_Lippitt |  Jan. 6, 2016 NCR Today

It is a great joy to witness Pope Francis' steadfast commitment to the poor, Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith Prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller, told the German weekly Die Zeit in a lengthy, stocktaking interview on the state of the church in 2015.

"The pope's espousal of the poor and his unflinching adherence to the fact that theologically the periphery is not the margin but the center [of the church], and that the hope of humankind lies in Jesus Christ and not in the New York Stock Exchange warms my heart," Müller said.

Müller has co-authored a book on poverty with liberation theologian Gustavo Gutièrrez. The book was written because Müller is convinced that, rightly understood, liberation theology is a blessing for Latin America.

"That is why I greatly appreciate Gustavo Gutièrrez' life work -- and not because I want to score points in leftist-liberal circles," he said.

The interviewer said that Francis' critics have accused him of not appreciating doctrine sufficiently. Some of his critics had even called him a heretic.

"I assure them that they are wrong -- not only ex officio, but from personal experience," Müller said. "A heretic is a Catholic who obstinately denies a revealed truth that the church has declared to be true and that Catholics are obliged to believe."

Is it true that the CDF had received accusations of heresy against Francis?

"No!" Müller replied.

The German cardinal was appointed to CDF by Pope Benedict XVI. What has changed under Pope Francis?

"Nothing," Müller said. "The two popes for whom I coordinate the work of the Congregation are different people. That enriches the church."....

Why not? There is no doctrinal or theological impediment barring reconciliation between Pope Francis and the SSPX!

Fr. Schmidberger Foresees Canonical Recognition of the SSPX

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

In the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has agreed to extend an indult to the Priests of the Society of St. Pius X, to hear confessions. Former Superior, Father Franz Schmidberger forsees canonical recognition of the Society as well as greater cooperation.  

In a recent interview,  former superior of the Fraternity talks to La Stampa saying, "I trust that in the near future we can find solutions to recover full communion."

According Schmidberger Pope Francis' gesture will not be complete at the end of the Jubilee. "Indeed" - says Schmidberger - "it is hard to imagine that this is limited to the Holy Year, nor do I think this is the limit of the Pope's idea. Perhaps at first other similar gestures are to follow. No doubt - it seems - the Pope sees in our Fraternity a force that can be of help to, as many have claimed, the new evangelization. Furthermore, our work corresponds in principle to his invitation to the spirit of poverty. In fact we do not receive state subsidies or the Church-tax, but we live only the generosity and sacrifice of the faithful. "

"If the Pope is really thinking of a canonical structure, it will open many doors even wider for our priests than today." "Especially" - concluded the former collaborator of Lefebvre - "we could work together, according to our vocation, to the formation of a new generation of priests filled with a spirit of faith and apostolic zeal."

At whatever cost, Msgr. William Lynn must be defended. After all, if they can keep Lynn in jail, then no bishop is safe!

Philly DA pledges to keep former church official in custody despite new trial order

Ralph Cipriano  |  Dec. 29, 2015

He may have won a new trial, but Msgr. William Lynn -- the Philadelphia archdiocese's secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004 -- isn't any closer to getting out of jail.

Lynn, convicted in 2012 on a single count of endangering the welfare of a child, has been serving a three- to six-year prison sentence. He was the first Catholic administrator in the country to be sent to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest.

Lynn's lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, said Dec. 28 that Lynn will remain working as the prison librarian at the State Correctional Institution in Waymart, Pa., at least for the next 30 days. Meanwhile, lawyers on both sides of the case continue to do battle in court.

Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams announced Dec. 28 at a press conference that he was appealing a Dec. 22 decision by a panel of three Pennsylvania state Superior Court judges that overturned Lynn's 2012 conviction. The panel of judges also voted 2-1 to grant a new trial for Lynn.

Williams, however, told reporters that he has filed an appeal seeking to re-argue the case before all nine judges of the state Supreme Court. If that review isn't granted, Williams said, he will appeal the case to Pennsylvania's highest court, the state Supreme Court, where the district attorney has a winning record.

In 2013, the same panel of Superior Court judges unanimously reversed Lynn's conviction, prompting an appeal by the district attorney to the state Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court subsequently reversed the reversal of Lynn's conviction. Lynn, who had been out of jail on house arrest, was ordered last April to return to prison by the trial judge, M. Teresa Sarmina.

"We will fight to keep Msgr. Lynn in state custody, where he belongs," Williams said. And if there's a new trial, "we're fully committed to empanelling a jury and going to trial again."

The panel of state Superior Court judges overturned Lynn's conviction because they found that Sarmina had abused her discretion by allowing as evidence 21 supplemental cases of sex abuse dating back to 1948, three years before Lynn was born.

I think the Sacred Heart asks three things of you: First, that you love Him with a love of preference, which will enable you to overcome your repugnances, and trample on your human respect, which says: “What will they say If I do so-and-so?” All such thoughts must be despised when there is question of pleasing this Divine Heart. Then (secondly) you must look down upon, judge, and condemn no one but yourself. By doing this you will practise humility and charity, and will avoid the judgment and condemnation of your Judge. Thirdly, Our Lord desires to be the one Object of your affections; you must delight in no other, so that you may be worthy for Him to take delight in you. Model your heart on the virtues of Jesus. If you only knew how you sadden Him when you fail in charity or humility, or when you neglect the inspirations He gives you to withdraw from dissipation and thoughts of self-love. All this prevents Him from giving you His abundant graces. I think I have said all this to you before, but I want to remind you of it again, for it seems to me that He does not ask anything new of you just now, but that you will please Him very much if you are faithful to these practices He has given you. Try then, to correspond with His love. Give Him all yours by an exact fidelity to all our holy observances, banishing all vain curiosity, and all surprise and discouragement at difficulties. Keep your soul in peace without complaining of anything, trying to find your delight in self-abnegation. If you love, nothing will seem difficult to you.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Letter

In 2005 the Dover, PA electorate removed the School Board members that permitted Intelligent Design to be considered in as a possible explanation for the natural order found in the material universe. Scientists, while affirming that the natural order in the universe must necessarily be the result of mechanical chance, have “listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals (from outer space) that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random” looking for evidence of intelligent life in the universe. If these scientists affirm that the DNA code of biological life, which is clearly goal directed coded message, is “merely random” and not a sign of “intelligence,” how can they be open to recognize any sign of intelligible communication from anyone!? Is this WSJ article evidence that there is no intelligence design in the Dover, PA electorate or in modern science?

Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God

The odds of life existing on another planet grow ever longer. Intelligent design, anyone?

Eric Metaxas : Dec. 25, 2014

In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.

Here’s the story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star. Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 27 zeros—planets in the universe, there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets capable of supporting life.

With such spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large, expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researches have discovered precisely bubkis—0 followed by nothing.

What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to 10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and kept on plummeting.

Even SETI proponents acknowledged the problem. Peter Schenkel wrote in a 2006 piece for Skeptical Inquirer magazine: “In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest . . . . We should quietly admit that the early estimates . . . may no longer be tenable.”

As factors continued to be discovered, the number of possible planets hit zero, and kept going. In other words, the odds turned against any planet in the universe supporting life, including this one. Probability said that even we shouldn’t be here.

Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing.

Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?

There’s more. The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example, astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in 100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free to gulp.

Multiply that single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?

Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology…. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

The greatest miracle of all time, without any close seconds, is the universe. It is the miracle of all miracles, one that ineluctably points with the combined brightness of every star to something—or Someone—beyond itself.

Mr. Metaxas is the author, most recently, of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life” (Dutton Adult, 2014).

Do everything by love, in love, and for love; for it is love which gives value to everything. Love does not desire a divided heart—it must be all or nothing. Love will make all things easy to you. Give Him then, love for love, and never forget Him Who died for love of you. You will love Him in the measure in which you suffer in silence and prefer Him to all creatures and eternity to time.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Letter

It cannot be sufficiently emphasized to faithful Catholics: There is no difference in essentials between Benedict and his chosen collaborator, Francis!

There are differences in style between Francis and Benedict but not in matters of faith – Archbishop Georg Gänswein By Deacon Nick Donnelly, October 11, 2013

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Pontifical Household and the personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has said in an interview in the German magazine Bunte that there are differences in style between Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict but not in matters of faith. The Tablet reports: ‘Asked how close the relationship between Pope Francis and his predecessor was, Archbishop Gänswein differences lay in certain matters of style and taste but not in matters of faith. The biggest difference between them was the way they approached people, Archbishop Gänswein said. Pope Francis walked straight up to people and loved to embrace everyone while Pope Benedict was more reticent, loved peace and quiet and tended to withdraw from crowds, he said.’ [.....] Bunte reports: ‘Pope Francis often visits his predecessor and phones him.” This relationship between the two is warm and trusting,”  Archbishop Gänswein also talks about his relationship with Pope Francis, ‘We have a very cordial relationship. Francis Pope says clearly what he wants and what he does not. He is decisive and appreciates the direct word. He listens to advice and takes reasonable suggestions like.’ Protect the Pope comment: After the series of interviews that Pope Francis has given to the press which have unsettled at best, or deeply upset and alienated at worse, faithful and loyal Catholics, it is time that the Holy Father and his inner circle reach out to to real Catholics. Archbishop Georg Gänswein’s interview with Bunte may be the first step in such overtures. There is a long way to go and a lot of bridges have to be re-built.

Philosophically – Francis and Benedict are of one mind and heart!

This materialistic reductionism is something that has been increasingly penetrating the Church for centuries, and it has dominated the thinking of recent Popes. The anti-Traditionalism of Pope Francis is therefore the fully logical and “natural” development of the scientific reductionism, and consequent evolutionary view of truth and revelation, which is the foundation of the philosophy and theology of Pope Benedict XVI.

James Larson, “I know not the man” - Pope Francis: The Natural Child of Pope Benedict XVI

http://www.apropos.org.uk/documents/IKnowNottheMan_000.pdf

Comment: Ratzinger’s profession of faith in modern religion of Scientism. If you reject the scholastic concept of substance, how can you believe in the Catholic dogma of transubstantiation? How can you profess that the Son is "Consubstantial" with the Father?

The medieval concept of substance has long since become inaccessible to us. In so far as we use the concept of substance at all today we understand thereby the ultimate particles of matter, and the chemically complex mixture that is bread certainly does not fall into that category.

Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future

A taste of what is to come because of our cowardly, feckless, and faithless bishops -

Judge says Catholic school discriminated against man in same-sex marriage

MarkLabbe | CatholicNewsService | Dec. 28, 2015

A Massachusetts judge ruled that a Catholic high school discriminated against a man because of his sexual orientation after the school officials rescinded a job offer upon learning he was in a same-sex marriage. Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Douglas H. Wilkins said in a Dec. 16 ruling that Fontbonne Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Milton, had violated the rights of Matthew Barrett in July 2013 when it rescinded its job offer for him to become food service director because the position does not include "formally presenting the gospel values or the ... teachings of the Catholic Church." [.....]

The USCCB idiots are always the last to figure it out - "Religious Liberty" is phony non-Catholic principle that God will not help defend!

USCCB president decries failure to pass conscience-protection legislation

Catholic World News | December 24, 2015

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement lamenting the failure of Congress to pass the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA).

The Hill reported that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) made “a strong—yet unsuccessful—push” to include the legislation in the recent omnibus budget deal. “Ryan spoke to President Obama and Vice President Biden to make his case but came away empty-handed.”

“Many Catholic and other institutions, including those that provide health care and other human services to the poor and vulnerable, have joined in our support of ANDA,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville said in his December 23 statement.

“Without ANDA, these caring organizations face legal threats to their very existence, as they lack clear and enforceable protection for their freedom to serve the needy in accord with their deepest moral convictions on respect for human life,” he continued. “Such threats to conscience also pose a threat to the most marginalized and vulnerable in our society--the poor and the sick, as well as the unborn.”

Archbishop Kurtz added:

I am deeply concerned that a foundational principle that has received long-standing, bipartisan support in the past has suddenly become partisan. No one should be forced by the government to actively participate in what they believe to be the taking of an innocent life. This is not about "access" to abortion. The principle at stake is whether people of faith and others who oppose abortion and abortion coverage should be compelled to participate in them.

Only Catholics Worship the True God

Moslems, Jews, and Catholics worship one God but not the same God. The God of Catholics is the One God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the most Holy Trinity: "One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made." Both the Jews and Islam reject Jesus Christ "by whom all things were made," and therefore reject the natural order of creation and society order that He has made. The god of Islam, expressed in the first article of the five pillars of Islam, is the god whose prophet is Muhammad. The god who Muhammad speaks for is not the God "who made heaven and earth." Islam rejects natural law and holds the divine will theory that the will of God alone determines the morality of any act independent of the natural law that God has created. Their god could just as well make blasphemy a virtue as he has made it a vice. The Jews also reject Jesus Christ, "by whom all things were made." The Jews like Islam reject the natural law and the moral law which is man's participation by his reason in the natural law. Those Catholics who worship the same god that the Jews and Muslims worship do not worship the God who is God. They are idolaters open to any form of corruption. We should not be surprised to see Pope Francis promoting the Gaia cult of earth worship.

Pope Francis' Vatican Sends “Blessing” to Publisher of Homosexual-Friendly Books for Children
Catholic Family News | John Vennari
On August 28 Pope Francis reportedly sent an encouraging letter to lesbian founder of publishing house for children’s books.
Today’s Il Giornale reports, “The Pope blesses gender ideology books. To the author he writes: “Go ahead.”
The report continues, “Pope Francis still amazes, writing a long letter to the author of the books that the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, wanted to ban from its schools. After the Synod on the family that threatens to split the church, the Pope again lines up in defense of the same-sex couples.”
Francesca Pardi, founder with her partner Maria Silvia Fiengo of the publishing house for childrens’ books, The Block Letters, is the author of books such as Little Egg, Little Story of a family: Why you have two mothers? and "What is the secret of Dad?
Pardi received a positive letter from Francis’ Vatican signed by Msgr. Peter Wells of the Vatican Secretary of State, who on behalf of the Pope, urged her “go ahead on her pathway.”
Pardi celebrates her response from Pope Francis on her Facebook page, where she displays a photo of the Vatican envelope.
Il Giornale describes the Vatican letter as “A new episode in which Bergoglio seems to break the tradition of the Church and to side instead with the ‘modernity’.”
In June, Pardi had an entire catalogue of her books sent to the Pope, hoping he could read them.
Pardi wrote in her letter to Francis, “You won’t find, in these pages any faintest sign of the gender theory that these books are said to be the main instrument: where do we tell children that they can choose their own gender? where do we talk to them about sex?”
Yet Pardi and Fiengo follow the tactics of homosexual strategists Marshal K. Kirk and Erastes Pill who in their landmark 1987 article “The Overhauling of Straight America,” urged the necessity to “Talk About Gays and Gayness as Loudly and as Often as Possible.”
“The principle behind this advice is simple”, say Kirk and Pill, “almost any behavior begins to look normal if you are exposed to enough of it at close quarters and among your acquaintances. The acceptability of the new behavior will ultimately hinge on the number of one’s fellows doing it or accepting it.”
A person may be offended initially by the novelty of it all, but as Kirk and Pill point out “as long as Joe-Six-pack feels little pressure to perform likewise, and as long as the behavior in question presents little threat to his physical and financial security, he soon gets used to it and life goes on.” As time goes on, Joe-Six pack and his friends will become more tolerant of homosexuality as no more than an alternative, legitimate way of life.
This is the strategy of telling the story of homosexual families to small children, especially when these books are introduced in children’s schools. It means equalizing, in the educational period, the traditional family with the homosexual couples.
Homosexuals do not reproduce. They must recruit, and they seek to recruit and proselytize our children.
Francis’ Vatican appears ignorant of the moral confusion such books inflict on our little ones. While the books may not explicitly propose “gender theory,” they certainly indoctrinate children to accept homosexual families and the homosexual lifestyle.
Once again, the Vatican Press Office leapt into Francis-damage control.
“In no way does the letter from the Secretariat of State mean to endorse behavior and teachings not in line with the Gospel,” the Vatican press office said on Friday.
In the letter of response Monsignor Peter B. Wells wrote that "His Holiness is grateful for the delicate gesture and for the sentiments that I have suggested," and "calls for a more profitable activity in the service of the young generations and the spread of authentic human values and Christians', imparting the apostolic blessing."
Francis' Vatican seems blind to the contradiction of sending the author of homosexual books encouragement to "go ahead," along with an exhortation to spread authentic human and Christian values. Here again we see the modernist confusion: what is affirmed in one place is denied in another.
The press office claimed the letter to Francesca Pardi, in response to a letter from her to the Pope after Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro banned 'gay' books from the city's schools, was meant to remain private, something which “unfortunately did not happen.”
Il Giornale, however, notes that Pardi received a warm, encouraging letter from Francis’ Vatican. Yet the Mayor of Venice who banned these books, received no such letter of congratulations.
Mayor Brugnaro, Il Giornale notes, is “too much in line with Tradition.”

COMMENT: With respect to the Jews, the Conciliar Church likes to pretend that the Old Covenent is still operative for the Jews to obtain salvation quoting St. Paul (Romans 11:29), "For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." Unfortunately for the Jews, the cited text is taken entirely out of the context of the passage. St. Paul, using the same analogy Jesus Christ used of the vine and its branches, speaks of the Jews as being the natural branches that have been cut off but can still be grafted again onto the vine on the condition that they accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. St. Paul warns the Gentile converts to the Catholic faith that they too can be cut off. He says, "Well: because of unbelief they (the Jews) were broken off. But thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps he also spare not thee. See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen (the Jews), the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they (the Jews) also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and, contrary to nature, were grafted into the good olive tree; how much more shall they that are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" (Romans 11: 20-24) Jews are "cut off" because of "unbelief" yet the grace of conversion is always open to them so that by belief they can be "grafted into their own olive tree." The "gifts and the calling" God does not repent so that the "olive tree" remains "their own." But until they by belief are grafted again into the vine there is no hope of salvation. For any branch cut from the vine can bear no fruit. There is no hope for salvation for anyone, Jew or Gentile that is not grafted into the vine of Jesus Christ by supernatural grace. There is no greater possible form of anti-semitism, of pure racial hatred, than refusing to bring the Good News of the Gospel to Jews simply because they are Jews.

Blind Guides: Conciliar Vatican Announces “No Mission” to Convert Jews
Catholic Family News | John Vennari
The Vatican just published one of the worst documents of the post-Conciliar period.
Titled “The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable,”[1] it is the latest aggiornamento in Jewish Catholic relations. The text was released to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Vatican II decree that dealt with the Jews, Nostra Aetate.
The document claims:

• The New Covenant does not supersede the Old Covenant;[2]
• The Catholic Church, in principle, should have no mission to convert Jews;[3]
• The Word of God is present to today's Jews by means of the Torah (and equates this to the Word of God being present to Christians through Jesus Christ);[4]
• Modern Jews are in an acceptable position before God regarding salvation;[5]
• “The term covenant, therefore, means a relationship with God that takes effect in different ways for Jews and Christians”;[6]
• “It does not follow that Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Son of God.”[7]

In standard modernist fashion, the document unleashes torrents of word-flow on these and similar points, yet pretends that inconvenient dogmatic pronouncements of the past that contradict these points do not exist.
Nowhere in the latest Vatican text do we see any mention of the infallible dogmatic teaching of the Council of Florence that "Pagans, Jews, heretics and schismatics" are "outside the Catholic Church," and as such, "can never be partakers of eternal life," unless "before death" they are joined to the one true Church of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church.[8]
Nowhere do we see the citation from Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X, which, centuries later, presents the same truth without change: "Outside the true Church are: Infidels, Jews, heretics, apostates, schismatics and excommunicated persons", and further, “No one can be saved outside the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, just as no one could be saved from the flood outside the Ark of Noah, which was a figure of the Church."[9]
Nowhere in this latest text do we see a reiteration of the solemn Profession of Faith of the Council of Florence under Pope Eugene IV that teaches:

“The sacrosanct Roman Church ... firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after Our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; ... All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it [the Roman Church] declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors."[10]

The doctrine of the supersession of the Old Testament by the New is a universal and perpetual doctrine of the Catholic Church that cannot be diluted to fit the exigencies of ecumenical churchmen. Yet the new Vatican document labors mightily to deny the truth on this point. “The Gifts and Calling of God Are Irrevocable” is an avalanche of heterodoxy. It constitutes a grave danger to the Faith, especially to those not well grounded on the topic.[11]
No Magisterial Authority
“Gifts and Calling” was signed by the ever-ecumenical Kurt Cardinal Koch, Prefect of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who was raised to this prestigious position by the allegedly conservative Pope Benedict XVI.[12]
The Preface of the documents states, “The text is not a magisterial document or doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church but is a reflection prepared by the Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews…” [......] http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/5472e6f8f064aa39b66714b499800b2f-506.html

"Nicolas, the PROSELYTE of Antioch"

And the saying was liked by all the multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch.

Acts of Apostles 6:5

Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us. Sometimes after a meeting I want to arrange another one because new ideas are born and I discover new needs. This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas.

Pope Francis

Do you need to convince the other to become Catholic? No, no, no! Go out and meet him, he is your brother. This is enough. Go out and help him and Jesus will do the rest.

Pope Francis, August 7, 2013

NCR Names Homosexual Couple “Persons of the Year”

Editorial: Our persons of the year for 2015 | Dec. 28, 2015

Michael DeLeon, left, and Greg Bourke April 28, 2015, in Washington, D.C. (Newscom/UPI/Pete Marovich)

As we live through them, it is often difficult to recognize truly important, history-changing events, events that will touch future generations intimately and profoundly. Very likely, though, the U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 26, 2015, in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which found same-sex marriage a constitutional right, is one of those events.

"The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the 5-4 majority.

Catholic moral theologian Lisa Fullam was struck by "how strongly" the four principles and traditions the court cited as the foundation for its decision "echo Catholic doctrine on marriage."

As the church formulates a response to this new reality, she suggested, "a good first step for Church leaders would be to applaud the Court's decision in light of its overlap with Catholic values … and take note of the powerful spirit of love and commitment vivifying lesbian and gay marriages as well as straight marriages." […..]

One Catholic couple who can -- and do -- tell the story of the benefits of same-sex marriage are (sic) Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon of Louisville. In a committed relationship for 33 years (and married in Canada in 2004), Bourke and DeLeon are lifelong practicing Catholics and active members of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish for 28 years. Together, they are raising two children. By all accounts, they have become vital to their community.

Maybe he does not want to offend his friends?

The Huffington Post | Michelangelo Signorile | “Gay Voices Editor-at-Large
Considering that Pope Benedict often vocally expressed harsh condemnation of marriage equality — even traveling to Spain to speak out against it when that country was among the first to legalize marriage for gays and lesbians and called it a “threat to the future of humanity” — it's astonishing how silent Francis is on the issue. I’ve noted in the past how he had no comment as country after country in Europe legalized marriage for gays and lesbians. And then this past June [2015], he had no comment after the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

COMMENT: NONE NECESSARY, AN EXCELLENT CATHOLIC CRITIQUE OF A MOST UN-CATHOLIC EVENT

Saint Peter’s : A Basilica Desecrated

Roberto de Mattei | Corrispondenza Romana | December 11, 2015

The image that will remain tied to the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy is not the anti-triumphalist ceremony celebrated by Pope Francis on the morning of December 8th, but the pretentious spectacle Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home, which brought the day to a close, by inundating the façade and Dome of St. Peter’s with lights and sounds.

Throughout the course of the show, offered by the World Bank Group, the images of gigantic lions, tigers and leopards were superimposed on St. Peter’s, which was built exactly upon the ruins of Nero’s circus, where ferocious wild beasts had [once] devoured Christians. Due to the play of lights, the Basilica seemed then to be turned upside down, dissolved and immersed in water, while clownfish and sea-turtles appeared on its façade, almost evoking the liquefying of the structures of the Church, devoid of any element of solidity. An enormous owl and strange, winged, luminous creatures circled over the Dome, while Buddhist monks, on the march, seemed to indicate a way of salvation alternate to Christianity. Not one religious symbol, not one reference to Christianity; the Church gave the way to “sovereign nature”.

Andrea Tornielli wrote that we needn’t be scandalized since many artists over the centuries, as the art historian Sandro Barbagallo documents in his book, (use) Animals in Religious Art. St. Peter’s Basilica (The Vatican Press, 2009), have depicted luxuriant fauna around St. Peter’s sepulcher. Yet, if St. Peter’s Basilica is a “sacred Zoo” as the author of this work irreverently defines it, it is not because the animals represented in the Basilica are enclosed inside a sacred barrier, but because it is sacred, that is, it is ordered to a transcendent purpose. This is the significance attributed through art to these animals.

In Christianity, in fact, animals are not divinized, but valued for their purpose, which is that of being destined by God for the service of man. The Psalms narrate “Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields. The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea” (Psalm 8, 7-9.) Man has been placed by God as the apex and king of creation, to whom everything has to be ordered until he orders everything to God, acting as the representative of the cosmos (Gen. 1, 26-27). God is the final end of the universe, but the immediate end of the physical universe, is man. “In a certain sense, we are also the end of all things” St. Thomas affirms (in II Sent, d.1, q. 2, a. 4), since “God made all things for man” (Super Symb. Apostolorum, art. 1).

Christian symbolism moreover attributes an emblematic significance to animals. Christianity is not interested in the extinction of animals nor in their well-being, but in the ultimate and profound meaning of their presence. The lion symbolizes strength and the lamb meekness to remind us of the existence of different virtues and perfections, which God alone possesses entirely. On earth, a prodigious hierarchy of created beings of inorganic (and organic) material culminating in man has an essence and intimate perfection which is expressed in the language of symbols.

Environmentalism is presented as a vision of the world which turns this hierarchy upside down, by eliminating God and dethroning man. Man is placed on a level of absolute equality with nature in a relationship of interdependence, not only with the animals but also with the inanimate components of the environment which surround him: mountains, rivers, seas, landscapes, food chains, and the ecosystem. The supposition of this cosmological vision is the dissolution of all boundaries between man and the world. The Earth with its biosphere forms a sort of unitary, cosmic-geo-environmental entity. It becomes something more than “a common home”: it represents a divinity.

Fifty years ago when the Second Vatican Council ended, the dominant theme of that historical season appeared: a distinct “cult of man”, implied in Jacques Maritain’s formula “integral humanism”. The French philosopher’s book with this title is of 1936, but it had above all its greatest influence when one of its most enthusiastic readers, Giovanni Battista Montini subsequently Pope Paul VI, wanted to use it as a compass for his pontificate. On December 7th 1965 in his Mass homily, Paul VI recalled that in Vatican II the encounter was produced between “The religion of the God who became man” and the “religion (for such it is) of man who makes himself God.”

Fifty years later, we are witnessing the passage of integral humanism to integral environmentalism, from the Chart of the Rights of Man to that of the Rights of Nature. In the 16^th century, humanism had rejected Medieval Christian Civilization in the name of anthropocentrism. The attempt to construct the City of Man on the ruins of the City of God tragically failed in the 20^th century and the attempts to Christianize anthropocentrism under the name of integral humanism have come to nothing.

The religion of man is substituted for the religion of the Earth: Anthropocentrism criticized for its “deviations” is substituted for a new eco-centered vision. The Theory of Gender, which dissolves all identity and all essence, is inserted into this pantheistic and egalitarian prospective.

This is a radically evolutionist notion, which coincides largely with Teilhard de Chardin’s. God is the “self-conscience” of the universe, which in its evolving becomes conscience of its own evolution. The Teilhard quotation in paragraph 83 of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si is not casual, and philosophers like Enrico Maria Radaelli and Arnaldo Xavier da Silveira have highlighted the points in dissonance with Catholic Tradition. Further, the Fiat Lux show was presented as an “environmentalist manifesto” which wanted to translate the encyclical Laudato si in images.

Antonio Socci in Libero defined it as “a Gnostic, Neo-Pagan ‘sceneggiata’ which had a precise ideological, anti-Christian message,” observing that “at St. Peter’s on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the celebration of Mother Earth was preferred to the celebration of the Mother of God to propagate the dominant ideology of that ‘climatist and environmentalist,’ Neo-Pagan and Neo-Malthusian religion, which is supported by the great powers of the world. A spiritual profanation also since that place – let’s not forget – is a place of Christian martyrdom.”

Alessandro Gnocchi also has this to say in ‘Riscossa Cristiana.’ “So, – it is not ISIS that has profaned the heart of Christianity, it is not the secular extremists that damaged the Catholic Creed, it is not the usual blasphemous artists, affected by coprolalia that sullied the faith of many Christians. There was no need for perquisitions and metal detectors to block the entrance of vandals into God’s Citadel: they were already inside the walls and had already triggered their bomb in multicolor and on world-vision from the warmth and coziness of the control-room.”

The photographers, the graphic artists, and the advertisers who created Fiat Lux know what St. Peter’s - the material image of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church - represents for Catholics. The plays of light that illuminated the Basilica have a symbolic intent, antithetic to that expressed by all the ‘luminaries, lamps and fires’, who have transmitted the significance of the Divine light over the course of the centuries. This light was extinguished on December 8th. Among the images and lights projected on the Basilica, those of Our Lord and the Immaculate were missing, and it was Her Feast Day. St. Peter’s was immersed in the false light brought by the rebel angel, Lucifer, Prince of this World and the King of Darkness.

The words Divine light are not only a metaphor, but a reality, as is the reality of the darkness which today envelopes the world. And on this eve of Christmas, humanity awaits the moment in which the night is illuminated like the day, « nox sicut dies illuminabitur » (Psalm 11) and that the promises made at Fatima by the Immaculate will be fulfilled.

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

Pope Francis' Ideological Opinion:

For me, ecumenism is a priority. Today, there's the ecumenism of blood. In some countries they kill Christians because they wear a cross or have a Bible, and before killing them they don't ask if they're Anglicans, Lutherans, Catholic or Orthodox. The blood is mixed. For those who kill, we're Christians. We're united in blood, even if among ourselves we still haven't succeeded in taking the necessary steps towards unity and perhaps the moment hasn't arrived. Unity is a grace that we have to ask for. In Hamburg [Germany], I knew a pastor who was working on the beatification cause of a Catholic priest sent to the guillotine by the Nazis because he was teaching catechism to children. After him in the line-up of the condemned was a Lutheran pastor killed for the same reason. Their blood was mixed. The pastor told me he'd gone to his bishop and said to him: 'I'll continue to pursue the cause, but both of them together, not just the Catholic.' That's the ecumenism of blood. It exists today too, all you have to do is read the papers. Those who kill Christians don't ask for our ID cards to know which church you were baptized in. We have to take this reality into consideration.

Pope Francis, Dec. 14 interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa reporter, Andrea Tornielli

Catholic Dogmatic Truth:

The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.

Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino

Pope Francis is not alone – All popes since Vatican II have rejected Proselytism

The “Old-New Evangelization” of Vatican II – Ecumenical Convergence replaced Conversion

[According to Lumen Gentium] the Catholic Church has no right to absorb the other Churches... [A] basic unity — of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church — must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivated to seek it.

Fr. Josef Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II

Pope Francis' Gaia Cult Earth Worship - direct insult to Blessed Mary, Conceived Without Sin

Vatican, World Bank partner to launch Year of Mercy with St. Peter’s ‘climate change’ light show

ROME, December 4, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- The Catholic Church, founded to shed the light of Christ on the world, has quite literally invited the world to shed its light on her. On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as well as the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis has allowed climate-change partisans and population-control advocates to project a light show onto the façade and cupola of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome — the most important church in the Catholic world — so as to “inspire change around the climate crisis.”

The show titled “Illuminating Our Common Home” will project onto St. Peter’s “images of our shared natural world” in order to “educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class,” states a press release about the event put out by one of the sponsors.

The Vatican’s spokesperson for the event, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, called the event “unique…for its genre and for the fact that it is being displayed for the first time on such a significant backdrop.”

“These illuminations will present images inspired of Mercy, of humanity, of the natural world, and of climate changes,” Fisichella said.

Fisichella said that the light show on the Vatican is meant to link Pope Francis’ environment encyclical Laudato si’ with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop21) currently underway in Paris. The Vatican has shown strong support for the conference.  Having the show conclude the opening Year of Mercy celebrations also links the pope’s message about “mercy” to fighting “climate change.”  

Life and family leaders around the world remain skeptical about the Paris conference’s alleged agenda of fighting so-called “anthropogenic” global warming, with some warning that “saving the Planet” in climate-speak translates to an anti-human enterprise that targets nations, societies, and families.

The event, billed as “contemporary public art,” is sponsored by organizations named after Greek and Roman pagan gods that push the climate change agenda and by an organization that directly funds abortions in developing countries.[.......]

Dark and forbidding symbolism

There is much dark and forbidding symbolism behind the event and the organizations sponsoring it that is bizarrely connected to pagan occult practices, the worship of nature, and human sacrifice through abortion and population control.

The show is titled “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home.” “Fiat Lux” is the first command issued by God at the beginning of creation: “Let there be light.” Instead of the Church presenting Jesus Christ as the light of the world, secular organizations named after pagan gods are literally “obscuring” the Church through their own dazzling light show. St. Paul warns the Corinthians to be on guard about Satan who he says “masquerades as an angel of light.” It’s as if through this phrase the organizers are symbolically taking the place of God and creating the world anew according to their own image and likeness.

The light show takes place on the most important Marian feast day for Catholics, the Immaculate Conception, in which Catholics celebrate Mary being conceived in the womb of her mother Anne without the stain of original sin. Mary has always been viewed by Catholics as an archetype of the Church since she carried Christ within her as the first tabernacle and then bore him into the world. The light show will project onto St. Peter’s, a building representative of Mary, images of earth and animals on her most important feast day. It is amounts to a crude dishonoring of Our Lady.

The World Bank with its hands bloodied by abortion and population control has no place working with the Vatican on a show that allegedly will reveal to the world images of what Archbishop Fisichella called “mercy, of humanity.” This is simply sick and twisted.

The show will certainly contain many “signs and wonders,” but Catholics must decide for themselves how to interpret them.

Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of Anti-Christ.

Blessed Virgin Mary at La Salette

Papal critics threatened with excommunication as “Year of Mercy” begins

VOICE of the FAMILY | December 7, 2015

Archbishop Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, has stirred controversy by suggesting that some criticisms of Pope Francis might result in automatic excommunication.

Archbishop Fisichella made his remarks while explaining how Pope Francis’s new “Missionaries of Mercy” will operate. The 800 “missionaries” will have the power to absolve from penalties previously reserved to the Holy See.

In reference to Canon 1370, which imposes automatic excommunication for “physical violence” against the Roman Pontiff, Archbishop Fisichella said:

“I would say that we need to understand well ‘physical violence,’ because sometimes words, too, are rocks and stones, and therefore I believe some of these sins, too, are far more widespread than we might think.”

Archbishop Fisichella’s comments will be interpreted by many as an attempt to silence faithful Catholics who are deeply concerned by the direction currently being taken by those who hold offices at the highest levels of the Church. Serious concerns have been raised over the last two and half years concerning:

· The alleged manipulation of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod and the 2015 Ordinary Synod 

· The publication of a heterodox Relatio Synodi of the Extraordinary Synod

· The publication of a heterodox Instrumentum Laboris for the Ordinary Synod

· The publication of a heterodox Relazione Finale of the Ordinary Synod

· The radical reforms to the canonical procedures governing declaration of nullity of marriage

· The open collaboration between the Holy See and leading global advocates of population control

· The confusing remarks made by the Holy Father about who is able to receive Holy Communion

· The confusing remarks made by the Holy Father about the relationship between condoms and AIDS

· The confusing remarks and actions of the Holy Father on the subject of homosexuality

· The endorsement, by official bodies of the Holy See, of pro-abortion, pro-contraception UN Sustainable Development Goals

· The endorsement of the environmental agenda in the encyclical letter Laudato Si, without sufficient recognition of the profound connection between environmentalism and the population control movement

· The public association of Laudato Si with the most radical elements of the environmental/population control movement and dissent from the doctrine of Humanae Vitae

· The appointment, promotion or elevation to ecclesiastical offices or to positions of influence, by the Holy Father, of many openly heterodox prelates including, but not limited to: Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, Archbishop Blaise Cupich, Godfried Cardinal Danneels, John Cardinal Dew, Walter Cardinal Kasper, Bishop Heiner Koch, Reinhard, Cardinal Marx, Vincent Cardinal Nichols,Cardinal Schönborn and Donald Cardinal Wuerl.

In the face of these and other scandals Catholics have not only the right but also the duty to offer respectful, but forceful, criticism. This grave duty is outlined in Canons 211 and 212 of the Code of Canon Law:

Can. 211 All the Christian faithful have the duty and right to work so that the divine message of salvation more and more reaches all people in every age and in every land.

Can. 212

§1. Conscious of their own responsibility, the Christian faithful are bound to follow with Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or establish as rulers of the Church.

§2. The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.

§3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

Voice of the Family is confident that Catholics at every level of the Church will continue to fulfil their duty of defending the Catholic faith throughout the “Year of Mercy” and during the years ahead.

The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.

Hilaire Belloc

Satan's cleverest wile is to convince us that he doesn't exist.

Charles Baudelaire, French poet who returned to the Catholic Church in the last two years of his life

When a law is enacted contrary to reason, or to the eternal law, or to some ordinance of God, obedience is unlawful, lest while obeying man, we become disobedient to God.

Leo XIII

There is a time when those who obey, obey to their own condemnation.

St. Catherine of Siena

The devil has the Bible but he is in Hell. It is Tradition what will bring you to Heaven.

St. Maximilian Kolbe to Fr. Victor Mrosz, who was "excommunicated" for being faithful to Tradition

"In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building." Wikipedia

‘Sacrilege’: Catholic leaders react to Vatican’s ‘climate change’ light show

Pete Baklinski | LifeSiteNews | December 9, 2015– Howling, grunting, and roaring animals, along with images of overcrowded city centers, depictions of pollution, and negative portrayals of industrialization, appeared on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica this evening during a much hyped “climate change” light show.

The show was the finale of the opening celebration for the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. The event was watched by tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square along with estimated millions worldwide through online streaming.

The multi-million dollar show titled “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home” was created and funded by climate-change partisans and population-control advocates with the goal to “educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class.” Along with images of the world and its endangered animals, including lions, birds, apes, and whales, appeared New Age symbolism associated with ancient pagan deities.

The show also took place on the most important Marian feast day for Catholics, the Immaculate Conception, where Catholics celebrate Mary being conceived in the womb of her mother Anne without the stain of original sin.

Many pro-family leaders from around the world say they are flabbergasted that the pope would allow St. Peter’s to be used as a backdrop for promoting the controversial and contentious “climate change” agenda.

“I am sorry that the facade of St. Peter’s has been turned into a propaganda stage for the scientific fraud known as ‘Catastrophic Man-Caused Global Warming,’” Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, told LifeSiteNews.

“I am sick at the thought that this most sacred space — St. Peter’s Basilica — will be the backdrop for the further dissemination of this fraud, whose ultimate goal is to impose a ‘Carbon Tax’ on the developed countries. This tax will not only cripple global economic growth and undermine democracy, its proceeds will be used to fund even more population control programs in the developing world,” he said.

The Vatican’s spokesperson for the event, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, called the event “unique…for its genre and for the fact that it is being displayed for the first time on such a significant backdrop.”

“These illuminations will present images inspired of Mercy, of humanity, of the natural world, and of climate changes,” he said.

Fisichella said that the light show on the Vatican is meant to link Pope Francis’ environment encyclical Laudato si’ with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop21) currently underway in Paris. The Vatican has shown strong support for the conference.  Having the show conclude the opening Year of Mercy celebrations also links the pope’s message about “mercy” to fighting “climate change.”

Robert Royal, president of the Washington-based Faith and Reason Institute and a prominent Catholic commentator, called it “seriously wrong” to have a “radical environmental message” projected onto St. Peter’s.

“This is the kind of thing ideological politicians do, like President Obama’s rainbow projection onto the White House after the Supreme Court approved gay ‘marriage.’ The White House is the people’s house, all the American people’s. St. Peter’s is even far more universal than that.”

“Projecting onto it a radical environmental message — and one that has no chance of actually resulting in an international agreement, given the unreality of the approach — seems to make the Church just one more international NGO, something Pope Francis has explicitly warned it should not be,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Voice of the Family co-founder John Smeaton said that contrary to popular perception, the “environmental agenda” is tied to an anti-human agenda.

“The environmental movement commonly regards population growth as a threat. Developing nations are being flooded with contraceptives and subjected to pressure to legalise abortion. Given that contraception and environmentalism so often go hand-in-hand, it is deeply troubling that current Vatican authorities have so strongly endorsed the environmental agenda without taking an equally strong stance on the abortion and contraception agenda which lies behind it.”

“If the Vatican issued similarly strong and high-profile calls to world governments to end abortion, many lives could be saved. The St. Peter’s light show is a clear demonstration of the tragic truth that this papacy has the wrong priorities,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Partners

The event, billed as “contemporary public art,” was sponsored by organizations named after Greek and Roman pagan gods that push the climate change agenda and by an organization that directly funds abortions in developing countries.

The main financial backer behind the event is the US-led World Bank Group via its Connect4Climate initiative. The World Bank, created in 1945 to rebuild a war-torn Europe, has a long history (here, here, or here) of relentlessly funding abortion and contraception programs in developing nations under the banner of “ending extreme poverty” and “boosting shared prosperity.” Pro-life leaders have denounced the programs time and again as thinly veiled population control programs aimed at reducing populations considered by Western elites to be undesirable.

Other partners include Vulcan Inc., a private company based out of Seattle, Washington, that “strives to create a new kind of future” by “upend[ing] conventional thinking.” The company was deliberately named after the Roman god Vulcan, the deity of destructive fire, whose earliest known shrine existed in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, close by the Vatican.

Another partner is Okeanos, an environmentalist foundation with the purpose of raising awareness “concerning the various threats our oceans are facing.” The foundation rails against what it calls the “sins against climate.” The foundation is named after the Greek and Roman Titan god “Okeanos” who was held to be the divine personification of the sea whose fish in one hand and serpent in the other signify bounty and prophecy.

Obscura Digital, the San Francisco-based organization putting on the actual show, has its name derived from the Latin root meaning “dark.” The company specializes in creating “immersive experiences that will change the way you think about the world around you” using holographic projections, 3D animation, and dynamic visualization.

The organization has in the past (here and here) worked on climate change projects with the UN to show the “effect of human enterprise on the environment” and to issue a “call for global solutions.”

Pagan occultism

St. Peter’s ‘climate change’ light show and its prototype held in New York last August are bizarrely connected to pagan occultism.

The shows director Travis Threlkel, founder and creative director of Obscura, said in an August interview when discussing the New York version of the show that was projected onto the Empire State Building, that pagan deities were specifically incorporated into the presentation. He said the show included the greek pagan goddess Gaia, a Greek Mother Earth who has been appropriated by worshipers of nature, along with Aya, a Babylonian mother goddess associated with the rising sun and with sexual love.

It was at the New York show’s end that startling images of the faces of various pagan goddesses were projected onto the building. Predominantly displayed was an image of Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. Kali, who was depicted with a long blood red tongue and whose name means “the black one,” promised wealth to those who satiated her lust for blood by human sacrifice. Daily human sacrifices of young children were offered on her altars in India until 200 years ago. She has since been culturally appropriated by New Age spirituality as a kind of Mother Earth goddess.

“Android” Andrew Jones, the artist behind the image, said at that time that he wanted to depict Mother Earth in her “fiercest form” to draw attention to what might happen if people ignored the implications of climate change.

The Vatican show included artwork and computer-generated designs by Jones, but it is unknown at this time what artwork was featured.

Jones, one of the world’s foremost digital painters and projection artists, specializes in portraying terrifying images of Greek, Roman and Eastern pagan deities. He said in an interview last month that he turns to these gods and goddesses by means of “psychedelic substances” (mind altering drugs) so that he can portray them accurately. He said the “deities” are “actively involved” in guiding his hand as he makes the work.

“These [drugs] are tools that grant portals and access into different realms that I still haven’t fully been able to grasp or say that I have uncovered all of their meanings. … They have evolved my ability to … discover new and interesting combinations of energy and matter. Some have … shown me greater nightmares than I could ever depict or wish to imagine ever again.”

“These spirits and the deities that [the images] represent [in India, Greece, etc.] are actively involved, enrolled, and contributing to humans reinventing the visual vernacular of these beings as time and technology evolves,” he said.

Jones said that good art connects the viewer to something “mystical.” He said in a 2010 video interview that a good reaction to his art happens when people “throw up, or urinate themselves, or [release] any sort of bodily excrement.”

While it remains unclear at this point if any of Jones’ pagan images whole or in part made their way onto St. Peter’s, various symbols belonging to deities mentioned by the show’s director Threlkel did. For instance, Aya’s symbol of the rising sun appeared at least on three occasions throughout the show, most prominently at the beginning when a giant sun was depicted rising upon St. Peter’s.

Catholic commentator Fr. John Zuhlsdorf wrote on his blog that the event was “irreverent” and even a form of “sacrilege.”

“St. Peter’s is, without question, a sacred place and object (a very large one, too!).  It is, without question, dedicated by the Church to sacred purposes.  The use of this sacred building and place (where St. Peter was martyred and buried, a pilgrimage place, etc. etc. etc.) as a projection screen for mere secular purposes is irreverent treatment,” he wrote.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf quoted the Catholic Dictionary which defines sacrilege as the “irreverent treatment of sacred things, persons or places, i.e., those dedicated by God or the Church to sacred purposes.  It is a sin against the virtue of religion, of its nature grave, but admitting smallness of matter.”

“This has gone beyond ridiculous,” he said.

The priest said the image of the lion projected on to St. Peter’s made him think of a passage from St. Peter’s first letter: “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls, your brethren who are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8).

COMMENT: The Vatican Gaia Cult Earth Worship Light Show on the facade of Saint Peter Basilica in Rome was offered as direct blasphemous insult to the Mother of God on the feast of her Immaculate Conception. God will certainly avenge this insult to His mother. There is no going back from this. Even if Pope Francis should repent tomorrow and cover himself with sackcloth and ashes, the eternal guilt of the sin would be removed but the temporal punishment would necessary follow to avenge the crime. The "Virgin most merciful" is also the "Mirror of Justice" and the "Ark of the Covenant." Just as those who violated the Ark were slain only for sinning against the type how much greater will God avenge the insult paid to the fulfillment of the type in His Blessed Mother offered by His vicar at the very heart of Catholic Church on the ground sanctified by countless martyrs?

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity – Even JPII did not deny this dogma!

Pope Francis Teaches:

We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom.11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an important part of the Sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. Rom. 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes. 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

The Church officially recognizes that the People of Israel continue to be the Chosen People. Nowhere does it say: “You lost the game, now it is our turn.” It is a recognition of the People of Israel.

Pope Francis, On Heaven and Earth

The Catholic Church Teaches:

Hebrews 7:18: “On the one hand, a former commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness…”;

Hebrews 10:9: “Then he says, ‘Behold, I come to do your will.’ He takes away the first [covenant] to establish the second [covenant]…”;

2 Corinthians 3:14: “For to this day when they [the Jews] read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away”;

Hebrews 8:7: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another”;

Colossians 2:14: “Having canceled the written code, with its decrees, that was against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away nailing it to the cross”;

Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, para. 29: “…the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished…but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross”;

The Catechism of the Council of Trent: “…the people, aware of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law…”;

Council of Florence: [This council] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino

Council of Trent: “but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom”;

Cardinal Ratzinger: “Thus the Sinai [Mosaic] Covenant is indeed superseded” (Many Religions – One Covenant, p. 70).

St. John Chrysostom: “Yet surely Paul’s object everywhere is to annul this Law….And with much reason; for it was through a fear and a horror of this that the Jews obstinately opposed grace” (Homily on Romans, 6:12); “And so while no one annuls a man’s covenant, the covenant of God after four hundred and thirty years is annulled; for if not that covenant but another instead of it bestows what is promised, then is it set aside, which is most unreasonable” (Homily on Galatians, Ch 3);

St. Augustine: “Instead of the grace of the law which has passed away, we have received the grace of the gospel which is abiding; and instead of the shadows and types of the old dispensation, the truth has come by Jesus Christ. Jeremiah also prophesied thus in God’s name: ‘Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…’ Observe what the prophet says, not to Gentiles, who had not been partakers in any former covenant, but to the Jewish nation. He who has given them the law by Moses, promises in place of it the New Covenant of the gospel, that they might no longer live in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit” (Letters, 74, 4);

Justin Martyr: “Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law – namely, Christ – has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy…Have you not read…by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…’” (Dialogue with Trypho, Ch 11).

John Paul II: “Christ fulfills the divine promise and supersedes the old law.” (Redemptoris Mater)

Taken from Robert Sungenis, The Old Covenent: Revoked or Not Revoked?

Nothing is more evident than this –

Pope Francis knows nothing of the Mother of God, he knows nothing of the spiritual life!

The Gospel does not tell us anything: if she spoke a word or not... She was silent, but in her heart, how many things told the Lord! “You, that day, this and the other that we read, you had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I seen him there!” Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: “Lies! I was deceived!”

Pope Francis, sermon December 20, 2013, published by Vatican News Service

Pope Francis equates Muslim Paris terrorists with Catholic “fundamentalism” that believes that the Catholic Church “possesses absolute truth”; Promotes situation ethics in combating AIDS in Africa; Pleads for mindless Gaia cult earth worship!

Pope's press conference aboard the papal plane from Africa

2015-11-30

Question: Religious fundamentalism is threatening the whole planet, we saw this with the Paris attacks. In the face of this danger, do you think religious leaders should intervene more in the political sphere?

Pope Francis: "If intervening in the political sphere means doing politics, then no. They should be priests, pastors, Imams, Rabbis. Their political intervention is indirect, they preach values, real values and one of the greatest values of all is fraternity between us. We are all God’s children, we all have the same Father. I don’t like the word tolerance, we need to live peacefully alongside one another, develop friendships. Fundamentalism is a disease that exists in all religions. In the Catholic Church we have some – many – who believe they possess the absolute truth and they go on sullying others through slander and defamation and this is wrong. I say this because it is my Church. Religious fundamentalism must be combated. It is not religious, God is lacking, it is idolatric. What religious leaders need to do is convince people who have these tendencies. Fundamentalism that ends in tragedy or commits crimes is a bad thing but it exists in all religions.”

Question: AIDS is a serious problem in Africa, the epidemic continues. We know that prevention is the key and that condoms are not the only means of stopping the epidemic, but it is an important part of the solution. Is it not perhaps time for the Church to change its position with regard to the use of condoms in order to prevent infections?

Pope Francis: "The question seems biased to me. Yes, it is one of the methods, the morality of the Church faces a bit of a predicament here. The fifth or the sixth commandment: defend life or a sexual relationship that is pen to life. But this is not the problem. There is a greater problem than this: this question makes me think of the question they once asked Jesus: tell me Master, is it acceptable to heal on a Saturday? Healing is obligatory! Malnutrition, exploitation, slave labour, the lack of drinking water, these are the problems. We’re not talking about which plaster we should use for which wound. The great injustice is social injustice, the great injustice is malnutrition. I don’t like making such casuistic reflections when there are people dying because of a lack of water and hunger. Think about arms trafficking. When these problems cease to exist, then I think we can ask ourselves the question: is it acceptable to heal on a Saturday? Why are arms still being manufactured? Wars are the leading cause of death. Forget about whether it is acceptable or not to heal on a Saturday. Make justice and when everyone is healed, when there is no injustice in this world, then we can talk about Saturday.”

Question: COP21, the conference of climate change kicks off in Paris today. We hope it will be the start of a solution, are you certain that progress will be made?

Pope Francis: "I am not certain but what I can say is that it is either now or never. I think the first conference took place in Tokyo…little was achieved. Every year the problems get worse. At a university meeting on what kind of a world we want to leave behind for our children, one person said: are you sure there will be any children of this generation still around? We are on the verge of suicide, to use a strong word and I am certain that people in Paris are aware of this and want to do something about it. The other day I read that in Greenland, glaciers are losing mass at a rate of billions of tons. In the Pacific, there is a country that is buying another country to move to because in 20 years it will cease to exist. I trust these people will do something. I hope this will be the case and I pray it will.

Sound advice from one saint to another

Seek more immediately our Divine Master Himself, I mean His most holy gifts, embrace them, and be closely united to them. This is the happiest and most blessed path, that which leads to, and is concerned with, eternal life. By these gifts I mean such as it is not in our power to have when we desire them, but which are simply bestowed on us by the Giver of all good, to Whose almighty power no blessing is too great: such are, for example, with regard to the Divine Majesty, intensity of faith, hope, and charity, spiritual joy and rest, tears, deep consolations, elevation of mind, Divine impressions and illuminations, and all other spiritual tastes and sentiments relating to such gifts, such as humility, and profound respect for the holy Church our Mother, for those who govern it, and for its teachers. Every one of these holy gifts should be preferred to all bodily acts, which are only good in so far as they aim at acquiring these gifts, or at least part of them. I do not mean by this that we ought to seek them solely for the pleasure which we find in them: certainly not. But recognizing that without these gifts, all our thoughts, words, and deeds are confused, cold and troubled, we should desire these gifts in order that by means of them they may become ardent, clear, and just, for the greater service of God. From this it follows that we ought to wish for these precious gifts wholly or in part, and these spiritual graces, so far as with their help we may promote God’s greater glory. As when the body is in danger, in consequence of excessive labours, the best thing to do is to seek for these gifts by acts of the understanding and by moderate exercises : so, not only will the soul be healthy, but, as a healthy mind animates a body which is so also, the whole will become more healthy, and more ft to serve God.

Fr. Xavier De Franciosi, S.J., Spirit of St. Ignatius, St. Ignatius’ Letter to St. Francis Borgia regarding his "excessive austerities."

The Pope’s Caricaturing of Conservatives

The lack of charity for which he condemns them was on sad display in his own remarks.

American Spectator | By George Neumayr | 10-28-2015

The scandalous synod on the family skidded to a stop last weekend in Rome but not before Pope Francis got in a few more licks at conservatives, whom he caricatured in his final remarks as heartless.

The speech was notable for its nastiness, displaying the very lack of charity he routinely assigns to conservatives. The synod, he said, had exposed “closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”

He continued: “It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible.”

Under the lightweight leftism of Pope Francis, the question “Is the Pope Catholic?” seems less and less rhetorical. Previous popes, reading the remarks above, would conclude that the speaker held to the theology of liberal Protestantism. They would find the false contrasts between divine law and mercy, upon which Francis habitually relies, pitiful in their shallowness, and they would find his constant resort to straw-man fallacies and motive-mongering against traditionalists to be an unsightly blot upon the papacy. With a pope like this one, orthodox Catholics don’t need enemies.

All the tortured throat-clearing from pundits about the “nuances” of Pope Francis is very unconvincing. He is not nuanced at all. He is an open left-wing Catholic, perfectly comfortable with the de facto heretics within his own order and inside his special cabinet of cardinals. Cardinal Walter Kasper, whom Pope Francis has identified as one of his “favorite” theologians, and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany, who is one of his closest advisers, stand to the left of Martin Luther.

Well, say the pope’s desperate propagandists, Francis may not possess a deep mind but at least he has a big heart. If so, it seems to bleed for everyone but orthodox Catholics, whose fidelity to the faith under secularism’s ceaseless encroachments is treated with contempt.

Like many modern Jesuits, Francis often sounds like he loves every religion except his own. Could anyone imagine him every talking about imams, rabbis, or even a feminist witch, in the same caustic style that he disparages Catholic traditionalists? If he did, he would have an “ecumenical” crisis on his hands.

Early in his pontificate, video footage captured him teasing a blameless altar boy for holding his hands together piously. Were they “stuck” together? the Pope asked the bewildered boy. That is what passes for humor in the liberal Jesuit order. Visit almost any Jesuit college or school and you will soon encounter similar instances of anti-Catholic gibes presented as “reform.”

In his final remarks at the synod, Francis ripped into the orthodox and praised the heterodox, identifying the latter as the “true defenders of doctrine” for preferring “people” to “ideas,” for “overcoming the recurring temptations of the elder brother (cf. Lk 15:25-32) and the jealous labourers (cf. Mt 20:1-16).”

If future popes are to take these cheap polemics seriously, they will have to rewrite the parable of the prodigal son, excising any condemnations of him for cavorting with prostitutes. It turns out that sex outside of indissoluble marriage is no big deal. The story could be retitled the parable of the progressive son, who stands as a forerunner of the “Christian Newness” that granting Communion to those in a state of adultery promises. In the parable of the progressive son, the sin-obsessed father would cry at his own rigidity and FedEx the fatted calf to the son’s brothel.

According to Cardinal Donald Wuerl, speaking to America, a Jesuit magazine that prides itself on undercutting the traditional Catholic family with stances in favor of modern morality, the synod was a smashing success, as it moved the Church away from “the code of canon law” and toward a free-floating “understanding of God’s mercy.”

Jesus Christ told his disciples, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” One can imagine his critique of the synod on the family, at which the Church’s no has turned into a maybe. A devious ambiguity is the new orthodoxy, and the Church’s “fresh air” smells more like sulfur.

Bergoglio, the Man who Never Kneels Before God

Antonio Socci |12-2-15

It’s now starting to get very depressing, even disquieting….

Bergoglio never kneels in front of the Eucharist during Mass. He doesn’t kneel or, at any rate, doesn’t remain on his knees during Eucharist Adoration; the image of him standing in front of the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the Corpus Domini procession (which he didn’t take part in) is unforgettable.

Now even the opening ceremony of the Holy Door, for the beginning of the Jubilee – is embarrassing!.... He opens the Holy Door and remains standing while the faithful fall to their knees…  A chilling scene!  

I’d like to remind those who attribute this to problems with his legs, that Bergoglio has knelt many times, and there are many photos around to show this, in other circumstances but he doesn’t do so in front of the Blessed Sacrament![…..]

In contrast, on November 28th, Pope Francis knelt in an Anglican shrine in tribute to the Ugandan Anglican martyrs.

His friends just call him "Bergoglio"

We were close for a few days, the three daily meals and have shared other moments both public and private. We talked about everything: about dialogue, but also about the journey that we will do together to Israel [.....] Together we have celebrated the beginning of Shabbat, he was by my side when I recited the Kiddush and has broken challah, which Zion Evrony, the Israeli Ambassador, brought to the Holy See. They were unforgettable days and I think that they have a value that goes beyond the affection and confidence that has always connected us [.....] "Important signal": "I see great value in Bergoglio's comments against proselytism. It is a point on which he insists with a special emphasis and gets even more weight when we think of the evangelizing framework within which these statements were made...... But now, the Pope speaks of it (of evangelization) only to introduce Catholics to the faith.

Rabbi Abraham Skorka from Argentina, interview for the Jewish monthly Pagine Ebraiche, which was reproduced in Osservatore Romano November 25, about his visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome as a "personal guest of Bergolio in Santa Maria."

COMMENT: It’s always the same. This story of ISIL (ISIS) being a creation of Western and Israeli intelligence agencies has been ignored by the media for more than a year. Now that it is becoming common everyday knowledge, a plausible denial and with a dash of ridicule is being circulated by official sources through official media outlets. Yet, the fact remains, two British transport aircraft delivering weapons and supplies to ISIL were shot down by the Iraq government in February 2015. Russia soldiers are in Syria at the request of the Syrian government to help fight ISIL and other rebel groups. The British, French, and U.S. governments have invaded Syria which is an act of war under the pretext of fighting ISIL. This has to raise a few flags about the nature of the provocations against the aggressor nations that are used as justification for this invasion? Who is actually behind the recent terrorist attacks? What is the motive of the West and Israel? Are they anxious to get into Syria to stop the Russians from destroying their Frankenstein puppet? President Putin has already publically confirmed that ISIL is wholly and generously supplied by the West. This is a most serious provocation which could easily lead to direct confrontation between nuclear powers with consequences that could be unimaginable. The stage is being set.

Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war

The Washington Post | Liz Sly | December 1, 2015

BAIJI, Iraq — On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.

Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting American control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.

“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.

The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”

U.S. military officials say the charges are too far-fetched to merit a response. “It’s beyond ridiculous,” said Col. Steve Warren, the military’s Baghdad-based spokesman. “There’s clearly no one in the West who buys it, but unfortunately, this is something that a segment of the Iraqi population believes.”

The perception among Iraqis that the United States is somehow in cahoots with the militants it claims to be fighting appears, however, to be widespread across the country’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide, and it speaks to more than just the troubling legacy of mistrust that has clouded America’s relationship with Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the subsequent withdrawal eight years later.

At a time when attacks by the Islamic State in Paris and elsewhere have intensified calls for tougher action on the ground, such is the level of suspicion with which the United States is viewed in Iraq that it is unclear whether the Obama administration would be able to significantly escalate its involvement even if it wanted to.

“What influence can we have if they think we are supporting the terrorists?” asked Kirk Sowell, an analyst based in neighboring Jordan who publishes the newsletter Inside Iraqi Politics.

In one example of how little leverage the United States now has, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi pushed back swiftly against an announcement Tuesday by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter that an expeditionary force of U.S. troops will be dispatched to Iraq to conduct raids, free hostages and capture Islamic State leaders.

Carter did not say how many soldiers would be deployed or where. Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, where support for the United States remains strong, has said it would welcome more troops. But Abadi indicated they would not be needed.

“There is no need for foreign ground combat troops,” he said in a statement. “Any such support and special operations anywhere in Iraq can only be deployed subject to the approval of the Iraqi Government and in coordination with the Iraqi forces and with full respect to Iraqi sovereignty.”

The allegations of American collusion with the Islamic State are aired regularly in parliament by Shiite politicians and promoted in postings on social media. They are persistent enough to suggest a deliberate campaign on the part of Iran’s allies in Iraq to erode American influence, U.S. officials say.

In one typical recent video that appeared on the Facebook page of a Shiite militia, a lawmaker with the country’s biggest militia group, the Badr Organization, waves apparently new U.S military MREs (meals ready to eat) — one of them chicken and dumplings — allegedly found at a recently captured Islamic State base in Baiji, offering proof, he said, of U.S. support.

“The Iranians and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias are really pushing this line of propaganda, that the United States is supporting ISIL,” Warren said. “It’s part of the Iranian propaganda machine.”

The perception plays into a widening rift within Iraq’s ruling Shiite elite over whether to pivot more toward Iran or the United States. Those pushing the allegations “want to create a narrative that Iran is our ally and the United States is our enemy, and this undermines Abadi, who is America’s ally,” Sowell said.

Iraqi government officials say they don’t believe the charges, and point out that Abadi regularly pushes back against them. But Abadi’s own position has weakened in recent months. He is battling for his political survival against a variety of Shiite militia leaders whose power has been bolstered by the increasingly dominant role played on the battlefield by the militias, collectively known as Hashd al-Shaabi, or popular mobilization units.

Iraqi officials complain that their task is hampered by what is universally perceived as the lackluster U.S. response to the threat posed by the Islamic State.

“We don’t believe the Americans support Daesh,” said Naseer Nouri, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “But it is true that most people are saying they do, and they are right to believe that the Americans should be doing much more than they are. It’s because America is so slow that most people believe they are supporting Daesh.”

U.S. warplanes routinely fail to respond to requests for air support because of U.S. rules of engagement that preclude strikes if there is a risk civilians may be hit, he said. According to Warren, that standard frequently is not met. The United States has conducted more than 3,768 strikes in Iraq as of Nov. 19, according to the according to the U.S. military, and the tempo of strikes has increased lately, U.S. officials say.

But it also appears that the fighters are unaware when they do receive U.S. air support. The U.S. military reported near-daily strikes in support of the offensive to recapture Baiji last month and continues regularly to respond to requests for strikes in the vicinity, Warren said.

The fighters there insist there have been no strikes by the Americans at all. “We’d be better off without them,” said 1st Lt. Murtada Fadl, who is serving with the Iraqi Special Forces in Baiji. He said that the only air support had come from the Iraqi air force and that he wishes the government would ask the Russians to replace the Americans.

In a part of the world where outcomes are often confused with intentions and regional complexities enable conspiracy theories to thrive, the notion that the United States is colluding with the Islamic State holds a certain logic, according to Mustafa Alani, director of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. Most Arabs are too in awe of American might to believe that it is deliberately adopting a minimalist approach, he said.

“The reason is that the Americans aren’t doing the job people expect them to do,” he said. “Mosul was lost and the Americans did nothing. Syria was lost and the Americans did nothing. Paris is attacked and the Americans aren’t doing much. So people believe this is a deliberate policy. They can’t believe the American leadership fails to understand the developments in the region, and so the only other explanation is that this is part of a conspiracy.”

On the streets of Baghdad, most Iraqis see no other explanation.

“The image of the U.S. was damaged in the region, so they created Daesh in order to fight them and restore their image,” said Mohammed Abdul Khaleq, a journalist for a local TV station who was drinking coffee in a cafe favored by writers, most of whom said they agreed.

A rare dissenting voice was offered by Hassan Abdul-Wahab, 23, selling luggage in a nearby shop. “It is true that most people believe that,” he said. “But it’s not based on reason. It’s based on racism — because Iraqis don’t like Americans in the first place.”

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

Catholic Schools have not taught the Catholic Faith in years! But seriously, has any pope ever muttered such vain tripe in the history of the Church?

The Pope: “No to proselytism in Catholic schools”

Then an accusation: teachers are badly paid.

La Repubblica | November 21, 2015

Vatican City:  “Never proselytize in schools.”  Pope Francis said this in the Paul VI Audience Hall to seven thousand participants at the World Congress on Catholic Education organized by the Congregation in charge of Catholic Education.

“Christian education” -- the Pope says -- “is not only teaching catechism and proselytizing. Never proselytize in schools. Christian education is bringing up the young in complete reality with human values and one of these [values] is transcendence. Today there is a tendency to neo-positivism, which is education in immanent things, in countries of Christian tradition as well as those of pagan tradition. We are closed to transcendence but closure is of no use in education.”

And once more, referring to the terrorism emergency: “The greatest temptation in wars, at times like this, are walls and the  greatest failure for an educator is  to educate inside [these] walls. We need to go to the peripheries, which is not only doing works of charity. From the peripheries reality is understood better than from the centre.  In the centre one is always covered, always defended.” 

Finally a jab at the economic treatment of teachers: “Educators are among the most badly-paid workers. What does this mean? Simply that the State isn’t interested. If it did, things wouldn’t be like this.”

The Fall of Simon the Magician and his “(f)lying wonders”

For there shall arise false Christs, etc. Signs, wrought by art magic, by the power of the devil, whom many heresiarchs have had as a familiar spirit, as I have shown in I Tim. 4:1. Such was their great prince Simon Magus (Simon the Magician), who deluded Nero and the Romans, so that they erected a statue to him at Rome; but at length he himself, flying through the air by the aid of the devil, was dashed down to the earth by the prayers of St. Peter, and falling upon a stone, broke his knees “so that he who had attempted to fly was not able to walk; and he who had taken wings, lost his legs,” as S. Maximus says (Hom. 5, de SS. Petro et Paulo).

Cornelius a Lapide, The Great Commentary, Matt 24:24

RATZINGER/HEGELIAN VERSION OF DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT

In contrast to the Hermeneutic of Continuity/Discontinuity we have the Hermeneutic of Reform. The nature of Reform lies in the interplay on the different levels between continuity and discontinuity.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

A False Battle Against Islam

Roberto de Mattei | Rome | November 18, 2015

Mercy is a great Christian virtue, but if it is emancipated from the virtues of justice and fortitude, it becomes the ecclesiastical version of the secularist culture of surrender. This culture today is expressed in all kinds of cultural and moral deviation, including Satanism, an anti-religion in which many young people bestow unwittingly to the cult of rock concerts. Furthermore, for a symbolic nemesis, Kiss the Devil was the title of the song being played on the stage at the Bataclan when the terrorists began their massacre. The culture of death, of the Islamic or relativist sort, can be confronted and won only by the authentic light of the Gospel.

Apparently they did not read Pope Francis’ Gaia Cult Encyclical on Earth Worship!

Prominent Scientists Declare Climate Claims Ahead of UN Summit ‘Irrational’ – ‘Based On Nonsense’ – ‘Leading us down a false path’

· MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen: 'Demonization of CO2 is irrational at best and even modest warming is mostly beneficial.' - 'When someone says this is the warmest temperature on record. What are they talking about? It’s just nonsense. This is a very tiny change period.'

· Princeton Physicist Dr. Will Happer: 'Policies to slow CO2 emissions are really based on nonsense. We are being led down a false path. To call carbon dioxide a pollutant is really Orwellian. You are calling something a pollutant that we all produce. Where does that lead us eventually?'

· Greenpeace Co-Founder Dr. Patrick Moore: 'We are dealing with pure political propaganda that has nothing to do with science.'

Marc Morano | Climate Depot | November 19, 2015

AUSTIN, Texas – A team of prominent scientists gathered in Texas today at a climate summit to declare that fears of man-made global warming were “irrational” and “based on nonsense” that “had nothing to do with science.” They warned that “we are being led down a false path” by the upcoming UN climate summit in Paris.

The scientists appeared at a climate sulmmit sponsored by the Texas Policy Foundation. The summit in Austin was titled: “At the Crossroads: Energy & Climate Policy Summit.”

Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen, an emeritus Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT, derided what he termed climate “catastrophism.”

“Demonization of CO2 is irrational at best and even modest warming is mostly beneficial,” Lindzen said.

Lindzen cautioned: “The most important thing to keep in mind is – when you ask ‘is it warming, is it cooling’, etc.  — is that we are talking about something tiny (temperature changes) and that is the crucial point.”

Lindzen also challenged the oft-repeated UN IPCC claim that most of warming over past 50 years was due to mankind.

“People get excited over this. Is this statement alarming? No,” Lindzen stated.

“We are speaking of small changes 0.25 Celcius would be about 51% of the recent warming and that strongly suggests a low and inconsequential climate sensitivity – meaning no problem at all,” Lindzen explained.

“I urge you when looking at a graph, check the scales! The uncertainty here is tenths of a degree,” he noted.

“When someone points to this and says this is the warmest temperature on record. What are they talking about? It’s just nonsense. This is a very tiny change period. And they are arguing over hundredths of a degree when it is uncertain in tenths of a degree,” Lindzen said.

“And the proof that the uncertainty is tenths of a degree are the adjustments that are being made. If you can adjust temperatures to 2/10ths of a degree, it means it wasn’t certain to 2/10ths of a degree,” he said. (Also See: Scientists balk at ‘hottest year’ claims: Ignores Satellites showing 18 Year ‘Pause’ – ‘We are arguing over the significance of hundredths of a degree’ – The ‘Pause’ continues)

“The UN IPCC wisely avoided making the claim that 51% of a small change in temperature constitutes a problem. They left this to the politicians and anyone who took the bait,” he said.

Lindzen noted that National Academy of Sciences president Dr. Ralph Cicerone has even admitted that there is no evidence for a catastrophic claims of man-made global warming. (See: Backing away from climate alarm? NAS Pres. Ralph Cicerone says ‘we don’t have that kind of evidence’ to claim we are ‘going to fry’ from AGW)

Lindzen also featured 2006 quotes from Scientist Dr. Miike Hulme, Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, admitting that claims of a climate catastrophe were not the “language of science.”

“The discourse of catastrophe is a campaigning device,” Hulme wrote to the BBC in 2006. “The language of catastrophe is not the language of science. To state that climate change will be ‘catastrophic’ hides a cascade of value-laden assumptions which do not emerge from empirical or theoretical science,” Hulme wrote.

“Is any amount of climate change catastrophic? Catastrophic for whom, for where, and by when? What index is being used to measure the catastrophe?” Hulme continued.

Lindzen singled out Secretary of State John Kerry for his ‘ignorance’ on science.

“John Kerry stands alone,” Lindzen said. “Kerry expresses his ignorance of what science is,” he added.

Lindzen also criticized EPA Chief Gina McCarthy’s education: “I don’t want to be snobbish, but U Mass Boston is not a very good school,” he said to laughter.

Lindzen concluded his talk by saying: “Learn how to identify claims that have no alarming implications and free to say ‘So what?’”

Princeton Physicist Dr. Will Happer, who has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers, called policies to reduce CO2 “based on nonsense.”

“Policies to slow CO2 emissions are really based on nonsense. They are all based on computer models that do not work. We are being led down a false path.

“Our breath is not that different from a power plant,” he continued.

“To call carbon dioxide a pollutant is really Orwellian. You are calling something a pollutant that we all produce. Where does that lead us eventually?” he asked.

“Coal, formed from ancient CO2, is a benefit to the world. Coal is CO2 from ancient atmospheres. We are simply returning CO2 to the atmosphere from which it came when you burn coal. And it’s a good thing since it is at very low levels in the atmosphere. We are in a CO2 famine. It is very, very low,” Happer explained.

Happer continued: “CO2 will be beneficial and crop yields will increase.” “More CO2 will be a very significant benefit to agriculture,” he added.

Happer then showed a picture of polluted air in China with the caption: “Real pollution in Shanghai.”

“If you can see it, it’s not CO2,” Happer said.

“If plants could vote, they would vote for coal,” Happer declared.

Happer also rebutted the alleged 97% consensus.

“97% of scientists have often been wrong on many things,” he said.

Ecologist and Greenpeace founding member Dr. Patrick Moore discussed the benefits of rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“Let’s celebrate CO2!” Moore declared.

“We know for absolute certain that carbon dioxide is the stuff of life, the foundation for life on earth,” Moore said.

“We are dealing with pure political propaganda that has nothing to do with science,” he continued.

“The deserts are greening from rising CO2,” he added.

“Co2 has provided the basis of life for at least 3.5 billion years,” Moore said.

In case you missed this article: It explains why neo-con politicians want the U.S. to enforce a No-Fly zone over Syria! The Russians are killing their baby!

Iraqi Army Downs 2 UK Planes Carrying Weapons for ISIL

Feb 23, 2015

TEHRAN (FNA) - Iraq's army has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province, a senior lawmaker disclosed on Monday.

"The Iraqi Parliament's National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL," Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

He said the Iraqi parliament has asked London for explanations in this regard.

The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in Baghdad is receiving daily reports from people and security forces in al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas.

The Iraqi lawmaker further noted the cause of such western aids to the terrorist group, and explained that the US prefers a chaotic situation in Anbar Province which is near the cities of Karbala and Baghdad as it does not want the ISIL crisis to come to an end.

Earlier today, a senior Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that US and Israeli-made weapons have been discovered from the areas purged of ISIL terrorists.

"We have discovered weapons made in the US, European countries and Israel from the areas liberated from ISIL's control in Al-Baqdadi region," the Al-Ahad news website quoted Head of Al-Anbar Provincial Council Khalaf Tarmouz as saying.

He noted that the weapons made by the European countries and Israel were discovered from the terrorists in the Eastern parts of the city of Ramadi.

Al-Zameli had also disclosed in January that the anti-ISIL coalition's planes have dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.

Al-Zameli underlined that the coalition is the main cause of ISIL's survival in Iraq.

"There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition's military aid to ISIL terrorists through air (dropped cargoes)," he told FNA in January.

He noted that the members of his committee have already proved that the US planes have dropped advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft weapons, for the ISIL, and that it has set up an investigation committee to probe into the matter.

"The US drops weapons for the ISIL on the excuse of not knowing about the whereabouts of the ISIL positions and it is trying to distort the reality with its allegations.

He noted that the committee had collected the data and the evidence provided by eyewitnesses, including Iraqi army officers and the popular forces, and said, "These documents are given to the investigation committee ... and the necessary measures will be taken to protect the Iraqi airspace."

Also in January, another senior Iraqi legislator reiterated that the US-led coalition is the main cause of ISIL's survival in Iraq.

"The international coalition is only an excuse for protecting the ISIL and helping the terrorist group with equipment and weapons," Jome Divan, who is member of the al-Sadr bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said.

He said the coalition's support for the ISIL is now evident to everyone, and continued, "The coalition has not targeted ISIL's main positions in Iraq."

In late December, Iraqi Parliamentary Security and Defense Commission MP disclosed that a US plane supplied the ISIL terrorist organization with arms and ammunition in Salahuddin province.

MP Majid al-Gharawi stated that the available information pointed out that US planes are supplying ISIL organization, not only in Salahuddin province, but also other provinces, Iraq TradeLink reported. […….]

Muslim Spirituality – “Lying Wonders”

In those days I lived in the naval base at Simonstown in South Africa, overlooking the blue waters of False Bay and the golden hills of the Hottentot Hollands. Some Malay workmen invited me to attend the khalifah ceremony in the local school hall. For weeks they had prepared for the ceremony. As they sat about the stage there was nothing to suggest that anything extraordinary was about to happen. Someone was beating on a metal drum. Someone else was pouring incense in the flames. I knew these men well, and they invited me on the stage, so I sat with them in the smoke of incense, listening to the drumbeats, admiring the strange medley of weapons they had brought with them— curving swords, knives, daggers, skewers, even steel knitting needles. I asked Ibrahim about the heavy sword he was cradling in his arms. “It is a holy sword,” he said, grasping it by the handle. “It is many hundreds of years old.” And in truth the sword quivering in his hand looked holy: so old and grey and mottled; and I knew it was razor sharp, because I drew my finger along the blade.

So perhaps half an hour passed, until they fell into a trance, their eyes closed, their lips moving. Suddenly Ibrahim threw off his coat and stood there naked to the waist, a strange smile of contentment on his lips. Then the sword flashed above his head and he brought it with a sickening crash against his outstretched left arm. The sword shivered, as though it had struck iron; but there was no wound. Later, with the same force, he stabbed himself in the stomach with the sword and the blade penetrated about four inches, and once again there was no blood. He inserted the sword between his ribs and drove it right into his chest; and he did not die. He was smiling when he drew the blade out again. Then he handed the sword to me—there was no trace of blood on it—and said: “Strike! It will not harm you! We shall see that no harm comes to you!” But I did not take the sword.

For the rest of the evening the Malays stabbed, hacked and cut themselves, drove spikes and knitting needles through their tongues, necks and cheeks, and came to no harm. There was no blood, or only a little trickle. Swords flashed, drums were beating, the sweet-smelling incense made us all drowsy, but not so drowsy that we were unable to recognize that something miraculous was happening. Swords went through them as through butter. What was astonishing above everything else was the strength employed to drive the swords home and the way the flesh opened to the sword-points. “You have to say the name of God over and over again,” Ibrahim said later. “Then everything is possible.”

I saw all the workmen again the next day; they were working in the naval base as though nothing had happened. They joked about the khalifah, and some of them had small wounds which they painted with mercurochrome.

Never before or since have I witnessed such command of spirit over matter. I have seen men walking through fire, but this was a small matter in comparison with the great driving swords which tore through the flesh of these Malays and left them unscathed; and though I shall never know how such a display adds to the glory of God, I know they performed these rites in complete innocence, proving only that if a man has faith in his God, nothing is impossible to him.

Robert Payne, The Holy Sword, The Story of Islam from Muhammad to the Present, 1959; republished in 1987 as History of Islam

For Obedience to be a Virtue it must necessarily be directly governed by the Virtue of Religion!

One must resist the Pope who openly destroys the Church.

St. Cajetan

When a foulness invades the whole Church, we must return to the Church of the past.

St. Vincent of Lerins

Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks souls, or who disturbs the civil order, or, above all, him who tries to destroy the Church. It is licit to resist him by not doing what he orders and by impeding the execution of his will.

St. Robert Bellarmine

They (the keys of authority given Jesus Christ to St. Peter) will never cease to be durable, they will last forever and they will never break.

God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena

We have had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence.

St. Catherine of Siena

The devil is always discovering something novel against the truth.

Pope Leo the Great

When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.

Manly P. Hall, 33^rd degree Mason, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, chapter 4, the Fellow Craft

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity – Inclusionary vs. Exclusionary

Pope Francis Teaches:

"We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an important part of the sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. Rom 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word."

Pope Francis, Evangeliuum Gaudium

The Catholic Church Infallibly Teaches:
"It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began;"

Council of Florence, Denzinger 712

"It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church."

Council of Florence, Denzinger 714

Pope Francis: The Christian includes; Pharisees exclude

Pope Francis/Homilies | Vatican Radio | Casa Santa Marta | November 5, 2015

The Christian includes, he does not close the door to anyone, even if this provokes resistance. He who excludes, because he believes himself to be better, generates conflicts and divisions, and does not consider the fact that “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” That was the message of Pope Francis during Thursday morning’s Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

The attitude of Christ is to include

In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul exhorts us not to judge and not to despise our brothers, because, the Pope said, this leads to excluding them from “our little group,” to being selective, and this is not Christian.” Christ, in fact, “with His sacrifice on Calvary” unites and includes “all men in salvation.” In the Gospel, publicans and sinners draw near to Jesus – “that is, the excluded, all those that were outside,” – and “the Pharisees and the scribes complained”:

“The attitude of the Scribes and the Pharisees is the same, they exclude. [They say,] ‘We are the perfect, we follow the law. These people are sinners, they are publicans’; and the attitude of Jesus is to include. There are two paths in life: the path exclusion of persons from our community and the path of inclusion. The first can be little but is the root of all wars: all calamities, all wars, begin with an exclusion. One is excluded from the international community, but also from families, from friends – How many fights there are! – and the path that makes us see Jesus and teaches us Jesus is quite another, it is contrary to the other: to include.”

There is resistance in the face of inclusion

“It is not easy to include the people,” Pope Francis said, “because there is resistance, there is that selective attitude.” For this reason, Jesus tells two parables: the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the woman and the lost coin. Both the shepherd and the woman will do anything to find what they have lost, and when they find it, they are full of joy:

“They are full of joy because they have found what was lost and they go to their neighbours, their friends, because they are so happy: ‘I found, I included.’ This is the ‘including’ of God, against the exclusion of those who judge, who drive away people, persons: ‘No, no to this, no to that, no to that…’; and a little of circle of friends is created, which is their environment. It is a dialectic between exclusion and inclusion. God has included us all in salvation, all! This is the beginning. We with our weaknesses, with our sins, with our envy, jealousies, we all have this attitude of excluding which – as I said – can end in wars.”

If I exclude, I will one day stand before the tribunal of God

Jesus, the Pope said, acts like His Father, Who sent Him to save us; “He seeks to include us,” “to be a family.”

“We think a little bit, and at least – at least! – we do our little part, we never judge: ‘But this one has acted in this way…’ But God knows: it is his life, but I don’t exclude him from my heart, from my prayer, from my greeting, from my smile, and if the occasion arises I say a good word to him. Never excluding, we have no right! And how Paul finishes the Letter: ‘We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God . . .  then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.’ If I exclude I will one day stand before the judgment seat of God, I will have to give an account of myself to God. Let us ask the grace of being men and women who always include, always, always! in the measure of healthy prudence, but always. Not closing the doors to anyone, always with an open heart: ‘It pleases me, it displeases me,’ but the heart is open. May the Lord grant us this grace.”

The ‘Pitiless’ Spokesman for the Vatican - and the Homosexual Lobby - A Deconstructionist!

There must be an end to exclusionary language and a strong emphasis on embracing reality as it is. We should not be afraid of new and complex situations. The language must be renewed. And there was a close link made to the Jubilee of Mercy. The Jubilee of Mercy which will begin in December also requires a new form of language both public and private. The Jubilee of Mercy requires a language of mercy. In particular in speaking about homosexuals, or gay persons, we do not pity gay persons, but we recognize them as who they are. They are our sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters (and sweethearts?).

Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., Vatican’s English-language spokesman at the Holy See Press Office under Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., president and vice-chancellor of Assumption University at the University of Windsor, Canada, and CEO for Salt and Light Media Foundation

COMMENT: This sermon of Pope Francis echoes what Vatican spokesman and homosexual activist, Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., recently said at the Synod on the Family that “there must be an end to exclusionary language and strong emphasis on embracing reality as it is.” Rosica was speaking specifically about including open homosexuality within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is not as direct as Rosica but the message is the same. Pope Francis may not be a homosexual but he has made their interests his own and it is clear that he is intent upon promoting the homosexual agenda within the Catholic Church under the pretext of “mercy”. His interpretation of scripture is clearly ideologically driven in a very heavy handed manner. With all the great Fathers, Doctors, Saints and expert theologians in the history of the Church who have left us a tremendous store of rich biblical commentaries, you might think that Francis would take a few minutes to read up on the subject before babbling his empty headed comments and exposing his inexcusable ignorance. After all, the Vatican has one of the best libraries in the world. If he is going to subject Holy Scripture to a twisted ideology he might as well do it intelligently.

The fact of the matter is that the language of God is, and has always been, exclusionary because His love is conditional, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise: “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.” “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels…..” “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.” “Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Lord, Lord, open to us; but he answering, said: I know you not.” “And sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall spearate the wicked from among the just...”

In every case, some category of souls is excluded. Those who claim as Pope Francis has that “God has included us all in salvation, all!” will be among those excluded from the company of God forever. For Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love.” Those who are “excluded” are excluded because they do not “abide in His love” because the do not “keep (His) commandments”!

Political Unity of Church and State in Italy on an important “issue of civilization”!
The coincidence must be fortuitous, but on Monday, October 13, precisely on the very same day on which in the Italian political arena both the party of [Socialist prime-minister] Matteo Renzi as that of Silvio Berlusconi [the main "conservative" party] announced their will to legitimize homosexual unions, on the other bank of the Tiber the special secretary of the Synod on the Family, Archbishop Bruno Forte, said that he also hoped for the same thing, because “it is an issue of civilization.”

Sandro Magister

The Hegelian dialectic - Conservative Modernists vs. Progressive Modernists has “opened the door” to Sin!

I’m satisfied; the door has been opened to the possibility of the divorced and remarried being granted Communion. There has been somewhat of an opening, but the consequences were not discussed. All of this is now in the Pope’s hands, who will decide what has to be done. The synod made suggestions. There has been an opening, but the question has still to be resolved in full and needs to be studied more.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, commenting on the Synod

The Pharisees and Sadducees of our time

Roberto de Mattei | Corrispondenza Romana | November 11, 2015

Criticizing the “Pharisees” is recurrent in Pope Francis’ words. In numerous discourses, between 2013 and 2015, he has spoken of “the sickness of the Pharisees” (7th November 2013), “who rebuke Jesus for not respecting the Sabbath” (1st April 2014), of “the temptation of self-sufficiency and of clericalism, that codification of the faith in rules and regulations, as the scribes, the Pharisees, the doctors of the law did at the time of Jesus” (September 19th 2014). In the Angelus of August 30th 2015 he said that just as it was for the Pharisees it is “dangerous too for us to consider ourselves acceptable, or even worse, better than others simply for observing the rules, customs, even though we do not love our neighbor, we are hard of heart, we are arrogant and proud.” On November 8th 2015, he contrasted the behavior of the Scribes and Pharisees based on “exclusion” and Jesus’ behavior based on “inclusion”.

The reference to the Pharisees is evident, ultimately, in the Pope’s concluding discourse last October 24th, at the end of the XIV Ordinary Synod on the Family. In effect, who are the “closed hearts, which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families” if not “the Pharisees who were making religion […] a [never-ending] chain of commandments”? (June 26th 2014). A Pharisee seems to be anyone who defends, with stubborn pride, the existence of commandments, laws and the absolute, mandatory rules of the Church.

Yet, who were the Pharisees exactly? When Jesus began His preaching, the Jewish world was divided in various currents, which the Gospels mention, and also historians like Flavio Giuseppe [Josephus] (37-100 A.D.) in his works Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War. The main sects were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees observed the religious prescriptions in great detail, but had lost the spirit of Truth. They were proud men, who falsified the prophecies relating to the Messiah and interpreted the Divine law according to their own opinions. The Sadducees taught even graver errors, by placing in doubt the immortality of the soul and rejecting most of the Sacred Books. Both disputed the power of the Sanhedrin, which was lead by the Sadducees at the time Jesus was condemned. 

The Sadducees are mentioned only once in Mark and three times in Matthew, while the Pharisees appear repeatedly in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. In Chapter 23 of St. Matthew, there is in particular, an open accusation against them: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint […] and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone.” 

In commenting this passage from Matthew, St. Thomas explains that the Pharisees were not reprimanded by the Lord for the payment of tithes “but only for the fact that they disregarded more important precepts, those of the spiritual order. However about the practice per se, He seems to commend them by saying “These things ought to be done” (Haec oportuit facere), under the law, as Chrysostom adds” (Summa Theologica, II-IIae, q. 87 ad 3). 

St. Augustine, regarding the Pharisee St. Luke describes (18, 10-14), says that he is condemned, not for his works, but for having boasted of his presumed sanctity (Letter 121, 1,3). Again St. Augustine, in the Letter to Casulano, explains that the Pharisee was not condemned for his fasting (Luke, 18, 11), but “because he exalted himself, puffed up with pride, over the Publican” (Letter 36, 3, 7). In fact, “fasting twice a week is devoid of merit for a person like the Pharisee, whereas it is a religious act for a humbly faithful or faithfully humble person, even if the Gospel does not speak of condemnation for the Pharisee, but rather justification for the Publican” (Letter 36, 4, 7).

We have the most synthetic definition of the Pharisees from St. Bonaventure: “Pharisaeus significat illos qui propter opera exteriora se reputant bonos; et ideo non habent lacrymas compunctionis” (De S. Maria Magdalena Sermon I, in Opera omnia, Ad Claras Aquas, Firenze 2001 vol. IX, col. 556b). “Pharisees are those who consider themselves good because of their exterior works and hence they have no tears of compunction.”

Jesus condemned the Pharisees because He knew their hearts: they were sinners but considered themselves saints. The Lord wanted to teach His disciples that the fulfilling of exterior good works was not enough; what makes an act good is not only its object, but its intention. Nonetheless, if it’s true that good works are not enough when the good intention is not there, it is also true that a good intention is not enough, if there are no good works. The party of the Pharisees which Gamaliel, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea belonged to (Jewish Antiquity, 20.9.1)and St. Paul himself (Acts 23, 6) was better than the Sadducee party, precisely because, in spite of their hypocrisy, they respected the laws, whereas the Sadducees, who numbered in their ranks the High Priests Annas and Caiaphas (Jewish Antiquity, 18.35.95), looked down on them. The Pharisees were proud conservatives, the Sadducees were unbelieving progressives, but both were united in rejecting the Divine mission of Jesus (Matthew, 3, 7-10).

Who are the Pharisees and Sadducees of our time? We can say it in all certainty. They are  those who, before, during and after the Synod tried to (and will try to) modify the practice of the Church, and, through practice, Her doctrine on marriage and the family.

Jesus proclaimed the indissolubility of marriage, basing it on the restoration of the natural law the Jews had departed from, and He reinforced it by elevating the marriage bond to [the level of] a Sacrament. The Pharisees and the Sadducees rejected this teaching, denying the Divine words of Jesus, to which they substituted their own opinion. They falsely referred to Moses, just like the innovators of our times refer to a supposed tradition of the first centuries, falsifying history and the doctrine of the Church. 

For this a valiant Bishop, defender of the orthodox faith, Monsignor Athanasius Schneider speaks of a “Neo-Mosaic practice” which re-emerges: “The new disciples of Moses and the new Pharisees during the last two Assemblies of the Synod (2014 and 2015) masked their practical denial of the indissolubility of marriage and of a suspension of the Sixth Commandment on a case-by-case basis under the guise of the concept of mercy, using expressions such as: “way of discernment,” “accompaniment”, “orientations of the bishop,” “dialogue with the priest,” “forum internum,” “a more fuller integration into the life of the Church,” a possible suppression of imputability regarding the cohabitation in irregular unions (cf. Final Report, nn. 84-86).” (The Final Report, nn. 84-86).

The Sadducees are the innovators that state openly the abandonment of the doctrine and practice of the Church; the Pharisees are those that proclaim the indissolubility of marriage with their lips, but deny it hypocritically in facts, proposing the “case by case” transgression of the moral law. The true followers of Jesus Christ belong neither to the neo-Pharisees party nor to the neo-Sadducee party, both modernists, but belong instead to the School of St. John the Baptist, who preached in the spiritual wastelands of his time. The Baptist, when he stigmatized the Pharisees and Sadducees as a “race of vipers” (Matthew 2, 7) and when he admonished Herod Antipas for his adultery, was not hard of heart, but was moved by love for God and souls. The hypocrites and the hard of heart were Herod’s advisors who claimed to reconcile his condition as an impenitent sinner with the teaching of the Scripture. Herod killed The Baptist to suffocate the voice of truth, yet the voice of the Precursor still resounds after twenty centuries.

Those who defend good doctrine do not follow the example of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but the example of St. John the Baptist and Our Lord.

The Poor Fool Paul VI who thought that he could Catholicize Secular Humanism ended up with the Novus Ordo Church – a Secular Humanized Catholicism!

But we cannot pass over one important consideration in our analysis of the religious meaning of the council: it has been deeply committed to the study of the modern world. Never before perhaps, so much as on this occasion, has the Church felt the need to know, to draw near to, to understand, to penetrate, serve and evangelize the society in which she lives; and to get to grips with it, almost to run after it, in its rapid and continuous change. This attitude, a response to the distances and divisions we have witnessed over recent centuries, in the last century and in our own especially, between the Church and secular society — this attitude has been strongly and unceasingly at work in the council; so much so that some have been inclined to suspect that an easy-going and excessive responsiveness to the outside world, to passing events, cultural fashions, temporary needs, an alien way of thinking... may have swayed persons and acts of the ecumenical synod, at the expense of the fidelity which is due to tradition, and this to the detriment of the religious orientation of the council itself. We do not believe that this shortcoming should be imputed to it, to its real and deep intentions, to its authentic manifestations.

[…..] Secular humanism, revealing itself in its horrible anti-clerical reality has, in a certain sense, defied the council. The religion of the God who became man has met the religion (for such it is) of man who makes himself God. And what happened? Was there a clash, a battle, a condemnation? There could have been, but there was none. The old story of the Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the council. A feeling of boundless sympathy has permeated the whole of it. The attention of our council has been absorbed by the discovery of human needs (and these needs grow in proportion to the greatness which the son of the earth claims for himself). But we call upon those who term themselves modern humanists, and who have renounced the transcendent value of the highest realities, to give the council credit at least for one quality and to recognize our own new type of humanism: we, too, in fact, we more than any others, honor mankind.

Paul VI, December 7, 1965, Concluding comment closing Vatican II

COMMENT: The purpose of the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis Bergoglio is to celebrate the end of Vatican II. That can be taken more than one way but, in the sense that Francis intends it, we cannot join in his celebration in the destruction of the Church. Paul VI was a disciple of Jacques Maritain and after his example Paul VI tried to reform the Church along the lines of a Catholicized secular humanism – an attempt to Catholicize the Masonic French revolution. The wreckage we see around us is evidence that such a proposal was nothing more than a chimerical dream. Humanism, by definition, is necessarily directed firstly toward man and not toward God.

Lest I be accused of self-contradiction here, let me make something clear: it is wrong to reduce matters of doctrine and discipline to subjects for voting at a Synod of Bishops, and the Pope should be able to control synodal proceedings and even disregard synodal votes precisely because he is the Supreme Pontiff. The point, however, is that Francis pretended that the “synodal process” expressed the will of the Synod Fathers under the influence of “the Spirit” while he manipulated the Synod behind the scenes in an effort to predetermine its outcome (as the thirteen cardinals politely protested in their historic letter to Francis). Hence with this Synod we had the worst of both worlds: the false appearance of democracy to lend legitimacy to an autocratic abuse of power by a pope heedless of the true nature of the papacy as a prudent conservator of Tradition, assisted by the neo-Modernist oligarchy he placed in control of the synodal mechanism.

Chris Ferrara, The Synod on the Family: Business Model for the ‘Spirit of Vatican II’

Catholicism can and must change, Francis forcefully tells Italian church gathering

In a 49-minute speech to a decennial national conference of the Italian church, Francis outlined anew a comprehensive vision for the future of the Catholic church, stressing that our times require a deeply merciful Catholicism that is unafraid of change

joshua j. mcelwee | Florence | November 10, 2015

Pope Francis has strongly outlined anew a comprehensive vision for the future of the Catholic church, forcefully telling an emblematic meeting of the entire Italian church community here that our times require a deeply merciful Catholicism that is unafraid of change. […..] Francis said Catholics must realize: "We are not living an era of change but a change of era." "Before the problems of the church it is not useful to search for solutions in conservatism or fundamentalism, in the restoration of obsolete conduct and forms that no longer have the capacity of being significant culturally," the pontiff said at one point during his remarks.

"Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, interrogatives -- but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened," said the pope. "It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ." [.....]

The pope's comments were remarkable in their breadth, emphasis, and forceful nature of delivery. As the pontiff spoke in Florence's artistically renowned cathedral, he was interrupted about a dozen times for applause.

Francis was speaking Tuesday to the theme of the Italian gathering, "A new humanism in Jesus Christ." He started his remarks Tuesday with a meditation on the face of Jesus, which is represented in the iconic dome of the Florence Cathedral in a renaissance image of the final judgment.

"Looking at his face, what do we see?" the pontiff asked those in the church of Jesus' face. "Before all, the face of a God who is emptied, a God who has assumed the condition of servant, humble and obedient until death." [……]

"Therefore we will not understand anything of Christian humanism and our words will be beautiful ... but will not be words of faith," he continued. "They will be words that resonate with emptiness." Outlining three aspects of Christian humanism, Francis asked the Italians to adopt an outlook of humility, disinterest in personal praise or power, and of living a life of the beatitudes.

The pope also said there were two specific temptations he wanted to warn the national church against, tying modern day struggles to two ancient heresies of the church: Pelagianism and Gnosticism.

Speaking to Pelagianism, which holds that humans can achieve salvation on their own without divine help, the pontiff said that in the modern day it "brings us to have trust in structures, in organizations, in perfect plans, however abstract." [.....]

Speaking to Gnosticism, which widely held that people should shun the material world in favor of the spiritual realm, Francis identified such thinking today with that which "brings us to trust in logical and clear reasoning ... which however loses the tenderness of the flesh of the brother." [.....]

Excepting, naturally, the "diversity" of traditional doctrinal truth and morality

But one thing will be absolutely indispensable -- the future church can only be a church which combines unity and diversity on all levels. Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich

Pope’s concept of a synodal church must be put into practice, Marx says

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt |  NCR | Nov. 11, 2015

The pope's concept of a synodal church, which Francis outlined in his address on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Synod of Bishops on Oct. 17, must be put into practice, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, the president of the German bishops' conference, has emphasized.

"In this striking address in the middle of the synod, Pope Francis made it quite clear that the church's future path could only be one of synodal cooperation," Marx said at a study day on "Salutary Decentralization -- What local structures does a missionary church need?" at St. Georgen Jesuit College at Frankfurt.

"A synodal church is a church which takes all levels -- the pope, the bishops and the faithful -- into account," Marx, who is also a member of the Council of Cardinals, explained.

There had always been "that search for more" in the history of evangelization, "that wish to reach more people and to missionize more countries," Marx said. "But that 'more' is not enough. Evangelization must go deeper."

In the light of Francis' apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, the church was open for change.

"The church's outer form can be changed," Marx said. "For some people that sounds ominous but I don't feel in any way threatened by that. Change can be very beneficial without traditions having to be given up. We were very much aware of such debates at the recent synod."

"Subsidiarity, personality and solidarity must be incorporated into the church and made to come alive so that it becomes clear that a church that doesn't want to gamble away its efficacy, is precisely not built like a pyramid," the cardinal said. "The universal church can only exist in cooperation with the local churches – sub Petro et cum Petro – as Pope Francis strongly worded it."

"We should remember that," he emphasized.

In the synodal church that Francis desired, such a network of local churches cooperating with the universal church was realized, Marx said. The selection and further education of bishops -- but also controlling bishops -- was of the utmost significance in this future church. Incorporating modern findings on good management and leadership would be essential.

"But one thing will be absolutely indispensable -- the future church can only be a church which combines unity and diversity on all levels," he said.

Question: Should an open heretic and his supporters be denied Holy Communion?

Yesterday, before going to sleep—although I did not do this to put myself to sleep—I read or rather re-read the work of Cardinal Kasper, and I would like to thank him because I found profound theology, and even serene thinking in theology. It is pleasant to read serene theology. And I also found what Saint Ignatius told us about, that “sensus Ecclesiae,” love for Mother Church. It did me good and an idea came to me—excuse me, Eminence, if I embarrass you—but the idea is that this is called “doing theology on one’s knees.” Thank you. Thank you.

Pope Francis, praising the heretical theology of Cardinal Walter Kasper

Since Pope Francis' praise that Kasper was doing "theology on one's knees," the Mission has stated that the coming schism would end conservative Catholicism. Conservative Catholics will have to pick sides once and for all. Unfortunately, most will become formal modernists instead of faithful traditional Catholics. Below is an editorial by one conservative Catholic who has put his foot down. The Letter is a reply to the academic Nazis who think that they hold the key to the Gnostic book of ciphers that are necessary to make the Catholic faith intelligible.

Letter to the Catholic Academy

RossDouthat | SundayReview | Op-Ed Columnist | OCT 31, 2015

MY dear professors!

I read with interest your widely-publicized letter to my editors this week, in which you objected to my recent coverage of Roman Catholic controversies, complained that I was making unfounded accusations of heresy (both “subtly” and “openly”!), and deplored this newspaper’s willingness to let someone lacking theological credentials opine on debates within our church. I was appropriately impressed with the dozens of academic names who signed the letter on the Daily Theology site, and the distinguished institutions (Georgetown, Boston College, Villanova) represented on the list.

I have great respect for your vocation. Let me try to explain mine.

A columnist has two tasks: To explain and to provoke. The first requires giving readers a sense of the stakes in a given controversy, and why it might deserve a moment of their fragmenting attention span. The second requires taking a clear position on that controversy, the better to induce the feelings (solidarity, stimulation, blinding rage) that persuade people to read, return, and re-subscribe.

I hope we can agree that current controversies in Roman Catholicism cry out for explanation. And not only for Catholics: The world is fascinated — as it should be — by Pope Francis’ efforts to reshape our church. But the main parties in the church’s controversies have incentives to downplay the stakes. Conservative Catholics don’t want to concede that disruptive change is even possible. Liberal Catholics don’t want to admit that the pope might be leading the church into a crisis.

So in my columns, I’ve tried to cut throughthose obfuscations toward what seems like basic truth. There really is a high-stakes division, at the highest levels of the church, over whether to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to communion and what that change would mean. In this division, the pope clearly inclines toward the liberalizing view and has consistently maneuvered to advance it. At the recent synod, he was dealt a modest but genuine setback by conservatives.

And then to this description, I’ve added my own provoking view: Within the framework of Catholic tradition, the conservatives have by far the better of the argument.

First, because if the church admits the remarried to communion without an annulment — while also instituting an expedited, no-fault process for getting an annulment, as the pope is poised to do — the ancient Catholic teaching that marriage is “indissoluble” would become an empty signifier.

Second, because changing the church’s teaching on marriage in this way would unweave the larger Catholic view of sexuality, sin and the sacraments — severing confession’s relationship to communion, and giving cohabitation, same-sex unions and polygamy entirely reasonable claims to be accepted by the church.

Now this is, as you note, merely a columnist’s opinion. So I have listened carefully when credentialed theologians make the liberalizing case. What I have heard are three main claims. The first is that the changes being debated would be merely “pastoral” rather than “doctrinal,” and that so long as the church continues to say that marriage is indissoluble, nothing revolutionary will have transpired.

But this seems rather like claiming that China has not, in fact, undergone a market revolution because it’s still governed by self-described Marxists. No: In politics and religion alike, a doctrine emptied in practice is actually emptied, whatever official rhetoric suggests.

When this point is raised, reformers pivot to the idea that, well, maybe the proposed changes really are effectively doctrinal, but not every doctrinal issue is equally important, and anyway Catholic doctrine can develop over time.

But the development of doctrine is supposed to deepen church teaching, not reverse or contradict it. This distinction allows for many gray areas, admittedly. But effacing Jesus’ own words on the not-exactly-minor topics of marriage and sexuality certainly looks more like a major reversal than an organic, doctrinally-deepening shift.

At which point we come to the third argument, which makes an appearance in your letter: You don’t understand, you’re not a theologian. As indeed I am not. But neither is Catholicism supposed to be an esoteric religion, its teachings accessible only to academic adepts. And the impression left by this moving target, I’m afraid, is that some reformers are downplaying their real position in the hopes of bringing conservatives gradually along.

What is that real position? That almost anything Catholic can change when the times require it, and “developing” doctrine just means keeping up with capital-H History, no matter how much of the New Testament is left behind.

As I noted earlier, the columnist’s task is to be provocative. So I must tell you, openly and not subtly, that this view sounds like heresy by any reasonable definition of the term.

Now it may be that today’s heretics are prophets, the church will indeed be revolutionized, and my objections will be ground under with the rest of conservative Catholicism. But if that happens, it will take hard grinding, not just soft words and academic rank-pulling. It will require a bitter civil war.

And so, my dear professors: Welcome to the battlefield.

COMMENT: St. Thomas says that the weakest of all arguments are those grounded upon human authority and the strongest of all arguments are those grounded upon divine authority. Modernist theologians do not simply deny the authority of dogma. They claim the authority of dogma for themselves as its only meaningful interpreters. What they are doing is claiming for themselves the authority of God by giving their own human opinions the certainty of an argument based upon divine truth. This is a form of idolatry which they themselves do not recognize which makes repentance almost impossible.

The Novus Ordo as defined by its creators!

“The Lord's Supper or Mass is the sacred assembly or congregation of the people of God gathering together, with a priest presiding, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord. For this reason Christ's promise applies supremely to such a local gathering together of the Church: 'Where two or three come together in My name, there I am in their midst.' (Mt 18:20)”

General Instruction on the (Novus Ordo) Roman Missal, as originally published with the Novus Ordo

COMMENT:

This is the original official definition of the Novus Ordo. It was strongly criticized because there is no mention of sacrifice but only of "supper," no mention of True Presence but only of "memorial," and no mention of the priest as an alter Christos but only of a "presider." This is the accurate descriptive definition of a Protestant communion service. The definition was soon changed but the thing defined, that is, the Novus Ordo itself, remained the same. There is nothing in this definition that corresponds to the definition of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The question can now be formally asked of Rome: Is Novus Ordo communion distributed to Catholics living in an objective state of mortal sin because the miracle of Transubstantiation DOES NOT occur and therefore, there is no sacrilege to the Blessed Sacrament that anyone need be concerned about?

Pope Francis welcomes those in Mortal Sin to Novus Ordo Communion

In the same phone conversation of the past Wednesday, he declared himself very interested in the article I had dedicated to him two Sundays beforehand. He asked me what I thought of the conclusions of the Synod on the family. I responded -- as I had already written -- that the compromise that the Synod had reached did not seem to take into account the changes had had taken place in the family in the past fifty years, [and] therefore pointing towards the recovery of the traditional family was an objective that was completely unthinkable. I added that the open Church willed by him finds herself before a family that is open both in its goodness and in its wickedness, and that it is this that the Church finds before her.

"It is true -- Pope Francis answered -- it is a truth and for that matter the family that is the basis of any society changes continuously, as all things change around us. We must not think that the family does not exist any longer, it will always exist, because ours is a social species, and the family is the support beam of sociability, but it cannot be avoided that the current family, open as you say, contains some positive aspects, and some negative ones. ... The diverse opinion of the bishops is part of this modernity of the Church and of the diverse societies in which she operated, but the goal is the same, and for that which regards the admission of the divorced to the Sacraments, [it] confirms that this principle has been accepted by the Synod. This is bottom line result, the de facto appraisals are entrusted to the confessors, but at the end of faster or slower paths, all the divorced [who have remarried] who ask will be admitted."

Pope Francis, New “Encyclical” delivered to the atheist journalist, Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica after the Synod

Pope Francis the Humble & Merciful when he gets his way, the Bitter and Vindictive when he does not - No more Mr. Nice Guy!

[The synod] was also about laying closed hearts, which bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families. It was about making clear that the Church is a Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners seeking forgiveness, not simply of the righteous and the holy, but rather of those who are righteous and holy precisely when they feel themselves poor sinners. It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible. In the course of this Synod, the different opinions which were freely expressed – and at times, unfortunately, not in entirely well-meaning ways – certainly led to a rich and lively dialogue; they offered a vivid image of a Church which does not simply “rubberstamp”, but draws from the sources of her faith living waters to refresh parched hearts.

Pope Francis, In a remarkable revelation of character; Comments delivered after the recent Synod insulting those who defended the immutable truth of Catholic morality and doctrine.

Note of Clarification:

The Bergoglian/Kasperite heresy has to do with “sinners seeking forgiveness” without repentance. Therein lies the problem. There is no example of Jesus Christ or His Church forgiving sins without repentance. Repentance requires sorrow for sin (or at least from the fear of punishment), turning away from sin with the resolve not to sin again, confession of sin, and penance for sin committed. To characterize those seeking forgiveness of sin without repentance as the "poor in spirit" is evidence of inexcusable ignorance or an intentional smear of those he hates. It was in fact the moral hypocrisy of the Pharisees that sought justification without repentance that Francis is pedaling to Catholic faithful. Amazing! Pope (“Who am I to judge”) Francis cannot discern the objective perversity of homosexuals but now can read the “closed hearts” of anyone who disagrees with him.

“Confession must be unfeigned; otherwise, he will not receive grace.”

In sin there is first an offense against God; secondly there is the stain of sin, and thirdly the guilty state of punishment. Over against these three things, three others are arrayed: God remits the offense, covers the stain, and removes the guilty state of punishment by not imputing the sin. […..]The first type of sin is characterized by iniquity, which is a kind of inequality. This was present in original sin, in that the powers of the soul departed from the even tenor of innocence. This aspect of sin is forgiven and diminished, since it is taken away from the one responsible for it, although it still persists (in one's soul). The psalmist speaks of iniquities as plural in number, since there are diverse original sins in diverse individuals, but only a single original sin in one individual man (Adam). The second type of sin is characterized as actual mortal sin. These are said to be covered when they are no longer imputed to us as sin. The third type is venial sin, which the Lord does not impute to the sinner; for venial sin is not considered in terms of eternal punishment. Considered in another way, the first type is sin which occurs prior to baptism, the second after baptism, while the third occurs after confession, since sin will not then be subject to punishment. On the part of the individual, however, it is necessary for his confession to be unfeigned; otherwise, he will not receive grace: "The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful." (Wisdom 1:5) That is why he says, And in whose spirit there is no guile, unlike one who, possessing one thing inwardly, outwardly pretends another.

St. Thomas Aquinas, commentary on 31 Psalm

Kasper wearing the shoes that Bergoglio cobbled walking over the Truth – and praising the synodal support that selective stacking produced.

Synod opened the door for those divorced and remarried, Kasper says

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt |  Nov. 4, 2015

The synod had opened the door for divorced and remarried people to be admitted to the sacraments (of Holy Communion without the sacrament of Confession and turning from sin) -- in individual cases and under certain conditions -- but it could not go further otherwise the proposal would not have gotten the necessary two-thirds majority, German Cardinal Walter Kasper said.

"The synod opened the door, so to speak, for the admission of divorced and remarried people to the sacraments in individual cases but it did not stride through that door," Kasper said in his address at the 75th birthday of Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff Oct. 29 in Aachen, Germany. "It states the principle but not the possible consequences. That was the only way to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority on this issue."

Moreover, opening the door for divorced and remarried Catholics was "not the devious idea of a conspiratorial group of Germans," Kasper stressed, "but the unanimous decision of the Central (Synod) Commission which did not want to commit the pope but to leave him a free rein. Neither the conservatives nor the progressive were victorious. The true winner is the pope. His reform course was confirmed by more than a two-thirds majority."

The divorced and remarried problem, which was extensively and often heatedly discussed not only before but also during the synod, had "by no means" been the main question discussed at the synod "but only one of the many questions under discussion," Kasper said. Neither was it a new question but one that had been discussed for decades.

"The synod fathers did not make it easy for themselves but tackled the problem from the ground up," he said. "The discussions were not easy as pretty firmly entrenched positions often clashed. No bishop questioned the church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. The question was how to apply this teaching to difficult, complex and often confused situations without infringing upon church teaching itself."

With the end of the synod, the synodal process had arrived at a decisive stage but had not yet reached its goal. The pope's apostolic post-synodal exhortation would be the final, binding conclusion, Kasper said.

"By asking the faithful for their opinion, by its open culture of debate, by highlighting synodality, by emphasizing that the church was not a teacher who criticized, censured and condemned with a wagging finger but who, like a compassionate mother, listened, accompanied and encouraged, the synod had already changed the church," Kasper explained. It was quite clear that the pastoral approach through mercy had won through.

This merciful approach was the right way to understand the new evangelization, Kasper explained and recalled that St. Paul had already decided in favor of faith.

"If today parents in a so-called irregular marriage are permanently refused admission to the sacraments, then, more often than not, their children do not find their way to the sacraments," Kasper said. "Thus we lose the next and possibly the next but one generation. Mercy as a message of forgiveness and reconciliation, on the other hand, can open doors to the faith which had seemed closed."

Mercy was the correct and Christian sound judgement when applying justice, he said.

"It does not see human beings as purely legal cases and if need be lets the guillotine down," but takes the merciful approach which does not reinstate past wrongs but opens up a new chance. "In this way the law does not have a punishing but a medicinal, healing function," Kasper said.

Mormon Founder Joseph Smith was a "Kasper Catholic"!

It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives...

Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old.... The biggest bombshell for some in the essays is that Smith married women who were already married, some to men who were Smith’s friends and followers.
Rorate Caeli Comment: This is perfect: Joseph Smith may be disappointing many Mormons right now, according to the article, but he suddenly becomes the poster-boy for the advocacy of sequential polygamy and adultery by Cardinal Kasper, Cardinal Marx, and the whole neo-Pagan cabal wanting to destroy the immutable Catholic doctrine established by Our Lord Jesus Christ on marriage, family, valid penance, mortal sin, and non-sacrilegious reception of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

and other “highly reductive ideological views”

Bishop Guido Marini, Pope Benedict’s Master of Ceremonies, said that there is no difference in the traditional Church before Vatican II (1962-1965) and after. He stated: "Terms like 'preconciliar' and 'postconciliar,' belong to an outdated language, and if they are used with the intention of indicating a discontinuity in the Church's journey, I maintain that they are mistaken and typical of highly reductive ideological views."

Cardinal Kasper teaches:

… today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would ‘be converted’ and return to being Catholics.  This was expressly abandoned by Vatican II.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, Prefect of Vatican Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Feb. 26, 2001

The Church Infallibly Teaches:

… the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it.

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos

The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives….

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino

Cardinal Kasper teaches:

The old theory of substitution (of the New Covenant for the Old) is gone since the Second Vatican Council… Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, that is, the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, Prefect of Vatican Council for Promoting Christian Unity, May 1, 2001

The Church Infallibly Teaches:

The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic Law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally.  Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation.  All, therefore, who after that time (the promulgation of the Gospel) observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino

The rejection of this dogma is the foundation stone on which all of Vatican II Council is built.

Hence, also, that understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and there must never be recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding.

If anyone shall have said that it is possible that to the dogmas declared by the Church a meaning must sometimes be attributed according to the progress of science, different from what the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema.

Vatican I

Priests who see insults offered to God and remain silent are called by Isaias “mute dogs.” But to these mute dogs shall be imputed all the sins that they could have – but have not prevented.... Hence, St. Leo adds: “The priest who does not withdraw another from error proves that he is himself involved in it.”

St. Alphonsus de Liguori

But how, I ask, does it happen that the saints, who live only for God, resist their ordination through a sense of their unworthiness, and that some run blindly to the priesthood, and rest not until they attain it by lawful or unlawful means? Ah, unhappy men! Says St. Bernard, to be registered among the priests of God shall be for them the same as to be enrolled on the catalogue of the damned. And why? Because such persons are generally called to the priesthood, not by God, but by relatives, by interest, or ambition. Thus they enter the house of God, not through the motive a priest should have, but through worldly motives. Behold why the faithful are abandoned, the Church dishonored, so many souls perish, and with them such priests are also damned.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Why do most not receive the message of Our Lady of LaSalette? –

Because, they are not her "people."

It was 1846 and France was suffering social and political upheaval. Catholic churches had been abandoned and the Sacraments neglected… On the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, eleven-year-old Maxim Giraud and fourteen-year-old Melanie Mathieu beheld a luminous sphere, radiating like the sun, curiously unfolding before their eyes. Gradually they made out a woman seated with her face in her hands, weeping. She slowly arose and crossed her arms on her breast, her head some what inclined.

The children were drawn immediately to the lady's tears that adorned her face like perfectly cut diamonds glimmering the in the sun's rays. Her dynamic features were framed delicately in a white-satin headdress, on which rested a crown of roses, a bouquet in all shades of reds and pinks. A crucifix with pincers on one end and a hammer on the opposite end hung over her satin shawl, which was lined with more roses. The Madonna wore a long ivory dress embroidered in precious pearls and a yellow apron tied neatly to her waist. Wearing pearl slippers that peeked out from underneath her satin robe, she sheltered herself atop a bouquet of roses. "Come to me, my children," she tenderly addressed the two who stood afar, motionless. "Be not afraid. I am here to tell you something of the greatest importance." As soon as they were in touching distance of her, she began to speak with the urgency of an ending world: "If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to lose my Son's arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it." She told the children that her Son was especially concerned that people were not keeping holy Sunday, and that religion had lost its place in their country…. "You will make this known to all my people; you will make this known to all my people," she repeated to them.

Our Lady of LaSalette

The ultimate social goal of the homosexual movement is the transformation of key social structures and our entire culture according to the pattern dictated by the homosexual ideology, to satisfy the individual needs of the homosexuals themselves – chiefly their sexual needs, but also the corporate needs of their organizations. Although not publicized widely, and normally unacknowledged, the foundation for a political and juridical system in which homosexuality is accepted as an alternative and legitimate lifestyle, and in which homosexual acts are not merely tolerated but positively accepted, requires the structural transformation of society and a profound alteration in the consciousness of its members… There is no question that one of the top priorities of the homosexual movement is to force a “redefinition” of the American family away from the traditional husband-wife-children model to a more “functional” definition based on the notion of economic unit or any other basis that does not require heterosexuality as its foundation. The notion that a family must involve persons of both sexes is profoundly inimical to the homosexual movement. By their own definition, heterosexual relations are beyond their reach; thus the traditional family as a normative institution for human relations is unacceptable.

Rev. Enrique Rueda, The Homosexual Network

Therefore the sacred partnership of true marriage is constituted both by the will of God and the will of man. From God comes the very institution of marriage, the ends for which it was instituted, the laws that govern it, the blessings that flow from it; while man, through generous surrender of his own person made to another for the whole span of life, becomes, with the help and cooperation of God, the author of each particular marriage, with the duties and blessings annexed thereto from divine institution. Now when We come to explain, Venerable Brethren, what are the blessings that God has attached to true matrimony, and how great they are, there occur to Us the words of that illustrious Doctor of the Church whom We commemorated recently in Our Encyclical Ad salutem on the occasion of the fifteenth centenary of his death: "These," says St. Augustine, "are all the blessings of matrimony on account of which matrimony itself is a blessing; offspring, conjugal faith and the sacrament." And how under these three heads is contained a splendid summary of the whole doctrine of Christian marriage, the holy Doctor himself expressly declares when he said: "By conjugal faith it is provided that there should be no carnal intercourse outside the marriage bond with another man or woman; with regard to offspring, that children should be begotten of love, tenderly cared for and educated in a religious atmosphere; finally, in its sacramental aspect that the marriage bond should not be broken and that a husband or wife, if separated, should not be joined to another even for the sake of offspring. This we regard as the law of marriage by which the fruitfulness of nature is adorned and the evil of incontinence is restrained.

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, On Christian Marriage

Looming ahead is the Great Apostasy predicted by St. Paul to the Thessalonians when the Antichrist, “the man of sin” (2 Thess. 2: 3), will engage mankind in wholesale flight from God and reality. From him can be expected perfect acquiescence to the three temptations by which the devil failed to seduce Christ in the desert. Turning stones into bread by substituting false teaching for true doctrine, he will confirm the satanic religion by false miracles, (that is “lying wonders”), as it were casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple to be borne up by spiritual hands. Given “all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory” (Matt. 4: 8-9) in return for falling down and adoring Satan, Antichrist the King will establish a universal empire in the fallen angel’s name. Aping as closely as possible Christ’s consummation of the law and the prophets, he will capitulate in his person the whole of the world’s apostatic tradition.

Solange Strong Hertz, Apostasy in America

The Great Error of Vatican II –

The “pastoral” blunder that there exists a disjunction between Divine Revelation and Dogma

The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously….. the authentic doctrine… should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a Magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character.

Pope John XXIII, Opening Speech for Vatican II

“The New Evangelization” – Without a foundation of repentance, prayer, and penance there will be no fruit for, “The Interior Life is the Soul of the Apostolate.”

The purpose of the struggle against our passions, the practice of the virtues, recollection, prayer, the practice of the presence of God, and frequent reception of the Sacraments, is to foster union with God and the growth of charity. The interior life is a secret hearth where a soul in contact with God is inflamed with His love, and precisely because it is inflamed and forged by love, it becomes a docile instrument which God can use to diffuse love into the hearts of others. Therefore, it is very important to recall frequently this great principle: the interior life is the soul of the apostolate. A deep interior life therefore, from it will spring a fruitful apostolate, a true sharing in Christ’s work of saving souls… Where there is little or no interior life, charity and friendship with God are in danger of being extinguished; and if this interior flame be extinguished, then the apostolate will be emptied of its substance and reduced to mere external activity which may make a great noise, but will not bring forth and fruit.

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy

The Damage Has Been Done - the Synod will only confirm the fact!

The Extra-Ordinary Synod on the Family in October 2014 gave a Novus Ordo beatification Paul VI. This is ironically fitting in a perverse way because the Synod of Extra-Ordinary Pope Francis has followed in the pattern of Catholic moral betrayal established by Paul VI. Paul VI best know encyclical was Humanae Vitae published in 1968 which reaffirmed in a very, very weak way the constant teaching of the Church that artificial contraception was a grave sin.

In 1962 Novus Ordo St. John XXIII established a Papal Commission to study the question of artificial birth control. This Papal Commission was affirmed and expanded by Novus Ordo Blessed Paul VI to over seventy members. The Commission issued both a Majority and Minority Report in 1966 that were made public in 1967. The Majority Report approved of artificial birth control. The Minority Report defended and affirmed the traditional Catholic moral teaching based primarily upon Natural Law and the constant teaching of the Magisterium that artificial birth control is always and necessarily a grave sin. It said, that the "constant and perennial affirmative answer (that artificial contraception is always seriously evil) is found in the documents of the Magisterium and in the whole history of teaching on the question." The Minority Report affirmed that the Magisterium nineteen times between 1816 and 1929, always with the same conclusion, taught that "contraception is always seriously sinful." The Minority Report contained extensive quotations from the teachings of previous popes including Casti Connubii of Pius XI and the Allocution to the Italian Midwives by Pius XII.

The conclusion of the Minority Report is that the Catholic teaching of the sinfulness of contraception is infallible and irreformable. It said: In dealing with this question, to dispute in a subtle way whether the teaching is technically "infalllible by a judgment of the magisterium" is empty-headed. For it this doctrine is not substantially true, the magisterium itself will seem to be empty and useless in any moral matter.

The Majority Report rejected the constant teaching of the Church and advised permitting the use of contraception by appealing to a personalist philosophy that has been the hallmark of conciliarist popes. According to Mr. John Galvin who wrote a brilliant article on this subject in 2002 that he admirably defended against its detractors, Humanae Vitae affirmed the Catholic teaching that artificial birth control was sinful but discarded that traditional Catholic grounds on which that teaching was based as to why it is always sinful. It then followed the Majority Report's method by using a personalist philosophy to defend the traditional Catholic teaching. This defense was wholly inadequate to the task.

The bottom line is that Paul VI did irreparable damage to the Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of artificial birth control by 1) opening to debate a closed moral question, and by 2) using grossly insufficient and inadequate grounds for defending the true Catholic teaching. In a like manner, Pope Francis has done irreparable damage to the Catholic teaching on Marriage and sexual morality by opening to question infallible and irreformable Catholic moral teachings. Even if the teaching of Pope Francis after this current synod should reaffirm Catholic truth, the damage has already been done by calling that truth into question.

At the close of the extraordinary Synod in 2014, in which Francis exercised complete control, Francis presented himself as a neutral arbiter between two factions in search of truth. He counseled moderation and conciliation to both sides of the question. Like the Liberation Theologians he admires, Francis has employed the Hegelian dialectic as used in ideological Marxism to corrupt truth. There can be no compromise whatsoever on these moral questions of adultery and sodomy. Francis has done his best to control the outcome of this current synod without apparent success. We shall soon see if he has the temerity to overthrow Catholic truth on his own authority without the support of the world’s bishops. Those who step away from truth step away from God.

The conscience of every sinner is to be respected in their sin, but the true & certain conscience of traditional Catholic faithful is always & everywhere despised! “Do not cast your pearl before swine… do not give what is holy to dogs.” Our Lord makes it clear that some “human beings” can descend to the level of “swine” and “dogs.” No one has been more “marginalized” than those faithful to dogma and our ecclesiastical traditions regardless their conscience.

Gentle Bishop Blase: Sin all you want -- I'll still give you Communion

Archbishop Blase Cupich, always so gentle, has a heartwarming message for adulterers and practicing homosexuals: Sin boldly, as long as your conscience allows, and I'll give you the Body of Christ. By this logic, we assume murderers should keep on murdering, as long as they're doing so in good conscience, and Blase will put Christ into their mouths (sorry, hands) personally. 

LifeSiteNews | Rome | Octover 16, 2015 --Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago  — who is participating in the Synod of the Family at Pope Francis’ personal invitation —  said at a press scrum in the Vatican press office this afternoon that the conscience is "inviolable" and that he believes divorced and remarried couples could be permitted to receive the sacraments, if they have "come to a decision" to do so "in good conscience" - theological reasoning that he indicated in response to a follow-up question would also apply to gay couples.

During the lengthy press briefing, the archbishop also spoke approvingly of the so-called "Kasper Proposal," which would permit divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in some cases. Cupich explained that he had distributed Cardinal Walter Kasper's book, The Gospel of the Family, in which the cardinal had laid out this proposal, to all of the priests in his diocese.

“In Chicago I visit regularly with people who feel marginalized: the elderly, the divorced and remarried, gay and lesbian individuals and also couples. I think that we really need to get to know what their life is like if we’re going to accompany them,” he said.

When asked to give a concrete example of how he would accompany the divorced and remarried in their desire to receive the sacraments, Cupich replied: “If people come to a decision in good conscience then our job is to help them move forward and to respect that. The conscience is inviolable and we have to respect that when they make decisions, and I’ve always done that.”

When asked by LifeSiteNews if the notion of accompanying people to "the Sacrament" who had a clear indication of conscience to do so also applied to gay couples in the Church, Cupich indicated an affirmative answer.

“I think that gay people are human beings too and they have a conscience. And my role as a pastor is to help them to discern what the will of God is by looking at the objective moral teaching of the Church and yet, at the same time, helping them through a period of discernment to understand what God is calling them to at that point,” he said. “It’s for everybody. I think that we have to make sure that we don’t pigeonhole one group as though they are not part of the human family, as though there’s a different set of rules for them. That would be a big mistake.” [......]

Maybe the Novus Ordo Church “does not teach that,” but the Catholic Church does!

Fr. Thomas Rosica: Mr. Voris, do you really think that these irregular (homosexual and adultrous) situations don’t have any good in them... nothing… not one thing?

Michael Voris: Not if they go to hell Father.

Fr. Thomas Rosica: The Church does not teach that!

The ‘Pitiless’ Spokesman for the Vatican - and the Homosexual Lobby - A Deconstructionist!

There must be an end to exclusionary language and a strong emphasis on embracing reality as it is. We should not be afraid of new and complex situations. The language must be renewed. And there was a close link made to the Jubilee of Mercy. The Jubilee of Mercy which will begin in December also requires a new form of language both public and private. The Jubilee of Mercy requires a language of mercy. In particular in speaking about homosexuals, or gay persons, we do not pity gay persons, but we recognize them as who they are. They are our sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters.

Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., Vatican’s English-language spokesman at the Holy See Press Office under Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., president and vice-chancellor of Assumption University at the University of Windsor, Canada, and CEO for Salt and Light Media Foundation

REPLY: Meet people where they are sounds nice, but is that what Jesus did? Didn't he rather call them away from where they were?

South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier

Some background on Fr. Thomas Rosica, spokesman for the Vatican & the Homosexual Lobby:

Same-sex “marriage” advocate Gregory Baum lauded by Canadian Catholic media

John Weston | LifeSiteNews | TORONTO, 22 October, 2012 - Liberal Catholic press-people have recently touted a man some call Canada’s leading dissenter since the 1960s - former Catholic priest Gregory Baum - because of his role as an expert, or peritus, to the Canadian bishops at Vatican II.  Baum, an advocate of homosexual ‘marriage’ and sex outside of marriage and contraception, was lauded by Fr. Thomas Rosica of Salt and Light TV, Michael Swan of the Catholic Register and also given free reign in the pages of the Scarboro Foreign Missions magazine.

Had he merely publicly rejected Catholicism, Baum would not have been as grave a danger to the Church and especially its moral teachings.

Despite the automatic excommunication he incurred for marrying an ex-nun while still a priest, Baum continued to speak lovingly of Jesus and the Gospels as he repudiated many of the principles of faith and morals revealed by Christ and in Sacred Scripture.  One of the tools of repudiation was the dissenting Catholic New Times newspaper co-founded by Baum and other dissenters in 1976 and eventually prohibited from one diocese after another.

Such two-facedness led one of Baum’s contemporaries, canon lawyer Monsignor Vincent Foy, to consider Baum as having “done more than any person to harm the Church in Canada…” In an article sent into LifeSiteNews late last week, Foy recalls other concerning aspects of Baum’s history and even makes claims about “His Marxist background and activities”.
On his regular “Witness” program on Salt and Light TV, Fr. Rosica begins the October 7 interview by lauding Baum. “Professor Gregory Baum, it’s a great joy for us to have you on set with us for Witness on Salt and Light Television,” says Rosica.

Although Fr. Rosica notes, “Gregory we’ve known each other for a long time…,” the Salt and Light CEO fails to mention Baum’s decades-long dissent from the teachings of the Church.  Fr. Rosica astonishingly goes on to state, “I’ve certainly admired very much your theology, your writings but also your love of the Church, your love of Christ, and you helped to keep alive not only the spirit of the Second Vatican council, but also the authentic teaching of the Council … you remain a faithful, deeply devoted Catholic, love Jesus, the Church, the Eucharist.”

During the interview, Fr. Rosica also sets up a dichotomy between what he calls those like Baum, who in his terms engage in “great theological search”, and those he calls “crusaders of orthodoxy.”

Fr. Rosica sees in those orthodox, the “pseudo-orthodoxy” who “are among the most unhappy and sad and angry that I’ve ever met.” In contrast he concludes the intimate television interview, saying to Baum, “Gregory, I want to thank you, You have been for me and continue to be a real model of hope - Gaudium et Spes - joy and hope.” […..]

Fr. Thomas Rosica Identifies & Applauds the Great Neo-Modernist Heresy of our Times –

A denial of dogma as dogma per se!

In Pope Francis’ comments, he makes a distinction between dogmatic and moral teachings reminding us that they do not hold the same weight. Will this pope rewrite controversial church doctrine? No, but that is not how doctrine changes. Doctrine changes when pastoral contexts shift and new insight emerges such that particular doctrinal formulations no longer mediate the saving message of God’s transforming love. Doctrine changes when the Church has leaders and teachers who are not afraid to take note of new contexts and emerging insights. It changes when the Church has pastors who do what Francis has been insisting. Leave the security of your chanceries, your rectories, of your safe places, of your Episcopal residencies and go and set aside the small minded rules that keep you locked up and shielded from the world. Structural change of the government of the Church is vital but it must flow from a new way of being Church, not playing Church. The new way of being Church will eventually have to find structural form.

This is the continuing aggiornamento and reformation that began in St. Peter’s Basilica during the Second Vatican Council. Once again the Church will allow herself to be renewed, to be brought closer to the heart and mind of our Founder and to speak once again to the men and women of our time, to their joys and sorrows. […….]

What Benedict stores, Francis scatters. Francis’ starking symbolism is now becoming substance. Papa Francisco seeks a simpler Church more clearly identified with the poor. […...] Let us never forget the deep continuity between Pope emeritus Benedict and Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome. It is manifested in their outlook on faith and their awareness that it is ultimately the Lord Jesus who leads the Church and not the pope. Francis teaches the doctrine identical to that of his predecessors. He reminds us of the words of Blessed John XXIII fifty years ago at the time of the Council when John said the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing. The way it is presented is another. And the way Pope Francis is presenting it is not only beautiful but appealing. The core remains the same but what a mighty change to the packaging. And that is why the world is responding to with awe, with wonder and with gratitude.

Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., CEO, Salt and Light Media Foundation, from his talk, "An Inside Look into the Papal Transition"

COMMENT:

The reply to Fr. Thomas Rosica by Cardinal Napier should have been direct and forceful. The language of God is exclusionary because His love is conditional, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise: “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.” “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels…..” “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.” “Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Lord, Lord, open to us; but he answering, said: I know you not.” “And sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall spearate the wicked from among the just...” In every case, some category of souls is excluded.

The exclusionary language of God offends Fr. Rosica who preaches the inclusionary yin-yang of satanic immorality as if the Psalmist said, ‘Good and evil have met each other: justice and iniquity have kissed. Lies are sprung out of the earth: justice hath looked down from heaven.’ Fr. Rosica despises the warning of Isaias: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” He represents, and is a spokesman for, all the rot that is the fruit of Vatican II. Fr. Rosica does not like to have his filthy linen publically displayed. He was the cleric who threatened a lawsuit against Canadian Catholic blogger, David Demet, for reporting public statements Rosica had made known to be offensive to Catholic faith and morals. Rosica demanded that Demet remove from his Catholic blog, Vox Cantoris, eleven specific quotations that Rosica had publically made to other media sources.

The interesting thing about the homoesque Fr. Rosica is that he is just the right spokesman for the homoesque Vatican because he perfectly understands the mind of homoesque Pope Francis. He understands that the Aparacida Manifesto from the 2005 CELAM (Latin America and Caribbean Bishops Conference) meeting that was formally approved by Pope Benedict in 2007 (at the same time that he published Summormum Pontificum) is the blue-print for the New Evanglization for the Novus Ordo Church which, as Benedict said, marks the end of the “old Church” and the beginning of the "new" which he announced less than two months before he stepped aside to make room for Francis. When Francis left Argentina for the conclave, he apparently did so with the understanding that he would be the next pope because National Geographic reported that he packed his bags with the intention of not returning to Buenos Aires. The man who would impose the Aparacida document on the universal Church was handpicked as the next pope. At the Rio de Janeiro’s World Youth Day in 2014, Pope Francis endorsed the Aparacida document in two important policy speeches that outline the purpose of his pontificate. One was his address to the Bishops Conference of Brazil on July 27 and the second was on his July 28 address to the Coordinating Committee of CELAM.

The great neo-modernist heresy, first professed by John XXIII at the opening of Vatican II and repeated by Benedict at the beginning of his pontificate introducing his “hermeneutic of continuity” theology, is the belief that there exists a disjunction between doctrinal truth and the words by which the Church dogmatically formulates these truths. It professes that dogma contains perennial truths and accidental historical accretions which must be distilled away. Pope Francis’ profession of this heresy is what Rosica approvingly calls his “deep continuity” with his predecessors. This heresy has been condemned as an error of Modernism.

The truth of the matter is that dogma is not formulated by man but by God. The words of the formulation are directly the work of God so that Pope St. Pius X would anathematize the proposition that “dogmas the Church holds out as revealed are not truths which have fallen from heaven. They are an interpretation of religious facts which the human mind has acquired by laborious effort.” Our conciliarist popes are the people who, “In the name of higher knowledge and historical research (they say), they are looking for that progress of dogmas which is, in reality, nothing but the corruption of dogmas” (Lamentabili Sane). This is precisely why dogma as formulated constitutes the formal object of divine and Catholic faith.

The heresy began a long time ago. It has unfortunately taken the direct attack on the sacrament of Matrimony to stir up conservative opposition. Still, when the dust settles, most conservative Catholics will be as slothful as ever. Unfortunately for them, the sin that remains will be all the more culpable.

The Novus Ordo Memorial Meal begets the non-sacrificial Priesthood

The priest must be in his own way a victim. Why? Because Christ in offering himself during the sacrifice of the Mass offers also his entire Mystical Body, and especially his minister who is celebrating Mass. Therefore every priest has his own individual vocation to be a victim in order to become like to Christ. The truth of this becomes even more evident if we consider the opposite error. Take the case of a priest who shares in the priesthood of Christ by virtue of his ordination and yet refuses to share in his state of victim. Such a priest is refusing the obligation laid on all the faithful of taking up the cross; and this obligation presses all the more urgently upon a priest in view of the fact that he is intended to be another Christ amongst the faithful.

Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Priest in Union with Christ

The wheels are coming off Pope Francis' phony Synod - He is being exposed to faithful Catholics for what he is - a pharisaical, dictatorial manipulator, an enemy of the faith!

Socci: "At the End of the Synod, Francis may impose his will, Diktak-style -- but Bergoglism is foundering everywhere"

[The Argentinian War Machine with the German Engine is Stuck in the Mud]

Antonio Socci | ‘Libero’ | October 11, 2015

“Is the audacious war-machine beginning to wane?” a Swiss Vatican reporter asks. Actually, the Argentinian war-machine with the German engine has gotten stuck in the mud at the Synod. Lately we have heard that German “engines” are being put on the scrap-heap plus the Argentinean bodywork is an old wreck of Peronism and rusty Liberation Theology.

THE FIRST WEEK

Well, the Synod opened with Cardinal Erdo’s report reaffirming Catholic Doctrine, demolishing Kasper’s heresies (and irritating Bergoglio). In addition, after the first week, one of the spokesmen from the committees, the Australian Mark Coleridge, summed up the situation like this: “If the Synod finished today, 65% of the Fathers would vote against the idea of admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion.”

For the Bergoglio and Kasper party the defeat will be even more stinging on the subject of homosexuality, given that from the reports of the various groups, there emerges an appeal to oppose vigorously the gender theory, considered the latest dangerous ideology substituting Marxism, with devastating effects on the mentality and formation of the young.

In effect, the Catholic part of the Synod, (the one following perennial teaching along the lines of John Paul II and Benedict XVI) in the majority numerically, has made energetic protests against the Bergoglian minority in power, which is imposing its procedures, its methods and its men in key posts. But nothing is heard of these protests outside [the Synod Hall] or they are misrepresented by the propaganda machine in caricature form (the bad conservatives against the illuminated progressives).

Although the Synod is discussing the family, those millions of families who are on the outside – according to Bergoglio - needn’t know anything (unlike other Synods) or they need to have the information filtered or “packaged” for them.

The members of the Bergoglian party are like a football team which is losing 5 -0 on the soccer field but can deliver kicks with impunity, try to score hand-goals (another Argentinean way) or display arrogance because they know that the referee is their leader and in the end will award them the match by even going against all the rules (indeed, Bergoglio reserves the right to change the rules during the match itself – based on his team’s convenience – take for example, the final report). [......]

FAILED MODERNISM [Under the Bergoglio Effect, Italy is fast becoming a non-Catholic country]

Yet this is today’s paradox: in the leadership of the Church we have those whose ‘recipes’ have been shown to be disastrous in their countries. And yet they still want to apply the same disastrous recipes to the entire Church, resulting in devastating effects on a planetary scale.

True, many indicate the Pope’s popularity as a sign of rebirth. However this is a bluff and is now understood as such inside the Church. It is the drugged popularity from the circus of the secular mass-media, where there is not even one conversion, but on the contrary, delight, about the Pope’s conversion to the agenda of Obama and the United Nations.

The data in Italy about Catholic practice, which under John Paul II and Benedict XVI had grown, continues to weaken under Bergoglio. “La Repubblica” itself, last Saturday, referring to the studies of the “Foundation for Liberal Criticism” (“Fondazione Critica liberale”) and of the CGIL (a leftist union) had to acknowledge that for the Church “there is no Francis effect” , actually, “Italy continues to distance itself from the Church” , so indeed, there is the Bergoglio effect - the other way around though – he drives the faithful away.

A PANORAMA OF DESTRUCTION

Catholics have the sensation that with Bergoglio everything is collapsing. For instance, Monsignor Charamsa ‘s embarrassing ‘coming out’ (along with his companion), who expects the Church to change the law on homosexuality based on the word of God, would not have been possible without the hundreds of disconcerting apertures and who-am-I-to-judges from Bergoglio, whom Charamsa defines as “fantastic”. Whoever sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind, as the Bible says.

And how do we avoid the confusion and disorientation from Bergoglio’s Motu Proprio on marriage annulments, which was even demolished by Professor Danilo Castellano, a Catholic lawyer?

It is impossible not to see that it introduces de facto divorce, subverts the Gospel and the two thousand year teaching of the Church. So then – instead of sustaining the family under attack by modern ideologies – this Motu Proprio gives it the death-blow.

Then, there is the long list of Bergoglian errors. The one on immigration is enormous. Like the one concerning the persecuted Christians, who certainly didn’t benefit from his position of surrender to Islam and the Communist regimes.

Then, we have the Christians massacred by ISIS whom he has effectively abandoned by delegitimizing every concrete intervention in their defense: in fact today the bishops of the Middle East (and their communities) see in Putin’s intervention, the hope of liberation from terror.

Then, there are Bergoglio’s no-global meetings against “an economy that kills” (the capitalist one).

According to data from FAO diffused recently, the percentage of the under-nourished in under-developed countries has passed from 23.3% in the year 2000 to 12.9% today. In 50 years the global ratio of extreme poverty has passed from 80% to 10%, while world population has doubled (the opposite from what the Malthusian theories predicted). Even the figures on the environment, the air and health have very much improved over the past 50 years, disproving Bergoglio’s eco-catastrophic-Marxist encyclical.

Even what is celebrated as Bergoglio’s International success – the end of the embargo in Cuba – on closer inspection – results in being the rescue of an old, detestable and bloody dictatorship which the Pope went to pay homage to, ignoring its victims and dissidents. [.....]

COMMENT: Mr. Socci is a conservative journalist. A good Catholic but like all conservatives, he fails to address the essential problem in the crisis of faith which is the denial of dogma as dogma. Bergoglio is nothing more than Paul VI/ John Paul II/ Benedict XVI protégé delivered from any scruples of traditional theological formation. His is the first unfettered Vatican II pope but no different in essentials from his predecessors. Until conservative Catholics recognize that the problem concerns the nature of dogma they will never offer effective opposition.

Science, as an object of faith, is just another pagan religion.

We take the side of science in spite of the absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.

Professor Richard Lewontin, leading evolutionist and geneticist, Billions and Billions of Demons

There is an amazing and scarcely fathomable depth in this sentence of St. Thomas Aquinas: false prudence and excessive cleverness are derived from and essentially tied to covetousness…. “Covetousness” here means more than the disordered love for money and property. Covetousness is to be understood here as the immoderate striving after all “possessions”, through which the person thinks he can assure his own greatness and worth. Covetousness thus signifies the anxious senility of a frantic self-preservation bent on only its own assurance and security. Is further explanation needed on how greatly all this is contrary to the innermost direction of prudence; how impossible it is for one to have that silence that knows and recognized the truth of objective realities; and how impossible it is to have any conformity to reality in knowing and deciding, without the youthfulness of a courageously trusting and, as it were, prodigal renunciation of the conditions of anxious self-preservation and of all selfish “interest” in mere self-confirmation; how simply impossible, then, is the virtue of prudence without the constant readiness for disregarding oneself and without the detachment and tranquility of authentic humility and objectivity?

Dr. Josef Pieper, Virtues of the Human Heart

COMMENT: Amazing story! The Vatican and US bishops are very anxious to warn the world that the happenstance meeting of Pope Francis and Kim Davis has no political or moral significance and yet, they make it clear that the same yard-stick does not apply to the meeting Pope Francis personally arranged with his long time homosexual friend along with his ‘sweetheart’ whom Francis greets with “warm hugs” and cheeky “kisses.” This meeting is rife with moral and political meaning.

Vatican Source: Pope Blindsided By Meeting with Controversial Kentucky Clerk

Jay Levine | chief correspondent for CBS 2 Chicago | October 1, 2015

(CBS) — Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich is on his way to Rome tonight. Before he left, he spoke out for the first time on that controversial meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis, the county clerk from Kentucky who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Cupich in essence told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine not to read too much into it.

A highly placed source inside the Vatican claims the Pope was blindsided.

The Vatican has since tried to distance Pope Francis from Davis. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope’s meeting with Davis was not an endorsement of her decision to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

“The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” he said.

Lombardi said the Vatican wanted to “clarify” what happened “in order to contribute to an objective understanding of what transpired.”

“Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City. Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the Pope’s characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the Pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family,” he said.

CBS News has confirmed that former student was Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine, who visited Pope Francis with his longtime partner and some friends.

“Mr. Yayo Grassi, a former Argentine student of Pope Francis, who had already met other times in the past with the Pope, asked to present his mother and several friends to the Pope during the Pope’s stay in Washington, DC,” a statement from Lombardi to CBS News reads. “As noted in the past, the Pope, as pastor, has maintained many personal relationships with people in a spirit of kindness, welcome and dialogue.”

The latest revelations from the Vatican put an entirely new spin on the pope’s meeting with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

As Pope Francis was addressing a joint session of Congress, and thousands more gathered outside on the west lawn, Davis — who’d become the poster child for opponents of same-sex marriage — was getting ready for a meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican embassy.

It is a meeting some charge was orchestrated by the man who lived there, the Pope’s representative here, Carlo Maria Vigano.

Not even Lombardi knew about it ahead of time, nor did the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which would have opposed it.

Others claim the Pope knew about the meeting, and had ordered Vatican diplomats — perhaps even Vigano — to set it up.

CBS 2’s Vatican source doesn’t think so. A close advisor to Pope Francis tweeted that the Pope was, in his words, “exploited” by those who set up what the CBS 2 source says was a “meeting that never should have taken place.”

Some call it an attempt by highly placed church leaders in the U.S. to diminish the impact of the Pope’s visit.

Cupich tried to downplay both the meeting and its significance.

“It is his way of saying that walls of communication need to come down. Meeting with someone is not an endorsement of that person’s position,” Cupich said.

The questions of what did the Pope know and when did he know continue being debated in newspaper headlines, blog posts and on twitter feeds.

Pope Francis presides over what promises to be a contentious three-week meeting of bishops in Rome, with a number of hot-button issues on the table.

CNN Exclusive: Pope held private meeting with same-sex couple in U.S.

By Daniel Burke | CNN Religion Editor | October 2, 2015

(CNN)The day before Pope Francis met anti-gay county clerk Kim Davis in Washington last week, he held a private meeting with a longtime friend from Argentina who has been in a same-sex relationship for 19 years.

Yayo Grassi, an openly gay man, brought his partner, Iwan Bagus, as well several other friends to the Vatican Embassy on September 23 for a brief visit with the Pope. A video of the meeting shows Grassi and Francis greeting each other with a warm hug.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Grassi said the visit was arranged personally with the Pope via email in the weeks ahead of Francis' highly anticipated visit to the United States.

"Three weeks before the trip, he called me on the phone and said he would love to give me a hug," Grassi said.

The meeting between the Pope and gay couple adds another intriguing twist to the strange aftermath of Francis' first-ever trip to the United States. Since news broke on Tuesday of Francis' meeting with Davis, conservatives have cheered the seemingly implicit endorsement, while liberals have questioned how much the Pope knew about her case.

The two encounters -- one with a gay couple and one with a government official who ardently opposes homosexuality -- have left the Vatican scrambling to issue statements that seek to de-politicize the Pope's meetings and agenda.

On Friday afternoon, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that Grassi had asked to present his friends to Francis in Washington.

"As noted in the past, the Pope, as pastor, has maintained many personal relationships with people in a spirit of kindness, welcome and dialogue," Lombardi said.

Earlier on Friday, the Vatican said that the meeting with Davis was not intended as a show of support for her cause and "the only real audience granted by the Pope at the nunciature (embassy) was with one of his former students and his family."

"That was me," Grassi said.

Grassi, who is 67, added that he is willing to talk about his private moment with the pontiff because he was upset about media coverage of the Pope's meeting with Davis.

"I want to show the truth of who Pope Francis is," he said.

Pope Francis taught Grassi in literature and psychology classes at Inmaculada Concepcion, a Catholic high school in Sante Fe, Argentina, from 1964-1965. Grassi said that he is now an atheist.

Grassi said the Pope has long known that he is gay, but has never condemned his sexuality or his same-sex relationship. In the video, Francis says he recalls meeting Grassi's boyfriend in Rome.

"He has never been judgmental," Grassi said. "He has never said anything negative."

Grassi said that he asked for the meeting in Washington because the friends he brought along have been through difficult times and wanted to receive of a blessing from the pontiff.

At the end the meeting, the Pope hugs both Grassi and Bagus and kisses them on the cheek.

"Obviously he is the pastor of the church and he has to follow the church's teachings," Grassi added. "But as a human being he understands all kinds of situations, and he is open to all kinds of people, including those with different sexual characteristics."

While not changing church teaching, which considers same-sex relationships sinful, Pope Francis has often emphasized mercy over judgment. In 2013, for example, he famously said, "Who am I to judge" gay priests who seek to do God's will. He also reportedly met with a transgender man from Spain in January of this year.

Transgender man: I met with Pope Francis

At the same time, the Vatican has refused to recognize France's ambassador to the Holy See, Laurent Stefanini, who is openly gay. And Francis has show little inclination to adjust church doctrine on sexuality.

"It reminds us, again, that the Pope meets with all sorts of people on his trips and that such meetings are not an 'endorsement' of anything," said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large at America magazine.

"In this case, for example, he is not endorsing same-sex marriage. But if Mr. Grassi's account is accurate, then it makes me happy to know that the Pope keeps in contact with his old friends, both gay and straight. For friendship and welcome are at the heart of the Christian life."

This October, the Vatican will hold a major meeting, called a synod, to discuss how to minister to gays and lesbians, among other issues facing modern Catholics.

While Grassi describes his relationship to the Pope as very close, they haven't always agreed on same-sex rights.

During Argentina's heated debate over same-sex marriage in 2010, Grassi chastised the Pope for opposing gay rights. At one point, the future pontiff suggested that same-sex marriage is the work of the devil.

"You have been my guide, continuously moving my horizons—you have shaped the most progressive aspects of my worldview," Grassi wrote to the future Pope in an email, according to National Geographic magazine. "And to hear this from you is so disappointing."

Grassi told CNN that Francis -- then Cardinal Jorge Margio Bergoglio -- wrote back, saying that he was sorry to have upset his former student and promising that "homophobia" had no place in the Catholic Church.

Grassi said he believes the Pope was "misled" into meeting with Davis, who served six days in a Kentucky jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Davis' lawyers had portrayed the papal meeting as an endorsement of her cause. After several days of questions and culture-war sparring, the Vatican said that was not the case.

"The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis, and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects," Lombardi said in a statement issued Friday morning.

The question of who, exactly, set up the meeting between Davis and the Pope has been the subject of fervid media speculation this week.

Vatican officials have said that such an encounter could only have taken place with the planning and approval of the Holy See's nuncio -- or envoy -- to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Pope Francis has made it clear that his "status as the infallible Vicar of Christ means he can ultimately decide what he likes."

COMMENT: What a gross popular perversion of the Catholic Truth! Only a liberal, who denies the attribute of infallibility that Jesus Christ endowed His Church, can selectively affirm infallibility when it suits his purpose. But, Pope Francis is just as bound to revealed Truth as any one of the faithful. The question before the Pope Francis and the Synod is this: Is repentance necessary for sinners to be in the state of grace and obtain salvation? The Pope Francis/Kasper click think that requiring repentance is unnecessary, even unmerciful. The doctrine of Religious Liberty holds that the dignity of man is so great that God must respect his liberty to sin as he pleases. God cannot deny salvation or punish anyone for exercising their God given rights! Therefore, salvation is not related to repentance from sin. That is what Martin Luther believed. The only problem is that Martin Luther is in hell because God was not convinced.

Catholic bishops poised to clash over divorce and gays at synod

Angus MacKinnon | AFP | October 2, 2015

Vatican City (AFP) - Catholic bishops are congregating in Rome for three weeks of debate on the family that could radically reshape the Church's approach to the divisive issues of divorce and homosexuality.

A second and final round of a review of Church teaching on a broad spectrum of questions related to family life opens on Sunday -- and Vatican officials are being unusually frank in admitting that clashes are inevitable.

"We are at sea, in choppy waters even," said Lorenzo Baldisseri, the cardinal who serves as Secretary General of the synod, as the assembly of bishops is known.

Although battlelines are not always clearcut, the most important division is between reformers who want to make the Church more accommodating towards gay, divorced or cohabiting believers, and those opposed to any dilution of centuries-old doctrine which holds that marriage is for life, full stop, and that homosexuality is sinful or an abomination.

Pope Francis has made it clear he favours a fresh approach and his status as the infallible Vicar of Christ means he can ultimately decide what he likes.

But most Vatican experts agree he will be looking for majority support for any changes.

Last year's first round of discussions made global headlines when early draft conclusions included a passage saying the Church should recognise the value of loving, same-sex relationships -- a groundbreaking formula that had echoes of Francis' own "who am I to judge?" soundbite on the issue.

But a backlash from bishops who claimed they had never been given a chance to discuss the controversial passage ensured it was removed from the final text.

- Marriage, love and sex -

Such a public parading of divisions is unlikely to happen this time around as Francis has decreed that no interim working document will be released during the synod. It is unclear even if a final document will be made public.

At the heart of the synod's agenda is Francis' belief, articulated by the German cardinal and theologian Walter Kasper, that the Church must address the present gulf between what it currently says about marriage, love and sex and what tens of millions of its followers actually do every day.

As Kasper sees it, the Church has to demonstrate mercy rather than condemning believers who find themselves in breach of its teaching.

In response to the conservatives who say this opens the door to a dilution of Church doctrine, he replies: "But mercy is the foundation of the gospel, it is the doctrine of Jesus."

On the other side of the debate, the conservatives see the spread of gay marriage legislation as posing an existential threat to the church's view of family life founded on the love of a man and a woman and their desire to have children.

"So-called homosexual marriage is like a challenge the western world has thrown down to the Church," said one of the leading conservatives, the archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra.

- Pope has final word -

"This world is saying to us: 'Look, I have created a marriage which has nothing to do with your marriage'."

US cardinal Raymond Leo Burke warned Francis to be wary of antagonising those who disagree with him.

"The holy father exercises his power in total obedience to Christ and he cannot go against the truth of Christ," Burke, a once-powerful cardinal who has been sidelined by Francis, told a pre-Synod seminar.

While the debate is often conducted in abstract theological terms, in practice it comes down to a handful of simple questions, the most pressing of which, in terms of the church's rulebook, is whether remarried divorcees should be able to receive communion and confess their sins to a priest.

This has been banned for centuries but has become increasingly untenable as the volume of divorces in Catholic families has grown.

Francis says the Church must tend to the "wounds" caused by family breakdown rather than seeking to exclude or judge the many people within its ranks living in "irregular" situations.

He has personally married couples who had lived together "in sin" prior to their weddings and baptised children born to parents married outside of the church.

And he has already pre-empted one of the issues that was supposed to be resolved by the synod by unilaterally announcing changes which will make it much easier and quicker for failed marriages to be annulled, leaving believers free to remarry and take communion.

All of which tends to indicate that he wants reform to be part of his legacy and, as Baldiserri put it, a key rule of this particular game is that: "The final word will be for the holy father."

Most Holy Father,… because He [Christ] has given you authority and because you have accepted it, you ought to use your virtue and power. If you do not wish to use it, it might be better for you to resign what you have accepted; it would give more honor to God and health to your soul…. If you do not do this, you will be censured by God. If I were you, I would fear that Divine Judgment might descend on me…Alas, Most Holy Father! At times obedience to you leads to eternal damnation.

St. Catherine of Siena, Letter to Pope Gregory XI

Cardinal Kasper Gears Up for Vatican Synod: ‘You Are Born Gay’

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. | Breitbart | October 2, 2015  

On the eve of the Vatican synod on marriage and the family, progressive German cardinal Walter Kasper has come out publicly against doctrinal "fundamentalism" in the Church, while expressing his hope that the synod will open a "dialogue" on contraception for Catholics and reconsider the situation of homosexuals.

At a recent launch in Rome for his new book Witness to Mercy, the cardinal complained of those who want to close off dialogue on certain issues as if they were settled forever.

In his book, released to coincide with the opening of the synod, the cardinal deals with a number of hot-button issues, such as homosexuality. "For me, this inclination is a question mark: It does not reflect the original design of God and yet it is a reality, because you are born gay," he says in the book.

Kasper advocates a more holistic approach to theology, while lamenting what he terms "a certain fundamentalism" in the Church. "You take one line of the Gospel and this becomes an ideology to support your case," he said.

Cardinal Kasper became a lightning rod for both progressives and conservatives during last year's preparatory synod, especially because of his widely reported proposal of a case-by-case evaluation of which divorced and remarried Catholics should be admitted to Holy Communion.

While rallying progressives, especially some of his German confreres, he dismayed conservatives, who accused him of too easily tossing out Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage out of a false pastoral compassion. [.....]

In his new book, Kasper suggests that the Synod open a dialogue on the issue of contraception among the faithful, saying that “this schism cannot last.”

The Cardinal also asserts that “in recent decades,” the Church has become “too doctrinalistic and juridically minded” and needs to focus more on mercy.

In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Kasper compared Jesus’ words on marriage to the Genesis account of the creation of the world, accusing those who take Jesus’ words on marriage and adultery at face value of “fundamentalism,” like those who still believe the world was created in six days.

Asked whether there can be a fundamentalistic reading of the New Testament, Kasper responded in the affirmative.

“God created the world in six days, but no one takes that literally today. Of course the teaching that marriage cannot be dissolved is clear, but already in the New Testament Jesus’ commandment is adapted to certain situations.”

“In Matthew there is the ‘porneia’ clause about illicit unions, or adultery, which can justify divorce. There is also an exception in the first letter to the Corinthians, and Paul speaks with apostolic authority. In the first communities there are different practices and flexibility,” he said.

With regard to the reception of Communion, Kasper emphasizes the fact that the Eucharist isn’t for the perfect. “Every time we celebrate Mass we say: for the remission of sins,” he said. “The Eucharist is for sinners, which we all are.”

“In the synod there will be arguments,” he said, “but do not be afraid. Without dispute you cannot clarify anything.”

It is easy to be a madman: it is easy to be a heretic. It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own. It is always easy to be a modernist; as it is easy to be a snob. To have fallen into any of those open traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect set along the historic path of Christendom— that would indeed have been simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Those who are included in Bonny’s “symphony of differences” will suffer the most important, fearful and irrevocable of all “exclusion” – separation from God to play an eternal concert of discord in Hell.

The experiences of our contemporaries are very diverse and varied. More than in the past, their life stories follow a personal course. Next to risks and limitations, this development also offers possibilities and opportunities. It is important that the Church highlight the positive or constructive elements in this development, value the "seeds of the Words" which are dormant in life stories, recognize the graduality in the process of growth that people go through, respect and promote the "divine pedagogy of grace" on the path of life that God goes with people, and also welcome a praeparatio evangelica in the "symphony of differences," and especially to end all exclusions.

Archbishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, who wants the Church to bless sodomite “marriages”

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Isaiah 5:20

Sins That Cry to Heaven for Vengeance:

1. Willful murder

2. The sin of Sodom

3. Oppression of the poor

4. Defrauding the laborer of his wages

Nine Ways of Being Accessory to Another's Sin

1. By counsel

2. By command

3. By consent

4. By provocation

5. By praise or flattery

6. By concealment

7. By partaking

8. By silence

9. By defense of the ill done

BOMBSHELL - SECRET PARALLEL SYNOD: Papal Post-Synod Document ALREADY being drafted by Jesuit group to allow communion for divorced and other aberrations

Summary: Italian journalist Marco Tosatti reveals that A SECRET PARALLEL SYNOD has been established in Rome, a cabal composed almost exclusively by Jesuits, with the occasional Argentinian presence (easy to guess who), to draft the necessary post-synodal documents to implement whatever the Pope wants to implement. And they will implement it, no matter what, as the secret committee to draft the Annulment reforms has shown; what everyone supposed was true in fact is true: the Synodal process is a sham.

Rorate Caeli

The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? by Edward Pentin

Book Review and exclusive interview with Father Joseph Fessio by Maike Hickson

In addition to the recent publication of the two pre-Synod books written by prelates of the Catholic Church, namely the Eleven Cardinals Book and the African Prelates Book, a book written by a reliably faithful layman is also of great importance in the wider preparation for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Family. Edward Pentin, the well-respected Vatican Correspondent, has published with Ignatius Press a new book, interrogatively entitled The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? And the author's question mark in the main title was intentional and emphatic so that the reader may more freely draw his own cumulative conclusions. The subtitle of the book is An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. In the book, he presents the results of his research in Rome and elsewhere concerning the many weighty proofs that the last Synod on the Family was intentionally manipulated in order to promote a more liberalizing message concerning marriage and the family.

In preparation for this book review, I thought to ask Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., the founder and editor of Ignatius Press, a few questions about the book to which Father Fessio has kindly responded. I will present that brief interview here first, before discussing the book itself.

Question: What was the reason why you accepted to publish Pentin's book on the manipulations at the last Synod?

Father Fessio: We decided to publish it because it was an accurate, well-researched account of the ways in which the extraordinary synod of 2014 was manipulated in an attempt to shape the outcome according to the agenda of an activist minority. Pope Francis has called for greater transparency in the Church and we are doing what we can to help him achieve that.

Question: What is your own reasoning concerning the problem as to how to present potentially scandalous material about events in Rome without thereby undermining the authority of Rome?

Father Fessio: In my experience, attempts to avoid scandal have led to much greater scandal. Innocent people should be protected. Those who are not innocent have themselves to blame if their machinations are made public.

Rorate Caeli

“Gender Ideology”? - How Queer! Perhaps a case of Theological AIDS! The Homosexual Lobby has mutated into the Homosexual Bureaucracy!

50.   Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?

51.   The question of homosexuality leads to a serious reflection on how to elaborate realistic paths of affective growth and human and evangelical maturity integrating the sexual dimension: it appears therefore as an important educative challenge. The Church furthermore affirms that unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman. Nor is it acceptable that pressure be brought to bear on pastors or that international bodies make financial aid dependent on the introduction of regulations inspired by gender ideology.

52.  Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners. Furthermore, the Church pays special attention to the children who live with couples of the same sex, emphasizing that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be given priority. [All emphases added.]

Extra-Ordinary Synod on the Family from the Extra-Ordinary Pope Francis

Obama Warns Christians: Gay Rights More Important Than Religious Freedom

BREITBART | by Charlie Spiering | Sep 28, 2015

As Pope Francis flew back to Rome, President Obama issued a stern warning to Christians, warning them their attempts to assert their religious liberty to oppose gay rights would fail.

“We affirm that we cherish our religious freedom and are profoundly respectful of religious traditions,” he insisted during a dramatic speech at a LGTB fundraiser in New York City on Sunday night, praising the progress made on gay rights under his administration. “But we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn’t grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights.”

The fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee was specifically billed as an “LGBT gala” held in New York City in coordination with Obama’s trip to the United Nations Assembly.

"Stable gay relationship is better than a ‘temporary’ one, says Cardinal Schönborn"
The cardinal says as a child of divorced parents he knows what it is to grow up in a 'patchwork family'

Catholic Herald | September 14, 2015

A three-week Synod of Bishops to talk in the abstract about Catholic teaching on the family makes no sense to Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna.
“We are all called to observe the situation, not gazing from above and beginning with abstract ideas, but with the gaze of pastors who scrutinize today’s reality in an evangelical spirit,” the cardinal said in an interview with Jesuit Fr Antonio Spadaro, editor of La Civiltà Cattolica.
In the early September interview, the cardinal spoke about his experience at the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family last year, about his own parents’ divorce, about the relationships of his friends and about his hopes for the world Synod of Bishops on the family next month...
Cardinal Schönborn spoke in the interview about a gay friend of his who, after many temporary relationships, is now in a stable relationship. “It’s an improvement,” he said. They share “a life, they share their joys and sufferings, they help one another. It must be recognized that this person took an important step for his own good and the good of others, even though it certainly is not a situation the Church can consider ‘regular’.” [......]

It is not only what is said, but what is not said that matters!

Pope Francis before the US Congress discussed the grave immorality of capital punishment for convicted murders. In 2014, 35 people guilty of first-degree murder were executed after having exhausted the appeals process. Francis made a direct and unsuccessful intervention to save a Georgia women who was executed for killing her husband 18 years ago. While decrying the execution of convicted murders, Pope Francis said nothing about the more than one million children executed by abortion during the same period who had committed no crime. He made no reference to Planned Parenthood who facilitated many of these murder or mentioned the immorality of funding with taxpayer support an organization captured in the illegal selling of baby body parts for profit.

But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh (Matt. 18:6-7).

Question: It is becoming difficult not to think of this as a time of chastisement.

Answer: I think about this first of all concerning myself. If I am suffering at this time because of the situation in the Church, I think that the Lord is telling me that I have need of purification. And I also think that, if the suffering is so widespread, this means that the whole Church is in need of purification. But this is not because of a God who is waiting only to punish us. This is because of our own sins. If in some way we have betrayed doctrine, moral teaching or the liturgy, it follows inevitably that we will undergo a suffering that purifies us to put us back again on the narrow way.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, interview by Alessandro Gnocchi, Il Foglio, October 13, 2014

It is true that “doctrine and pastoral care must not contradict each other.” Therefore, if communion for Catholics living in adultery does not “deny the indissolubility of marriage” then it denies the validity of the Novus Ordo Consecration. Is anyone surprised?

Schockenhoff: To allow communion for the divorced is not to deny the indissolubility of marriage

The theologian from Freiburg says the Eucharist is so rich in meaning, nothing can destroy it. Doctrine and pastoral care must not contradict each other. The term “official Church” is misleading and bishops do not live in a “parallel society”

Vatican Insider : Iacopo Scaramuzzi : 10/ 7/2014

The indissolubility of marriage is “not seriously called into question” by those who believe remarried divorcees should be allowed to receive communion. Eberhard Schockenhoff, Professor of Moral Theology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet in Freiburg, is adamant about this. The German theologian underlined that too often, the concept of “natural law” was interpreted statically, reducing the “deep meaning of human sexuality” to a mere act of “procreation”. He disagrees with the term “official Church” (bishops are not “some kind of parallel society within the Church” that is detached from the people). He also stressed that although doctrine and pastoral care are two different things, they cannot contradict each other: “Failure to deal with problems that remain unresolved on a doctrinal level, will simply lead to the Church’s teaching being seen as rigid and lacking in credibility.”

“No one in the Church is seriously calling the indissolubility of marriage into question, not even those who are asking for the Church to remove its ban on communion for divorced Catholics who contract a civil marriage. The ideal of a successful marriage based on mutual faithfulness and trusting love is not called into question when one takes stock of the reality of a failed marriage, which many faithful face. Why should the Church betray Jesus’ teaching on marriage while remaining faithful to its mission of proclaiming God’s mercy to everyone, offering the possibility of reconciliation to remarried divorcees as well?” The Eucharist, the German theologian explained, “has many aspects to it which must not be separated so bluntly or seen in such sharp contrast: it is the enactment of Jesus Christ’s work of salvation, a sign of the Church’s unity, a personal encounter with Jesus and the outstretched hand with which God reaches out to sinners, inviting them to be reconciled with God. The Eucharist, which is so rich in meaning, loses this if it seen as a mere reward for those who respect single moral norms.

If many Catholics do not understand the concept of natural law, Schockenhoff says, explaining the rules better is not enough. “The concept of natural law, which Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI often focused on in the texts he published on the subject, is misunderstood. In the field of sexual ethics, for example, reproduction has often been presented as the natural end point of human sexuality.” But “reducing the deep meaning of human sexuality to an act of procreation, does not take into account some perspectives offered by the humanistic disciplines,” which have revealed the existence of different dimensions of sexuality (the relational dimension, the pleasure dimension and the procreational dimension).The Extraordinary Synod on the Family  should therefore “make it clear that the Church offers a positive outlook on issues relating to sexuality, love and marriage, which takes into account all these dimensions and takes the real experiences of faithful seriously. It is not enough therefore to simply offer better explanations of existing rules, as this would confirm suspicions that the Church is static and cut off from reality.” As far as the Humanae Vitae encyclical is concerned, “the Church’s teaching on artificial birth control has prevented people from receiving the positive messages the Gospel has to give about every human being’s vocation to love.”

Is there a risk of the Church splitting into two Churches? A Church of mercy and a Church dominated by rules, an ideological Church and a Church that acts as a “field hospital”, a Church that comforts and a Church that punishes? “It is possible to make a rational distinction between the requirements of Church teaching and those of a pastoral care programme that only takes human needs into account, ‘love the sinner but hate the sin’ as the saying goes.” “But there must be no contradiction between pastoral care and doctrine,” Schockenhoff said. “It is not enough to try to eliminate doubts over single problems linked to the Church’s moral doctrine by adopting a more flexible interpretation in the pastoral ministry. Failure to deal with problems that remain unresolved on a doctrinal level, will simply lead to the Church’s teaching being seen as rigid and lacking in credibility.” In reference to those who speak of a growing gap between the so called institutional Church and the Church of the faithful, the German theologian said that the term “official Church” should be done away with. The term suggests that there is a real Church with official members and that faithful form part of a different circle outside the Church. The idea that in some countries bishops are detached from the faithful and form part of some kind of parallel society within the Church, is not in tune with their mission or with Pope Francis’ calls for the focus to be on questions that really concern faithful.”

Pope Francis the Destroyer? - The Nominalist attacks the created relationship between Reality, the Concept which is formed only in a spiritual soul, and the Language to symbolize - He denies that truth exists, that it can be known, and that it can be communicated to spiritual souls - He attacks the created order at its very foundation.

So often [people ask]: 'But do you believe?': 'Yes! Yes! '; 'What do you believe in?'; 'In God!'; 'But what is God for you?'; 'God, God'. But God does not exist: Do not be shocked! So God does not exist! There is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, they are persons, they are not some vague idea in the clouds ... This God spray does not exist! The three persons exist!

Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 10-9-14

“They ask me if I’m Catholic? I can recite the Creed if needs be...”

In the interview on board the flight from Cuba to the US Francis spoke about the criticisms against his magisterium: “Everything I say is contained in the Church’s social doctrine.” Regarding the US embargo against Cuba he said: “I hope an agreement can be reached that satisfies both sides.” About Cuba’s dissidents, he commented: “Some were invited for a greeting at the cathedral. None of them introduced themselves as dissidents, I have no news of any arrests.” With Fidel “we spoke about the “Laudato Si’” and his Jesuit teacher”

ANDREA TORNIELLI | Vatican Insider | on the flight from cuba to washington | 09/22/2015 

“They ask me if I’m Catholic? I can recite the Creed if needs be...” Pope Francis spoke to the troop of journalists on board the flight from Cuba to the US and responded to the accusations of him being a "communist” or even an “anti-Pope”.

COMMENT: A parrot can recite a creed but only a faithful Catholic can submit the mind and will to the revelation of God. The problem that concerns every Catholic is that such a question can even seriously be asked. The answer given by Pope Francis does not deny the accusations, it begs the question. Is Pope Francis a “communist” or even an “anti-Pope? As for the “social doctrine” of the Church, Pope Leo XIII said, “A religious error is the main root of all social and political evils” (Inscrutabili Dei Consilio). Pope Francis has never corrected any “religious error” but rather has muddied what was once the clear teaching of Catholic doctrinal and moral truth. It is evident that Pope Francis (Who am I to judge?), who thinks “proselytism is solemn nonsense” and “apologetics” is nothing more than being “self-enclosed, exclusive, and bent on imposing a uniformity based on merely human calculations,” must necessarily be wholly ignorant of the “Church’s social doctrine” because he is just another source of “religious error.” He cannot get first things first.

“Don’t proselytize; respect others’ beliefs. We can inspire others through witness so that one grows together in communicating. But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: ‘I am talking with you in order to persuade you,’ No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing.”

Pope Francis 

So many past controversies between Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic approaches, and seek instead to grasp more fully what unites us, namely, our call to share in the mystery of the Father’s love revealed to us by the Son through the Holy Spirit. Christian unity – we are convinced – will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their opinions. […..…] In the call to be evangelizers, all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities discover a privileged setting for closer cooperation. For this to be effective, we need to stop being self-enclosed, exclusive, and bent on imposing a uniformity based on merely human calculations. Our shared commitment to proclaiming the Gospel enables us to overcome proselytism and competition in all their forms.

Pope Francis

Schism on Fast-Track

Pope Attacked Over 'Annulment' Motu Proprio; Cardinal Kasper Reasserts His Proposal
by Edward Pentin | National Catholic Register | 09/11/2015

Reports have emerged that a seven-page dossier, obtained by the German newspaper Die Zeit, is circulating around the curia in which senior Vatican officials have voiced discontent with the recent change in Church law on annulments, and an absence of consultation over the matter.

On Tuesday, the Pope made sweeping reforms to make the process of obtaining a declaration of nullity simpler, quicker and cheaper.

According to Die Zeit, the officials juridically “tear to pieces” the Pope’s motu proprio (papal decree) on annulment reform, accuse the Holy Father of giving up an important dogma, and assert that he has introduced de facto “Catholic divorce”. The report also mentioned “physical aggression coming up against the Pontiff.”

Further concerns mentioned in the document are that, despite the gravity of the issue, no dicasteries, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as well as bishops conferences, were consulted about the decision — a claim the Register has had confirmed by numerous sources.

Critics say this goes against the Pope’s calls for synodality and collegiality, and resembles an ecclesialized “Führerprinzip”, ruling from the top down, by decree and without any consultation or without any checks.

The dossier, which speaks of “unsettling developments”, argues that Francis “circumvented” the regulated process for changing legislation for the universal Church. Instead, the papal commission that drafted the motu proprio had been ordered to keep silent throughout the drafting process, probably to avoid the reforms being thwarted by the CDF and others in the curia.

The Register has learned via other sources that this decision and others are effectively isolating the CDF and that the Pope is steadily making their work superfluous.

The report also voices concern that the motu proprio will lead to a flood of annulments and that from now on, couples would be able to simply exit their Catholic marriage without a problem.

“A number of monsignors who are officially in charge of directing the affairs of the Church at large, are beside themselves,” the reports alleges, according to Die Zeit. They are also concerned about the vagueness of the motu proprio, especially the reasons for a speedy trial, such as “lack of faith” or other motives that are not clearly defined.

Although the need to streamline the annulments process gained a two-thirds consensus at last year’s synod, the report also points out that synod fathers loudly protested against the idea of a speedy process for determining the nullity of a marriage under the supervision of the local bishop. Now it is Church law, even before the synod could discuss it.

We hope to look into these claims in more detail in the near future.

Meanwhile, in a fresh interview, Cardinal Walter Kasper has returned to pushing forward his proposal for readmitting Catholics to Holy Communion, saying he is “confident” that a “broad consensus” can be found.

He also said in the Sept. 11 interview with Vatican Insider that it’s “necessary to wisely build” such a consensus over the proposal.

The cardinal’s comments come a few days after many felt Pope Francis’ annulment reform upended the Kasper proposal by offering a compromise to both sides.

Kasper’s remarks, however, show his determination to reassert his proposal which consists of allowing civilly remarried divorcees receive Holy Communion after a penitential period. It also proposes that readmittance can take place after “an honest judgment of the person concerned about his own personal situation” and support from the sacramental confessor. The process would be overseen by the local bishop.

Widely supported by the German hierarchy, the proposal has been firmly rejected by prominent theologians and Church leaders as a serious abuse of the sacraments of the Eucharist, marriage and penance. It also failed to reach a two-thirds majority at the previous synod in October, although the Pope insisted it remain in the list of propositions to be discussed for the forthcoming synod next month.

Cardinal Kasper’s comments come as tensions rise ahead of the Ordinary Synod on the Family in October. Yesterday, it emerged that 50 concerned theologians have appealed to Pope Francis to uphold the teachings of Humanae Vitae (Bl. Paul VI’s encyclical banning contraception) and Veritatis Splendor (Pope St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical underlining the Church’s moral teaching).

The signatories, who include Jesuit Father Kevin Flannery, professor of moral philosophy professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and philosophy Professor Robert Spaemann, a close ally of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, argue that a specific paragraph in the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the synod is gravely flawed, effectively emptying Humanae Vitae of its central teaching.

Ban Ki-moon disciple, apologist, and dedicated evangelist for:

· abortion-ritual murder – baby body-parts industry;

· birth control/artificial sterility ;

· earth-worship/climate-change/global-warming cult;

· the homosexual agenda;

· gender-equality/gender-identity ideology;

· and the UN “Sustainable Development Goals” which ultimately call for getting rid of 5 billion people.

Yet in Pope Francis, Ban Ki-moon finds an ideological friend.

Ban Ki-moon: Pope Francis is a man of moral voice and purpose

Interview with Vatican Radio and Vatican Insider ahead of the Pope’s visit to the United Nations in New York at the end of September

Paolo Mastrolilli | New York | 09/11/2015  

Question: Mister Secretary General, on September 25 Pope Francis will visit the United Nations and address the General Assembly. Why is this visit important and what are your expectations for it?

Ban Ki-moon: "We are excited – We are looking forward with great excitement [to] His Holiness, Pope Francis’ visit to the United Nations. This will be my fourth meeting with the Pope, but this will be his first visit to the United Nations – and, in the history of the Vatican – United Nations relations I think that this will be the first time in which His Holiness the Pope visits the United Nations during a General Assembly. He is a man of humility and humanity, and he is a man of moral voice, and purpose. Particularly at a time in which this world is experiencing many conflicts: refugees; migration; human rights abuses; climate change; we really need such a strong moral voice as the Pope’s; on this, the occasion, during which more than 150 heads-of-state and government of the world are gathering, therefore, you cannot expect any greater, more significant and important gathering of the world’s leaders, including the Pope. I’m grateful for his compassionate leadership for peace and humanity".

Question: The Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father addresses the care of our common home. The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris at the end of the year, […..] What is still missing in order to achieve a global agreement on climate change in Paris?

Ban Ki-moon: "First of all, I am grateful to His Holiness, Pope Francis, for his Encyclical, which he announced in June. When I visited him in April, he told me that he would be strongly committed to working together to address the climate change phenomenon. He said that it is morally indefensible, if we do not cut and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the only planet on which human beings live, and succeeding generations should be able to continue to enjoy living harmoniously with nature. […..]

Question: The next General Assembly will adopt the post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. What will be the keys to address the issues of poverty and economic inequality, and put the economy at the service of peoples, as Pope Francis said recently in Bolivia?

Ban Ki-moon: "Later this month, leaders of the world will come to the United Nations and will adapt the Sustainable Development Agenda, with 17 sustainable development goals. These goals are transformational, and [together constitute] a far-reaching vision of the world’s leaders, to make this world better for all, [a world in which] nobody will be left behind, so that all the people in this world can live with dignity, and also live harmoniously with our nature, with our planet, Earth. This is the only Earth we have to live on. [The SDG Agenda] encompasses all the spectrums of our life, with poverty-eradication front-and-center. In that regard, [the Agenda] is people-centered and planet-friendly. We must learn how we should live harmoniously with our planet Earth, with our nature. That is a main vision of these sustainable development goals. I expect that all member-states of the United Nations will reflect these 17 goals into their national economic social and environmental policies as binding national legislation, so that, by the time we [reach] 2030, we can live in a world of prosperity and well-being, equality, and justice. [The Agenda] even covers good governance, democratic society, and peaceful society. I sincerely hope that, on the basis of these sustainable development goals, we will make this a better world for all, in which nobody will be left behind".

“Authentic Alliance”? –

Is Francis Bergoglio campaigning to be Pope of Novus Ordo Mundi by endorsing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which target directly the destruction of the Catholic Family?

Pope: On the climate, we must listen to the poor

Francis looks ahead to the meeting on climate change in Paris. Dialogue needs to be stepped up in order to create an “authentic alliance” that can bring about “significant global environmental agreements”. The CEO of the Italian postal service gave him an electric bicycle as a gift

iacopo scaramuzzi | vatican city | 09/11/2015

The Pope has sent out an appeal ahead of the meeting on climate change in Paris, calling for an “authentic alliance” between key global players. An alliance capable of bring about “significant global environmental agreements” “make every effort to ensure that the poorest, among countries and human beings, can make their voices heard”.

Today, Jorge Mario Bergoglio - who dedicated his recent encyclical “Laudato Si’” to the theme of ecology - received participants of the international meeting on environmental justice and climate change organised by the Foundation for Sustainable Development, in an audience which was held in the Clementine Hall inside the Apostolic Palace. The meeting was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. In an interview with Vatican Radio and Italian newspaper La Stampa, in view of the Pope’s visit to the UN on 25 September, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, said today: “I am concerned about the pace of this negotiation (on climate change, Ed.). It is moving so slowly.”

“The climate, the Pope said, “is a common good that is seriously threatened today, as is demonstrated by phenomena such as climate change, global warming and the rise in extreme weather events. These issues have attracted considerable attention in the media and in public opinion and there are heated scientific and political debates around them. A widespread albeit not unanimous consensus is emerging. Why and how should the situation be dealt with? We cannot forget the serious social implications of climate change: it is the poorest who bear the brunt of its effects!”

“How can we exercise our responsibility, our solidarity, our dignity as people and citizens of the world?” the Pope asked. “Each individual is called to respond in their own personal way, on the basis of their role in the family, in the world of work, in the economy world and in the research world, in civil society and in the institutions. Not boasting impossible cures: nobody has them! But instead by contributing what they have learnt to dialogue, accepting that their contribution may be questioned: everyone is called to contribute towards achieving a result that cannot but be the fruit of a common effort. The great enemy here is hypocrisy,” Francis said speaking off the cuff. Your meeting rightfully represents an example of how this dialogue is practiced. In the “Laudato Si’” encyclical, I suggested that dialogue is the only way to deal with the problems of our world and to seek truly efficient solutions. I consider the fact that there are top representatives of different “worlds” participating in this meeting, a very important and providential sign. The “worlds” of religion and politics, economic activity and scientific research in a variety of sectors, international organisations and those engaged in the fight against poverty. In order for this dialogue to bear fruits, it needs to be inspired by a vision that is as transparent as it is wide-reaching and to adopt an integral but above all participatory approach, including all parties concerned, even those who are often left on the sidelines of institutional processes.”

“I urgently invite everyone to make every effort to ensure that the poorest, among countries and human beings, can make their voices heard at the discussion tables as we try to resolve this unique and complex socio-environmental crisis. This I also a duty of environmental justice,” Francis underlined. “Faced with the climate change emergency and in view of the crucial upcoming meetings – the approval of sustainable development goals by the UN at the end of September and above all the COP 21 forum on climate change in Paris at the start of December – I would like to urge for this dialogue to become an “authentic alliance” that can bring about significant global environmental agreements. You can count on my personal support and on the support of the Church as a whole along the way, starting with that essential form of support that is prayer. As of now, I offer our common effort to the Lord and I ask him to bless it so that humanity is finally able to listen to the earth’s cry, this earth which is our mother and sister, as well as the cry of the poor among the earth’s inhabitants and to care for it. Today, our mother earth is among the excluded who cry up to heaven. In this way, creation will increasingly resemble the common home that the one and only Father imagined as a gift for the universal family of his creations.”

At the start of today’s audience, Francesco Caio, the CEO of the Italian postal service, presented the Pope with an electric bicycle, “a sign of how the postman’s job developed towards sustainability”, he said, underlining the commitment of the Italian postal service to the green economy and sustainable and above all inclusive development. Edo Ronchi, President of Italy’s Sustainable Development Foundation, expressed his “fear” that this climate conference will lead to inadequate conclusion just like the previous ones. He invited the Pope to send out “a message at the conference in Paris, in order to ensure a positive outcome”. Today’s audience was attended amongst others by two Italian government ministers - Maurizio Martina, who is in charge of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and Gian Luca Galletti, who is in charge of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea - Gianni Letta, US economist Jeffrey Sachs and Mgr. Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The essential thrust of UN SDG - destroy the family that God has created by “educating girls.”

Population and Sustainability: Can We Avoid Limiting the Number of People?

Slowing the rise in human numbers is essential for the planet--but it doesn't require population control

By Robert Engelman | Scientific American | May 17, 2009

Educating (i.e.: Education is code word for ideological indoctrination) girls reduces birthrates. Worldwide, according to a calculation provided for this article by demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, women with no schooling have an average of 4.5 children, whereas those with a few years of primary school have just three. Women who complete one or two years of secondary school have an average of 1.9 children apiece—a figure that over time leads to a decreasing population. With one or two years of college, the average childbearing rate falls even further, to 1.7. And when women enter the workforce, start businesses, inherit assets and otherwise interact with men on an equal footing, their desire for more than a couple of children fades even more dramatically.

Fruits of Vatican II:

Historic Church Turned Into a Mosque with Taxpayer Funding

By S. Novle •  Independent Sentinel • August 27, 2015

Muslims are converting a former Roman Catholic church into mosque. The plan, approved by US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, is funded by U.S. tax dollars.

Syracuse is the new Dearborn and there are many others forming. Refugees have been pouring into the U.S. and they are 75% Muslim. Some countries will only take Christians. We do the reverse. An historic Catholic Church, Holy Trinity, was purchased by a Muslim and is being renovated by the Muslim community with tax dollars. More than 10,000 crosses were painted over inside and six on the outside were cut down. These are historic crosses. The new owners are erasing, not only crosses, but the historic and rich history of the Italians and Germans who once worshipped there. All trace will soon be gone from this historic church. No pictures or video of the crosses being removed were allowed to be taken but the crosses have to be stored somewhere on site. Throughout Europe, thousands of churches have closed and they too are becoming Mosques and we now see them in Brooklyn, Long Island and in many towns and cities in America. The Muslim community in Syracuse has largely grown because of Catholic Charities which has become a paid conduit for the refugees. About a thousand refugees a year pile into this poor area with substantial sums going to the Catholic Church. They received a $3 million dollar grant last year.

Study: Happiest Parents Have 4 Or More Children

September 11, 2015

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) — A new study finds that the happiest parents are those who have four or more kids.

According to The Daily Signal, a study conducted by Australia’s Edith Cowan University found parents had the most life satisfaction with larger families. “[The parents] usually say they always wanted a large family, it was planned that way, and it was a lifestyle they’d chosen,” study author Dr. Bronwyn Harman said, according to The Daily Signal. Harman spent five years interviewing hundreds of parents from different family makeups and based her findings on resilience, social support, self-esteem and life satisfaction. “What is important for kids are things like consistency, boundaries and [to] know that they are loved, no matter what,” Harman explained, The Daily Signal reports. Harman initially believed parents with more children would be less happy, but her research concluded that the joy parents get from their children balances out the chaotic family nature than that of a smaller family. The study also revealed that children of larger families are more independent at a younger age and always have friends.

Conservative Catholics: Some at least and at last are recognizing that unqualified obedience is “simply foreign to the Catholic faith.”

The power that Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors is, in an absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The power of teaching in the Church involves a commitment to the service of obedience to the faith. The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope’s ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism. […..] To put this question into sharp relief: the feet of whom should be washed in the Mass of Maundy Thursday? Those of men or of women? The feet of Christians or non-Christians? Why? With all due respect I submit that any answer based solely on, “. . . because the pope did it,” is insufficient if not downright ultramontane. Such reasoning will not do. Such positivism is simply foreign to the Catholic faith. Papal preference is not the arbiter of the church’s liturgy: sound liturgical and theological principles are. The Bishop of Rome exercises his authority rightly when, in liturgical matters, he bases his judgments on these principles. If he ignores them in his judgments or personal practice he risks causing confusion, scandal, and disunity. The exercise of authority in respect of the sacred liturgy and the personal liturgical behavior of all popes, prelates, other clergy, and laity are rightly evaluated according to these criteria.

Dom Alcuin Reed, 2014

But the Novus Ordo is already an “arbitrary” man-made creation, not in “obedience to the faith” but rather a product of servile human respect for the sensibilities of heretics, and therefore, it has no “religious respect of the mystery of the liturgy.”

For this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1125

Pope Francis to be willing shill for demonic political social agenda

White House Invites Several Opponents of Catholic Teaching to Greet Pope Francis

By Thomas D. Williams | BREITBART | September 17, 2015

President Obama will apparently test just how far Pope Francis’ notorious tolerance will go by inviting a rogue’s gallery of people opposed to Catholic teaching to greet the pontiff at the White House during his visit next week.

In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists. The White House was illuminated in gay pride colors on June 26, 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized gay same-sex marriage. [……]

The Religion of Scientism –

After 23 Years of Suicides, School Shootings, Ruined Lives, etc., etc., etc.

Antidepressant Paxil Is Unsafe for Teenagers, New Analysis Says

By BENEDICT CAREY | NEW YORK TIMES | SEPT. 16, 2015

Fourteen years ago, a leading drug maker published a study showing that the antidepressant Paxil was safe and effective for teenagers. On Wednesday, a major medical journal posted a new analysis of the same data concluding that the opposite is true.

That study — featured prominently by the journal British Medical Journal — is a clear break from scientific custom and reflects a new era in scientific publishing, some experts said, opening the way for journals to post multiple interpretations of the same experiment. It comes at a time of self-examination across science — retractions are at an all-time high; recent cases of fraud have shaken fields as diverse as anesthesia and political science; and earlier this month researchers reported that less than half of a sample of psychology papers held up. […..]

Religious Liberty is a dogma of Modernism that affirms that God is worshiped according to man's estimation. It was the argument Cain offered Abel. It is the theoretical justification for the Novus Ordo.

By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Matt. 7: 16-20

Vatican Council I - listing the good Fruits derived directly from the Council of Trent which are in every single detail exactly the opposite of the evil Fruits from Vatican Council II! Why? The Council answers that it is "because the authority of the sacred synod (of Trent) was held in contempt.... and its wise decrees were neglected."

Now this redemptive providence appears very clearly in unnumbered benefits, but most especially is it manifested in the advantages which have been secured for the Christian world by ecumenical councils, among which the council of Trent requires special mention, celebrated though it was in evil days.

Thence came:

1. a closer definition and more fruitful exposition of the holy dogmas of religion and

2. the condemnation and repression of errors; thence too,

3. the restoration and vigorous strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline,

4. the advancement of the clergy in zeal for

o learning and

o piety,

5. the founding of colleges for the training of the young for the service of religion; and finally

6. the renewal of the moral life of the Christian people by

o a more accurate instruction of the faithful, and

o a more frequent reception of the sacraments. What is more, thence also came

7. a closer union of the members with the visible head, and an increased vigour in the whole Mystical Body of Christ. Thence came

8. the multiplication of religious orders and other organisations of Christian piety; thence too

9. that determined and constant ardour for the spreading of Christ's kingdom abroad in the world, even at the cost of shedding one's blood.

While we recall with grateful hearts, as is only fitting, these and other outstanding gains, which the divine mercy has bestowed on the church especially by means of the last ecumenical synod, we cannot subdue the bitter grief that we feel at most serious evils, which have largely arisen either because

· the authority of the sacred synod was held in contempt by all too many, or because

· its wise decrees were neglected.

First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Faith, listing some of the manifold beneficial fruits from the Council of Trent

The Spiritual Life Condensed and Simplified:

MAN HAS a twofold nature, the one superior, the other inferior. The first is generally termed reason, the second is called appetite, sensuality, or passion. Reason is the distinguishing property of man, and he is not considered responsible for the primary impulses of his appetite unless his superior faculty confirms the choice.

The entire spiritual warfare, consequently, consists in this: the rational faculty is placed between the Divine will above it and the sensitive appetite below it, and is attacked from both sides------God moving it by His grace, and the flesh by its appetites strive for victory.

It is apparent, then, that inconceivable difficulties arise when persons who during their youth have contracted vicious habits resolve to change their life, mortify their passions, and break with the world in order to devote themselves to the service of God.

The will is violently attacked by Divine grace and by its own sensual appetites, and wherever it turns, it absorbs these withering attacks with the greatest difficulty.

This onslaught is not experienced by those who are firmly settled in their way of life, whether in virtue by conforming to the will of God, or in vice by indulging their sensual desires.

No one should delude himself that he can acquire virtue and serve God in the proper way, unless he is willing to undergo a violent struggle. He must conquer the difficulty he will experience when he deprives himself of the pleasures, great or small, to which he has been viciously attached.

The result is that very few attain any great degree of perfection. After conquering their greatest vice, after undergoing tremendous exertions, they lose courage and fail to pursue their objective. And this when only small trials are to be overcome, such as subduing the feeble remnants of their own will, and annihilating some weaker passions which revive and then completely regain their hearts.

Many persons of this type, for example, do not take what belongs to others, but they are passionately attached to what is their own. They do not use any illegal methods of aggrandizement, but instead of spurning advancement, they are fond of it and seek it by any means they think lawful. They observe the appointed fasts, but, on other days, they indulge in the most exotic delicacies. They are very careful to observe chastity, and yet they refuse to give up their favorite amusements, even though they constitute great obstacles to a spiritual life and real union with God. Since these things are so highly dangerous, particularly for those who do not recognize their bad results, they must be dealt with very cautiously.

Without such caution. we may be assured that most of our good acts will have as attendants, slothfulness, vanity, human respect, hidden imperfections, conceit, and a desire for the notice and approval of others.

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

Cardinal Kasper in interview with the Italian paper, Il Mattino, says that Pope Francis is source for the corruption of Catholic doctrine of Marriage!

Il Mattino: How does one consider complex situations? For example, the drama of a divorced family [sic] that has violated the indissoluble sacrament of marriage?
Cardinal Kasper: "They are considered one by one, the complex situations. No one must judge, but discern. The light of the Gospel helps us in the discenment of every concrete situation, at the light of mercy."
Il Mattino: We return to the danger of a doctrinal war in the Synod.
Cardinal Kasper: "I certainly don't want it. They [the Cardinals who criticize him] perhaps want it. I think of a pastoral Synod."
Il Mattino: Is that what the Pope also wants?
Cardinal Kasper: "Certainly. Also the Pope wants a pastoral Synod."
Il Mattino: Did you expect this controversy regarding your address to the Consistory?
Cardinal Kasper: "I'm not naïve. I knew that there are other positions, but I didn't think that the debate would become, and now is shown to be also, without manners. Not one of my fellow Cardinals ever spoke to me. I, instead, [spoke] twice with the Holy Father. I agreed upon everything with him. He was in agreement. What can a cardinal do, if not being with Pope? I am not the target, the target is another one."
Il Mattino: Is it Pope Francis?
Cardinal Kasper: "Probably yes."
Il Mattino: What else do you say, finally, to your opponents?
Cardinal Kasper: "They know that I have not done these things by myself. I agreed with the Pope, I spoke twice with him. He showed himself content [with it]. Now, they create this controversy. A Cardinal must be close to the Pope, by his side. The Cardinals are the Pope's cooperators."

Coming to every Government School - Forced indoctrination in "Gender Identity", the demonic doctrine that gender is a discriminatory artificial cultural norm.

Ontario school board tells parents they can’t ‘opt out’ of gay lessons

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, September 3, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- Despite an explicit government promise ensuring that parents can opt their kids out of the controversial sex-ed program beginning in schools next week, the province’s second largest school board has declared that parents will not be able to opt their kids out of portions of the course dealing with homosexuality and gender identity.

In a letter submitted to all mainstream media outlets yesterday, Peel Director of Education Tony Pontes was unambiguous that a request from parents to have their children opt-out would not be accommodated.

“Where the work in the classroom is about inclusion—whatever form that inclusion may take—any of the protected grounds in the Human Rights Code—we will not provide religious or any other accommodation,” he stated.

Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition called the move a “shocking attempt by the state to annex parental authority.”

“Contrary to what this director says, there is no such thing as a human right to force your personal beliefs about sexual morality onto other people's children,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Pontes justified the board’s position by insisting that it is trying to end what he called “discrimination.”

“We cannot—we will not—by action or inaction endorse discrimination. What does this mean? Well, if we are talking about different kinds of families—a discussion that builds a climate of inclusion and safety—we will not allow religious accommodation to be used as a reason for a student to miss that lesson,” he stated in the letter.

But Fonseca said the statement amounted to Pontes “trying to bulldoze the public into believing” that teachers and education bureaucrats can take away a “parental rights as primary educators of children” in the name of “anti-discrimination.” [......]

“Teach us” what? How easy it is to reach an accommodation of Sin and fixed estrangement from God and His grace!

“Those in irregular situations can teach us something too”

Italian Jesuit periodical “La Civiltà Cattolica” has published a long interview with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn which focuses exclusively on issues relating to the Synod on the Family: “We should look” at cohabitation “not just from the point of view of what is missing, but also from the point of view of what is promised, what is already there”

andrea tornielli | vatican city | 9/10/2015

“We should look at the many situations of cohabitation not just from the point of view of what is missing, but also from the point of view of what is promised, what is already there”, because “we can always learn from those living in irregular situations too”. The important thing is to accompany those people and be close to them like shepherds. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn – a pupil of Joseph Ratzinger, appointed Archbishop of Vienna and created cardinal by St. John Paul II – made these remarks during a long interview that will be published in the next issue of Italian Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica run by editor-in chief, Antonio Spadaro.

We are still speaking in very shallow terms” the cardinal said. “Too often, we theologians and bishops who are pastors and custodians of Catholic doctrine, forget that human life unfolds within the conditions imposed by a society: psychological conditions, social conditions, economic conditions, political conditions within a historical framework. This is what the Synod has been lacking so far... I was I was slightly shocked about the fact that during the Synod we spoke about marriage in such abstract terms. Very few among us spoke about the real conditions of young people who want to marry. We complain about the almost universal reality of common-law marriages, involving many young people, about many young and not so young people who cohabit without forming a civil union, much less celebrating a religious marriage; we are here denouncing this phenomenon instead of asking ourselves: ‘What has changed in people’s life conditions?’.”

During the interview, the cardinal discussed the key of interpretation which he proposed in the speech he gave at the October 2014 Synod. “Given that marriage is a miniature Church, family is like a miniature Church, it seems plausible to me to draw a comparison and say that naturally, the sacrament of marriage is fulfilled completely when it is undertaken by a man and a woman who live together in faith etc. This, however, does not mean that outside this full expression of the sacrament of marriage there are no elements of marriage present, positive elements that may signal a prospective marriage.”

For this reason, the cardinal said, “we should look at the numerous instances of cohabitation not just from the point of view of what is lacking, but also from the point of view of what has already been promised, what is already there. After all, the Council points out, that although there is always real holiness in the Church, the Church is nevertheless made up of sinners and is advancing along a path of conversion.”

Regarding the issue of remarried divorcees being able to take communion, the Cardinal clarified: “Objective criteria clearly tell us that a person who is still bound by a sacramental marriage cannot take part fully in the sacramental life of the Church. Subjectively, this person experiences this situation as a conversion, as a true discovery in their own life, to the point that you could in some way – a different way but a way that is nevertheless similar to the Pauline privilege – say, that for the sake of the faith you take a step that goes beyond what the rule objectively states. I believe this is going to be an important element at the upcoming Synod. Regarding this, I cannot hide that I was shocked by the purely formalist approach taken when discussing the intrinsece malum (intrinsically evil act, Ed.) concept.”

According to the cardinal, by focusing on the “intrinsically evil” act – in this case the second union – “you lose the entire richness, or rather the beauty of a moral expression which is inevitably lost. Not only to you make the moral analysis of different situations univocal, you are unable to see the bigger picture in terms of the dramatic consequences of divorce: financial effects, educational effects, mental effects etc. This is true for all issues relating to marriage and the family. The obsession with the intrinsece malum concept has narrowed the debate down so much that we have deprived ourselves of a broad range of arguments in favour of oneness, indissolubility, openness to life and the human basis of the Church’s doctrine. We have lost our ability to discuss these human realities.”

Regarding the expectations for the Synod, the Archbishop of Vienna stated: “General solutions are expected, while the task of the Good shepherd is to guide people going through a divorce and a new marriage according to their own individual situations. [………]

The cardinal concluded the interview speaking about the faith dimension in these situations.  “In his teaching, Pope Benedict showed in a magnificent way that Christian life is not first and foremost a moral, but a friendship, an encounter, a person. In this friendship, we learn how to behave. If we say that Jesus is our teacher, it means that we learn about the Christian journey directly from him. It is not some catalogue full of abstract doctrine or a rucksack filled with heavy rocks that we must carry. It is a living relationship.”

Pope Francis the “Humble” believes he is more ‘merciful’ than God!

Francis calls for mercy when marriages fail

Today the Pope received the Équipes Notre-Dame - an international Catholic movement for Christian married couples – in audience. “A happy couple can understand the pain of failed love”. He condemned “ideological colonisations” and urged support for the numerous wounded families out there

Iacopo Scaramuzzi | vatican city | 09/10/2015

During an audience with members of Équipes Notre-Dame (Teams of Our Lady), an international Catholic movement for Christian married couples founded in France in 1938, the Pope called for “mercy” to be shown towards “people whose marriage has failed”. The movement is holding an international meeting in Sassone, Rome, which runs from 6 to 11 September. “Do not forget that your conjugal faithfulness is a God-given gift and that we have all been shown mercy. A united and happy couple can understand better that anyone else, from the inside almost, the pain and suffering caused by an abandonment, a betrayal, failed love,” the Pope said. He condemned the fact that today, the family’s image is distorted by powerful opposing forces backed by ideological colonisations”. He encouraged those present to be “close to families that have been wounded” by unemployment, poverty, health problems, loss, concern for a child, distance or a violent environment. […….]

The Fruits of Second Vatican Council:

Recent Pew Poll - Doctrine of Marriage Repudiated by Great Majority of Catholics

Most US Catholics are fine with nontraditional families

Cathy Lynn Grossman | Religion News Service | Sep. 2, 2015

Families are one great reason why Pope Francis is coming to America.

Sure, he'll address Congress and the United Nations, too. But Philadelphia — host to the church's World Meeting of Families and Francis' only Mass open to the general public — is the one stop on the three-city, six-day trip where he can greet hundreds of thousands of U.S. Catholic families in person.

Many in the crowd will match the church's ideal family blueprint: one man and one woman married for life and welcoming as many children as God gives them.

But many won't. And a new survey by Pew Research finds that nontraditional family arrangements are fine with many U.S. Catholics. Indeed, many think the church should be more open to them as well.

The survey of 1,016 U.S. Catholic adults, released Sept. 2, finds:

· 25 percent have gone through a divorce.

· 9 percent of those who divorced have remarried.

· 44 percent say they have lived with a romantic partner outside of marriage at some point in their lives, and 9 percent still do.

· Those cohabitating couples and divorced Catholics who remarried without a Catholic annulment — grave sins in the eyes of the church — are not eligible to receive Communion.

Those cohabitating couples and divorced Catholics who remarried without a Catholic annulment — grave sins in the eyes of the church — are not eligible to receive Communion.

Pew found that "15 percent of Catholics are currently in one of those situations," said Greg Smith, director of religion research and co-author of the survey.

Given that obstacle, "it's no surprise their Mass attendance is low," said Smith. Only 1 in 4 of those Catholics say they attend once a week, while 41 percent of Catholics overall say they attend weekly, Smith said.

Catholics, however, often disagree with — even defy — church teachings on faith and practice.

On Communion, for example, about 4 in 10 of Catholics who are not eligible for Communion say they still seek the Eucharist when they do attend Mass, Smith said.

And most Catholics, no matter what their family structure, are comfortable with a wide variety of family arrangements that the church does not encourage. The survey asked which family structures are acceptable and as good as any other for rearing children. It found:

· 94 percent say a married mother and father is acceptable, although 4 percent of those say it isn't as good as some other arrangements.

· 87 percent say a single parent is acceptable.

· 84 percent say the same for unmarried parents living together.

· 83 percent say the same for divorced parents (although Catholics have a significantly lower divorce rate than Protestants and people who claim no religious identity).

And 66 percent of Catholics say gay or lesbian couples are acceptable for rearing children. That includes 43 percent who say this arrangement is as good as any other family structure.

Although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has spent a decade battling the legalization of same-sex marriage, Catholics are split: 46 percent say the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples — and exactly the same percentage say no.

Catholic doctrine teaches that artificial contraception interferes with true union in a marriage and that couples should always be open to God's gift of children. However, in the survey:

· 76 percent of Catholics — including 65 percent of Catholics who attend Mass once a week — say their church should allow them to use artificial birth control.

· 41 percent say being open to having children is essential to what it means to them personally to be Catholic. Another 41 percent say it's important but not essential.

· 33 percent call opposing abortion "essential" and 34 percent call it important.

No matter how far Catholics stray from the doctrinal path in their attitudes or actions, the pull of the family is strong.

The Pew survey found 56 percent of Catholics — and 46 percent of ex-Catholics, too — say they sometimes participate in Catholic activities such as Mass or attending a family baptism or holiday observance, just because they are important to family or close friends, even if they don't personally believe in them.

Bringing the whole clan to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia might just be one of those occasions.

The Liberal Catholic assumes as the formal motive of the act of faith, not the infallible authority of God revealing supernatural truth, but his own reason deigning to accept as true what appears rational to him according to the appreciation and measure of his own individual judgment. He subjects God’s authority to the scrutiny of his reason, and not his reason to God’s authority. He accepts revelation not on account of the infallible revealer, but because of the “infallible” receiver.

Dom. Felix Sarda y Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin

Is this what Pope Francis means by "fleshless theology that becomes ideology"?

I likewise receive and accept the rites of the Catholic Church which have been received and approved in the solemn administration of all the aforesaid (seven) sacraments. [.....]

I resolutely assert that images of Christ and the ever virgin mother of God, and likewise those of the other saints, are to be kept and retained, and that due honour and reverence is to be shown them. [.....]

Likewise all other things which have been transmitted, defined and declared by the sacred canons and the ecumenical councils, especially the sacred Trent, I accept unhesitatingly and profess; in the same way whatever is to the contrary, and whatever heresies have been condemned, rejected and anathematised by the Church, I too condemn, reject and anathematise. This true Catholic faith, outside of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, is what I shall steadfastly maintain and confess, by the help of God, in all its completeness and purity until my dying breath, and I shall do my best to ensure that all others do the same. This is what I, the same Pius, promise, vow and swear. So help me God and these holy gospels of God.

Profession of Faith, made by Blessed Pope Pius IX before the assembled bishops of the Church at the opening of the First Vatican Council

“Doctrine and pastoral care are tied together. Fleshless theology becomes ideology”

In a video-message addressed to the International Congress of Theology in Buenos Aires, Francis said: “The great fathers of the Church were great theologians because they were great pastors.” And “doctrine is not a closed, private system deprived of dynamics able to raise questions and doubts”

ANDREA TORNIELLI | vatican city | 09/04/2015

Doctrine and pastoral care are linked, just as prayer and life are. They cannot be separated. Francis said this in a video-message sent to the International Congress of Theology in Buenos Aires, which concluded yesterday. The Pope’s carefully thought-out words are also connected in some way to the Synod debate on the family.

“Any attempt, any intention to reduce communication and to break the relationship between the Tradition received and concrete reality places the faith of God’s people at risk,” the Pope said. “To break this communication will easily lead to us turning our outlook and our theology into an ideology.”

Francis then explained that “Christians in today’s Argentina are not the same as they were in in Argentina 100 years ago. Christians live their faith differently in India, in Canada and in Rome. Thus, one of the main tasks of a theologian is to discern and reflect: what does it mean to be a Christian today?, in the “here and now”? How does this river of origins manage to irrigate these lands and become visible and liveable?”

“To make this challenge our own,” the Pope added, “we need to overcome two possible temptations: that of condemning everything, clinging to the phrase “all was better in the past”, taking refuge in conservatism and fundamentalism. Or on the contrary, legitimising everything, diminishing anything that brings nothing new, relativizing all the wisdom of our rich ecclesial heritage. The way to overcoming these temptations is reflection, discernment, taking ecclesial Tradition and reality seriously, creating a dialogue between them.”

“A contrast is often created between theology and pastoral care, as if they were two different and opposing elements that have nothing to do with one another,” the Pope said, giving an illuminating interpretation of many debates that have taken place in recent months. We often identify doctrine with backward conservativism. On the contrary we think of pastoral care in terms of adaptation, reduction and compromise. As if they were not in any way related. This creates a false contrast between the so-called “pastoralists” and “academicists”, those who are on the people’s side and those who support doctrine.” “This creates a false opposition between theology and pastoral care; between Christian reflection and Christian life; in life then, there is no room for reflection and reflection finds no space in life. The great Fathers of the Church, Irenaeus, Augustine, Basil and Ambrose – to name but a few – were great theologians because they were great pastors.”

“Doctrine is not a closed, private system deprived of dynamics able to raise questions and doubts. On the contrary, Christian doctrine has a face, a body and flesh in the form of Jesus Christ and it is his Life that is offered through the generations to all men and women around the earth. Looking after the doctrine requires faithfulness to what one has received. At the same time, it means bearing the recipient in mind, knowing them and loving them. This encounter between doctrine and pastoral care is not optional, it is integral to a theology that intends to be ecclesial.”

Hence, “the questions our people pose, their anguish, their quarrels, their dreams, their struggles, their concerns all have hermeneutical value we cannot ignore if we are to take seriously the principal of incarnation. Their questions help us ask ourselves questions, their questions call us into question. All this helps us to delve deeper into the mystery of the Word of God, a Word that demands and calls for dialogue and communication. For this reason, we cannot ignore our people in theology. Our God has chosen this path. He was incarnated in this world that is riddled with war, injustice and violence and home to hopes and dreams.”

“People and their specific conflicts, their peripheries, are not optional, but rather necessary for a better understanding of faith. Therefore, it is important to ask whom we are thinking of when we engage in theology. Let us not forget that the Holy Spirit in a praying people is the subject of theology. A theology that is not born of this would offer something beautiful but not real”.

COMMENT:

Pastoral Care is a subsidiary branch within the field of Moral Theology. To declare that "doctrine and pastoral care are tied together" is a self-evident truth. The problem with Pope Francis is how is understands the relationship. He teaches that doctrine and pastoral care share a reciprocal dynamic and interdependent relationship which itself is subject to historical evolution in both expression and practice. This is nothing but a repacking of the heresy of Modernism. It is to make both doctrine and morality subject to whatever the popular ideology of the time happens to be.

Pope Francis is a man entirely formed in modern philosophy and theology and seemingly wholly ignorant of the perennial philosophy in the tradition of St. Thomas outside of the gross indoctrination and mischaracterization in his formation by Modernists ideologues. Modernism is firstly a philosophical error of epistemology that denies that there is an immutable truth, or if there is, it cannot be objectively known and communicated to others. St. Pius X lays the foundation of Modernism on the doctrine of Immanuel Kant whose philosophy is incompatible with God's religion.

The fact is that Catholic doctrine is the objective revealed truth of God by God. All morality is derived from doctrine. There is an interdependence in that doctrine always determines morality and any change in morals always requires a change of doctrine because the human mind needs logical consistency between the thought and the act.

That is the essential reason and explanation for Protestantism. Protestants wanted to sin so they changed doctrine of God for the doctrine of man. Now, anyone can find a man-made Protestant church that approves of the particular sin from which he does not want to repent. Protestantism is not just an accommodation of error in doctrine, it is an accommodation of sin in practice. That in a nut shell is what modern Protestantism means by "pastoral care."

Pastoral care is a particular field of applied moral theology. Every faithful Catholic practices moral theology in the formation of conscience in every human act. The conscience if it is to be 'true and certain' must be grounded on the doctrine of God and not the doctrine of man. Pope Francis in his 'pastoral theology' is proposing nothing different that a Protestant ethic. This is evident because God's revealed truth does not change regardless of time or historical setting. Morality is just the application of fixed principles in a specific context of the here and now.

Unfortunately for those Catholics who follow Pope Francis' modern morality, they will have to answer for their own sins at their particular judgment, as St. Paul says, "For every one shall bear his own burden" (Gal. 6-5). Many Catholics since Vatican II have been 'confessor shopping' to find a priest who will wink at their unrepentant sins. No one, not even the pope, has the authority to permit sin.

St. Pius X told of a vision in which one of his successors, while fleeing in disguise, is mercilessly slaughtered in Rome among his buddies, chums and pals. It is not a martyrdom. If Pope Francis is the one will anybody be surprised?

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