Mary Ann Kreitzer, Who Are You Serving?

I have written many times about the importance of being loyal to the Chair of Peter.  The Church was founded upon St. Peter, and Our Lord personally gave the Keys to the Kingdom to Peter and his successors.  We cannot be in communion with Christ unless we are in communion with the earthly head of His Church.  

The Chair of Peter is of utmost importance because Our Lord considers loyalty to Peter as loyalty to Himself and God the Father, as he told Peter and the disciples in Luke 10:16:

There is no Church without Peter.  Without Peter, there are no bishops because bishops are appointed by Peter.  Without bishops, there are no priests because priests are ordained by the bishops.  Without priests, there is no Mass, no Holy Eucharist, no forgiveness of sins, no Sacraments whatsoever.  

All of this leads to the worst "no" of all - No Salvation.  We all die in our sins with no hope of salvation.  

Christ could have done this differently.  He could have appointed sinless, incorruptible angels to lead us.  Our Lord could have just stayed on earth and led the Church Himself.

But instead, Jesus chose to work with sinful men who, apart from Christ, can easily fall away from the faith and lead the faithful away with them.  And the Catholic Church has most assuredly had her fair share of sinful leaders in her long history.  

Yet, despite all of the attacks against the Church from within and without, and despite the fallible men who have acted as her earthly leaders, Holy Mother Church is still here, the longest surviving institution in the history of man.  During the 2000 plus years she has existed, except for brief periods of time between papacies, the Chair of Peter has never been vacant.  The Holy Spirit has led the Church using both the holiest of men and the greatest of sinners.  

The specific person occupying the Chair of Peter is almost irrelevant because he is not the real leader of the church.  As Our Lord told us in John 14:

So if we have the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, why does our Lord command us to give allegiance to Him through a sinful, fallible human being instead of directly to Jesus Christ Himself as the Protestants do?

There are many different reasons for the Chair of Peter,  Firstly, God is creating a community.  More specifically, He is creating a family.  He does not want a bunch of lone wolves wandering around the world doing their own thing.  He wants us all to be connected to one another, and so He gives us a physical authority to unite us.  

The Protestants have shown us what happens when there is no central authority like the papacy.  An article from National Catholic Register in 2017 tried to answer the question of how many protestant sects there are, and the answer is that no one really knows for sure.  The bottom line from this article was "When viewed historically and globally, we are safe in saying there are hundreds, likely thousands, of Protestant denominations." 

How do we know that the Pope can be trusted to always lead us to Christ?  The Biblical explanation for the spiritual infallibility of the Pope comes from Luke 22:32, when Christ told Peter,

"But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

Anything Christ said to St. Peter in regard to his role as head of the Church holds true for all of his successors.  And we know that Christ's prayers can never fail.

Secondly, as St. Paul told us, God's strength is made perfect in weakness.  II Cor 12:9

We see this over and over in the Bible.  God chose a slave nation, Israel, with absolutely no power and no standing in the world and called them to be His Chosen People.  He used a disgraced exile from Egypt, Moses, to lead this slave nation to freedom.  

God then chose David, a young, uneducated, shepherd boy, discounted even by his own father, to be the greatest King of Israel, and through whom the world would receive its Messiah.  Of course, David was a very weak man in many ways who committed adultery and then murder, and yet God called David a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22).

The Messiah, a direct descendant of the weak and sinful David, was born into a nation enslaved by Rome.  His parents were poor and counted as insignificant in their society.  His mother gave birth to the Messiah in a dirty, vermin infested manger.  He was greeted not by the high and mighty of the world but only by poor shepherds and pagan kings.  He was killed like a common criminal, suffering a horrible, painful and humiliating death, literally stripped of everything he had, hanging naked on a cross.  He was abandoned by everyone except His mother and a handful of other people.  He was considered a complete failure in His Life.  No one wanted to be associated with Him.  

The story of salvation is the story of God choosing the weak, despised things of this world, and using them to show His glory and magnificence.  

And another very important reason why Jesus commands our obedience to fallible, sinful men is because it is an act of faith in Jesus Himself. Do we trust that He is the true Head of His Church?  Or are we the apostles in the boat crying out to a sleeping Jesus in the midst of a storm instead of trusting in His Providence to take care of us.  

God has always used weak, sinful men to lead His people on earth, starting with the very first pope, St Peter.  There was no one weaker or more unreliable than Peter before his conversion, and even afterwards he still showed weakness, so much so that St. Paul had to publicly correct him.  

As a direct show of our faith in God, we as lay people are to be obedient and submissive to that God-given authority, trusting that God is the one who is truly in charge.  Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

In today's Office of Readings from the Breviary, we are given a letter from St. Ignatius, which makes this very clear:

Your submission to your bishop, who is in the place of Jesus Christ, shows me that you are not living as men usually do but in the manner of Jesus himself, who died for us that you might escape death by belief in his death. Thus one thing is necessary, and you already observe it, that you do nothing without your bishop; indeed, be subject to the clergy as well, seeing in them the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, for if we live in him we shall be found in him.

. . . 

Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the bishop as the image of the Father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the college of the apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a church.

However, on the Internet, all we hear from those who self identify as the most faithful of all Catholics, but whom the rest of the world sees as radical, right-wing traditionalists, is calls for rebellion and revolt against the authority of the Church.  And sadly, no where do I see this more than in the blog created and run by Mary Ann Kreitzer, called "Les Femmes - The Truth."  Mary Ann, without question, sees herself as the most faithful of Catholics.  She is a daily Mass attendee, daily recitation of the rosary, a mother and grandmother, active in pro life causes and many other things.

Yet, no one has been more critical and dismissive of the Magisterium of the Church than she has, not holding anything back, showing no respect whatsoever.

I usually just look at blogs such as Les Femmes and keep on going, not wanting to waste my time on something that is so clearly contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ and His Church.  Yet, for some reason, I cannot turn away from Mary Ann.

Mary Ann and I have had public disagreements, and she has been quite rude and dismissive of me, basically accusing me of being a heretic because I support Pope Francis and the Magisterium.  (Our world is truly upside down.) Yet, I find myself taking regular looks at her blog, hoping she has come to her senses and found the Catholicity she has so clearly lost.  I am always disappointed in finding only more hateful posts.

But one of the most recent posts was so far over the top that I now am publicly appealing to her to repent. This post was not written by her but by one of her contributors. However, since it is on her blog, I can only assume Mary Ann in in agreement with the sentiments expressed therein.

The post is entitled, "Anti-Pope. That's my final decision."  It is written by Susan Matthiesen.  It is a complete and total renunciation of Pope Francis and denies the validity of his papacy.  I thought one comment succinctly captured the problem with this post:

 Sojourner said...
There cannot be an anti pope unless two or more men are laying claim to the papacy. At this time, only Pope Francis is recognized as the pope. If you do not accept Pope Francis, you are saying there is no pope at this time, that the Chair of Peter is empty and you are officially a sedevacantist and have separated yourself from the Church. There are no other choices.

You are also rejecting all decisions made by Pope Francis, including his choice of cardinals who elect the new pope. Therefore, you will never be able to trust the Church again. You are saying Jesus lied and that the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church.

Does Mary Ann agree with you? Is she also sedevacantist?
October 7, 2019 at 9:15 AM

This was the reply made to that comment:

 Susan Matthiesen said...
Sojourner,
I'm not the one worshiping a Pachamama fertility goddess in the Vatican Gardens, and so far the ceiling of my house is still intact, that is, bits and pieces have not fallen on my table during dinner like at St Peters during Bergoglio's Mass three days ago.
October 7, 2019 at 11:16 PM

As you can see, Matthiesen does not answer the charge of sedevacantism.  She can't because she knows it is true.  She just merely continues on in her judgment and condemnation of Pope Francis. 

Mary Ann has not made any public comments to this post, either for or against.  Her silence is deafening.   Why did she allow this to be put on her blog in the first place?  Doesn't she realize the seriousness of sedevacantism?

What is the Church's position on sedevacantists.  From a blog called "Canon Law Made Easy", there is a post entitled, "Can You Be Both A Sedevacantist And A Catholic?" From that post:

For those who say there has to be a formal declaration of schism, here is what the article says:

As the article further explains, sedevacantism doesn't mean just disliking pope.  It means you must actively reject him, as we saw in the post on Mary Ann's blog.

It is interesting to note that most of the leaders in the revolt against Pope Francis, such as Voris, Zuhlsdorf, Taylor, etc., although condemning him in the harshest of terms, still acknowledge him as Pope and actually try to tell us that they "love" the Pope.  Yea, right.  The only ones they are fooling are themselves.  You need only look at the comments to their  blog posts and videos to understand the absolute hatred of Pope Francis which they generate among those who follow them.  Like Susan Mattheisen, they do not hide their rejection of Pope Francis in any way.  Yet they have convinced themselves that it is Pope Francis, and not themselves, who have separated from the Church.

Mary Ann, I direct this to you.  I implore you, for the sake your soul and for those of your family, friends and followers, stop this demonic crusade against Pope Francis.  You are not fighting the Holy Father.  You are fighting Jesus Christ Himself.  If you are not on the side of Christ, there is only one other alternative, and that is the devil.

Jesus Christ is always there with his love, compassion and mercy.  Please go to Him and ask him to lead you back to the Church.  Yes, I say "back to the Church" because you are no longer a part of it.  You have separated yourself.  You are no longer joined to the Vine which is Jesus Christ, amd this is what He tells us in John 15:5-8:

Mary Ann, neither you nor any other human being has the right to stand in judgment of the man who occupies the Chair of Peter, whoever he might be.  The Pope receives his authority from the Holy Spirit, and only the Holy Spirit can judge him.  If you think the Pope is wrong, then pray for him.  But please stop this public rebellion against the Chair of Peter.  You are only hurting yourself and all those who follow you.

Jesus Christ is in charge of His Church.  He doesn't need help from any of us to help him keep His Vicar on track.  There are plenty of things in this world that we do need to fight.  Stop this fight against the one man who is not allowed to lead us astray.  Rejection of the papacy is rejection of Christ.  Rejection of the papacy comes directly from the devil who wants to destroy the Church.  Stop supporting the devil.

I pray for the soul of Mary Ann Kreitzer and everyone else who stands in opposition to the Vicar of Christ.  May God have mercy on their souls.