War Council Against Pope Francis Held In Rome

Audience in Rome To discuss how to do battle with Pope Francis

Definition of War Council:  A council of war is a term in military science that describes a meeting held to decide on a course of action, usually in the midst of a battle.

Michael Matt, far right-wing radical traditionalist from Remnant Newspaper, excitedly and breathlessly released a video on Youtube on October 14 of a talk given that night by Bishop Athanasius Schneider in Rome to commemorate his new book.  Schneider's new book is actually just a very long interview he did with a radical right-wing Lifesitenews reporter.

It should be noted that there is no imprimatur on Bishop Schneider's book.  Read at your own risk.

Matt says in the video that it is the first time Schneider's book has been made available. Not exactly true.  The book was released on Amazon on September 26, about 3 weeks ago.

However, the meeting was not really about Bishop Schneider's book.  It was a planning session on how to defeat Pope Francis.  We can be sure there have been many such meetings held in private.  But this one was right out in the open, and very little was held back.

Matt entitled the video, "HUGE SIGN OF HOPE: Schneider, Burke Speak in Rome."

Taylor Marshall talked about Bishop Schneider's "book launch" on Youtube.  His comments erase all doubts about what this "book launch" was really all about:

For me, Tim, it's a moment of, as Michael Matt said, a moment of good news, a moment of hope to see some leadership gathered together openly on camera. Even when we were in Rome a little over a week ago, there was even a question when we did the panel, are we going to camera pan the room because there are a lot of people there, some important people, bishops, priests.  Will they get in trouble for being at such an event.  

Well, here we see an event where you've got red hats, and they pan the room, and no one is hiding, and let's be honest.  All these guys are on the outs with Francis.  . . . This is the gadfly of Francis, this is the guy (Bishop Schneider) who keeps following up, "Hey, does God will a multitude of religions, a plurality and diversity of religions."  He beats that drum.  He shows up in Rome, the Pope's diocese, and some cardinals show up and he gives a talk.   

And there's. . . oh, you know who else was there was Fr. Murray, the papal posse.  He emceed it.  Robert Royal was there, I believe.  It was a smaller, intimate group, but nonetheless they were all there.  .  . . .  

This raises the next question and that is (pushing his hands together), what's the plan?  Don't tell me these guys didn't just say, 'Hey, it's good to see ya, see ya in the next couple of months.  bye.'  I was there, man, in Rome and it's Ground Zero.  People, every conversation is how can the Pope allow this.  Is this a real pope.  Did the pope lose the papacy. Was the 2013 election a sham.   

Everyone is trying in their devout Catholic school boy/school girl mind , how do I make all these legos fit together.  They are looking at this and they have built this magnificent lego something, the death star or a race car, and there are these pieces that don't fit.  And they're big pieces.  So you're asking, was this suppose to come in the box?  Or did I build it wrong?  

How do I make sense of what I've been living for so long, which is the Catholic faith.  I was always taught you always stick with the pope.  You stick with the pope, you'll be orthodox, you'll be saved, you'll never be in schism.  Always stick with the pope.  And then the pope is sitting in a garden, the Vatican Garden overseeing shaman and pachamama."

Thank you for that honest moment, Taylor Marshall. I think from this moment on everyone is going to be a lot more honest about what their real motivations are.   They have been emboldened.

Back to Michael Matt, who starts his video with a pep talk to the troops:

"I don't think they (the Pope and Vatican) can pull this off. . . . We are not at all ready to leave the Church.  We don't for a second think this is the end.  Christ is going to win.  Not only in the future, at the end of the world, but now.  He is going to win.  They can't pull this thing off."

Matt continues with his pep talk:

And tonight . . . gave us even more renewed hope.  Who did we have?  In this room tonight for the launching of this book written by the most traditional Catholic bishop in the world interviewed by one of the most traditional Catholic Vaticanistas in this whole city, Diane Montagna, and who do you think was sitting there listening to the launch, the kick-off of this book:  Cardinal Muller; Raymond Cardinal Leo Burke; Cardinal Arinze; many, many priests; Professor de Mattei gave a talk in here tonight. There were journalists like Ed Pentin and Robert Royal.  And Father Gerald Murray from the papal posse, he emceed the event.  

So imagine the people that were in that room.  And there were just a lot of ordinary journalists, like Sandro Magister was here.  A lot of people were listening and watching this event, which was the launch now of a very important traditional Catholic book.  This book covers everything, from the Traditional Mass to the Second Vatican Council to the pontificate of Pope Francis to Bishop Schneider's opinion on the SSPX.  

One of the main speakers at this event was Roberto de Mattei, who has always been an avowed enemy of Pope Francis, writing entire books denouncing him as well as the Second Vatican Council.  As Matt tells us, de Mattei says that he and the rest of the trads are not schismatics or heretics, but immediately follows up with saying that it is important to resist Pope Francis "when he goes off track". 

Professor de Mattei, I can't even believe that I watched this man, this incredible first rate historian, that he delivered words to people like Cardinal Muller and Cardinal Burke:  "We are not schismatics for schism repels us, we are not heretics, heresy repels us."  Then he goes on to say when Francis goes off, when the pope goes off track on things that are Catholic, that we need to stand and resist.

Is Matt really so oblivious as to how these statements are completely contradictory?  The definition of "schismatic" is to resist the Pope.  From Britannica.com:  "According to Roman Catholic canon law, a schismatic is a baptized person who, though continuing to call himself a Christian, refuses submission to the pope or fellowship with members of the church. "

Matt then continues, making it very clear that the men in attendance at this "book launching" - cardinals, priests and lay people - are forming a network to officially battle Pope Francis.  Matt actually uses the term "war":

I just wanted to share this moment with you because people who say things are not happening and these men aren't speaking as they should they need to speak out more and they are wimpy - you're missing the point.  What we saw tonight where all these men were willing to come in.  It was sort of like a high level ecclesiastical Catholic Identify Conference.
They are willing to come over and talk about this and help launch a book like this.  This is what we are talking about.  

Working together, they're forming a network among themselves, they're working, they're doing something . . . Bishop Schneider said we are going to win because Christ is winning already, Christ will win, Christ has won, And his face was lit up with joy and happiness even though he knows as well or better than any of us what happened in the Synod this week.  He knows how terrible it is.  It doesn't shake his faith and it shouldn't shake any of our faith.  We stay strong and we have confidence that the good men are going to receive the grace that they need to fight this war",

So I want to leave you with the talk that Bishop Schneider just gave and I hope that it gives you the same kind of enthusiasm and inspiration that it gave me.  It probably won't because you had to see it from the context of that room where you had real movers and shakers, cardinals of the Catholic Church that were sitting there and listening to Bishop Schneider, deliver this powerful message of resistance and fidelity to the Catholic tradition and the Catholic faith in the middle of the crazy town and stuff that has been going on here with the Amazon Synod. . . I am flying high, I am so excited, I am not discouraged. ready to fight.  We are going to go back home. . . Full of hope, full of confidence, full of inspiration.  We are going to persevere, we are going to win."

Matt can frame his message however he wants, but he and everyone else knows that this is a war which has been declared specifically upon the Vicar of Christ.  And Matt is very confident now that they will bring down Pope Francis with the help of these "movers and shakers" Cardinals.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Bishop Schneider, in his talk, never specifically mentions Pope Francis by name, but there is no doubt that everything he said was directed at the Holy Father.

The premise of Schneider's talk is that the current Magisterium of the Church - and specifically Pope Francis - has corrupted and perverted the teaching and mission of the Catholic Church in our time.  Schneider defends this unspoken  premise by quoting four famous Catholics:  Origen in the third century and Pius X, Blessed Karl of Austria and Pius XII in the 20th Century.  By quoting these men, Schneider attempts to gives legitimacy to the war declared upon Pope Francis, trying to give credence to the heresy that the laity have the right to judge the legitimacy of the papacy.

Schneider starts out by attacking his fellow bishops and the Pope, and also appealing to the laity, telling them they are victims of these evil men who can never be trusted:

From different sides I was asked several times to consent to the publishing of a book length interview.  In doing so, my first thought was directed to the brave lay faithful . . . who are living in the midst of the darkness of our unbelieving, hubristic and decidedly anti-Christian age.  Unbelief and human hubris towards God and His supernatural revelation have already penetrated already widely into the life of the Church in our time.  The brave lay faithful, the little ones in the Church feel abandoned since the vast majority of the shepherds seek their refuge in silence while other shepherds, for different motives, have passed over to the enemies, becoming thereby wolves in sheep's clothing.  

Schneider appeals to the ego of the laity listening to him, telling them they are the only true Church left on earth.   I apologize that I cannot understand every word Schneider says.  The quality of the audio and his accent make it very difficult.

While speaking in my book as clearly as possible, I wanted to share something of my experience of the Catholic faith and life primarily with those who constitute truly the existential periphery within the Church of our time.  That is to say, the little ones who are confused, scandalized, marginalized by worldly minded church men who unscrupulously sell in the Temple of God white doves who are the simple faithful. 

Schneider then gives a quote from Origen.  This is a direct swipe at the election of Pope Francis to the papacy:

"The bishops and presbyters have been entrusted the first seats by the people, and nevertheless they deliver the Church over to those whom they should not, and install those who should not be leaders.  They are the ones selling doves who seats Jesus overturned."  So, a quotation of Origen.

I offer Bishop Schneider another quotation from Origen which His Excellency might wish to consider.  This is taken from an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII:

The words - and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it - proclaim and establish the authority of which we speak. "What is the it?" (writes Origen). "Is it the rock upon which Christ builds the Church or the Church? The expression indeed is ambiguous, as if the rock and the Church were one and the same. I indeed think that this is so, and that neither against the rock upon which Christ builds His Church nor against the Church shall the gates of Hell prevail" (Origenes, Comment. in Matt., tom. xii., n. ii). The meaning of this divine utterance is, that, notwithstanding the wiles and intrigues which they bring to bear against the Church, it can never be that the church committed to the care of Peter shall succumb or in any wise fail. "For the Church, as the edifice of Christ who has wisely built 'His house upon a rock,' cannot be conquered by the gates of Hell, which may prevail over any man who shall be off the rock and outside the Church, but shall be powerless against it" (Ibid.).

Of course, Bishop Schneider and all those with him do not believe these words. They believe that not only can the gates of hell prevail over the Church and the Papacy, but that this has already happened.

Continuing with Schneider's talk:

To the current situation in the Church, one can fully apply the following lucid words of Pope Pius X:  "The relentless enemy of mankind never sleeps.  According to the events of the times and the occurrence of events, he tactically changes language but always ready for the fight.  Indeed, the more the error pursued by the truth is condemned to hide, the more one must fear for the dangerous ambushes behind which it will not be long that he will re-establish his always deadly artilleries.   

Therefore, we can never abandon ourselves to a false security without incurring those anathemas launched against the false prophets who announce the peace where peace was not, who sang the victory when everything called us to fight.  And for this it is necessary at all times, and it is especially in this in which the great conspiracy hatched directly against Our Lord, Jesus Christ, against His supernatural and revealed religion, against the people whose false teachers say evil is good, and good is evil, calling darkness light and light darkness, seducing many minds that bend to every wind of doctrine.  For this we believe the time to speak has come. "

I would also like to remind Bishop Schneider of these words from Pope St. Pius X:

Wherefore, continue as you have begun, to defend with all your might the cause of religion with which the very welfare of your common fatherland is bound up; but see to it, first and above all else, that you carefully preserve and strengthen the greatest concord and unity between yourselves, then between yourselves and Christian people, and all of you with this See of Blessed Peter. Pope St. Pius X, , IAMDUDUM, 24 May, 1911, http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

Schneider then speaks about Blessed Karl of Austria, the last emperor of that country in which Blessed Karl, in WWI, refused to compromise the truth, refusing "any collaboration with sin."

Schneider also talked about Freemasons trying to tempt Blessed Karl and his refusal to cooperate with them because the Freemasons wanted a freer marriage legislation and a freer school education and allowing Freemasonry in Austria.  Schneider quotes Blessed Karl:  "What I have received from God, I cannot accept from the hand of the devil."  A derisive chuckle is heard at this point.

Schneider then takes even more direct swipes at Pope Francis without mentioning him by name.  But everyone in that room, and everyone listening to this video, knows exactly whom Schneider is referring to.  This is open rebellion and an open declaration of war:

What a glaring contrast we see between such a heroic testimony of the fidelity to his baptismal vows on the part of a lay faithful, in this case on the part of Blessed Emperor Karl, and those churchmen who in our days actively collaborate with the promotion of sin and with anti-Christian and Freemasonic powers.  Such churchmen betray not only their baptismal vows but even more the vows of their episcopal ordination.  Indeed, many influential churchman in our day engage in promoting the equality of all religions and the substitution of active evangelization with the so-called interreligious dialogue.  In this way, they not only betray Christ but commit a great sin against the love of the neighbor.  Those, however, who are bringing to the people of our dark age the light of God's truth and the sweetness of His Kingdom are in fact the greatest benefactors of humankind. 

Schneider then gives us the last quote, this one from Pope Pius XII.  The purpose of this quote is to justify causing division in the Church by inflaming the laity against the Magisterium:

In that sense, we may also understand and recall the following prophetical words of Pope Pius XII which I will conclude.  He wrote this exactly 80 years ago, '39, and you will see it is very up to date.

"But precisely because of this apocalyptic foresight of disaster, imminent and remote, We feel We have a duty to raise with still greater insistence the eyes and hearts of those in whom there yet remains good will to the One from Whom alone comes the salvation of the world - to One Whose almighty and merciful Hand can alone calm this tempest - to the One Whose truth and Whose love can enlighten the intellects and inflame the hearts of so great a section of mankind plunged in error, selfishness, strife and struggle, so as to give it a new orientation in the spirit of the Kingship of Christ."

The quote from Pope Pius XII is taken from his very first encyclical, written at the start of WWII.  The encyclical, of course, was not discussing "disaster, imminent and remote" in the Church but was warning of a world on the verge of world war, the most horrific war known in the history of mankind.  The encyclical was entitled, "SUMMI PONTIFICATUS:  ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII ON THE UNITY OF HUMAN SOCIETY."

In this same encyclical, Pope Pius XII talks about the unity surrounding the Chair of Peter:

13. We cherish the memory of the many testimonies of filial attachment to the Church and to the Vicar of Christ, and of the ovation so genuine, so enthusiastic, and so spontaneous accorded to Us on the occasion of Our election and coronation; and We gladly take this opportune occasion to address to you, Venerable Brethren, and to all who belong to the flock of the Lord, a word of sincere gratitude for that orderly manifestation of reverent love and of steadfast loyalty to the Papacy, in which one could see recognition of the God-given mission of the High Priest and of the Supreme Pastor.

14. For, We well know it, all those manifestations were not and could not have been addressed to Our poor person but to the singular and exalted office to which the Lord had raised Us. And though from that first moment We felt all the great weight of responsible cares inseparable from the supreme power given to Us by Divine Providence, it was a consolation to see that magnificent and tangible demonstration of the indissoluble unity of the Catholic Church rallying all the closer to the impregnable Rock of Peter, to form around it a wall and a bulwark as the enemies of Christ become bolder.

The words and actions of those who consider themselves "the existential periphery within the Church of our time" would be anathema to Pope Pius XII.  Pius XII would be horrified at the hate directed at the Chair of Peter, and the demonic division created by those Catholics who hate the current Pontiff.

Those who stand in opposition to Pope Francis do not believe, contrary to the plain teachings of Pope Leo XIII, that the Church is an "indissoluble unity" and that the Rock of Peter is "impregnable."  The enemies of Peter do not believe Christ is strong enough to defend His Church alone.  They feel the Church will be compromised and destroyed if they, the only true Catholics on earth, do not act against Peter.

The unity of those opposing Francis does not come from "rallying all the closer" to Peter.  Their unity comes from attacking the Chair of Peter, and dividing the bishops and priests against one another as well as causing division among the laity.  They have convinced themselves that division and war are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Scott Hahn is not one of my favorite people, and he has actually come out against Pope Francis.  But before he did this, he wrote a very extensive article about papal infallibility during the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II on catholic-pages.com and ended it with an excellent summation.  It's a pity Hahn himself no longer believes this:

If one [pope] should admit one falsehood, defined as truth, the gates of Hades have prevailed. Christ has given us an unconditional guarantee that they will not prevail because he will build His Church upon Peter and His successors, the Rock, the foundation stone. This gives us confidence because the family of God on earth is never left without a father figure to teach and to help us. 

Now, if a Judas-type occupies the Chair, you better believe that God will graciously pour out an extra measure of the Holy Spirit to protect His children and see that that scoundrel is out, quick. And they were. And to show that these people were exposed -- every Catholic historian will admit that certain Popes, a very, very few, were scoundrels who were acting too scoundrelish to even bother teaching, thanks be to God. But this gives to us the kind of confidence we need as God's sons and daughters to listen to the Holy Father, John Paul II, and hear the voice of Christ because this awesome grace that is given to the Pope is one of the many graces that Christ died to give to us.

If we are to believe the enemies of Pope Francis, then we must believe that, as Scott Hahn once said, the gates of Hades have prevailed and Christ was a liar.  Christ died for nothing and we shall also die in our sins, unforgiven and doomed to eternal damnation.  For if the Church and the Papacy were ever to go "off track" as Michael Matt has said, then everything is a lie.

If these enemies of Francis have their way and are able to remove the Holy Father from the papacy, the repercussions will echo throughout the universe.  The Chair of Peter as we have known it for over 2000 years will cease to exist.

Peter will no longer receive his authority from the Heaven.  The people will be the ones who decide who is pope and for how long.  Peter will have to answer to the people for every decision, every word, every action.  The Chair of Peter will become no more than a political appointment.  The pope will serve only at the pleasure of the people.

The Church will descend into complete chaos.  Contrary to the words of Pope Pius XII, the Chair of Peter will no longer be a rallying point of unity in the Church.  On the contrary, as soon as the Pope says or does something that someone doesn't like or doesn't understand, there will be strife and discord among the laity regarding just whom the Pope should answer to.  It will be a constant war of conservatives versus liberals.  Both sides will be convinced of their own rightness, just as we see now.  But there won't be any central authority guided and protected by the Holy Spirit to guide the Church to the Truth.

Without the God-given authority of the papacy, the Catholic Church will cease to exist, breaking into countless small groups just as we saw at the Reformation.  We will no longer have the Sacraments or the Mass.  Salvation will no longer be available to mankind.

Those working to remove Pope Francis from the papacy are working directly for the devil, and whether they realize it or not, their aim is to destroy the Church.  They will not win, and I only pray that God will have mercy on their souls.