Mary Ann Kreitzer, Who are You Serving, Part 2

Source

I recently wrote about Mary Ann Kreitzer in regard to a post on her blog authored by another contributor in which Pope Francis was completely renounced and declared an anti pope.  At the time I wrote, Mary Ann had not made any comments one way or another, but since it was on her blog, I could only assume she agreed with it.

Mary Ann finally commented last night.  She explained that she had been away celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary - Congratulations, Mary Ann - and had basically not been paying attention to the blog.  She commented in answer to a question directed at her:

Do I agree with Susan? Frankly, I don't know. We aren't clones.

I love and respect Susan and I know one thing for sure -- that we have an evil pope who is undermining the faith every chance he gets. It's not the first time in Church history and a man can be evil and still be a valid pope.

I do definitely agree with Mary Ann that a man can be evil and still be a valid pope.  We have some very sad examples throughout Church history.

Cardinal Sarah: To Oppose the Pope is to be Outside the Church

It is really amazing how emboldened the enemies of Pope Francis have become.  Just the other day, Zuhlsdorf gave advice on his blog on how to protest at the Vatican.

Also this past week there was also a "roundtable" including some of the "super stars" among the enemies of Francis, such as Michael Matt, Michael Voris, Taylor Marshall, and John-Henry Westin.  The topic of that roundtable was, of course, the heresy in the Church led by Pope Francis.  The "roundtable" was described by Lifesitenews as such:

Lay Catholic leaders from around the world, increasingly alarmed about the upcoming Amazonian Synod and how it threatens to disfigure and “Protestantize” the Church, gathered not far from the Vatican today to discuss their grave concerns.

The roundtable discussion, titled “Our Church – reformed or deformed?” was hosted by the international pro-life association Voice of the Family. Over 5,000 people across the continents tuned in.

On the eve of the synod, they described the multifaceted diabolical menace to the Catholic Church it portends to be. Their choice of strong language reflects the peril they sense: That after the synod, what will emerge will no longer be the Catholic Church.

 
. . .

 
“There are, at this moment, two religions within the Catholic Church,” declared Professor Roberto de Mattei.

“The first is the traditional Catholicism, the religion of those who, in the current confusion, continue to be faithful to the immutable Magisterium of the Church,” said de Mattei.

 
“The second, until a few months ago without a name, now has a name: it is the Amazonian religion because, as declared by the person currently governing the Church, there is a plan to give the Church ‘an Amazonian face,’” explained de Mattei.

 
“Two religions cannot coexist within the same Church,” he reaffirmed. 

. . .

“Pope Francis and his clerical allies are creating a globalist organization with a Catholic-appearing face,” said Church Militant’s Michael Voris.

 
“What is emerging is not Catholic. The façade should be dropped and for once truth be allowed to prevail.”

 
Voris explained that Pope Francis has moved the Church to “align with a counterfeit kind of theology inspired by godless atheism, and in the rush to advance this, he’s surrounded himself with numerous clerical scoundrels — some who have been complicit in the performing of or cover-up of sex abuse of minors or young adults, mostly male.” 

None of these people even try to hide the fact that they are enemies of Pope Francis.  They consider the Holy Father to be the greatest threat to the Catholic Church on earth, and they are spreading that message as far and wide as they can.

War has been openly declared upon Pope Francis.

At that same time that they are openly at war with the Vicar of Christ, these people consider themselves to be the only true Catholics left in existence. As de Mattei said, there are two religions within the Catholic Church:  one led by Pope Francis, and one led by the enemies of Pope Francis.

And as de Mattei so rightly declared, "two religions cannot coexist within the same Church."

Which one will prevail?

Where Peter Is, There Is The Church

Thoughtful men, with hearts craving the truth, have come to seek in the Catholic Church the road which leads with surety to eternal life. They have understood that they could not cleave to Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church if they did not belong to the Body of Jesus Christ which is the Church. Nor could they ever hope to possess in all its purity the faith of Jesus Christ if they were to reject its legitimate teaching authority entrusted to Peter and his successors.

Pope Leo XIII

The Catholic Church in the midst of a terrific spiritual war. This is a war started by those who believe that it is their duty to wrest the Church away from Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, whom they believe is trying to destroy the Church.

Those who are engaging in this war against Pope Francis will be the first to tell you that they are actually the most loyal of Catholics. In fact, they believe that they are probably the only true Catholics on earth. They are certainly more Catholic than Pope Francis, whom many of these "most loyal of Catholics" label as a heretic.

But what these saviors of the Church don't seem to realize is that if they succeed, they will actually destroy the papacy and the Church which they claim to love.

John Vennari Lies to Discredit Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Pope Francis never does anything in a small way. Everything he does and says is meant to shake us up and force us to stop and reflect on what he says, all done in an effort to bring the world to the saving Grace of Jesus Christ.

His latest work, "Evangelii Gaudium", is certainly no exception to this.  It is a massive work, which I still have not completely finished.  The theme of this document is evangelization, bringing the saving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world desperately in need of it.  The document's purpose is to show all Catholics, no matter what their station in life, that they are and must be a part of this great evangelization.  The document is very much in line with the goals of Vatican II, which was all about opening up the Church and bringing salvation to the world.

But, of course, there are those who are right there to criticize and condemn, and unfortunately, some of those at the forefront of the criticism are Traditionalists. John Vennari, who is associated with Father Nicholas Gruner, and who is the editor of Father Gruner's newspaper, "Catholic Family News", wasted no time in posting an article online entitled "Pope Francis and the Old Covenant" about how wrong Pope Francis is. You can read Vennari's article HERE.  Vennari in this article specifically attacked one section of Evangelii Gaudium having to do with the Church's relationship with the Jewish Faith. Vennari quotes a portion of this section.  The italics in this quote are from Vennari:

The document is guided by the new orientation of Vatican II, though it bears the personal stamp of Francis. For now, we will focus on one section of the Exhortation that deals today’s religion of Judaism.

Within the context of exhorting Catholics ever deeper into the ecumenical program, Pope Francis says: “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. Rom11:16-18). 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[1] who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.”[2]

John Vennari

Vennari then makes a completely false statement against Pope Francis:

There is no mention of any need for conversion to Christ and His Church. 

This is absolutely and unequivocally a lie. There is no other way to state this, as I will show. Although Vennari does cite the paragraph number of the papal document in his footnotes, #247, he does not give any links to it, most likely because he doesn't want you to read anything other that what he quotes. So to help all those who were not able or did not want to do their own research, you can find the document HERE. Vennari conveniently ignores and omits everything other than the one quoted paragraph.

Pope Francis writes the following in paragraph number 249, omitted from Vennari's article:

God continues to work among the people of the Old Covenant and to bring forth treasures of wisdom which flow from their encounter with his word. For this reason, the Church also is enriched when she receives the values of Judaism. While it is true that certain Christian beliefs are unacceptable to Judaism, and that the Church cannot refrain from proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah, there exists as well a rich complementarity which allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word.

Completely contradicting Vennari's assertion that "There is no mention of any need for conversion to Christ and His Church," His Holiness makes it very clear that the Church will always preach Christ as "Lord and Messiah."  Scott Richert, in an article dated April 23, 2013 and entitled "Pope Francis: "It Is Not Possible to Find Jesus Outside the Church", which you can read HERE, wrote the following:

And now Pope Francis has arrived at the crux of the matter, the part that will surprise both those who trumpet "the spirit of Vatican II" and those who denounce the council as a departure from tradition. We can only be Christians through the Church,

Because it is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church. The great Paul VI said: "Wanting to live with Jesus without the Church, following Jesus outside of the Church, loving Jesus without the Church is an absurd dichotomy." And the Mother Church that gives us Jesus gives us our identity that is not only a seal, it is a belonging. Identity means belonging. This belonging to the Church is beautiful.

This is why the missionary activity of the Church is so essential: We cannot know Christ outside of the Church. We are called to preach the Gospel to all nations, because that is the only way they can know Christ. Unless the Church is growing, preaching the Gospel and adding new members, we are not doing what we are called to do as Christians:

Think of this Mother Church that grows, grows with new children to whom She gives the identity of the faith, because you cannot believe in Jesus without the Church. Jesus Himself says in the Gospel: "But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep." If we are not "sheep of Jesus," faith does not come to us. It is a rosewater faith, a faith without substance.

"Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Yet we can know Christ only through the Church.

This should surely lay to rest any misconception that Pope Francis does not believe in the absolute need for the saving Sacrifice of Jesus Christ or that Christ can be found anywhere but in the true teachings of the Church. A further quote from Pope Francis:

The Church's journey always takes place between the Cross and the Resurrection, amid the persecutions and the consolations of the Lord. And this is the path: those who go down this road are not mistaken.

Vennari, in his article, then tries to tell us:

Pope Francis effectively continues the program initiative by the Council, and brought to fruition by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI that the Old Covenant has not been superseded by the New. This is a novel concept that runs contrary to Sacred Scripture and to the perennial magisterium of the Church.

John Vennari is contradicting the pure and clear teaching of the Catholic Church and of Sacred Scriptue with the above statement.  The following is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, under "The Canon of Scripture", paragraph 121:

The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked. (1093)

To be fair, Vennari does not use the word "revoked" in regard to the Old Covenant.  He says that the Old Covenant has been "superseded" by the New Covenant.  The problem with this statement is that the two covenants are completely separate from one another, as we are told in Jeremiah 31:

31 Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda:

32 Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: 

The New Covenant is an entirely "new" covenant.  It is not a continuation of the Old Covenant.  It does not contradict the Old Covenant in any way.  In fact, the two covenants compliment each other.  As I have heard many times, the New Covenant is hidden in the Old, and the Old is explained in the New. Since they are entirely separate from one another, there is no reason to revoke or "supercede" the Old Covenant.

It is definitely true that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant have ceased, which happened when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. And yes, it is true that as Christians under the New Covenant, we are not to engage in the practices of the Old Covenant because they have no efficacy. We cannot gain eternal life from the Old Covenant. However, the Old Covenant never did promise eternal life. It was there only to foreshadow what was to come under Jesus Christ, who established the New Covenant, as St. Paul tells us in Colossians 2:16-17:

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

When a student is in school, he is learning the things he will need when he goes into the "real world." His school lessons are, in effect, a "foreshadow" of what he will be doing when he leaves school. He cannot earn a living from doing his school lessons, but if he learns his lessons well, he will be able to function and earn a living when he graduates. That is what the Old Covenant was. As St. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:23-25:

23Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

When we graduate from school, we are no longer bound by the rules of school. But the school still exists, and the rules which governed us as students still exist and are just as valid as when we were pupils. The difference is that we are no longer under those rules so they have no effect on us. It would be silly and self defeating to continue living as students once we have graduated. We leave school to go out and earn a living, but that doesn't mean that school is suddenly "outlawed" and to be treated like a pariah. Graduating and going out into the real world is not a matter of "superseding" our time in school. It is entering into an entirely new phase in life. And that is what the New Covenant is. It is a new phase in the plan of salvation. It is not a continuation of the "Old Covenant." Therefore, there was never any need to revoke or "supercede" the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant still exists, but it has no power over us.

Vennari uses the following to back up his assertion that Pope Francis is teaching something that is in direct defiance of what the Church has always taught:

The doctrine of the supersession [sic] of the Old Testament by the New is a universal and perpetual doctrine of the Catholic Church. It is a defined article of the Catholic Faith. The solemn Profession of Faith of the Ecumenical Council of Florence under Pope Eugene IV, says the following:

“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.”

You will notice that there is nothing in this quote that says the Old Covenant is to be "suppressed."  It merely says that we are not to partake in any of the practices of the Old Covenant, i.e, "ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future."  As I stated earlier, these things were merely a foreshadow of Jesus Christ.  They are part of the "Old School."

The Jews are, in effect, still "in school."  They don't realize or accept that it is time to graduate and move on to the real thing, which is Jesus Christ and salvation.  But that doesn't negate the truth of what they do believe, and that is why the Church says the Old Covenant has never been revoked.

Vennari does not allow for any comments on his website, but he posted this to his Facebook page and the following comments were left:

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• 11 people like this.
• 

  Patricio de Aulia Why do the Jews celebrate the Feast of the Dedication ("Hanukkah")? Why does the Church let these infidels desecrate a holy day only she recognises? There's no Feast of the Dedication in the Masoretic Text used by today's Jews, they have no business celebrating it. Everyone, be sure and tell every Jew you see they stole the holiday from the Church. Thievery comes natural to those members of the synagogue of Satan.

  November 26 at 6:56pm
• 

  John Wassmer Actually Chanuka prefigures Christmas and is why they almost always coincide at Christmas time. "The Festival of Lights" is now commemorated by the candles and house lights generally associated only with Christmas. The miracle of the Re- Dedication of ...See More

  November 26 at 9:14pm
• 

  Charles A. Velasquez This is heresy !

  November 26 at 10:26pm via mobile
• 

  Patricio de Aulia Yep. Nobody said the Pope couldn't be an heretic...

  November 26 at 10:29pm
• 

  Marilyn Rose He can be anything he wants if he puts his mind to it. 

  November 27 at 2:03am · 1

We must always be very careful of anyone who condemns the Holy Father and/or the Magesterium. Never accept any condemnation of the Holy Father on face value, no matter who it comes from. Always do your homework. Go to the source. And trust that the Holy Spirit will not allow the Magesterium of the Church to be led into false teaching.

Are Traditionalists Becoming the Pharisees of Our Time?

I unabashedly and without apology love traditional Catholicism. I love Gregorian chant, all the old devotions, reading the fathers and saints, and I especially love the Traditional Latin Mass. I feel that the Traditional Latin Mass is as close to experiencing heaven as we can get on this earth. The beauty and solemnity - even of a low Mass where the priest prays silently at the altar and there is no singing - is an overwhelming experience, maybe because of the silence. It is not hard to imagine the altar being surrounded by the angels and saints and our Blessed Mother. Every Mass - if properly attended - can be a truly life changing experience. If I have a chance of choosing between the Ordinary Form of the Mass next door to me or traveling 25 miles to the Latin Mass, I'm on the road without question.

Lately, though, especially since the election of Pope Francis, I have not been feeling too good about my fellow "traddies." I have already written a couple of posts about this, and it's not getting any better, as can be seen on traditional Catholic blogs. It isn't so much the bloggers themselves, although some of them are kind of scary, but more what you find in their comboxes.

Father Z has made some attempts to reign in negative comments about Pope Francis on his blog, but he still lets a lot of them go. On the other hand, he has also posted things which, while certainly not attacking the Holy Father in any way, leave room for his readers to do so. An example of this was a post that was a textbook example of a left handed compliment to Pope Francis, which you can read here. He opined that the the Pope's flaunting of the liturgical laws in regard to foot washing at the Holy Thursday service will actually drive people to the Latin Mass where the rubrics cannot be tampered with, and therefore Pope Francis has done more in two weeks to push the cause of Summorum Pontificum than Pope Benedict XVI did in his entire papacy. Here are just a few of the comments.

In this first comment. Father Z shows his disapproval (in red), but yet still lets the comment stand.

allan500 says:30 March 2013 at 9:55 pm

Fr. Z, I think the most important thing you observed is that “War-weary Catholics are back in the trenches.” We have no choice but to fight. It appears that Pope Francis is looking for a fight. Why? Could it be that he is not the humble man of peace he pretends to be, but a cunning fake? He knows exactly what he is doing when he ignores rubrics. He knows what he is doing when he greets every motley group of heretic and heathen but refuses to acknowledge the SSPX. Surely then are no further from the heart of the church than Muslims. He seems to be the classic bully doing what he wants–in disregard of people’s feelings and lawful aspirations– just because he can. Humble men don’t act like that.

[I won't write here what I think of suggestions like this in my combox.] 

Why doesn't Father Z let us know what he thinks of this comment?  I think he has a responsibility to either delete it or answer it.  To respond with something as vague as this is to invite others to agree with the comment.

Here's another one (typos were in the original), with no comeback from Father Z:

Potato2 says:30 March 2013 at 4:42 pm 

Nice try Fr. Z
I’m not buying it.
Just like I don’t buy it when political conservatives thank obama for amking them stronger. He doesn’t make them stronger. He pushes his agenda. same here.
You know it don’t you? 

There is, of course, the usual denigration of Vatican II, which Father Z seldom challenges:

Parasum says:
30 March 2013 at 9:05 pm 

“In two weeks Pope Francis has done more to promote Summorum Pontificum than Pope Benedict did since the day he promulgated it.”
## So true. His scandalous behaviour is a powerful indication of the new rite’s capacity for being abused. It is a room in a half-way house between the True Faith in its beauty, and the abominations of heresy. Despite himself, he proves by his abuses that Vatican II was built on shifting sand, and cannot last. For that at least he can be thanked.

And one more really scary comment, again with no rebuttal from Father Z:

Nan says:30 March 2013 at 4:32 pm

Magpie, I’m still weeping because the church has lost its foundation. For me, the temple veil is now torn and the church doesn’t lead to salvation. 

When Father Z lets comments like this stand with no rebuttal, he is giving tacit approval to them whether that is what he intends or not.  He is a priest with priestly authority, not just some non-entity like me blogging our own opinions.   He has a responsibility to either answer such heretical statements or delete them from his blog.

The most disturbing aspect of these comments is that they are coming from people who consider themselves good loyal Catholics and who supposedly put Christ and His church at the center of their existence. Yet they talk with tones of despair and defeatism. We are in the midst of Easter, the most positive liturgical season of the year as we celebrate Christ's victory over death and sin, and these "traditional Catholics" talk as if the Church was on the verge of self destruction. Did our Lord die for nothing? Did His promises that "the gates of hell will never prevail" against the Church and that He will be with us always mean nothing? It would seem so according to many of those who comment on Father Z's blog.

The very worst of the Traditional Catholic blogs, in my opinion, has been Rorate-caeli. This is a highly respected blog among Catholic traditionalists which has contributions from a number of people. In fact, Father Z links to this blog as one that he follows. Rorate posted one article about Pope Francis and the washing of feet on Holy Thursday, which as we all know, included women and non-Catholics. You can read the posting here. While they lament the actions of Pope Francis, they don't specifically condemn His Holiness. However, many of those who left comments see this act as the end of the world and do not hesitate to criticize the Pope and even question how truly Catholic he is.

The first comment is made by a reader who is rejoicing at what he sees as the destruction of the "conciliar" church and what he further sees as the Pope's role in that destruction. Also note that this person refers to His Holiness as "Bergoglio", a sign of ultra disrespect for the Vicar of Christ:

Francis in Ma said...
Yes, this modernist garbage (in this case washing the feet of women) has been going on in the Novus Ordo churches for a while now. While that of course is bad it is truly scandalous for the bishop of Rome to publicly wash the feet of pagans and women; inside a prison no less while trying to promote "humility"!! The leftwing and secular "media" is eating this garbage up. Bergoglio is taking the conciliar church deeper into the abyss of worldly relativism, modernism, humanism, syncretism and indifferentism. Which can only help to move along the conciliar church's demise. Yes, it will take a while, but looking at it positively Bergoglio may be helping the church that Vatican II built into oblivion.
28 March, 2013 20:36

Here is a post comparing the divinely appointed Vicar of Christ to those who crucified Christ on Calvary. Interestingly, the birth of the Church occurred when Christ was pierced with the spear after his death. The writer here does not appear to be aware of that fact:

M said...
Wonder why he didn't wait until tomorrow to stick a spear into the side of the Bride of Christ?
Good grief! Don't tell me he has something worse in mind for Good Friday!
28 March, 2013 20:39

Here is just one of many posts basically accusing Pope Francis of self will and false humility:

Petrus Radii said...
In mediaeval times, the Pope originally did in fact wash the feet of twelve paupers (all male, of course). If memory serves, local bishops who practised the custom would either wash the feet of paupers or of their clergy. The original monastic custom was for the abbot to wash the feet of *all* the community.
However, the present Pope's behaviour is nothing so much as archaeologism tainted with feminism, and one might wish to argue that his proclaimed "humility" is more likely self-will. Libera nos, Deus!
28 March, 2013 20:40

Here is a comment implying that Pope Francis is basically destroying the Papacy:

lee said...
A pope once suppressed the Jesuits (clement xiv);
so naturally a jesuit appears to be suppressing the papacy.
28 March, 2013 21:21

Here is one comment fundamentally accusing the Pope of being a heretic and praising the Society of St. Pius X, which is in schism right now:

Jan said...
As far as I am concerned, this was outright disobedience by Francis of Church law, even though it was done at a Novus Ordo Mass. Francis has set the tone for disobedience and, in doing so, has undermined his own authority.
As regards the SSPX, the only safety for anyone's soul is within the Church. As it is, they can do nothing to help the Church because they have no standing in canon law. I too believe they should have accepted Pope Benedict's offer. I don't believe the Church would have sunk down as far if they had not left in the first place. When that happened there were few left to battle against the modernism that has led to the election of Francis who appears by his own actions to be rejecting the papacy himself. Once he was just a disobedient Cardinal, now he sets the example for all to be disobedient to him.
28 March, 2013 21:26

Here is one comment actually urging Catholics to leave the Church and join the SSPX:

Dominic said...
At this point, anyone not already attending an SSPX chapel should seriously consider joining. It's only going to go downhill from here. The second great western schism is about to happen soon.
28 March, 2013 21:48

Following is one comment calling our Holy Father diabolical and a "monster" and using Scripture to back up his point:

The Viking said...
2 Thessalonians 2:14
Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.
If it is true that Il Papa Francesco washed the feet of 2 non-believing women, then his disdain for the Traditions of the Church have reached the level of diabolical. So much for Peter honoring the actions of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles on this the day which commemorates the institution of the Priesthood and the Mass. 
... WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SIGN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED
Lex orandi, lex credendi--the law of prayer is the law of belief. So a man acts liturgically, so he believes in his head. Dear God have mercy on the earth because Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a monster making a mockery of the Petrine Office to the glee of the entire world and most importantly, to the enemies of God's church.
28 March, 2013 23:02

One last comment from someone who has no idea what to do and is also thinking of jumping ship to the SSPX:

Unknown said...
I am so confused. I want to believe that the Church is going to be restored & survive. I thought Pope Benedict was re-constructing & that the elderly Pope Francis had some means of bringing us back to tradition. He's pro-life at least. why am I so grateful for a few crumbs of goodness from him? Pretty sure going back to the SSPX & giving up on the Mainstream church is the only option. Very sad and afraid. How are we supposed to know what to do??????
28 March, 2013 23:38

How are we suppose to know what to do? How about listening to the words of our founder, Jesus Christ?

All of these comments I have posted above sound to me like they would come right out of the mouths of the Pharisees in the time of Christ. The Pharisees were constantly attacking Jesus because he did not conform to the traditions which they held so dearly:

1. Christ "broke" the Sabbath by healing
2. Christ "broke" by the Sabbath by allowing his apostles to pick and eat corn on that day
3. Christ and his apostles did not ceremonially wash their hands before eating as commanded by Moses
4. Christ associated with known sinners, including prostitutes and tax collectors
5. The Pharisees accused Jesus of healing and driving out demons out by demonic power.

Our Lord scandalized the average man and woman when He made the statement that we must eat His Body and drink His Blood. No one understood the meaning of this because no one had any concept of the Eucharist, which had not been introduced yet. As far as everyone who heard this was concerned, Jesus was suggesting cannibalism.

From John 6:

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

The mindset of many of the current Catholic Traditionalists criticizing Pope Francis seems to be exactly the same as the Pharisees at the time of Christ. While so many accuse Pope Francis of false humility, they show no humility at all. They know exactly what the Church needs and what is right and wrong, and no one - certainly not any upstart Pope - is going to tell them differently. Their statements all show tremendous pride and self righteousness.

They who claim to be so knowledgeable about the teachings of the Church seem to have completely forgotten that the Pope is the divinely chosen Vicar of Christ. He is the direct successor to St. Peter and has been given the keys to the Kingdom. What he has loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven and what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven. This statement applies to the Pope and only the Pope. Our Lord has in effect told us that we have no right to judge any actions of the Pope in his capacity as Pope. The only one allowed to stand in judgment of the Holy Father is Jesus Christ.

Yes, it did go against the rubrics to wash the feet of women and non-Catholics at the Holy Thursday service. I have trouble understanding it. But I'm not the Pope! And this is hardly a heretical act. If he had given communion to non-Catholics, then we would definitely have a problem. But washing their feet? Oh, I know the arguments, just as we read in the comments. Because the pope "disobeyed", now no one needs to obey.

The Pope is not just any man. One would think Traditional Catholics above all would be aware of this fact. He is not bound as we are by such laws as whose feet to wash. He is the one who gets to do the "loosening and binding," remember? The Church is not a democracy, we don't get to decide if he is right or wrong.

I am not one of those liberals who hate traditionalists. I'm one of you! But first and foremost, I am Catholic, and as such, I am a papist. Pope Francis is my Pope, no matter what my personal feelings are. As I have written previously on this blog, I have a firm promise from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that His Vicar will never mislead me. I don't have to understand everything he does and says, just as the Apostles did not understand everything Christ said and did. In fact, before his death, the apostles understood next to nothing of what Christ said and did. But as Peter said to Christ (John 6:68):

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I love the Traditional Latin Mass. You need only to look around at my blog to realize that. I believe like many Traditionalists do that the Mass is the salvation of the world. But if we start using the Sacrifice of the Mass to judge the Holy Father, then we have, as impossible as it may seem, made an idol of the Mass. Many Traditionalists are afraid of losing the Mass, and are actually willing to attack the Vicar of Christ over it.

St. Teresa of Avila gave us a beautiful example of obedience. She had been having visions of Christ, and when she told her confessor, he told her it was a demon and she should reject the visions:

For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."

St. Teresa of Avila actually rejected Christ out of obedience to her superiors and was commended for it.  We, too, must submit ourselves to the obedience of the Pope, whether we understand it or not.  If we truly believe the Holy Father is being misled, then we need to pray for him.  But we should not be on the Internet which is read around the world telling everyone that the Vicar of Christ is a heretic and of the devil.  When we do that, we are playing directly into the hands of the devil who wants to destroy the Church.

Remember what our Lord said as recorded in Matthew 12:36:

But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Pray for our Holy Father.  Don't judge him.

Condemning The Next Pope Before He Is Elected

I was talking to a good friend today who is a very devout Catholic.  We got on the subject of the papal conclave. He said to me, "I hope this next pope is not the anti-pope." That kind of made my head snap back. Where in the world did that come from? Why would such an idea even enter into any Catholic's mind? He said to me that there are prophecies predicting the anti-pope. I said to him, "You know the danger with a statement like that is that if the next pope does anything that you don't agree with, you could start accusing him of being an anti-pope." His response was that not everything a pope does is infallible. I asked my friend to give me an example, and he brought up Pope Paul VI and the "mistakes" he made with the liturgy.

Both my friend and I agree that we are not happy with the creation of the New Mass in 1969. We both love the Traditional Latin Mass, the Mass of the Ages going back 1500 years that produced probably millions of saints over the centuries. However, my unhappiness with the New Mass is purely personal. I do not share my friend's view that the New Mass was an "error" of Pope Paul VI. Like most Traditionalists, my friend blames Pope Paul VI, the one who gave us the Novus Ordo, or the Ordinary Form of the Mass as it is now called, for being one of the major contributors to the spiritual crisis in the Church. And like all good Traditionalists, my friend said the real problem goes back to Vatican II, which he has basically condemned as the root of all evils in the Church. Anyone who reads my blog knows that even though I call myself a Traditionalist, I have no problem with Vatican II. Many claim that because Vatican II was a pastoral council as opposed to a doctrinal counsel, we don't have to accept it. The Vatican II documents were signed by the Pope in his capacity as Vicar of Christ, therefore making them part of the Magesterium. We must accept this just as we do all official teachings of the Church.

Yet, my friend is certainly right that there is a major crisis in the church that has been ongoing for 40 years. But what really was the catalyst for this crisis? Was it Pope Paul VI and his introduction of the New Mass, with its roots in Vatican II? Does this mean that a pope - the Vicar of Christ, the divinely appointed Head of Christ's Mystical Body on earth - can be wrong and that not only can we, but we actually should question his decisions?

I did a lengthy post on Vatican II entitled, "Vatican II: Blessing Or Curse?" I don't want to rehash this subject, so if you're interested, you can read it here. In this post I lay out the thesis that the root of the spiritual problems we see in the church today, and actually all throughout the world, can be traced back not to Vatican II but to Humanae Vitae.  I quoted from Dr. Ralph McInerny's book on this subject, "What Went Wrong With Vatican II?" in which he explains very clearly and logically that Vatican II is not to blame  for the spiritual crisis we are experiencing, but that the cause of the crisis is the rejection by so many in the Church, including clergy, of Pope Paul VI's encyclical condemning the use of artificial birth control. Interestingly, the conversation I had with my friend today was in front of an abortion clinic where we were praying. As I said to him, we would not even have been standing there if so many in the church had not rejected Humanae Vitae.

Everyone looks at Vatican II as the beginning of the current spiritual crisis we see in the church, but they all seem to forget about the real spiritual crisis of the 20th Century, and that is the rejection of Humanae Vitae in 1968.  Historians all agree that 1968 was a watershed year in the history of the world.  That is when everything began to change.

Here is a sample screenshot of the results of searching for "1968 Watershed Year".  As you can see, there were 219,000 results:

From one website entitled phinnweb.org

1968 was a watershed year, the year when the 60s optimism with its utopian hippie dreams and hopes of social change for the better future started to turn sour. Nothing that came after that would ever be the same as what had come before. It was a year of deep tragedy, pain and anger, but also a year of remarkable social upheaval.

Historians naturally would never consider the acceptance or rejection of a Papal Encyclical as a momentous event in the history of man.  But outside of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, nothing has ever had a more profound impact on the direction of the entire world than the rejection of Humanae Vitae.  It is the cause of almost all the turmoil and evil we see happening around us.  The rejection of this most important encyclical has resulted in the deaths of untold hundreds of millions of unborn babies around the world (35,000 per day in China alone), the acceptance of homosexuality, the meteoric rise in sexually transmitted disease, the AIDS crisis, the rise in cancer among women directly caused by birth control and abortion, the overall general destruction of the family which is the foundation and building block of all societies, and even the sexual abuse crisis in the Church and around the world, to name just a few of the horrific consequences.

Credit:  www.gracepickerington.org 

When so many in the Church rejected Humanae Vitae, they did not reject Pope Paul VI. The rejected the Lord and Master of the Universe. They rejected their Creator.  They told Him they can make their own decisions, and they don't need Him interfering in their lives. As I have mentioned in previous posts, this has resulted in our Lord allowing us to wander in the spiritual wilderness, just as He allowed ancient Israel to wander in the desert wilderness when they rejected Him at Mt. Sinai and turned to other gods. Our Lord promised He would never leave the Church, and that is true to this day and will be true to the end of time. But the rejection of Humanae Vitae was, in reality, a rejection of Jesus Christ. That is the moment when a great number literally turned their backs and walked away from God and the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit.

The spiritual chaos and confusion that we see in the church today is not the result of "papal error". It is the result of God's people turning away from Him. It started in 1968, a year that secular historians note as an unprecedented year of upheaval and change. It is now 45 years later and the world is on the verge of complete moral collapse, just as Venerable Pope Paul VI predicted.

Here in the United States for the past several presidential elections we have been told that each one is "the most important election in our lifetime." The election of a pope is always a momentous event, but I think it is safe to say that the papal conclave set to start on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, is possibly the most important papal conclave in the 2000 year history of the Church, dwarfing the significance of any presidential election. His Holiness, Benedict XVI, said his decision to abdicate was not just a personal decision "to retire" but the result of a revelation from God. As he said in his last Angelus message on February 24:

I hear this Word of God addressed to me in a special way during this moment of my life. Thank you! The Lord is calling me to “scale the mountain,” to dedicate myself still more to prayer and to meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church – on the contrary, if God asks this of me, it is to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to do so hitherto, but in a way that is more adapted to my age and my strength.

The New York Post had an amusing headline that read "Pope Gives God Two Weeks Notice."  But as Pope Benedict XVI told us, it was Our Lord who made this decision.  Jesus could have easily made the decision to install a new pope by ending Pope Benedict XVI's life.  But creating exceptional circumstances completely focuses the world's attention on the election of a new pope.  It seems Jesus wanted this papal election done under extraordinary circumstances to draw attention to the fact that this is not an ordinary papal election.

The man who will be chosen to sit in the Chair of Peter will quite literally have the weight of the world upon his shoulders.  It is every Pope's role to walk the road of Calvary, but this time, I believe, the Church will be walking that road with him.  I think Our Lord wants us to know that the Chair of Peter is not being filled "in the ordinary course of business".  We live in extraordinary times of crushing evil, and it will take a man of extraordinary spiritual strength to lead the Church.  We will not know the full significance of all of this until we can look back on it.

One thing I think we can be sure of is that whoever is elected as our next Holy Father will be facing tremendous persecution and opposition.  He will be under immense pressure to "modernize" the Church and basically turn it into another protestant denomination, in effect destroying the Catholic Church.  We have a firm promise from Jesus Christ that He will never allow this to happen.  The Church has survived incredible odds over its 2000 year history and it will survive this.  But that doesn't mean we will do so without great suffering.

It will be more important than ever before that the Church be completely loyal and supportive of our next Holy Father, whoever he may be.  In his homily on Ash Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI made the following statement:

The readings that have been proclaimed provide us with ideas that, with the grace of God, we are called to make concrete attitudes and behaviors during this Lent. The Church proposes to us, first, the strong appeal that the prophet Joel addressed to the people of Israel, "Thus says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning" (2:12). Please note the phrase "with all my heart," which means from the center of our thoughts and feelings, from the roots of our decisions, choices and actions, with a gesture of total and radical freedom. But is this return to God possible? Yes, because there is a force that does not reside in our hearts, but that emanates from the heart of God. It is the power of his mercy.

The prophet says, further: "Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, ready to repent of evil" (v. 13). The return to the Lord is possible as a 'grace', because it is the work of God and the fruit of that faith that we place in His mercy. But this return to God becomes a reality in our lives only when the grace of God penetrates to our inmost being and shakes it, giving us the power to "rend our hearts." The same prophet causes these words from God to resonate: "Rend your hearts and not your garments" (v. 13). In fact, even today, many are ready to "rend their garments" before scandals and injustices - of course, made by others - but few seem willing to act on their own "heart", on their own conscience and their own intentions, letting the Lord transform, renew and convert.

Finally, the prophet focuses on the prayers of the priests, who, with tears in their eyes, turn to God, saying: "Do not expose your heritage to the reproach and derision of the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "(v.17). This prayer makes us reflect on the importance of the testimony of faith and Christian life of each of us and our community to show the face of the Church and how that face is sometimes disfigured. I am thinking in particular about sins against the unity of the Church, the divisions in the ecclesial body. Living Lent in a more intense and evident ecclesial communion, overcoming individualism and rivalry, is a humble and precious sign for those who are far from the faith or indifferent.

We should not be talking about or even thinking about "anti Popes". Our Lord told us in Matthew 16:18 that the Church is built on the "Rock", on St. Peter and all his successors, and there is nothing that can destroy that. "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." We either trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit or we don't. And if we refuse to put our trust there, then we have put ourselves outside of the Church and outside the safety and salvation found only in the Church.

When the next pope is elected, all of the Cardinals assembled will personally pledge their loyalty and obedience to him. His Holiness, Benedict XVI, has already done so. And we must follow their lead. The Church will survive, despite the tempestuous storms surrounding it. The question is, will we as individuals survive. The answer: only if we are under the authority of the Vicar of Christ.