Tuesday 3 February 2015

Worst Document / Worst Pope?

In my previous post I noted that if we see the mid-way Realtio of the 2014 Synod as “one of the worst documents in Church history”, then Francis is one step away from being “one of the worst popes in history” since it was he who approved its publication and had elements rejected by the canonical majority at the Synod retained in the reflection document for this year’s Synod. I ended the post by posing a question and making a suggestion:

Where does [this] leave the faithful Catholic? [It leaves us] Repeating with Paul: “when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he stood condemned.” (Gal.2v11). Disobedience to a pope (and public challenge of him) must always be respectful because of the human dignity which belongs to the man and because of his office as Pope, but not to oppose him is to allow evil to flourish -and if that route is taken by the faithful Catholic, the faithful Catholic himself becomes unfaithful, and will stand equally condemned.

The rejected elements which Francis ordered to be retained (on the valuing of cohabitation, adultery and homosexuality) are contrary to the perennial teaching and discipline of the Church, but there are enough Bishops who follow the ‘wisdom’ of secular society and its misrepresentation of ‘Do Not Judge’ to have us recall the words of his excellency, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre:

“No authority, be it the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith” (Declaration of 21 Nov. 1974)
“We are faced with a crucifying dilemma: either we follow you [Rome] wholeheartedly...and appear to distance ourselves from your predecessors, or we follow your predecessors and give the impression that we are distancing ourselves from you”.

We abandon the Faith by changing doctrine; we diminish it by disciplines which play false to that doctrine. We are without doubt in a very troubled age in the Church, with Cardinals opposing Cardinals; Bishops opposing Bishops, priests opposing priests, and laity opposing laity. This indicates an informal schism yet to be made manifest in the Church. Such a schism arises because many in the hierarchy have come to the brink of cutting us off from the Church’s perennial teaching and discipline as restated in the Post-Vatican II Catechism -and all to gain acceptance by a pagan, sex-driven world.

At the very heart of this internal schism is the devil. Only he has the wickedness to turn Our Lord’s words of ‘Do Not Judge’ against the Lord’s own Gospel; only he has the cunning to take a truth and turn it into a lie. He first did this in the Garden of Eden, and men fell for it. To paraphrase: “So you were made in His image and likeness? If you eat of this tree you will be like gods; you will be enhancing His work”.

The devil is taking the same tactic today, telling us that we since we must not judge we must accommodate the sins of cohabitation, adultery and homosexual activity. Sadly, many in the Church are falling for the lie. One suspects this is from emotional import; that they know and love someone who has chosen a life contrary to the Gospel (or are living that way themselves), and rather than consider that person (or themselves) to be on the wide road to hell, have clamoured to have the Church accommodate the sin under the guise of ‘Do not judge’.

Well, even if at the Synod the Church accommodates the sin for their emotional comfort, the reality will be that the Church will have gone wrong in her discipline, thereby diminishing the Faith,  and simply given false hope to persons living in situations of sin –for which those persons (and their accommodators) will be held responsible before God for having abandoned the practice of the Gospel.

Notwithstanding the fact that Francis has said and done things which have rocked the faith of many, let us not be too quick to condemn him. While he has made many regrettable statements that contradict the Church’s perennial Church teaching, and while he has failed to correct errors, and he while he has made personal phone calls sand given private invitations to transsexuals, he has not yet tried to impose an official change in our doctrine. Nor has he officially changed the perpetual practice of the Church. All he has done so far is stoke up the fires of heresy and heteropraxy in unfaithful souls and allowed them to burn. He has not yet officially sided with them. The Synod and its following Apostolic Exhortation will be his testing ground, not the discussion beforehand. 

For that reason I think we should hold off from condemning of the man. Should he fail to uphold that which he received (and is duty bound to hand on uncorrupted), then we enter the period in which we must, like Paul, confront Francis and even refuse to obey counterfeit pastoral directives, for as Galatians 1:8 reminds us, “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”, and as Archbishop Lefebvre said, “No authority, be it the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith”. Let us pray for the Pope and the Synod, and let us make our views known by signing the fifialappeal.

22 comments:

  1. As is usual, a very good commentary, Father. A very good quote from ABp. Lefebvre and certainly apropos to the Synod, as well as on criticism - We may not like the man, but we must respect the office the man is in. It's easy to get sidetracked.

    I wrote a commentary on the Synod recently in which I posited the position most ordinary Catholics may soon find themselves in - that of having to choose which Rome to follow if the Synod gets its way concerning the divorced and remarried - the Rome of man or the Rome of Christ. It's a position I do not envy them, as I stated. Sort of a Catch-22, much like the Archbishops position.

    When will sanity be restored in the Church?

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    1. Thank you.
      Where can we find your commentary on the Synod, please?
      God Bless.

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    2. Here is the link: http://hector1088.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-commentary-on-2015-synod.html

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    3. A balanced approach that still calls for alertness from all Catholics. However some Catholics that do not know their Faith well are right now, before the Synod occurs, needing radical education by those that do. We are called to "assist and resist". It helps to remind people that the pope is not The Faith. Those Catholics and other Christians are called to "learn and discern". But as we are running out of time, priests must go public with this approach from the pulpit and we must do nothing without Christ. Pray, pray, pray as nothing changes without His help. And make the most sacrifices possible this Lenten period in recognition of the direness of this situation where evil abounds and the world and church assist it!

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    4. Thank you for this.
      Yes indeed, prayer and penance have always been the united powerhouse with which the enemy can be defeated.
      God Bless

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  2. "he has not yet tried to impose an official change in our doctrine. Nor has he officially changed the perpetual practice of the Church. All he has done so far is stoke up the fires of heresy and heteropraxy in unfaithful souls and allowed them to burn. He has not yet officially sided with them."

    That is very true, Father, but exactly the same can be said for Honorius who was condemned and anathematized by Pope St Agatho, Pope St Leo II and the Ecumenical Council - Constantinople III.

    He was not condemned, cast out of the Holy Catholic Church and anathematized for holding the doctrine of Monothelitism himself. Rather he was condemned for treating it on an equal footing with the orthodox faith and failing to teach against it. The words of Pope St Leo II say it all as can be seen from the following excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

    "The new pope, Leo II, had naturally no difficulty in giving to the decrees of the council the formal confirmation which the council asked from him, according to custom. The words about Honorius in his letter of confirmation, by which the council gets its ecumenical rank, are necessarily more important than the decree of the council itself: "We anathematize the inventors of the new error, that is, Theodore, Sergius, ...and also Honorius, who did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic Church with the teaching of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity to be polluted."

    WHO DID NOT ATTEMPT TO SANCTIFY THIS APOSTOLIC CHURCH WITH THE TEACHING OF APOSTOLIC TRADITION, BUT BY PROFANE TREACHERY PERMITTED ITS PURITY TO BE POLLUTED. If these same standards were to be applied today, then Pope Francis would stand equally condemned and for the same reasons as his predecessor Pope Honorius.

    The pertinent question is, are there any bishops or cardinals with the intestinal fortitude to challenge him on his profane treachery and call him to repentance? Cardinal Burke has come the closest to warning him, but let us pray that the Pope heeds his words before it is too late for him. Failure to teach truth is as damnable as teaching error.

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    1. Thank you.
      O think there are Cardinals and Bishops willing to challenge for the sake of the truth, notably the five who wrote the book in response to Kasper's assertions.
      God Bless

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  3. How dare you! Any criticism of the pope's deportment is tantamount to impertinence and heresy!

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    1. Thank you for commenting.
      I don't think it is impertinent for anyone to say 'hold off on the criticism', but it would be failing in the truth if one were to close one's eyes to the manner in which Francis exercises his papacy (that is, inconsistent statements etc).
      God Bless.

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  4. We have a solemn duty not to follow a pope (nor allow those under our spiritual and moral authority to follow a pope) that clearly and continually opposes the unchangeable and essential truths of the Faith and the Natural Moral Law. To follow such a pope would be to sin grievously, and endanger one's own soul, and the souls of others. The Faith is knowable and understandable by all persons of reason, and as persons of reason, and Faith, we have a positive duty to uphold the Faith and God's moral law.

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    1. Thank you, Lynda.
      Agreed. We cannot follow error. We go back to Paul: we must, like Paul, confront Francis and even refuse to obey counterfeit pastoral directives, for as Galatians 1:8 reminds us, “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”,
      God Bless

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    2. Or maybe the Papacy itself is a load of old rubbish?

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    3. Thanks for the comment.
      Many would agree with you. I’d have to say that since God established the Papacy directly (Matthew 16v19), building upon the Jewish system (Isaiah 22v20-22); and since Peter was given the commission to confirm the faith of the brethren (Lk.22v32) and to feed the flock (Jn.21v17) which is fed on The Truth from God’s mouth (Matt.4v4), and since those who hear Peter and the Church hear Christ (Lk.10v16) that the Papacy is indispensible. It is rubbish to those who seek to be their own infallible authority only because it denies them autonomy from God and His Word.
      God Bless.

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  5. I would like to convey, once again, my thanks to you, Father, for upholding the One, True Faith and Divine Law, and therefore, exercising your holy priestly ministry as intended by God. How sad and painful it is that we are such a tiny, scattered remnant. However, through the Internet, you can give spiritual and moral strength, leadership and support to more than just your parishioners. I pray for priests and bishops every day, particularly the persecuted ones. Also, I say a series of prayers for a specific priest whose name I was given a few years ago and asked to say these special prayers for him, daily. (The names of all priests are distributed to individual lay persons, each priest having a person praying especially for him.) St Turibio Romo, pray for us, especially priests and bishops.

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    1. Thank you Lynda.
      I have just found your comment forwarded to another of my email addresses., sorry for the delay in posting it.
      You speak of a remnant -I hope today's post encourages many..
      God Bless.

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  6. Dear Father, we "Remnant of the Remnant" know with certainty what you are waiting to see. Have no doubt that you will get your clear denial of the faith by Francis, likely in the aftermath of the 2015 Synod (he hasn't shared his schedule with me). As you probably know, the *majority* - but not two-thirds majority - of high-ranking prelates voted for giving Holy Communion to adulterers and valuing sodomy. With 20 new cardinals there can be no doubt about having a 2/3 majority now. Cardinal Wuerl, a modernist in Washington DC USA, already painted Cardinal Burke as a dissenter because Burke mentioned his resistance to error if doctrine was over-ruled by "pastoral" practice. You can see how the *lie* of merely changing pastoral practice, not doctrine, is still being marketed by other modernist prelates like Marx and Kasper. What does Francis do about this? Nothing, because that is part of his plan. In the end, you will see heresy being "dogmatically" proclaimed and we will be "excommunicated" by Francis and his cronies.

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    1. Thank you RC.
      I do hope Francis recognises the limits to be Vicar of Christ and not the Christ. i find it hard to ascribe such arrogance tio anyone but Satan. If Cardinal Wurel has spoken so badly about Cardinal Burke it says more about him that it does about Burke. II have to say they I think Francis is trying to stack to odds in favour of a majority vote for change, but if he does so he empties the papal office and every bishop of the authority they have always had -because they can be overruled by their successors ad made to look very un-Catholic and foolishly deceived by the enemy.
      i wonder how Wurel or anyone else can claim it is OK to say one thing and act in another manner altoghet? Do they not see the complete lack of integrity this demonstrates? I can imahine a bride being berry unhappy if her husband declared he believed their marriage to be permanent and exclusive but that one-night stands should not be excluded by this...We need to keep reminding ourselves that God is in charge and no matter how the deck is stacked for the Synod, God may well turn out to be god of Surprises in a way the 'pastoral accommodators' do not expect!
      God Bless.

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    2. Bless you for seeing with the eyes of faith and reason but RC adds one thing more. Spiritual eyes- the eyes of discernment. Readers please pray for this grace. So many graces are needed for the time ahead that I fear many of you will be unprepared.

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    3. Thanks for the comment.
      Indeed, we all need to be 'on the ball' at the moment; the enemy is, I fear, deceiving many.
      God Bless.

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