This year’s 28th Annual Roman Forum summer symposium normally had on the Riviera in Gardone Italy , this year took place in exile at the former great Seminary of the Dioceses of Rockville and Brooklyn NY the now defunct and converted retreat center of the Immaculate Conception
Watch/Listen SILENCE GIVES CONSENT: Pope Must Answer Charge of Heresy! – On YouTube
In this week’s Sunday sermon from south St. Paul Diocesan Church , Father discusses the ramifications of a catholic denying either the divinity of Christ or His Resurrection. Drawing from Sacred Scripture, Father points out how those who deny either one can according to St. Paul, be rightly condemned as an anti-christ.
One of the many subplots of the recent Synod in Rome involved a bizarre accusation by a friend of Francis, a journalist, who claimed that Francis told him that he does not believe Jesus Christ was Divine while He walked the Earth.
Open Letter To Pope Francis – Read and Watch CHURCH in CRISIS: World’s Catholics Resist Pope to His Face – On The Remnant Newspaper –
From Rome, Michael Matt writes an Open Letter to Pope Francis explaining to him why faithful Catholics the world over are resisting this radically leftist pope to his face.
Borrowing from St. Paul in Galatians, Michael promises not only to resist Francis but also to teach his children to resist him and to never stop resisting him until he dies or radically reconsiders his campaign to destroy what’s left of the human element of Christ’s Church.
This video also includes many of the more important clips of bizarre occurrences in this the worst pontificate in the history of the Church.
Who is Francis? How did he get into Peter’s Chairs, and what’s it going to take to get him out? From Pope Francis, libera nos Domine.
Prefacing our remarks and newsblog round up today with: the fact that the continuing theme of uniting the clans – we are not SSPX nor do we advocate for people packing up and moving into an SSPX Chapel but these are our brothers and now we have key Bishops and theologians echoing the fact that it is not THE TEACHINGS of the SSPX but merely of maintaining Roman Catholicism and what was always held to be true through all of salvations history
How and why we must acknowledge the core problems of Vatican II at the roots of the current crisis in the hierarchy of our Church and with our Pope . It must be studied in detail and we’ve all avoided the painful study and review for too long
Bishop Schneider’s handbook for correcting errors in life of Church today By Maike Hickson | LifeSite [BINGO]
In dealing with the Vatican and the SSPX, Bishop Schneider realized that the Vatican used “a kind of argument from authority, but not rooted in a deeper theological reasoning, and without going into the substance of the arguments.” The Vatican said, according to Schneider: “You are wrong, our position is the only correct one and it represents the continuity with the previous tradition of the Church.”Further developments strengthened Bishop Schneider’s conviction that we need to listen more carefully to the arguments of the SSPX: “With the growing crisis in the Church, and especially given the situation created after the two Synods on the Family, the publication of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’s approval of the pastoral guidelines of the bishops of the Buenos Aires region (which foresee, among other things, the admittance to Holy Communion of unrepentant adulterers), and the declaration on diversity of religions he signed in Abu Dhabi, I realized that we need to take the arguments of the SSPX more seriously.”
As he states later in the book: “This pontificate is a logical consequence of the Council’ and of the ambiguous elements in some of the Council texts.”Bishop Schneider now realizes that “some expressions of the Council could not so easily be reconciled with the constant doctrinal tradition of the Church.” He says: ”
Since he at the time did not read the texts of the 1962-1965 Council directly, but, rather, commentaries by conservative authors presenting them, he had at first “no concern or suspicion that there might be problems with the texts of the Council.” At the time, he practiced a “total ‘infallibilization’ of the Council.” Now Bishop Schneider sees that this conclusion was wrong I noticed that some teachings—let us say, on the topics of religious freedom, collegiality, the attitude towards non-Christian religions, and the attitude towards the world—were not in an organic continuum with previous tradition.
Breaking – Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò New Letter on the Danger of Syncretism – English Translation herein of the article published en Italia -On Inside The Vatican“The World Neo-Religion Will have its Temple”
The Proposed Draft Of The Temple Of The One World Religion
An artists conception of a night-time aerial view of the Abrahamic Family House- in Abu Dhabi Each building is dedicated to one of the three monotheistic religions Judaism Christianity and Islam
Pope Francis in Budhist temple (No Shoes allowed) – On gloria.tv
An Introduction to the Terrifying Tribal World Being Proposed Are We Preaching A General Dismantling ? By Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira -On The American TFP
Alexander (the Pacha Idol Dunker) Tschugguel Gives Public Speech in Texas (FULL VERSION) – Presented By Dr. Taylor Marshal On YouTube Insider Info On The Complete Funding Of The Synod Through One Syncretistic German Diocese
Prosecutor calls for arrest of Vatican Bishop Zanchetta charged with homosexual abuse of multiple Argentine seminarians – Pope’s number 1 man in Argentina fled to Rome and was made by Pope Francis an execuitive of the Central Vatican Bank and is currently being harbored in the Pope’s own Papal apartments
Civil War In The Mason Controlled Vatican Banking Administrations Continues – The Real Story Cannot Be Fully Discerned Herein Head of Vatican Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit Resigns Weeks After Police Raids – The New York Times
The first answer is reparation for this sin and the apostasies of the hierarchy our Holy Mother Church and against the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God
The Last Stop on THE Miracle Statue of the Portugal Fatima Apparitions is Holy Innocents NYC
Hundreds will descend this Friday evening (11-22) for a Traditional Sung High Mass of The Immaculate Heart followed by an outdoor candle lit procession of reparation (unusual in the cold season in NY) The faithful will then guard her through the evening of Holy Rosary reciting and conclude with a traditional midnight Mass – See flyer for more details ->
The Epistle of St. Jude: A Letter for Our Present Crisis – On OnePeterFive
Evangelize or Die – Catholicism.org While the clergy should evangelize, as I wrote above, the laity should not depend on them to lead the effort. The lay faithful share in the Church’s general obligation and hence have a right to evangelize.
Vatican corruption is beyond theological , follow the money
Cdl. Parolin takes responsibility for shady loan, grant Fiasco includes Wuerl, McCarrick, Becciu, American cash Vatican’s Cardinal Parolin says he arranged controversial hospital loan, Papal Foundation grant
Climate Apocalypse Now? Climate Change Hysteria and the Eco-Counterchurch – On Catholic Family News “You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.” (Emphasis added)
For the people that believe it is impossible for the majority of the hierarchy of our Holy Church to be infiltrated by the ungodly, Sacred Scripture gives them the answer
How Did We Get to This Situation? – By Father Alberto Strumia On Pan-Amazon Synod Watch
Father Dreher FSSP removes his signature from the Open Letter protesting idolatry after what appears to be pressure from “superiors” On Catholic Family News
Blind to the Crisis of the Church: Lamentations of Father Cavalcoli – On FSSPX.News “ It is also Romano Amerio’s masterful thesis, in his powerful book Iota Unum, which shows that since Vatican II, the men of the Church have been devoted to a “secondary Christianity,” i.e., to the elements of Christian culture, more or less neglecting the supernatural end, the struggle of grace and the necessity of the divine and Catholic faith.”
What Does the Amazon Synod’s Working Document Really Say? – On Crisis Magazine
Much ink has been spilled debating the merits and even the orthodoxy of the Instrumentum Laboris (or working document) of the Amazon Synod, which begins on October 6. We’re now less than one week out from the main event and, curiously, there has been no close reading of the Instrumentum itself. So, let’s begin with the basics
Watch From Rome, Michael J. Matt reports on Day 1 of the Amazon Synod. AMAZON SYNOD: Is It Racist? – The Remnant TV Via YouTube
After the first press conference in the Vatican press hall, Michael discusses a few of the blatant contradictions involved in the stated reasons for this Synod.
For example, the Vatican keeps insisting that the Synod is all about evangelization based on “synodal listening” to the people of the Amazon. But how does one evangelize people to whom one is supposedly listening and from whom one is learning?
If the wisdom of the Amazon can change the world, why do they need Francis to interfere?
Plus, this eco-theology and listening to the cry of the earth is nothing new. It’s part of the United Nations, Jeffrey Sachs, Sustainable Development coalition to which the pontificate of Francis has been allied for the past five years. So, what’s listening got to do with it?
Does anyone seriously believe the Vatican is “listening” to the indigenous people of Amazon here in Rome in pursuit of new pathways for moving forward? If the indigenous peoples are so advanced that we must listen to them in order for the Church to progress, why does the white pope need to call a Synod to save and protect the Amazon?
And, by the way, what’s with the feathers? Would the Vatican have us believe all or even most of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in 2019 are still running around in feathers and grass skirts? How is this condescending cultural stereotyping not essentially racist to the core?
And finally, at the press conference today Michael learned that, due to the priest shortage, women in the Amazon are already baptizing babies, conducting marriages, and even hearing confessions.
Is the Amazon being used as a laboratory for developing creative answers to the universal priest shortage in the whole Church? Is that what this is really about?
Even main stream Catholic news CNA said that the pagan Priestess that presided over the tree worship service presented the Pope with a,black ring identical to hers and symbolizing the marriage between mother earth and liberation theology!
Ecological ritual performed in Vatican gardens for pope’s tree planting ceremony
Brazilian Bishop: “The Church’s Mission is to bring the Gospel to Everyone, Including the Indigenous. No Culture is Above Christ”. – Pan-Amazon Synod Watch
Viganò Warns Priest to Speak Against Error Priests must stand as a wall between error and the faithful they’re called to protect. On Aldo Maria en Italia I pastori malaccorti e la paura di proclamare la verità | Aldo Maria Valli
The Catholic Church Is Not an NGO – On Crisis Magazine
The Holy Father has spilled a great deal of ink impressing upon the First World its duty to welcome economic migrants. Now he’s turned to spilling bronze. The Vatican has become the new home of a lumpy brown mass depicting a crowd of emaciated figures evidently waiting for their chance at a better life
Watch – Not Wasting a Minute And laying the groundwork for the future. | The High level Prelates Opposed To The Synod Increase | The Vortex
But a last-minute addition to the Cardinal Caution Club came out of the woodwork a day ago. Cardinal Marc Ouellet was made cardinal by John Paul II and is now prefect for the Congregation for Bishops
Ouellet, not formerly classified as an enemy of the Pope — but probably will be now — said in a book just published enumerating some errors in the working document, “The Church either proposes the authentic Jesus who is identical with the Christ of faith, or it loses the reason for being of its mission.”
Scientists Fighting Against The Pseudo Science Of The Revolution A Physicist challenges his fellow greens: ‘Dear True Environmentalists: Fight Corporate Criminality, not Atmospheric Gases’ – Denounces climate ‘industry of doomsday’
The Archbishop and Anti-Liberalism: Introduction – FSSPX.News
In the United States today it can be said that its form of democracy is unmistakably linked to an “exaggerated liberty” that provides women the false right to abort their children or for individuals to choose their own gender before mutilating their bodies. Egalitarianism, too, now rears its ugly head in the form of “identity politics” and various social-justice movements that wish to overturn the natural order and exclude God from society.
The International Catholic Legislator Network (ICLN) had a guest of honor in the person of Viktor Orban, during its session held in Fatima, August 22-25, 2019. An unexpected visit that caused embarrassment within the Portuguese government.
Sermon From Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. Canon Francis Altiere, ICRSS In Kansas City – Do We Appreciate the Church’s Greatest Sacramentals? – On OnePeterFive
Traditional Catholic Masses and Events From First Thursday Through First Saturday – including Public Outdoor Rosary At The Pontifical Shrine of OL of Mount Carmel NYC
See flyers below – for more details ->
And the restoration movement of the counter revolution is on !
Thanks to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady’s intercession always united to the Sacred Heart of Our Savior
Michael Matt Of The Remnant Will Be Interviewed Today by Dr. Taylor Marshall’s Show – Today On A Webcast Entitled Uniting The Traditional Catholic Clans
The Catholic Resistance has made itself heard | Roberto de Mattei
The Silent Prayer Public Square Protest was an event that was organized by Lepanto Institute and the Italian Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property
The Then CDF Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI) : “Criticism of papal pronouncements will be possible and even necessary, to the extent that they lack support in Scripture and the Creed” On Rorate
What Went Wrong with Vatican II? review by Atila Guimaraes The need for an elevated and elucidating debateIn order to find such a solution, the courage to debate the topic of the Council is necessary.
============================================
The Faithful Catholic Counter-Revolution Is Alive And Growing
St. Patrick Sparked a Fire – Father George Rutler On CMTV
Day Nine Of The St Joseph Novena
Saint Joseph’s Constancy By Saint Francis de Sales
Now, our glorious Saint Joseph was endowed with all the virtues of constancy, perseverance, strength and valor, and practiced them marvelously well. As regards his constancy, did he not display it wonderfully when seeing Our Lady with child and not knowing how that could be, his mind was tossed with distress, perplexity, and trouble? Yet, in spite of all, he never complained, he was never harsh or ungracious towards his holy Spouse, but remained just as gentle and respectful in his demeanor as he had ever been.
But what valor and strength did he not display in the victory which he gained over the two greatest enemies of man, the devil and the world, and by the practice of a most perfect humility, as we have said, throughout the whole course of his life? The devil, who for want of humility, and because he would not accept if for his inseparable companion, was driven out of heaven and cast down into hell, is so great an enemy to the lowly virtue, that there is no sacrifice or invention he will not use to make men fall away from it – so much the more because it is a virtue which renders them infinitely pleasing to God. We may therefore well say, “Valiant and strong in humility; he will be conqueror at once of the devil and of the world, which is full of ambition, vanity and pride.” Conf XIX, On the Virtues of St. Joseph, p. 379.
Our Father, Ave Maria, and Glory Be …..
St. Joseph, saint of March 19 Commentary By Professor Plinio Correa De Oliveiria – On TIA
Apologetics – Men to the defense of Christendom – the revolutions continue into western society through Conciliar Catholic hierarchy – We’ve moved past ecumenism , past reiterating our Lady’s unfilled consecration of Russia and into the devolution and dismantling of the dogma of the Kingship of Christ. We are past false ecumenism and the loss of the true faith of the highest prelates and into syncretism of gnostic , post masonic , progressivism , towards the full redefinition of the Christ and the Body of Christ into an man’s androgynous creation – They are no longer attempting to merge just heaven and hell but man and women within Christ in a one world religion – We will see in our life time the ascendency of the transgendered to an unprecedented level of UN and world leadership , towards worship of “it” as a higher being . It represents the one world religion movement in the highest echelons of the Church that today feels compelled to abolish doctrine , dogma , and tradition . In their new pastoral praxis Catholicism their veiled world-wide return to paganism involves the joining together of opposites . Jesus Christ, the divine-godman becomes also a woman the war of oneism and twosim is upon us – against traditional Catholic belief Christ visits the hell of the damned and joins Dismas the good thief together with Gestas Dumachus the bad thief and continues to “become” in order that we might all continue forever to “become” something else in this panentheism
Our highest level prelates are neither dumb, nor naive but cold, calculating and in an established self-destruction of the old religion a systematic process in order to build this new religion before our very eyes and no less have us serve “it” in the revolution or be executed as traitors to the revolution
So we are surrounded with the necessity of apologetics , awakening men to return to the days of militant Catholicism, real men that are unafraid to express their that are nauseated condition of being surrounded by weak-kneed Priests entrenched in mediocrity Awake to the the necessity of fighting the revolution in every form in which it rears its head – revolution , even in this form where the chastisement has begun
Blow the horn and awake the men , hell is filled with the supposedly good people, it’s time for us to turn to the battlefield that we all must die on to enter heaven
Michael Matt’s surprise announcement! | AKA Catholic
These courageous voices remain isolated even until today. The climate of indifference and cover-up which reigns within the Church has profound moral and doctrinal roots that date back to the Second Vatican Council, when the ecclesiastical hierarchies accepted the process of secularization as an irreversible phenomenon. But when the Church subordinates herself to secularism, the Kingdom of Christ becomes conformed to this world and is reduced to a mere power structure. The militant spirit dissipates, and the Church, instead of converting the world to the law of the Gospel, surrenders the Gospel to the world’s demands.
Today, we are also few in number, without the material forces provided by the political, economic and media powers of the modern world. We are mortally wounded by our sins, isolated and treated like lepers for our fidelity to Tradition. And yet, if we have the courage to resist, not to retreat, and to attack the advancing enemy, like the barking dogs spoken of by the medieval chronicler, the victory will be ours, because our love for the Church and Christian civilization is stronger than death. And as the Canticle of Canticles says: “many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” (Canticle of Canticles 8: 6-7)
For this reason, we do not want to return to the catacombs. Today, the standard of Constantine, like the standards of the Crusades and of Lepanto, is not the banner of an armed war, but the symbol of an attitude of spirit. It is the disposition of soul of he who is convinced that, as Saint Pius X said: “the civilization of the world is Christian civilization; the more frankly Christian it is, so much is it more true, more lasting, and more productive of precious fruit,”] it is the disposition of soul of he who is convinced that Christian civilization is not a dream of the past, but is the response to the crisis of a decomposing world: it is the reign of Jesus and Mary in souls and in society which Our Lady foretold at Fatima, and for which we continue to fight every day with confidence and courage.
Professor Roberto de Mattei
Married To Truth Catholicism, Protestantism and the Real Meaning of Christmas – On CMTV
Wars of Religion. Because in Ukraine the Most Ecumenical Are the Greek Catholics – Magister On Settimo Cielo L’Espresso
In the meantime, however, Ukraine had long been dismembered among Russia and Austria. And in the territory of Kiev, the Church in communion with Rome had been forcibly erased and its metropolitan exiled to Lviv, in the western region under Austrian dominion. Until in 1946, after the Soviet Union had also annexed this part of Ukraine, “the pseudo synod of Lviv also approved the liquidation of our Church,” with its metropolitan Josef Slipyj already in prison in Siberia.
Set free in 1963, “in a famous session of Vatican Council II Slipyj launched a heartfelt appeal for the recognition of the patriarchal ‘status’ of his Church,
An heretical document is released by the Vatican’s Holy See – – A Joint Statement By Catholics and Lutherans This tragic document further lays the ground work for the prophesized one world religion
Saying “we are very thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation” http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2017/10/31/0753/01633.html#or in which was commemorated a document every faithful prelate and theologian in the Catholic Church objected to upon its release in 1999 The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, solemnly signed by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999, has also been signed by the World Methodist Council in 2006 and, during this Commemoration Year of the Reformation.
Pope Francis: Martin Luther wanted to ‘renew the Church, not divide her’ – co.uk
Also not being addressed is the fact that there are now over a dozen different types of Lutheranism but the one group to which his “dialogue “ continually refers is only one of them
Pope Francis: Martin Luther wanted to ‘renew the Church, not divide her’ – co.uk
Also not being addressed is the fact that there are now over a dozen different types of Lutheranism but the one group to which his “dialogue “ continually refers is only one of them
The heretical Priest that defrocked himself and a former nun and started his own religion , lutheranism, to lure people away from the one true Church by the millions will be honored via a memorial stamp by the Vatican commemorating the apostasy of thousands of Catholic Priests and Catholic murders as a celebratory event Gets a Vatican Stamp Honored In His Name and Image : News Headlines | Catholic Culture
The First Lie: The Foundation of Original Sin – Catholicism.org
This article is about truth. Truth has taken a severe beating over the past five decades. The failure to give truth its rightful recognition has been a costly abomination. Billions of dollars are and continue to be wasted on unjust wars, in which the lives and limbs of innocent victims are shattered. Hiram Johnson, a Republican Senator in 1917, was quoted as saying, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.”
Moral Rigorism and the Jansenist Monster under the Bed ….Papal Accusations Of The Heresy Of Jansenism Levied Against Those That Uphold Infallible Catholicism Breaches Into Its Antithetical Inimical Which Is Indifferentism On One Peter Five
Febronianism – — Apologetics In Reference To Our Current Pope
What we have underway in these days is the self-deprecation of the Papacy by the Pope himself with a politico-ecclesial system – that transcends from the conciliar concept of collegiality into it’s previously prophesized logical absurdity . A full circle into the former Catholic heresy of Febronianism that saw its life in the Church grow up from Gallicanism grow into a full blown heresy and also become revisited the Rhine group of Fathers at the V-II Council
Immorality and The Fall Of Catholic Social Teaching In Its Many Forms Stems From Protestantism And Protestantism Within Catholicism – One Excellent Example Can Be Found In Tattooing Which Is Moreover A Pagan Culture Import
The Morality of Tattooing – Father George Rutler On Crisis Magazine
German bishop: ‘Pastoral caretakers do not have the right to allow or deny access to the Eucharist’ | LifeSite Genn still endorses the idea of giving Holy Communion to some Protestant spouses of Catholics on a regular basis, giving additional interpretations to the heretical Amoris Laetitia
A Protestant Theologian who , unlike the majority of our Catholic Bishops ,
gets it.
Binary /Oneism vs. Twoism Understandings – Only Two Religions? That Can’t Be True! – TruthXchange
Paganism of the eastern occult religions that have invaded the west and
large parts of neo-Catholicism with buddha inspired meditation and yoga
positions that worship a false god seek oneism in everything – The ultimate
goal of paganism is join opposites together – with it’s pan-ultimate the
transgender creation. Their syncretistic god says I am the light and the
dark – I am the virgin and the whore – and on and on in the Litany to their
god until the last line …I am he yet I am she.
· In order to have the spirit of chivalry, love the sublimity of the fight – On Nobility And Traditional Analogous Elites
Reform Rome & You Will Reform The World – The Glories Of The Counter Revolution – July-August2018- Edition-Of-The-Journal_ Of- Catholic-Culture – PDF – On The Link ->
What is the new phase ? = It’s clearly a pagan syncretsim movement – based on the templates and tenets of the Vatican II Framework
‘Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants’: Vatican advisor and Papal spokesperson Fr. Rosica | News | LifeSite
Our Church has indeed entered a new phase,” writes Rosica. “With the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”
There are only two religions in the world – paganism and Christianity and most of the pseudo Christian denominations are now paganism
Benedict XVI is criticised for deviating from the new Catholic religion into the old Catholic religion in new article on Jewish-Christian relations
Shocking to suggest that the Jewish people might need to be converted to Christianity and a reversion to the traditional Catholic teachings that the old Covenant is abrogated –
Vatican Cardinal Promotes Ecclesiastic Antisemitism – On gloria.tv
The Cardinal proclaims the antithesis of Benedict XVI on this subject in maintaining the new Catholic religion on Jewish peoples not needing conversion – (which is a heresy by the way)
The Great Theologian And Author Dietrich Von Hildebrand – On the hierarchy coming to power in the Church
“The enemies who were hidden in the Trojan Horse have stepped out of their encampment and the active work of destruction is in high gear… The purpose of this book is… to give a short, clear presentation of the principal errors which are being presented today as a breakthrough of the ‘modern’ man who has ‘come of age,’ whom one can supposedly no longer expect to believe the teaching of the Church in the form it has taken up to now…. Secondly, we shall especially try to unmask those hidden, subtle errors … under beautiful, apparently noble titles, and whose danger is often overlooked even by believing Catholics.”
Pagan Natural Uprightness and the Extravagance of Apostates – Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites
See embedded photo in the link
These are three ultra-modern churches, one Protestant, another Jewish, and the last, Catholic, on an American university campus. None of them bears any trace of their respective traditions or spirit. Placed thus side by side, they seem to be three equally legitimate species of one same genus, the religion genus. A like spirit gives them all a like physiognomy.
One has the impression that they have just one soul, that the force which fastens them to the ground is an immanent, sinister and cold mystery, giving them an aspect of three drops of the same liquid, three boxes filled with the same substance, three factories producing the same product.
It is, in our way of seeing, the very soul of contemporary neopaganism, the archetype of the worst of everything that ancient paganism had, corroding all the cultural manifestations in which it is nestled much more efficaciously than did ancient paganism and reducing everything to desolating uniformity
Our friends at the Society of SSPX Remind Us Why Saying The Pope Is No Longer The Pope (Or The Anti-Christ or whatever) Is Not Tenable And Why Even In The Current Crisis That Is Now Surpassing The Arian Crisis – Sedevaticantism is “never” the answer
The Angelus: The Papacy and Sedevacantism – Angelus Press
Excerpt: Catholic Identity Conference Report – On CFN
Fatima and the Post-Vatican II Church: Where Do We Go from Here?
Just two weeks after returning home from the Angelus Press Conference in Kansas City, I made my way to Weirton, West Virginia, a city of around 20,000 people located in the northern tip of the state, for what proved to be another exceptional “rendezvous with serious Catholics,” as the Catholic Identity Conference (Oct. 27-29, 2017) was so appropriately advertised. The Remnant editor Michael Matt, who helps organize the conference each year and serves as emcee throughout the weekend, graciously invited me to attend and represent Catholic Family News in place of our dearly departed friend, John Vennari (requiescat in pace), to whom Michael paid heartfelt tribute during the conference (many thanks, as well, to Eric Frankovitch, Director of the Catholic Identity Project, for his annual organizing efforts and hospitality).
This annual rendezvous of serious Catholics in a “Holiday Inn catacomb,” as Michael jokingly characterized it, is unique among Traditionalist conferences in that it seeks to gather in one venue as many representatives as possible of the “loose federation of warring tribes” (as John Vennari used to say) which constitutes the worldwide Traditional Catholic movement. This year’s conference certainly accomplished that goal, hosting under one roof an impressive assembly: two bishops, one Roman and one Eastern rite; priests from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), and Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICRSS), as well as diocesan clergy and several religious sisters; and, of course, a large crowd of lay faithful, including a significant number of young people.
No Rose-Colored Glasses
Hosting such a broad spectrum of speakers and attendees is indeed a bold initiative, one that some mistakenly interpret as “Trad Ecumenism.” Michael Matt, however, clearly articulated that such is not the case during his welcoming address on Friday evening. He strongly emphasized that:
“this Catholic Identity Conference is not about some phony ecumenical effort among Traditionalists, where, at the end of the weekend, we’re all going to have a big group hug and say, ‘Oh, you know, nothing matters. The most important thing is unity,’ and we can just go on from there. That’s not what this is about. That’s not what the Catholic Identity Conference is. Our beloved Church, in her human element, is suffering through the worst crisis in history and, tonight, we are going to begin a three-day process to discuss how we are going to survive this crisis. … The organizers of this conference are aware of the strategic differences that have come between us – all of us – and various groups of priests, in particular, over the past 25 years…and those differences are not insignificant. We are not up here pretending that we can sweep them all under the rug in one fell swoop. But we all face this dilemma, this dilemma of what to do when rightful ecclesial authority becomes disoriented, as ours most certainly has.”[1]
Such was the true nature and intent of the conference, as evidenced by the content of the excellent talks, some of which we shall now survey.
On the Unchanging Truth of the Catholic Faith
Mr. Matt’s welcoming address also served as an introduction for His Excellency Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, who presented the first lecture of the weekend. Bishop Schneider, a humble but firm critic of Amoris Laetitia[2] known for his defense of the four Cardinals’ famous dubia,[3] addressed the conference – “this clandestine Church,” he said with endearment – on what he described as “the crisis of the Faith in the world today.” His talk, entitled “On the Unchanging Truth of the Catholic Faith,” began by focusing on how the current crisis is fundamentally different than previous doctrinal crises in the sense that past errors typically opposed a single truth of the Faith. Arianism, for example, specifically denied the divinity of Christ. In our times, however, there is a universal attack on revealed truth, in general, and even on reason itself.
The remedy for this crisis, he explained, is to remain firmly rooted in the perennial Magisterium of the Church, particularly as enunciated during the roughly 100 years prior to the Second Vatican Council. He went on to quote at length from three magisterial documents of that time period: (1) Vatican I’s Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius (On the Catholic Faith, 1870), (2) Pope St. Pius X’s inaugural encyclical E Supremi (On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, 1903), and (3) Pope Pius XII’s inaugural encyclical Summi Pontificatus (On the Unity of Human Society, 1939).
Vatican I’s Dei Filius, of course, contains this crucial passage:
“Therefore, let there be growth and abundant progress in understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, in each and all, in individuals and in the whole Church, at all times and in the progress of ages, but only within the proper limits, in the same dogma, the same sense and the same judgment [eodem sensu eademque sententia].”[4]
In other words, truth is immutable; our understanding of it can and should grow, but this growth never involves an “evolution” or “mutation” of dogma into something contrary to that which the Church has already defined. Bishop Schneider emphasized this point by quoting Dei Filius (his rendering):
“For the doctrine of the Faith which God has revealed is put forward, not as some philosophical discovery capable of being perfected by human intelligence, but as a divine deposit committed to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly promulgated. Hence, that meaning of the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by Holy Mother Church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext of a more profound understanding.”[5]
The false notion of truth “evolving” into something different is the essence of Modernism, the “synthesis of all heresies,”[6] which itself evolved from the errors of naturalism and rationalism condemned by Vatican I. Pope St. Pius X spent a majority of his pontificate battling the Modernist heresy, which by his time had seeped into the clerical ranks. The underlying cause of Modernism is a rejection of the supremacy of God and His revealed truth. As St. Pius X declared and Bishop Schneider quoted:
“Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and God!”[7]
Pius XII, in turn, addressed many of the same themes in Summi Pontificatus, as cited by Bishop Schneider:
“The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past, has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably to a drift towards chaos. Before all else, it is certain that the radical and ultimate cause of the evils which We deplore in modern society is the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well for individual and social life as for international relations; We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God, Almighty Creator and Father of all, supreme and absolute Lawgiver, all-wise and just Judge of human actions.”[8]
Several times, His Excellency emphasized how timely the magisterial statements he quoted truly are for the present day, as are “some striking affirmations” of Archbishop Fulton Sheen “which confirm perfectly the prophetic voice of the supreme Magisterium.” He was referring to a radio sermon delivered in 1947 by then- Monsignor Sheen entitled “Signs of Our Times.” In that sermon, the future archbishop spoke in detail about the devil, the anti-Christ, and the counter-Church which the devil will establish as “a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the Mystical Body of Christ.”[9] Interestingly, it was during this portion of his lecture that Bishop Schneider referred to Amoris Laetitia, a “wrong interpretation” of which he said “leads to this consequence, ultimately, to say good is evil and evil is good.”
Bishop Schneider concluded his talk by exhorting all present, in the words of St. Pius X (whom he said deserves to be called “the Great”), to remain always vigilant against the wiles of the devil and to speak out against his false prophets “who call evil good and good evil.”
100 Years Since Fatima; 50 Years of The Remnant
In addition to uniting the “warring tribes” of Traditionalists, the Catholic Identity Conference also seeks to foster, as its name implies, a strong Catholic identity. For younger attendees, in particular, this requires a review of our roots, as it is written: “Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee” (Deut. 32:7). This was the theme of Michael Matt’s talk, “100 Years Since Fatima; 50 Years of The Remnant,” during which he recounted for us the history of the Traditionalist movement and his family’s involvement therein.
He began by describing some of the fathers of the Traditionalist movement, men like Michael Davies, Hamish Fraser, William Marra, Walter Matt, and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. “These men,” he stressed, “were not about liturgical preferences. They were not about fighting for the Mass they like. It was about so much more than that.” For these brave men, it was all about holding fast to Tradition, not to their personal opinions. As Michael summed up, “They were in it to win it, and they were in it for the right reasons.”
After detailing a bit about the rift in the Matt family caused by Vatican II – specifically, between his father, Walter Matt, and uncle, Alphonse Matt (Walter’s brother) – Michael mentioned Dietrich von Hildebrand, a staunch opponent of the New Mass and other post-conciliar novelties. He quoted Dr. von Hildebrand’s position as expressed in a 1970 letter to Alphonse Matt, then-editor of The Wanderer:
“You assume that the new ordo missae and especially the rubrics constitute for me merely a personally painful change by replacing something very beautiful and perfect with something less beautiful and less perfect. But unfortunately, it is my conviction that the new ordo missae is the greatest pastoral mistake and that its consequences for the Church may be disastrous.
I agree, however, completely with you that it is a grave problem, whether one should criticize it publicly or only intra muros [“within the walls”]. Concerning this problem every one must follow his conscience. But I frankly cannot understand that you do not only abstain from a public criticism of the new ordo missae but make the ‘Wanderer’ an instrument for propagating and praising the new ordo.”[10]
Thus wrote the man whom Pius XII called “the 20th century doctor of the Church,” much to the chagrin of certain “conservative” (Vatican II-friendly) Catholics.
Turning his attention to some practical takeaways from the history he shared, Michael emphasized the importance of families being animated by a spirit of crusade. In other words, it is not enough for parents to simply take their children to the traditional Latin Mass on Sundays and allow the world to influence them the rest of the week. No, we must constantly fight to protect our kids from the world’s contagion on all fronts and make our homes domestic churches in which Christ the King lives and reigns. This is the only way our children will keep the Faith.
In closing, Michael made an impassioned appeal for all Traditionalists to defend the true Mass while also reaching out with humility and charity to Tradition-minded Novus Ordo Catholics, especially priests. If they are open to Tradition and heading in our direction, we should be welcoming them, not condemning them. I sincerely hope this appeal was taken to heart and will be put into practice.
Fatima and the Theological Virtue of Hope
As 2017 is the centenary of Our Lady’s Fatima apparitions, it was most appropriate for the conference theme to include Fatima and feature talks specific to it. One such lecture, entitled “Fatima and the Theological Virtue of Hope,” was delivered by Canon Aaron B. Huberfeld, ICRSS. He chose to center his remarks around the “first secret” of Fatima, that is, the vision of hell (July 13, 1917) – not a topic we tend to associate with hope for obvious reasons, but the connection became clearer as Canon Huberfeld spoke.
He explained at length:
“Hope, for us Catholics and in our spiritual lives, is to be sharply distinguished from the virtue of faith. We inherit our proper understanding of these virtues, above all, from the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, who had as his point of departure the study of the soul, as presented to him by the philosopher, Aristotle. And so, we recall that the virtue of faith is to be found, not in the will, but in the intellect. As Bishop Schneider reminded us last night, faith is the assent of the intellect. It is the submission of the intellect to truth revealed by God on the basis of the authority of the One Who is revealing. … Hope, being seated in the will, is rather a virtue that makes us desire God as our highest good and to expect with firm confidence eternal bliss and the means of obtaining it because of God’s goodness and power.”
The true, Catholic understanding of faith and hope is fundamentally opposed to the errors of Protestantism, as Canon Huberfeld expounded:
“With the Protestant revolt, faith will become confused largely with hope because faith will become a purely fiduciary faith, that is, a faith that is a mere trust. It is a trusting that we have been saved…Protestantism, then, begins with this sort of blind confidence, whereas the Catholic understanding of conversion and faith begins actually the other way. The Catholic Faith begins, and Scripture invites us to begin, with fear, the fear of the Lord. That is ‘the beginning of wisdom’ [Ps. 110:10; Prov. 1:7, 9:10; Ecclus. 1:16].”
This initial fear, which is a servile fear of punishment (rooted in self-interest), is meant to mature as we grow in the spiritual life into a filial fear of offending God (rooted in charity). “And why I quoted for you these words of the ‘first secret’ of Fatima,” he explained, “the revelation of the torments of hell, to the children of Fatima – a great reminder for our time – is that our hope is based on this: Hope is – and especially for St. Thomas Aquinas – a mean; it is between the vices of presumption on the one hand and despair on the other.” In short, the virtue of hope, properly understood, is an important aid to keep us out of hell.
Canon Huberfeld spent the final portion of his talk discussing the vital importance of ongoing conversion in light of the three ages (or stages) of the spiritual life: purgative (elimination of mortal sin), illuminative (detachment from all deliberate sin and the things of this world), and unitive (habitual contemplation and great longing for Heaven).
In truth, Canon Huberfeld’s talk was like a course on Thomistic philosophy/theology and a spiritual retreat, somehow fit into one hour. Quite impressive and edifying!
The Vatican During Pope Francis’ Pontificate
Perhaps one of the most anticipated talks of the weekend (certainly in my opinion) was delivered on Sunday morning by British Catholic journalist Edward Pentin, a Vatican insider who is the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Register.[11] Mr. Pentin travelled all the way from Rome, in fact, to give us a firsthand account of “The Vatican During Pope Francis’ Pontificate,” [12] a pontificate that has produced “a crisis, by any objective measure, despite the wider Church and the world thinking otherwise.”
Mr. Pentin emphasized that he wanted to give attendees:
“the fullest picture as possible of what’s happening. That means reporting on things that some might find not particularly edifying, but I really just want to expose what’s happening in the hope that it will encourage us to pray for the unity of the Church, especially during this anniversary year of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, because I do believe that only by exposing some of what people I often hear say is a diabolical presence in the Church or ‘naming the demons,’ as it were, can they be properly exorcised.”
Following his introductory remarks, Pentin went on to highlight some of the material found in his 2015 book The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? (available from Ignatius Press) in which he documents copious evidence of manipulation of the October 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family (which preceded the October 2015 Ordinary Synod on the Family) for the purpose of undermining orthodoxy.
He mentioned, in passing, the scandalous 2014 mid-term relatio (report) “which sought to make homosexual practice vaguely acceptable in the Church…the ignoring of Pope John Paul II and his magisterium, the side-lining of African Synod Fathers due to their conservative voice, the manipulation of various processes that gave prominence to various heterodox voices…the pressure exerted on the General Relator, Cardinal Péter Erdő, [and] the interception of the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ, which of course was about the Kasper proposal about admitting some remarried divorcees living in adultery to Holy Communion.” Regarding the latter, Pentin reminded us that Pope Francis personally intervened to keep the Kasper proposal alive, despite its failure to garner sufficient support from the Synod Fathers.
All of this background information served to illustrate the true origin of Amoris Laetitia, the 2016 post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, which is at the root of the current crisis, as well as the “modus operandi” of Pope Francis and his collaborators.
He went on to state poignantly, in light of the evidence just discussed:
“If the document is all the work of the Holy Spirit, as its proponents often freely insist, and that you have to be converted to understand it, it’s quite legitimate to ask the question: Why the need for such manipulation, heavy-handedness, and underhanded methods? And I put this question to one of the most vigorous defenders of Amoris Laetitia and he really couldn’t answer it.”
No surprise there!
Regarding the current state of affairs in the Vatican, Pentin discussed two recent interviews given by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the two remaining dubia Cardinals. Both Cardinals Müller and Brandmüller testify to an unprecedented climate of fear – a “reign of terror,” according to some – suspected surveillance, and even espionage (the threat of being “informed on” or reported) if one is at all critical of Pope Francis or Amoris Laetitia. This is no doubt what prompted Bishop Schneider last December to compare the current climate in the Church with that of the former Soviet Union, in which he was born and raised.[13]
While sincerely trying to give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt, Pentin was not afraid to report with respectful candor on the alarming state of the Church under Francis, whose pontificate exhibits a “total lack of substance,” according to certain Vatican officials, “some very high up.” In many ways, there is a profound disconnect between the Pope incessant message of “mercy” and his own merciless treatment of those who disagree with him (otherwise known as hypocrisy).
Pentin concluded his remarkable talk on a positive note, sharing with those present some encouraging words spoken to him by one of the Vatican officials he quoted earlier: “Apart from the battle, and because of it, one thing remains; that the most important thing to remember is to pray, perhaps offer sacrifices, knowing that God does not abandon His children or His Church.”
Conference CDs, On-Demand Videos Available
While I would love to present detailed summaries of each lecture, time and space constraints compel to conclude this report by exhorting readers to purchase audio recordings of the conference talks in order to more fully benefit from them. All the lectures were, in fact, recorded by Susan Vennari and are available from Oltyn Library Services. Access to on-demand videos is available for purchase at www.remnantnewspaper.com.
I look forward to attending next year’s Catholic Identity Conference! Until then, keep the Faith!
[4] First Vatican Council, Dei Filius (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, 24 Apr. 1870), Ch. 4 (On Faith and Reason) (Denz. 1800; D.S. 3020).
The Theological Hypothesis Of A Heretic Pope – The Heart Of The Crisis Also Tied Up With The Proclamation Of The Mediatrix Of All Graces And The Fatima Consecration | TCE |
The Then CDF Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI) : “Criticism of papal pronouncements will be possible and even necessary, to the extent that they lack support in Scripture and the Creed” On Rorate
The Great Theologian And Author Dietrich Von Hildebrand – On the hierarchy coming to power in the Church
“The enemies who were hidden in the Trojan Horse have stepped out of their encampment and the active work of destruction is in high gear… The purpose of this book is… to give a short, clear presentation of the principal errors which are being presented today as a breakthrough of the ‘modern’ man who has ‘come of age,’ whom one can supposedly no longer expect to believe the teaching of the Church in the form it has taken up to now…. Secondly, we shall especially try to unmask those hidden, subtle errors … under beautiful, apparently noble titles, and whose danger is often overlooked even by believing Catholics.”
Book recommendations for those wanting to study what happened with this revolution in the Catholic Church and for those searching for the real authentic Catholic Church within the Church these are some places to start
Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s The Devastated Vineyard and his Trojan Horse In The City of God
Father Wiltgen’s The Rhine Flows Into The Tiber
Prof Roberto Dei Mattei’s The Vatican II Council – An Unwritten Story
Michael Davies Cranmer’s Godly Order: The Destruction of Catholicism Through Liturgical Change (Liturgical Revolution): Amazon.com: Books
Any Books by Tradition In Action’s Atila Sinke Guimaraes in the 11 book series ELI, ELI, LAMMA SABACTHANI? on the Council and the post-conciliar Church each with a different focus
