Apparently Church Militant finds my comments problematic because lately they just keep removing them or editing them to keep the parts they like and remove the parts they don't like. Go figure. Here's how it happened...
First, on July 5th with their "SSPX Superior Isn't Primarily Seeking Reunion with the Catholic Church" article. There were only about 8 comments last I had checked and left the following comments (which were removed and then the comments area closed completely). I left this comment:
A Church Militant moderator responded...
so I responded with...
The EWTN article is HERE. And then they shut down the comments and removed all comments. I truly have no idea what happened there. Church Militant didn't leave any explanation on their website, so it's any one's guess. Second Incident
Now today, I left a comment to another person on the Church Militant website in the "Rome Be Damned" Vortex area, about Fatima and the Consecration to Russia. Here is the exchange...
To be clear, my comment was about the Consecration not being done properly, hence Sr. Lucy saying it was not done right 3 times! More on that coming up. I then commented...
To which the Church Militant moderator responded to me...
And this comment:
To which I responded in an honest attempt to explain myself further and not offend anyone...
Apparently not liking that response Church Militant responded by this comment...
(**Just a little side note here on "causing doubts". I find this a bit ironic because of all the "doubts" caused by the "off-the-cuff" statements made by the pope (which EWTN addressed and Michael Voris rebuked them for), yet I have not yet heard CM say a word about those doubts caused by the pope to the laity. No concern for the confusion among the laity when its caused by the pope? I don't understand that, I really don't.)
...and then they edited my entire long comment above to these two sentences-which I guess they liked ;)
:) LOL That's really a far cry from my original comment that goes into detail using the links they provided to explain myself! I told Church Militant that editing my comment in such a way was deceitful and to please remove my comment completely. They did.
So, I still really don't understand what I did wrong or who I was causing "to doubt" when I quoted the EWTN link provide BY Church Militant. *shrug* That said, I don't want to trash talk the good folks at Church Militant. We are all in the same boat and we all want the same thing for our Church, we just have a different approached. This isn't a punch CM in the nose post, its just me having my FULL say on what happened here on my own blog, because Church Militant won't allow me that privilege (it's not my right- which the moderators will be quick to remind you) on their site. So there it is, make of it what you want.
That of course that is her prerogative but not specifically what I am calling attention to in this post.
Instead, I am commenting on what Catholic in Brooklyn wrote in her comment area of yesterday's post about (of course) Michael Voris.
Mary the author of Catholic in Brooklyn declares on her blog that if you disagree with Voris "he will be the first to tell you" that "you are not a faithful Catholic and probably on your way to hell" -what? Does anyone actually believe this slander?
She is dead wrong and she's gone too far.
How do I know this? Because I have and sometimes do disagree with Voris and write about my disagreements on this blog (here and here) yet I am fairly sure from my emails with some of the folks at Church Militant TV that they haven't judged me as an unfaithful Catholic or on my way to hell.
How can 'Catholic in Brooklyn' speak for what Voris believes about those who disagree with him?
It seems Michael Voris has stirred the hornets’ nest again
with his latest episode of Mic’d Up in which he (in the 3rd segment)
takes on the “Reactionary Catholic Media”. Watch here:
I didn’t find anything wrong with what was said- nothing at
all. That said, I knew by naming names,
Voris was going to get heat over it. The
response was swift, with Louie Verrecchio (Harvesting the Fruit of Vatican II)
who was not named specifically responding the very next day believing he was an
unnamed target of this Mic’d Up episode. Others soon followed: here. I received several emails about this episode of Mic’d Up and
Louie Verrecchio’s response, so I
followed the link and watched Verrecchio’s video response.
I found nearly everything troublesome about this response,
and quite frankly some of it I simply didn’t understand. I did agree with Verrecchio’s response to Pope
Francis’ meeting and calling protestant Tony Palmer a “brother bishop”. Verrecchio calls this “irresponsible”, I would
go further and say it was scandalous – I believe Pope Francis has on numerous occasions
committed the sin of scandal. We both
agree it was dangerous and false and it places souls in jeopardy. I completely agree. Most of what Verrecchio says after that point
I disagree with.
Following his Palmer comment, Verrecchio indicates that he
and Voris differ in their worry over where Catholics may go IF they leave the
Church. Verrecchio says that Voris seems
to be only worried Catholics are leaving the Church to join with the SSPX. Verrecchio says he worries that people are
leaving the Church to join Protestant communities where there is no priest or
Eucharist. He says, “Let’s be clear, the
Blessed Sacrament at an SSPX Mass is without any question what so ever, the
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.”
I stopped the video there for a moment. What he said disturbed me greatly.
I know the Sacrament is the Real Eucharist, but how incredibly
sad that Verrecchio seems to prefer a disobedient priest illicitly consecrate
bread and wine to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord against our
Lord’s own Church authority. What a
terrible sin! To abuse the priesthood by
consecrating the Host against the authority of our Lord’s Bride…terrible.
I would be more frightened of offending my Lord by such a communion
than to eat the mere bread at a protestant service “in remembrance” of the Last
Supper.
Christ gave the authority to HIS Church to consecrate the
bread and wine into His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity- for a group of wayward
(I don’t care if they are well intended) priests to disregard the authority
Christ gave to His Church and work under their own authority… well they aren’t
much different than the heretic Martin Luther in that regard are they?
I can’t help but wonder how did our Lord feel when Martin
Luther was consecrating the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and
Divinity of our Lord outside the authority of the Church? I can’t believe He feels much different when
the SSPX does it. The Church is Christ’s
Bride…how dare the SSPX disrespect Her authority and boldly disobey Her in such a disgraceful way!
The very first sin in the Bible is disobedience…we’ve
learned nothing if we continue to disobey.
Verrecchio goes on to discuss whether or not the SSPX are in
schism- as if he’s unsure. I believe they are (see links below).
At this point, Verrecchio decides to give an analogy on what
(he thinks) “submission” means (I have an entirely different view of submission, it's called obedience)– in his attempt to show how Archbishop Lefebvre
was not guilty of schism because he didn’t have to submit to the Church because
he (Lefebvre) “was convinced souls were at stake”.
Hmmm…
I stopped the video again and I replayed this part several times. The excuse (I’ll get to the bizarre analogy
in a moment) is Lefebvre simply HAD to ordain bishops ASAP because souls were
in danger of damnation (I guess) if he didn’t create these bishops at that
moment- without the approval of Pope JPII.
Now, for the life of me I don’t understand that at all.
How was going against the Pope, to ordain bishops going to help save
souls? How does disobedience to authentic
Church authority help a soul? These men went
from Catholic priests to illicit bishops- how is that helpful to anyone’s soul?
I admittedly don't understand this point of view at all, nor how Verrecchio thinks this some how excuses Lefebvre. Perhaps Lefebvre didn’t believe the Church
still had authentic authority from Jesus?
Did he believe Jesus took away that authority and gave it to someone
else? Ridiculous! Verrecchio goes on to say we really shouldn't bother discussing Lefebvre any more because he's dead and Jesus has judged him. I disagree, I think people could learn from the mistakes of the dead clergy in our Church history.
Now Verrechio’s analogy of two neighbors is (in my opinion)
apples to oranges. Verrecchio says
imagine one neighbor who strictly forbids anyone from entering his property or
house.
This neighbor has authority and he's using it to keep people out. His neighbors “submit” to his
authority because it’s his property and he has a right to dictate who can and
can’t enter his property. So one day, a
neighbor (I’ll call Mrs. Kravitz for obvious reasons) thinks she sees smoke coming from
her neighbor’s house and calls him at work to get permission to enter the
property and investigate the smoke (guess 911 or the fire department aren’t
options). The guy tells her, no- stay
out. A bit later, Mrs. Kravitz thinks she
hears children screaming in the house, so she calls him again at work and asks
for permission to enter the property.
The guy again says “no-stay out”.
This time, know it all Mrs. Kravitz ignores the order to stay out and
enters the property only to find the dog has gotten into the flour (smoke) and
the TV was on(screaming children). There
was no fire, no danger, just overreacting and disobedience.
Now, there is so much wrong with this analogy I am not sure
where to begin. First, Verrecchio is
assuming that BOTH neighbors are equal and one is asking for “submission” by
not entering his property. Well, I
couldn’t help but think of the Garden of Eden.
“You are free to eat of any tree in the garden except this one.” Submission is obedience. Disobey and you fall to sin.
The ‘neighbors’ in Verrecchio’s analogy –Christ’s Holy Catholic
Church and the SSPX- are NOT equal. The neighbor
who forbids entrance to his property had the authority, the other neighbor Mrs.
Kravitz had ONLY the choice to “submit” to that authority or not. She decided she knew better and would act on
her own to save the day! How very
protestant-like this analogy was to me.
Did not Martin Luther do the same? He thought he saw a “fire” in the Church that
only HE could put out. He would not
submit to the Church. He would not obey
the authority of the Church given to Her by Jesus Christ Himself. Instead he [Luther] set about to “reform” Christ’s
Church without having the authority to do so.
I see the SSPX exactly the same way.
Well intentions will never trump obedience.
We must obey authentic Church authority- not those who break
away in disobedience because they refuse to submit to the authority of Christ’s
Bride.
Keep away from the SSPX until they humble themselves in submission to Christ's Bride. There is only ONE Church on earth that Jesus Christ gave authority to, and if you are in opposition to Her, you are in opposition to Him.
He will not forsake His Bride.
'There is not in the whole world a monster to be compared with a priest in the state of sin, for the unfortunate man will not bear with correction.'
-St. Jerome-
Over at the blog “Catholic in Brooklyn”, Church Militant TV's Michael Voris has once again (this is at least the 12th
time by my count) been the target of this blogger’s wagging finger.I don’t know what it is about Voris that sets
this person off, but a simple search of the “Catholic in Brooklyn” blog shows
PAGES of posts ranting about Michael Voris.
The post I am talking
about today is entitled “St. Catherine of Siena warns Michael Voris and the Catholic Blogosphere”. The blogger completely twists the meaning of words, scripture and our Catholic faith to attempt some sort of attack or correction of Michael Voris and other Catholic bloggers (that would include me because I do the same things as you'll see in the links to my own past posts on this issue) for reporting on priests in the Church who reject the Faith and teach heresy.
This blogger firmly believes Catholics are not allowed (by fear of God) to point out evil within the clergy(more on that later). But first the blogger wrongly accuses Voris of "manipulating" viewers because he shows videos of Catholic clergy and Catholics behaving in ways that are not Catholic [supporting and/or marching in gay pride parades]. The misuse of the word "manipulate" is only the beginning...read on and see for yourselves.
Of course this is wrong -and I said so in my comments left on the blog(see below).
Catholic clergy ARE participating in gay parades - I've done posts on it with photos of the priests AT the gay pride parades (see photo below):
And this has been going on for DECADES in the Church...
So I have just proven that "Catholic in Brooklyn" is WRONG about Voris "manipulating" people with false images. Catholic clergy ARE doing these things, Voris is right and Catholic in Brooklyn is wrong.
The only "manipulating" going on here is done by the Catholic in Brooklyn blogger who seems determined to attack Voris and other bloggers for reporting on Catholic clergy who are promoting MORTAL SIN. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is not the first time Catholic in Brooklyn has taken shots at Voris and others who report on this issue. There is a clear and distinct bias from this blogger against any Catholics who point out heresy or other evils done by Catholic clergy.
The "Catholic in Brooklyn" blogger goes on to butcher the meaning of "persecute" to mean Catholics aren't allowed to condemn evil done by clergy because...God says so. If one looks at how "persecute" is used by the Catholic Church in our catechism it is clear those being persecuted are KEEPING the Faith, not those rejecting the faith. More: here.
See how "Catholic in Brooklyn" distorts the word and God himself to justify his/her personal beliefs and manipulating people into thinking he/she is making some sort of point. They aren't and don't.
To manipulate the word "persecute" in such a way is shameful and entirely wrong. Christ's priests are those doing God's Will, not heretics. You'd think the Catholic Church its self must have "persecuted" old heretic Martin Luther when he was a priest in the Church by this blogger's twisting of quotes and definitions!
Apparently this
blogger also believes Catholics are not allowed to speak against any evil done by
clergy- that we must keep silent and allow the evil to go on. I wonder if this applies to child molesting
priests in the Church too? Should we
keep our silence about them?
If we take
this particular Catholic blogger’s twisted personal interpretation of St.
Catherine’s quote then we MUST keep silent and not expose sexual predators in
our clergy.
Of course that is
ridiculous and disgusting!
So is keeping
silent about heretics in the Church who are leading people to HELL.
To keep silent is to ALLOW the evil to continue and spread.
"Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to
suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is
no less a sin than to encourage them." -Pope St. Felix III
The blogger over at "Catholic in Brooklyn" is 100% wrong in ALL he/she has written in this post.
We ARE our brother’s keepers and it is not just our right to speak out
against evil-even in the clergy- it is our DUTY. Saints in our Church's history have called out priests who do evil and they have not been "persecuting" God as this Brooklyn blogger seems to think.
'This is the way I am dealt with by the priests who are my betrayers . . . Their sentence is condemnation. David condemned those who were disobedient to God, not out of anger or bad will or impatience, but out of divine justice, because he was a righteous prophet and king. I, too, who am greater than David, condemn these priests, not out of anger or bad will but out of justice. Accursed be everything they take from the earth for their own profit, for they do not praise their God and Creator who gave them these things. Accursed be the food and drink that enters their mouths and fattens their bodies to become food for worms and destines their souls for Hell. Accursed be their bodies that will rise again in Hell to be burned without end. Accursed be the years of their useless lives. Accursed be their first hour in Hell that never will end. Accursed be their eyes that saw the light of heaven. Accursed be their ears that heard my words and remained indifferent. Accursed be their sense of taste by which they tasted my gifts. Accursed be their sense of touch by which they handled me. Accursed be their sense of smell by which they smelled delightful things and neglected me, the most delightful of all. May they be accursed by earth and sky and every brute creature. These obey and glorify God, whereas they have shunned him. Therefore, I swear by the truth, I who am the Truth that if they die like this with such a disposition, neither my love nor my virtue will ever encompass them. Instead, they will be forever damned.' -The Lord, to St. Bridget of Sweden
That all said, here is my comment I
left on the Catholic in Brooklyn blog:
You're wrong about priests and gay parades. Catholic clergy are continually
leading people into Hell over the issue of homosexual sins (gay sexual
relationships).
I could go on as Voris has because the examples go on and on and on.
Heretics in the clergy are leading people to HELL and that is something EVERY
Catholic should worry about and attempt to stop.
"Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to
suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is
no less a sin than to encourage them." -Pope St. Felix III
"The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or
rather the cowardice of the faithful."-Pope St. Pius X
“If one yields ground on any single point of Catholic doctrine, one will later
have to yield later in another, and again in another, and so on until such
surrenders come to be something normal and acceptable. And when one gets used
to rejecting dogma bit by bit, the final result will be the repudiation of it
altogether.” - and - “What shall a Catholic do if some portion of the Church
detaches itself from communion of the universal Faith? What other choice can he
make if some new contagion attempts to poison, no longer a small part of the
Church, but the whole Church at once, then his great concern will be to attach
himself to antiquity (Tradition) which can no longer be led astray by any lying
novelty.”
quotes from St. Vincent of Lerin
And of course Canon Law is on Voris' side too:
"According to their knowledge, competence and prestige which they possess,
[the Christian faithful] have the right and even at the times the duty to
manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the
good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian
faithful"
- Canon Law 212 Section 3
I don't know why the "Catholic in Brooklyn" blogger insists on redefining words, manipulating quotes from Saints and "shooting the messenger"(Voris).
Voris is not creating the problem in the Church, he's exposing it and wanting it cleaned up.
The "Catholic in Brooklyn" blogger seems to prefer pointing fingers are Voris and other Catholic bloggers rather than the offenders themselves. Strange way to live out our Catholic faith which requires us to expose evil, not cover it up- even if its Catholic clergy doing the evil.
"If the faith is in imminent peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public."
-St. Thomas Aquinas
Just before finishing my post, "Catholic in Brooklyn" responded to my comment left on his/her blog...
You may well have good intentions Catholic in Brooklyn, but you are manipulating and warping everything because of your personal biases. If you believe what you just said to me, you MUST believe it is wrong to condemn priests who sexually abuse children and that the Church was in error to condemn Martin Luther for all he did.
Sorry "Catholic in Brooklyn" but you are dead wrong because they areyour words that have twisted, redefined and manipulated Church teachings and quotes.
And because it isn't in my nature to simply shut up about such errors, this Catholic blogger isn't going to be silent. God will indeed be my Judge and I am good with that.
On Friday (November 14, 2014) Michael Voris’ “The Vortex” (entitled
The Razor’s Edge) was once again devoted to clarifying their position on Pope
Francis and the fear running rampant among the faithful because of what is and
isn’t coming out of the Vatican.
I am assuming (perhaps wrongly), this Vortex was done because the faithful are
still contacting Church Militant TV with their concerns about the Pope and
their possible confusion over where exactly Church Militant TV stands on the too often controversial hot topic of Pope Francis and the direction of the Catholic Church under his
pontificate. Here is "The Razor's Edge" from The Vortex:
I listened to and read this episode of The Vortex over a
half a dozen times – I do that quite often with what Church Militant TV
produces because I respect them and want to make sure I am clearly hearing
exactly what is being said- or in some cases NOT said.
In “The Razor’s Edge” Voris gives his opinion of only two
opposing sides of Catholics (the traditional leaning group who are running in
fear over what Pope Francis says, does and seems to allow with his blessing)
and the “Church of Nice” crowd- who refuse to admit anything is wrong at all. Overall, Voris makes excellent points with what he says, my point in writing this is more with what he didn't say and about another side of opposing Catholics who don't fit in the groups he mentions.
Voris says: “As of now, a
careful middle seems to be being carved out – indeed, NEEDS to be carved out -
amidst the flurry of hysterical responses from both extremes of the Catholic
world – those angry mean-spirited Catholics who populate the ranks of so-called
traditionalists – but, and this is VERY IMPORTANT – do NOT, repeat do NOT speak
for the vast majority of faithful Catholics – even though they think and act
like they do – AND on the other end of the spectrum – those Catholics who
simply refuse to report on anything troubling – like recent affairs at the
Synod, sugarcoating everything. Battle lines
have been drawn between a subset of traditional-minded Catholics who write and
publish venomous screeds against the Pope, and those who pretend Rome is
nothing else than a valley of lilies where everything is perfectly fine –
denying the reality of what Bishop Athanasius Schneider has rightfully termed –
the fourth great crisis in the life of the Church. Both sides are
wrong in their reactions because they each fail to take into account the
DIFFERING damage they inflict on various individual Catholics. Neither
approach is – quite frankly “catholic”, meaning universal enough.”
Here I disagree with Voris in two respects. Yes both sides mentioned are causing
damage- though I think the damage they are causing is rather low. Admittedly, I could be completely wrong on this. I am sure the folks at Church Militant TV pay far more attention to many of these groups than I do. Yet, there is another opposing side of Catholics Voris failed to mention. Catholics who are not in the least bit tempted by the "subset of traditional minded Catholics who write and publish venomous screeds against the Pope" to leave the Church or the Church of Nice Catholics who bury their heads in the sand. There are Catholics who believe the Pope is a legitimate valid pope, though not a very good one- so far at least (we still hold out hope things will improve). Why do we feel this way? Because we believe it is Pope Francis himself causing the MOST damage - not the hardcore traditionalists or even the Church of Nice crowd- though it is Pope Francis himself who strengthens the Church of Nice crowd when he says things like "Who am I to judge?".
It is Pope Francis’ OWN WORDS AND ACTIONS that are
panicking people. The hardcore
traditionalists have been beating their drums for decades and the “Church of
Nice” crowd has remained silent on anything and everything for just as long.
The difference now is, the Pope himself.
Suddenly, the Church of Nice crowd have a pope leading their way to more progressive points of view INSIDE the Church (look at Cardinal Dolan and the upcoming St. Patrick's Day Parade- this is another direct effect of our current Pope on the Church). The Pope’s words and actions are now lining up with many of the
warnings the hardcore traditionalists have been warning about for decades. It's causing some Catholics to contemplate whether or not these hardcore traditionalists are right or not (their not).
So the Pope himself is sending people into the arms of
religious groups OUTSIDE the Church.
That is the problem that *I* see and I believe the Vortex
has not (and probably will not) address.
Voris has always made it very clear, that he and the folks
at Church Militant TV have a deep concern over a SINGLE Catholic leaving the
Church because of any sort of confusion or fear.
Because of this Christian concern, Church
Militant TV does their best to tread carefully in what they say and do.
That is commendable and why I have such respect for them.
This Vortex was no different in that respect. Voris again reiterates the need to STAY IN
THE CHURCH regardless of what we see and hear.
I agree completely- though I am very vocal in my distrust of
our current Pope (see my sidebar for more on that- specifically those entitled "My Issues with Pope Francis: Part I and II").
One problem is, it is natural human nature to RUN when we
feel fear and panic. Most of us like our
comfort zones and get very antsy when we are pushed out of it.
Sadly, Pope Francis IS pushing us out of our comfort zones-
and not in any good way that I can see (I truly hope that perhaps one day I see
things differently, because I don’t like the fact that I dislike and distrust
my own Pope). The result is fear and
panic and for some a hasty exodus from Christ's Holy Catholic Church to something that LOOKS like what they believe is Christ's Holy Catholic Church.
I was not raised a “cradle Catholic”. I came from outside the Church and personally
KNOW how being on the outside has little to offer compare to the fullness of
being inside the Church. There is no man
on earth, pope or not, who would make me look outside the Church for anything. There is only ONE Church that Jesus Christ
created on earth- there is no other. In
the words of our first Pope, St. Peter “To whom shall we go?” (John 6:68)
To whom indeed? There
is nowhere else to go. Hold fast to what
Jesus has given us, don’t allow fear to chase you from where our Lord wants you
to be.
We have a “flight or fight”
instinct, yet right now too many are in full “flight” mode. Stop.
Fight back that fear with the trust in our Lord. He has not abandoned us- he won’t. It is us who are abandoning Him when we leave
His Holy Catholic Church for anything else.
I get it.
Faithful
Catholics are seeking comfort, stability and that homey feeling the Church used
to give us, but is too often these days lacking. I feel it too, but I won’t give in to it by
abandoning the gift of the Holy Catholic Church from Christ to us because I don’t
particularly like who the current Pope is.
It is MY problem to get over those fears. It is MY cross to carry, not dump on the
ground and go running for something outside the Church that gives me the “warm
fuzzies”. I belonged to the “warm fuzzy”
Protestant denominations once upon a time, and I left that for a good
reason. There is no substance to those “warm
fuzzies”, the true substance is with staying inside the Catholic Church no matter
what. Don’t be shaken. Stand firm and trust in Jesus. Period.
Voris goes on to say: “This is the
position of ChurchMilitant.TV. We have never said the Pope, or more
importantly his prudential decisions or misstatements or off the cuff personal
thoughts are beyond the realm of critique.
What we consider simply out of bounds is the name-calling, Pope-bashing
response of SOME, important distinction there – SOME, a few, in the more
traditional minded crowd. Here’s the
bottom line. Unless he is speaking directly on a question of faith or
morals and makes it binding on all the faithful, whatever the pope says, or for
that fact, ANY pope says, or sometimes doesn’t say, carries with it no
guarantee of infallibility whatsoever. THAT is why
there exists a reserved set of circumstances in the first place for him to
speak infallibly. If he isn’t speaking in that very narrow set of
circumstances, then it shouldn’t be regarded as infallible.”
Personally, I think Voris is dead wrong here.
The “bottom line” isn’t about the Pope
speaking infallibly – the entire world would know if the Pope was speaking
infallibly- that would be clear news.
The “bottom line” in my opinion is “WHO is driving people into a panic
so awful that they are abandoning the Catholic Church for 'hardcore
traditionalist' groups outside the Church?”
In my opinion
that is Pope Francis himself.
It’s never
(at least in my mind) been about infallible teaching…it’s been about the words
and actions of this Pope.
The ripple
effect of “who am I to judge” and washing Muslim women’s feet during Holy week
and horrible interviews and his removal of orthodox Bishops from positions
inside the Church only to replace them with liberals and so on. These actions speak VOLUMES to the “bottom
line” problem Catholic laity are suffering now and it all points back to Pope
Francis himself.
Pope Francis is the author of this
storm we are all trying to weather.
With each news day more panic and fear is poured out to the
faithful by way of off the cuff comments, liberal priests or heretical speaking
Bishops. See it for what it is…the Church
is under attack. This isn’t new or
news. But it is troubling- especially
when the terror rippling across the world is seen as coming from the Vatican.
When our Holy Father FAILS to comfort his children (and let’s
face it Pope Francis himself is too often the epicenter of the problems) the
fear grows.
We want a Vicar on earth who will comfort us against the
storms, not a Vicar who IS the storm.
The problem with that way of thinking is that good and bad
Vicars come and go. It would be
WONDERFUL to again have a Vicar of Christ who kept us in our comfort zone,
where we felt safe and protected against the evils in the world. Pope Benedict did that for me. And because he did, I naively thought ALL
popes did that. I was wrong. Our comfort should be in our Lord
himself. Jesus sent the Great Comforter
to us who will protect His Church against ALL the storms –inside and outside
the Church.
Stop running OUT of the Church seeking the Comforter, you
won’t find Him there. He is INSIDE the
Church- in Her Truth and official Teachings.
Find your comfort in the ONLY place it truly exists, inside the Holy
Catholic Church with Jesus Christ himself.
You won’t find that anywhere else. On that, Michael Voris and I will always agree.
To be blunt I don’t like anything Pope Francis said in his
final speech of the Synod (more below).
I believe (as Cardinal Burke said) Pope Francis is harming the Catholic
Faith*. Yes, I know Burke was talking about
the Pope not setting the record straight and allowing progressive views to grow
and spread through the media- but isn’t that EXACTLY what Pope Francis has done
all along? [Holy Week washing Muslim women’s feet, ‘who am I to judge’, etc]
Pope Francis IS a progressive Catholic. There can be no question about that after all
his interviews and off the cuff comments.
This Synod was a progressive attempt to change the Church. At first I believe progressives thought they
had it in the bag- hence the “working document” about welcoming gay couples in mortal sin because they have “gifts” to offer the Church. They seemed completely stupefied by the large outcry heard around the world. These people don't know their own Faith or the Saints who kept and taught the faith.
“If
one yields ground on any single point of Catholic doctrine, one will later have
to yield later in another, and again in another, and so on until such
surrenders come to be something normal and acceptable. And when one gets used
to rejecting dogma bit by bit, the final result will be the repudiation of it
altogether.” –St. Vincent of Lerins
If anyone thinks Pope Francis wasn’t completely behind this progressive push, you’re
fooling yourselves. Everything he’s done
since day one has pointed to that “working document” so adored and fawned over by progressives.
What he didn’t expect was the complete spanking he got for
his efforts.
Pope Francis during heated Synod discussion.
Church Militant TV’s Michael Voris says it’s because
faithful Catholics around the world heard Catholic media reporting these events
as they happened and they rightly protested what was going on.
I see it differently.
“The gates of hell will not prevail” against Christ’s Holy
Catholic Church. Sure faithful Catholic media and laity voiced their
unhappiness and anger at what was going on, but it was the Holy Spirit who
stopped Pope Francis and his progressive gang in their tracks.
They [progressives] can waste all their efforts TRYING to
change doctrine, but it won’t happen.
What they WILL do, is lead people to Hell with their heretical beliefs
and THAT is what angers me.
“What
shall a Catholic do if some portion of the Church detaches itself from
communion of the universal Faith? What other choice can he make if some new
contagion attempts to poison, no longer a small part of the Church, but the
whole Church at once, then his great concern will be to attach himself to
antiquity (Tradition) which can no longer be led astray by any lying novelty.” –St.
Vincent of Lerins
I completely trust the Holy Spirit to protect the
Church. Pope Francis cannot destroy Her
or change Her, but Pope Francis [and other progressive clergy] CAN be the Piped
Piper leading ignorant people into heresy and subsequently Hell. That is what faithful devout orthodox
Catholics have to fight against. We have
to help save people from misleading 'off the cuff' comments and bold heresy- even from our own clergy.
“The
Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among so many dangers
in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The Church's foundation is
unshakable and firm against assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the
Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly
beat upon the Church with crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest
harbor of salvation for all in distress.” – St. Ambrose of Milan
Back to Pope Francis’ final speech … guess he didn’t like
the smack down, because he (at least in my opinion) struck back at all the
Catholics who dared oppose the progressive agenda he had so hoped would be
accepted.
- One, a temptation to
hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written
word, (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by the God
of surprises, (the spirit); within the law, within the certitude of what we know
and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve. From the time of Christ,
it is the temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous and
of the so-called – today – “traditionalists” and also of the intellectuals.
He just had to slap
traditional Catholics across the face (again) didn’t he?
-
The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness [it. buonismo], that in
the name of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and
treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots. It is
the temptation of the “do-gooders,” of the fearful, and also of the so-called
“progressives and liberals.”
Guess traditionalist are the “fearful”
“do-gooders” ignoring the cause and root of the wounds in the Church. Those “wounds” are of course caused by telling
people what sin is and that it must be confessed before Holy Communion. And the “wounds” of telling homosexuals they
can’t get ‘married’ because it’s a mortal sin.
Pope Francis believes to heal the ‘causes and roots’ of these wounds we
need to shut up about gay ‘marriage’ and abortion etc. His idea of “curing them” is leaving them ignorant and in a state of mortal sin.
-
The temptation to transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy, and
painful fast (cf. Lk 4:1-4); and also to transform the bread into a stone and
cast it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick (cf Jn 8:7), that is, to
transform it into unbearable burdens (Lk 11:46)
What Pope Francis calls “unbearable
burdens” is what the rest of us call “picking up our crosses and following
Christ”. Christ didn’t promise anyone
life would be easy- Mary, sinless Mother of God suffered pain in this life
(Luke 2:34-35) why shouldn’t the rest of us?
No one is casting stones at sinners, but we are telling them to REPENT
and sin no more because that is what Jesus taught us to do. That is the key: repenting. If the Church doesn’t tell people what sin
is, how can sinner’s repent? The Church
is COMMANDED by Jesus to teach the FULL Truth to all people so that they might
be saved (Matthew 28:19-20). That is the mission of the Church. That is how wounds are healed.
- The temptation to
come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not stay there, in order to
fulfil the will of the Father; to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of
purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God.
He must have choked on that
one. Continually we see Pope Francis and progressive Catholic clergy attempting to 'bow down to worldly spirit" by watering down the Faith and telling Catholics to shut up about abortion and gay marriage. Rather worry about the worst crisis in the world- youth unemployment and lonely elderly people. Ahuh. Last I checked those weren't mortal sins that send a person to Hell. But what progressive is worried about the souls of people? None. They are worried about being welcoming, not offending and finding the "gifts" in homosexual relationships!
-
The temptation to neglect the “depositum fidei” [the deposit of faith], not
thinking of themselves as guardians but as owners or masters [of it]; or, on
the other hand, the temptation to neglect reality, making use of meticulous
language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing!
They call them “byzantinisms,” I think, these things…"
If ANYONE is tempting to “neglect
the depositum fidei [deposit of faith]" its progressive clergy. They don’t want to be guardians of the faith,
they want to change the faith- just like Martin Luther before them.
And another slap to devout
orthodox Catholics with “…on the other hand, the temptation to neglect reality,
making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many
things and to say nothing!” Clearly,
traditional Catholics to Pope Francis’ mind are “neglecting reality” because we
don’t believe the MORTAL SIN of homosexual relationships are a “gift” to the
Church.
“It is an error to believe that Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and to all men, but rather that He inaugurated a religious movement adapted, or to be adapted, to different times and different places.”–Pope St. Pius X
This Synod has only reaffirmed my already none to favorable
views of our current Pope. I don’t trust
Pope Francis and I don’t like him. I wanted/want
to trust him, like him and love him like I did Pope Benedict before him, but
the honest truth is I don’t- and I probably never will. I’ve accepted that. I also accept Pope Francis 100% as our
current pope. God (for His own reasons) has allowed Pope
Francis to be pope, I accept it. Let’s remember,
God also allowed such popes as Alexander VI to hold the papal office for a time. Just because you’re pope doesn’t mean you’re
a good one or that the faithful will love you.
“Given the breakdown in family life, the wholesale attack on innocent and defenseless human lives, and the violation of the integrity of the union of marriage in our society, the call to the martyrdom of witness is ever more urgent.” –Cardinal Raymond Burke
Many Catholics are rightly pointing their fingers at
progressive Bishops/Cardinals who pushed their liberal agenda’s at the
Synod. Like Cardinal Kasper, who is
about as Catholic as my dead dog. I don’t
like Kasper, not because he’s liberal, but because he’s a heretic. He wishes (and is attempting) to change the
Church. Kasper is a closet protestant-
he doesn’t love the Church as She is, he wants to change her to be more
Protestant. Then he will love Her. Along the way, his heretical beliefs are
destroying the weak faith held by many Catholics. Catholics who
don’t properly know their faith. He is
putting his heretical ideas into the heads of Catholics who sadly, will follow
him and his theology away from the Church.
Kasper is today’s Martin Luther. Only instead of opposing the pope, he's working with him to push a progressive agenda that is in direct opposition to Church teaching.
Not a single word
of public correction has been given to Kasper for all the misleading and
heretical views Kasper has PUBLICLY made before, during or after the Synod. Instead we get the above.
That’s wrong.
"Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is
to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it,
is no less a sin than to encourage them." -Pope St. Felix III
"If the faith is in imminent
peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public."
-St. Thomas Aquinas
"According to their knowledge,
competence and prestige which they possess, [the Christian faithful] have the
right and even at the times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their
opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their
opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful"- Canon Law 212 Section 3
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
*Yes [to answer the emails on this], I know Church Militant TV took down the video about Cardinal Burke’s comment that “Pope Francis is harming the Church”. Why was the video
taken down? I have no idea. Perhaps
Burke requested it? Perhaps Voris saw
the video as harming the faithful in some way?
Or perhaps it was simply to controversial, I honestly don’t know and don’t
really care. I saw the video and I agree
with Cardinal Burke- though I go much further in my belief that Pope Francis
has been damaging the Church since his first Holy Week- that is my opinion and
it hasn’t changed.
