Most of the comments under the tweet were people upset and outraged that this happened.
I wanted to know why, so I read the Declaration from the hermits themselves, which you can find HERE.
The part that stood out to me, was this:
"Though we are utterly unimportant, for who is interested in hermits that dare to speak out, we cannot keep silent for fear of damning not only our own souls, but the souls of countless others(xxii) . We who are watchmen for the Church, who must speak from the watch tower of Truth, have no option but to withdraw our obedience from Pope Francis and sever communion with the Holy See(xxi) . We do this with great fear and trepidation, but we cannot take part in the Pope’s sin. This is not an act of schism, nor is it an act of defiance, it is an act of real prudence; for no-one in their right mind would stay in a burning building, nor would they silently go down with the sinking ship. They would try to save not only themselves, but warn others and help them to safety(xxiv)."As a result of the hermits severing themselves from the Holy See and Pope Francis, while acknowledging Francis to be the Pope, the Church had no other choice but to excommunicate them.
And the battle began on social media among Catholic laity. I can see both sides in this, but I can't support both sides.
Some are taking the hermits side against the Church and others (myself among them) are siding with the Church.
The way I see it (and I am open to anyone showing me how I could wrong-don't hold back in the comments), is that our Church, Our Holy Mother Church is in her Passion as Christ suffered His.
Corrupt men inside the Church are a cancer, eating away and spreading disease in the Church. Francis, our wretched (God help him) pope is a large poisonous tumor spreading cancer in the body of the Church.
What do faithful children do when their Mother is suffering so much?
Do we abandon her?
No! We stay and fight and pray for her.
We cling to the authentic Faith, we have it, we know it. We don't leave her to suffer alone because Francis is a terrible pope! We suffer along side Mother Church and hold on because we KNOW who wins in the end! We already know how this story ends!
Why in the world would you leave when there is no where else to go? Jesus created One Holy Catholic Church on earth, just the one. Outside of it, you may very well lose your salvation if you don't repent before death.
Popes come and go. God will judge Francis as God Himself has allowed Francis to be our pope right now.
I often wonder if Francis is a test on us. Do we love our Church enough that even when we have a bad pope we aren't rattled? OK, Francis rattles me, but he won't push me out of the Church.
From the hermits blog page (sidebar)...
"Now however, the world and the Churches are descending ever further into a moral morass. And as we have ended our obedience to Pope Francis - and therefore all Bishops who go along with his false teachings and example - we are free to do what we must do under God. Preach God's Truth to the people, in season and out of season, so that those who have ears to hear may turn back to God and be saved."They have, in my opinion (for what that's worth) placed themselves in schism and asked for the excommunication.
In the hermits defense, they state in their Declaration that they believe Francis has set up the False Church of prophecy (by Blessed Anna Catherine Emmerich).
The hermits quote:
“I saw also the relationship between the two popes… I saw how baleful would be the consequences of this false church
“The Church is in great danger… I see that in this place the Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there will hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for destruction, even the clergy.
“When I saw the Church of St. Peter in ruins, and the manner in which so many of the clergy were themselves busy at this work of destruction – none of them wishing to do it openly in front of others – I was in such distress that I cried out to Jesus with all my might, imploring His mercy. He said, among other things, that this translation of the Church from one place to another meant that She would seem to be in complete decline. But She would rise again; even if there remained but one Catholic, the Church would conquer again because She does not rest on human counsels and intelligence. It was also shown to me that there were almost no Christians left in the old acceptation of the word.”
“Among the strangest things that I saw, were long processions of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities. A few had only a body, with a dark cloud of fog instead of a head. Others had only a head, their bodies and hearts were like thick vapours. Some were lame; others were paralytics; others were asleep or staggering.”
“I saw what I believe to be nearly all the bishops of the world, but only a small number were perfectly sound…”
“A false church, and wicked men scheming against the Catholic Church and doing much harm–both in her own time and in the future. And actually saw in a vision this, the enemies of the Church tearing it down and trying to build a new one on strictly human plans–but none of the saints would lend a hand. Later, this church of men is destroyed and the saints of God join in to rebuild the true Church of God, which becomes more glorious than ever before.”
Based on Emmerich and what Francis says and does, these hermits have severed all ties with the Church and Pope Francis because they believe our Catholic Church is now the False Church.
What do you all think?
Are the hermits right to sever all ties with the Church and Pope Francis?
My current thinking, and its subject to change on this matter, is that Pope Francis will one day be declared an anti-pope and all he said and did will be washed away, leaving the Church and Her teachings as they always were. Now my hope and prayers are that Pope Francis will accept correction in his many errors, repent and one day be a decent pope. It could happen and I am praying for it to happen. But if it doesn't, I believe he will in the future be declared an anti-pope.
Now I want to hear from all of you.
What do you think of what the hermits did?
Was the Church right in excommunicating them?
Do you believe the hermits are correct?
Has the Church become the False Church Emmerich speaks of?
Let me hear your thoughts.
Don't hold back, speak out and God bless you all.
In Christ,
Julie
Sources:
https://twitter.com/ProtecttheFaith/status/1209556382363668484
http://www.trumpeteer.co.uk/the-declaration/4594595263
http://www.trumpeteer.co.uk/the-hermits-blog/4594613512
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Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner