There is something distorted, backwards, confused, and Satanic about Francis. Like an upside down caricature of Catholicism. Like a man looking like a Pope, and yet making fun of, contradicting, and hating the office of Pope all at once. A very, very weird Pontificate. His soul is certainly severed from Truth. I won't stop praying for him, though. I can't.
He may be one of those weird, tragic, last minute conversions. But he will have a lot to answer for. Pray for him. Hate the evil and weirdness, but pray for him.
In looking for more info on this purported letter of St Pio, I came across this discussion: https://www.cathinfo.com/crisis-in-the-church/padre-pio-writes-to-pope-paul-vi/ "Another set of dubious quotes attributed to Padre Pio are quotes which praise the Second Vatican Council and the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae of Paul VI, which endorsed contraception in the form of Natural Family Planning (for more information, see: Natural Family Planning is Contraception). These dubious quotes come from a Letter to Paul VI which is purported to be written by Padre Pio. There are two versions of the letter. The first version, translated from L'Osservatore Romano, is as follows: "Your Holiness: Availing myself of Your Holiness' meeting with the Capitular Fathers, I unite myself in spirit with my Brothers, and in a spirit of faith, love and obedience to the greatness of Him whom you represent on earth, offer my respectful homage to Your August Person, humbly kneeling at Your feet. The Capuchin Order has always been among the first in their love, fidelity and reverence for the Holy See. I pray the Lord that its members remain ever thus, continuing their tradition of seriousness and religious asceticism evangelical poverty, faithful observance of the Rule and Constitutions, renewing themselves in vigorous living and deep interior spirit—always ready, at the least gesture from Your Holiness, to go forward at once to assist the Church in her needs. I know that Your heart suffers much these days on account of the happenings in the Church: for peace in the world, for the great needs of its peoples; but above all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the lofty teachings which You, assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, have given us. I offer Your Holiness my daily prayers and sufferings, the insignificant but sincere offering of the least of your sons, asking the Lord to comfort you with His grace to continue along the direct yet often burdensome way—in defense of those eternal truths which can never change with the times. In the name of my spiritual sons and of the "Praying Groups" I thank Your Holiness for the clear and decisive words You have spoken in the recent encyclical, "Humanae Vitae", and I reaffirm my own faith and my unconditional obedience to Your inspired directives. May God grant truth to triumph, and, may pence be given to His Church, tranquility to the people of the earth, and health and prosperity to Your Holiness, so that when these disturbing clouds pass over, the Reign of God may triumph in all hearts, through the Apostolic Works of the Supreme Shepherd of all Christians. Prostrate at Your feet, I beg you to bless me, my Brothers in religion, my spiritual sons, the "Praying Groups", all the sick—that we may faithfully fulfill the good works done in the Name of Jesus and under your protection. Your Holiness' most humble servant, Padre Pio, Capuchin San Giovanni Rotondo, 12th September, 1968." The second version, which differs from the first one, seems to be an EWTN translation. It is as follows: Your Holiness, I unite myself with my brothers and present at your feet my affectionate respect, all my devotion to your august person in an act of faith, love and obedience to the dignity of him whom you are representing on this earth. The Capuchin Order has always been in the first line in love, fidelity, obedience and devotion to the Holy See; I pray to God that it may remain thus and continue in its tradition of religious seriousness and austerity, evangelical poverty and faithful observance of the Rule and Constitution, certainly renewing itself in the vitality and in the inner spirit, according to the guides of the Second Vatican Council, in order to be always ready to attend to the necessities of Mother Church under the rule of your Holiness. I know that your heart is suffering much these days in the interest of the Church, for the peace of the world, for the innumerable necessities of the people of the world, but above all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the high teaching that you, assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, are giving us. I offer you my prayers and daily sufferings as a small but sincere contribution on the part of the least of your sons in order that God may give you comfort with his Grace to follow the straight and painful way in the defense of eternal truth, which never changes with the passing of the years. Also, in the name of my spiritual children and the Prayer Groups, I thank you for your clear and decisive words that you especially pronounced in the last encyclical "Humanae Vitae"; and I reaffirm my faith, my unconditional obedience to your illuminated directions. May God grant victory to the truth, peace to his Church, tranquility to the world, health and prosperity to your Holiness so that, once these fleeting doubts are dissipated, the Kingdom of God may triumph in all hearts, guided by your apostolic work as Supreme Pastor of all Christianity. Prostrate at your feet, I beg you to bless me in the company of my brothers in religion, my spiritual children, the Prayer Groups, my sick ones and also to bless all our good endeavours which we are trying to fulfill under your protection in the name of Jesus. Humbly yours, P. Pio, Capuchin" Interestingly enough, the older version of the letter from L'Osservatore Romano, while it mentions Humanae Vitae, makes no mention of the Second Vatican Council. It seems as though the editor of the second version of the letter, which appears to be EWTN, interpolated this statement to make it seem as though Padre Pio embraced the Second Vatican Council. Yet inconsistently enough, EWTN hosts both versions of the letter on two different parts of their website. (http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/PIOPOPE.HTM and https://www.ewtn.com/padrepio/priest/pope.htm) Due to the varying versions of the letter, the authentic text of the original letter is needed. This is assuming that there in fact is an original text outside of that which was printed in L'Osservatore Romano. The letter was printed for the public for the first time in the October 10, 1968 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, one month after the letter was said to be written by Padre Pio. If it turns out there is an original text, and if the text turns out to match what was printed in L'Osservatore Romano (or on EWTN), the question still remains: was the letter written by Padre Pio? In all probability, it was not. Padre Pio died only three weeks after the letter was supposedly written by him. During this time, he was bedridden and could not write, but instead dictated his letters to others who wrote for him. There is no telling whether or not those who wrote for him faithfully wrote down what he said, or whether Padre Pio proofread and confirmed the text before it was sent. My comments: I am not certain that St Pio can be said to have been bedridden in his last weeks. We certainly know that he celebrated his last mass (with assistance) the day before he died, but he was probably quite weak in the last weeks of his life. With recent evidence of a letter of Pope Emeritus being purposely made to appear as an endorsement of PF, by the people in the Vatican no less, I think it is only wise to question things and not take them at face value.
There is testimony from Dr Alice von Hildebrand that Fr Luigi Villa was indeed asked by Padre Pio to investigate Freemasonry in the Church. http://www.latinmassmagazine.com/articles/articles_2001_su_hildebran.html Present at the Demolition An interview with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand - Summer 2001 The following conversation with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand opens our discussion of this issue’s focus: The Crisis in the Church: Scenarios for a Solution. Dr. von Hildebrand, professor of philosophy emeritus of Hunter College (City University of New York), has just completed The Soul of a Lion, a biography of her husband, Dietrich. TLM: Dr. von Hildebrand, at the time that Pope John XXIII summoned the Second Vatican Council, did you perceive a need for a reform within the Church? AVH:: Most of the insights about this come from my husband. He always said that the members of the Church, due to the effects of original sin and actual sin, are always in need of reform. The Church’s teaching, however, is from God. Not one iota is to be changed or considered in need of reform. TLM: In terms of the present crisis, when did you first perceive something was terribly wrong? AVH:: It was in February 1965. I was taking a sabbatical year in Florence. My husband was reading a theological journal, and suddenly I heard him burst into tears. I ran to him, fearful that his heart condition had suddenly caused him pain. I asked him if he was all right. He told me that the article that he had been reading had provided him with the certain insight that the devil had entered the Church. Remember, my husband was the first prominent German to speak out publicly against Hitler and the Nazis. His insights were always prescient. TLM: Had your husband ever talked about his fear for the Church before this incident? AVH:: I relate in my biography of my husband, The Soul of a Lion, that a few years after his conversion to Catholicism in the 1920s, he began teaching at the University of Munich. Munich was a Catholic city. Most Catholics at the time went to Mass, but he always said that it was there that he became aware of the loss of a sense of the supernatural among Catholics. One incident especially offered him sufficient proof, and it greatly saddened him. When passing through a door, my husband would always give precedence to those of his students who were priests. One day, one of his colleagues (a Catholic) expressed his astonishment and disapproval: “Why do you let your students step ahead of you?” “Because they are priests,” replied my husband. “But they do not have a Ph.D.” My husband was grieved. To value a Ph.D. is a natural response; to feel awe for the sublimity of the priesthood is a supernatural response. The professor’s attitude proved that his sense for the supernatural had been eroded. That was long before Vatican II. But until the Council, the beauty and the sacredness of the Tridentine liturgy masked this phenomenon. TLM: Did your husband think that the decline in a sense of the supernatural began around that time, and if so, how did he explain it? AVH:: No, he believed that after Pius X’s condemnation of the heresy of Modernism, its proponents merely went underground. He would say that they then took a much more subtle and practical approach. They spread doubt simply by raising questions about the great supernatural interventions throughout salvation history, such as the Virgin Birth and Our Lady’s perpetual virginity, as well as the Resurrection, and the Holy Eucharist. They knew that once faith – the foundation – totters, the liturgy and the moral teachings of the Church would follow suit. My husband entitled one of his books The Devastated Vineyard. After Vatican II, a tornado seemed to have hit the Church. Modernism itself was the fruit of the calamity of the Renaissance and the Protestant Revolt, and it took a long historical process to unfold. If you were to ask a typical Catholic in the Middle Ages to name a hero or heroine, he would answer with the name of a saint. The Renaissance began to change that. Instead of a saint, people would think of geniuses as persons to emulate, and with the oncoming of the industrial age, they would answer with the name of a great scientist. Today, they would answer with a sports figure or cinema personality. In other words, the loss of the sense of the supernatural has brought an inversion of the hierarchy of values. Even the pagan Plato was open to a sense of the supernatural. He spoke of the weakness, frailty and cowardice often evidenced in human nature. He was asked by a critic to explain why he had such a low opinion of humanity. He replied that he was not denigrating man, only comparing him to God. With the loss of a sense of the supernatural, there is a loss of the sense of a need for sacrifice today. The closer one comes to God, the greater should be one’s sense of sinfulness. The further one gets from God, as today, the more we hear the philosophy of the new age: “I’m OK, You’re OK.” This loss of the inclination to sacrifice has led to the obscuring of the Church’s redemptive mission. Where the Cross is downplayed, our need for redemption is given hardly a thought. The aversion to sacrifice and redemption has assisted the secularization of the Church from within. We have been hearing for many years from priests and bishops about the need for the Church to adapt herself to the world. Great popes like St. Pius X said just the opposite: the world must adapt itself to the Church. (continues...)
TLM: From our conversation throughout this afternoon, I must conclude that you don’t believe that the accelerating loss of the sense of the supernatural is an accident of history. AVH:: No, I do not. There have been two books published in Italy in recent years that confirm what my husband had been suspecting for some time; namely, that there has been a systematic infiltration of the Church by diabolical enemies for much of this century. My husband was a very sanguine man and optimistic by nature. During the last ten years of his life, however, I witnessed him many times in moments of great sorrow, and frequently repeating, “They have desecrated the Holy Bride of Christ.” He was referring to the “abomination of desolation” of which the prophet Daniel speaks. TLM: This is a critical admission, Dr. von Hildebrand. Your husband had been called a twentieth-century Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII. If he felt so strongly, didn’t he have access to the Vatican to tell Pope Paul VI of his fears? AVH:: But he did! I shall never forget the private audience we had with Paul VI just before the end of the Council. It was on June 21, 1965. As soon as my husband started pleading with him to condemn the heresies that were rampant, the Pope interrupted him with the words, “Lo scriva, lo scriva.” (“Write it down.”) A few moments later, for the second time, my husband drew the gravity of the situation to the Pope’s attention. Same answer. His Holiness received us standing. It was clear that the Pope was feeling very uncomfortable. The audience lasted only a few minutes. Paul VI immediately gave a sign to his secretary, Fr. Capovilla, to bring us rosaries and medals. We then went back to Florence where my husband wrote a long document (unpublished today) that was delivered to Paul VI just the day before the last session of the Council. It was September of 1965. After reading my husband’s document, he said to my husband’s nephew, Dieter Sattler, who had become the German ambassador to the Holy See, that he had read the document carefully, but that “it was a bit harsh.” The reason was obvious: my husband had humbly requested a clear condemnation of heretical statements. TLM: You realize, of course, Doctor, that as soon as you mention this idea of infiltration, there will be those who roll their eyes in exasperation and remark, “Not another conspiracy theory!” AVH:: I can only tell you what I know. It is a matter of public record, for instance, that Bella Dodd, the ex-Communist who reconverted to the Church, openly spoke of the Communist Party’s deliberate infiltration of agents into the seminaries. She told my husband and me that when she was an active party member, she had dealt with no fewer than four cardinals within the Vatican “who were working for us.” Many a time I have heard Americans say that Europeans “smell conspiracy wherever they go.” But from the beginning, the Evil One has “conspired” against the Church – and has always aimed in particular at destroying the Mass and sapping belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That some people are tempted to blow this undeniable fact out of proportion is no reason for denying its reality. On the other hand, I, European born, am tempted to say that many Americans are naïve; living in a country that has been blessed by peace, and knowing little about history, they are more likely than Europeans (whose history is a tumultuous one) to fall prey to illusions. Rousseau has had an enormous influence in the United States. When Christ said to His apostles at the Last Supper that “one of you will betray Me,” the apostles were stunned. Judas had played his hand so artfully that no one suspected him, for a cunning conspirator knows how to cover his tracks with a show of orthodoxy. TLM: Do the two books by the Italian priest you mentioned before the interview contain documentation that would provide evidence of this infiltration? AVH:: The two books I mentioned were published in 1998 and 2000 by an Italian priest, Don Luigi Villa of the diocese of Brescia, who at the request of Padre Pio has devoted many years of his life to the investigation of the possible infiltration of both Freemasons and Communists into the Church. My husband and I met Don Villa in the sixties. He claims that he does not make any statement that he cannot substantiate. When Paulo Sesto Beato? (1998) was published the book was sent to every single Italian bishop. None of them acknowledged receipt; none challenged any of Don Villa’s claims. In this book, he relates something that no ecclesiastical authority has refuted or asked to be retracted – even though he names particular personalities in regard to the incident. It pertains to the rift between Pope Pius XII and the then Bishop Montini (the future Paul VI) who was his Undersecretary of State. Pius XII, conscious of the threat of Communism, which in the aftermath of World War II was dominating nearly half of Europe, had prohibited the Vatican staff from dealing with Moscow. To his dismay, he was informed one day through the Bishop of Upsala (Sweden) that his strict order had been contravened. The Pope resisted giving credence to this rumor until he was given incontrovertible evidence that Montini had been corresponding with various Soviet agencies. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII (as had Pius XI) had been sending priests clandestinely into Russia to give comfort to Catholics behind the Iron Curtain. Every one of them had been systematically arrested, tortured, and either executed or sent to the gulag. Eventually a Vatican mole was discovered: Alighiero Tondi, S.J., who was a close advisor to Montini. Tondi was an agent working for Stalin whose mission was to keep Moscow informed about initiatives such as the sending of priests into the Soviet Union. Add to this Pope Paul’s treatment of Cardinal Mindszenty. Against his will, Mindszenty was ordered by the Vatican to leave Budapest. As most everyone knows, he had escaped the Communists and sought refuge in the American embassy compound. The Pope had given him his solemn promise that he would remain primate of Hungary as long as he lived. When the Cardinal (who had been tortured by the Communists) arrived in Rome, Paul VI embraced him warmly, but then sent him into exile in Vienna. Shortly afterwards, this holy prelate was informed that he had been demoted, and had been replaced by someone more acceptable to the Hungarian Communist government. More puzzling, and tragically sad, is the fact that when Mindszenty died, no Church representative was present at his burial. Another of Don Villa’s illustrations of infiltration is one related to him by Cardinal Gagnon. Paul VI had asked Gagnon to head an investigation concerning the infiltration of the Church by powerful enemies. Cardinal Gagnon (at that time an Archbishop) accepted this unpleasant task, and compiled a long dossier, rich in worrisome facts. When the work was completed, he requested an audience with Pope Paul in order to deliver personally the manuscript to the Pontiff. This request for a meeting was denied. The Pope sent word that the document should be placed in the offices of the Congregation for the Clergy, specifically in a safe with a double lock. This was done, but the very next day the safe deposit box was broken and the manuscript mysteriously disappeared. The usual policy of the Vatican is to make sure that news of such incidents never sees the light of day. Nevertheless, this theft was reported even in L’Osservatore Romano (perhaps under pressure because it had been reported in the secular press). Cardinal Gagnon, of course, had a copy, and once again asked the Pope for a private audience. Once again his request was denied. He then decided to leave Rome and return to his homeland in Canada. Later, he was called back to Rome by Pope John Paul II and made a cardinal. TLM: Why did Don Villa write these works singling out Paul VI for criticism? AVH:: Don Villa reluctantly decided to publish the books to which I have alluded. But when several bishops pushed for the beatification of Paul VI, this priest perceived it as a clarion call to print the information he had gathered through the years. In so doing, he was following the guidelines of a Roman Congregation, informing the faithful that it was their duty as members of the Church to relay to the Congregation any information that might militate against the candidate’s qualifications for beatification. Considering the tumultuous pontificate of Paul VI, and the confusing signals he was giving, e.g.: speaking about the “smoke of Satan that had entered the Church,” yet refusing to condemn heresies officially; his promulgation of Humanae Vitae (the glory of his pontificate), yet his careful avoidance of proclaiming it ex cathedra; delivering his Credo of the People of God in Piazza San Pietro in 1968, and once again failing to declare it binding on all Catholics; disobeying the strict orders of Pius XII to have no contact with Moscow, and appeasing the Hungarian Communist government by reneging on the solemn promise he had made to Cardinal Mindszenty; his treatment of holy Cardinal Slipyj, who had spent seventeen years in a Gulag, only to be made a virtual prisoner in the Vatican by Paul VI; and finally asking Archbishop Gagnon to investigate possible infiltration in the Vatican, only to refuse him an audience when his work was completed – all these speak strongly against the beatification of Paolo VI, dubbed in Rome, “Paolo Sesto, Mesto” (Paul VI, the sad one). (continues...)
That the duty to publish this depressing information was onerous and cost Don Villa great sorrow cannot be doubted. Any Catholic rejoices when he can look up to a Pope with boundless veneration. But Catholics also know that even though Christ never promised He would give us perfect leaders, He did promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail. Let us not forget that even though the Church has had some very bad popes, and some mediocre ones, she has been blessed with many great popes. Eighty of them have been canonized and several have been beatified. This is a success story that does not bear parallel in the secular world. God alone is the judge of Paul VI. But it cannot be denied that his pontificate was a very complex and tragic one. It was under him that, in the course of fifteen years, more changes were introduced in the Church than in all preceding centuries combined. What is worrisome is that when we read the testimony of ex-Communists like Bella Dodd, and study Freemasonic documents (dating from the nineteenth century, and usually penned by fallen-away priests like Paul Roca), we can see that, to a large extent, their agenda has been carried out: the exodus of priests and nuns after Vatican II, dissenting theologians not censured, feminism, the pressure put on Rome to abolish priestly celibacy, immorality in the clergy, blasphemous liturgies (see the article by David Hart in First Things, April 2001, “The Future of the Papacy”), the radical changes that have been introduced into the sacred liturgy (see Cardinal Ratzinger’s book Milestones, pp. 126 and 148, Ignatius Press), and a misleading ecumenism. Only a blind person could deny that many of the Enemy’s plans have been perfectly carried out. One should not forget that the world was shocked at what Hitler did. People like my husband, however, actually read what he had said in Mein Kampf. The plan was there. The world simply chose not to believe it. But grave as the situation is, no committed Catholic can forget that Christ has promised that He will remain with His Church to the very end of the world. We should meditate on the scene related in the Gospel when the apostles’ boat was battered by a fierce storm. Christ was sleeping! His terrified followers woke Him up: He said one word, and there was a great calm. “O ye of little faith!” TLM: I take it by your remarks about ecumenism that you don’t agree with the current policy of “convergence” rather than “conversion”? AVH:: Let me relate an incident that caused my husband grief. It was 1946, just after the war. My husband was teaching at Fordham, and there appeared in one of his classes a Jewish student who had been a naval officer during the war. He would eventually tell my husband about a particularly stunning sunset in the Pacific and how it had led him to the quest for the truth about God. He first went to Columbia to study philosophy, and he knew that this was not what he was looking for. A friend suggested he try philosophy at Fordham and mentioned the name Dietrich von Hildebrand. After just one class with my husband, he knew he had found what he was looking for. One day after class my husband and this student went for a walk. He told my husband during this time that he was surprised at the fact that several professors, after discovering he was Jewish, assured him that they would not try to convert him to Catholicism. My husband, stunned, stopped, turned to him and said, “They said what?!” He repeated the story and my husband told him, “I would walk to the ends of the earth to make you a Catholic.” To make a long story short, the young man became a Catholic, was ordained a Carthusian priest, and went on to enter the only Charter House in the United States (in Vermont)! TLM: You spent many years teaching at Hunter College. AVH:: Yes, and several of my students became Catholics. Oh, the beautiful conversion stories I could relate if I had time – young people who were swept up by truth! I want to make one point very clear, however. I did not convert my students. The most we can do is to pray to be God’s instruments. To be an instrument we must strive to live the Gospel every day and in every circumstance. Only God’s grace can give us the desire and ability to do that. It is one of the fears I have about traditional Catholics. Some flirt with fanaticism. A fanatic is one who considers truth to be his personal possession instead of God’s gift. We are servants of the truth, and it is as servants that we seek to share it. I am very concerned that there are “fanatical” Catholics who use the Faith and the truth it proclaims as an intellectual toy. An authentic appropriation of the truth always leads to a striving for holiness. The Faith, in this present crisis, is not an intellectual chess game. For anyone not striving for holiness, that’s all it will ever be. Such people do more harm to the Faith, particularly if they are proponents of the traditional Mass. TLM: So you see the only scenario for a solution to the present crisis as the renewal of a striving for sanctity? AVH:: We should not forget that we are fighting not only against flesh and blood, but against “powers and principalities.” This should elicit sufficient dread in us to make us strive more than ever for holiness, and to pray fervently that the Holy Bride of Christ, who is right now at Calvary, comes out of this fearful crisis more radiant than ever. The Catholic answer is always the same: absolute fidelity to the holy teaching of the Church, faithfulness to the Holy See, frequent reception of the sacraments, the Rosary, daily spiritual reading, and gratitude that we have been given the fullness of God’s revelation: “Gaudete, iterum dico vobis, Gaudete.” TLM: I cannot end the interview without asking your reaction to a well-worn canard. There are those critics of the ancient Latin Mass who point out that the crisis in the Church developed at a time when the Mass was offered throughout the world. Why should we then think its revival is intrinsic to the solution? AVH:: The devil hates the ancient Mass. He hates it because it is the most perfect reformulation of all the teachings of the Church. It was my husband who gave me this insight about the Mass. The problem that ushered in the present crisis was not the traditional Mass. The problem was that priests who offered it had already lost the sense of the supernatural and the transcendent. They rushed through the prayers, they mumbled and didn’t enunciate them. That is a sign that they had brought to the Mass their growing secularism. The ancient Mass does not abide irreverence, and that was why so many priests were just as happy to see it go. TLM: Thank you, Dr. von Hildebrand, for this time and the opportunity to speak with you.
Speaking of TLM Magazine, if you don't have a subscription I would highly recommend one. Excellent journalism accompanied with some absolutely beautiful pictures.
Sg, I'm not sure that I understand the point that you are trying to make regarding these two posts. Can you be more explicit as to what your point is? Thank you. PS - I had to remove some text from your second post to post my question but I left the link itself.
It occurred to me that we may be beginning to witness that astounding, shocking symbolic prophecy from Elizabeth Canori-Mora come to pass before our very eyes. The one in which evil men try to take Jesus from Mary´s arms, which leads the Mother of God to cease asking for mercy and request God to chastise the world! Imagine that! the Holy Mother saying "enough", removing her mantle of protection and asking for punishment for humankind! If anyone is interested we had a very fruitful discussion on Canori Mora´s prophetic insights some time back: http://motheofgod.com/threads/the-prophecies-of-blessed-elizabeth-canori-mora.11921/
Sg, This section of the interview has proven very helpful, insightful, and clarifying to me. Dr. Alice's objectivity truly appeals to me. Several times you and I have disagreed about the Novus Ordo. Let me share how Alice has shed some light on the situation. I'm not going to necessarily keep her quotes in the order they appear: He hates it because [the Latin Mass] is the most perfect reformulation of all the teachings of the Church. Here she speaks of the doctrinal completeness of the TLM. Since the NO changes in 2012, for instance, one of the improvements was that the TLM formulations of the Collects were inserted into the Novus Ordo. This was something I noticed immediately! A great improvement! [P]riests who offered it had already lost the sense of the supernatural and the transcendent. They rushed through the prayers, they mumbled and didn’t enunciate them. Here she indicates that the disposition of the priest affects the Liturgy. However, since the language of the TLM does not vary, and the priest has his back to the congregation, such indifference of heart has little impact on us. In the Novus Ordo the indifference of a priest is more "in our face." That is partly why Alice says, "The ancient Mass does not abide irreverence, and that was why so many priests were just as happy to see it go." Disgruntled priests I should add. The Catholic answer is always the same: absolute fidelity to the holy teaching of the Church, faithfulness to the Holy See, frequent reception of the sacraments, the Rosary, daily spiritual reading, and gratitude that we have been given the fullness of God’s revelation: “Gaudete, iterum dico vobis, Gaudete.” This is something all good Catholics are able do regardless of which Liturgy they attend. It is one of the fears I have about traditional Catholics. Some flirt with fanaticism. A fanatic is one who considers truth to be his personal possession instead of God’s gift. We are servants of the truth, and it is as servants that we seek to share it. I think this is sometimes true, though I believe the temptation is there because those who attend the TLM are in the minority and at times seek to justify their choice. But Alice gives the antidote for such feelings whether one attends the Novus Ordo or TLM: ...I want to make one point very clear, however. I did not convert my students. The most we can do is to pray to be God’s instruments. To be an instrument we must strive to live the Gospel every day and in every circumstance. Only God’s grace can give us the desire and ability to do that. So Alice has encouraged me to join in the TLM more frequently to better savor the ancient Mass. Safe in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!
Carol. regarding the letter of Padre Pio to Pope Paul VI, my understanding is that you posted that letter to show that even a great saint like St Pio thought highly of Vatican II and Pope Paul VI. And my response was that we need to be more discerning about such purported letters. There are 2 versions of the said letter on ewtn's website itself, and "the question still remains: was the letter written by Padre Pio? In all probability, it was not. " As for the post on the testimony from Dr Alice von Hildebrand, I was responding to your request for proof that Fr Luigi Villa was indeed asked by Padre Pio to investigate Freemasonry in the Church. I doubt that Padre Pio wrote a letter of appointment to hand to Fr Luigi. It is said that Padre Pio told Fr Luigi in person, of the task that Jesus Christ had for him. And this interview with AVH corroborates it.
Hi Mario, Thank you for responding to that post. My viewpoint on this explanation by AVH is somewhat different from yours. I don't think AVH was saying that it is because the priest has his back to us in TLM and his face to us in the NO, that his irreverence makes a difference. My understanding of her words is that priests who had already lost the sense of the supernatural and the transcendent didn't like the reverence that is a requisite of the TLM. That is why they rushed and mumbled through the prayers of the TLM. So they were happy to see the TLM go. If the NO mass were to be celebrated the way it was written in the V II documents, the main change would be that some parts of the mass could be said in the vernacular. Otherwise everything would be pretty much the same as the TLM. I am not sure of what you are trying to point out with these 2.
Thanks Blizzard, for reminding us of this. I went back to that thread to take a look. I was struck by the following which was posted by Praetorian: “Then it seemed to me to behold the heavens opening, and St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, coming down, surrounded with great glory and by a numerous escort of heavenly spirits, singing canticles. St. Peter was dressed in his pontifical robes and held in his right hand the pastoral staff, with which he used to draw upon the Earth an immense cross; at the same time the angels sang these words of the Psalmist, Constitues eos principes super omnem terram— you will constitute them princes over the whole Earth. “After this, the holy Apostle touched with his staff the four extremities of the cross, from which sprung up four beautiful trees loaded with blossoms and fruits. These mysterious trees had the form of a cross, and were surrounded by a splendid light. Then I comprehended in the depth of my soul that St. Peter had produced these four symbolic trees to the end that they may serve as a place of refuge to the little flocks of the faithful friends of Jesus Christ, and in order to preserve them from the fearful punishment which shall convulse the whole Earth. All good Christians shall then be protected under these trees, together with all those religious persons who shall have faithfully preserved in their hearts the spirit of their order. “I say the same thing in relation to the secular clergy and to all other persons of every class who shall have kept in their heart the Catholic faith— they shall all be protected. But woe to those religious who do not observe their rule! Thrice unhappy they, for they shall all be struck by that terrible punishment. I say the same to all secular clergy, and to all classes of people in the world who give themselves to a life of pleasure, and who follow the false maxims of modern ideas, which are opposed to the holy precepts of the Gospel. These wretched people, who through their scandalous conduct deny the faith of Jesus Christ, shall perish under the weight of the indignant arm of God’s justice. Not one of them shall be able to escape the punishment. “I beheld those good Christians, who had sought a refuge under those mysterious trees, in the form of beautiful lambs confided to the care and vigilance of St. Peter, their good shepherd, testifying to him the most humble and most respectful obedience. As soon as St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, had gathered the flock of Jesus in a place of safety, he re-ascended into Heaven, accompanied by legions of angels. Scarcely had they disappeared, when the sky was covered with clouds so dense and dismal that it was impossible to look at them without dismay. On a sudden there burst out such a terrible and violent wind, that its noise seemed like the roars of furious lions. The sound of the dreadful hurricane was heard over the whole Earth. Fear and terror struck not only men, but the very beasts. “All men shall rise one against the other, and they shall kill one another without pity. During this sanguinary [bloody] conflict, the avenging arm of God will strike the wicked, and in His mighty power He will punish their pride and presumption. God will employ the powers of Hell for the extermination of these impious and heretical persons who desire to overthrow the Church and destroy it to its very foundation. These presumptuous men in their mad impiety believe they can overthrow God from His throne; but the Lord will despise their artifices, and through an effect of His almighty hand He will punish these impious blasphemers by giving permission to the infernal spirits to come out from Hell. Innumerable legions of demons shall overrun the Earth, and shall execute the orders of Divine Justice, by causing terrible calamities and disasters; they shall attack everything; they shall injure individual persons and entire families; they shall devastate property and alimentary (food) productions, cities and villages. Nothing on Earth shall be spared. God will allow the demons to strike with death those impious men, because they gave themselves up to the infernal powers, and had formed with them a compact against the Catholic Church. “Being desirous of more fully penetrating my spirit with a deeper sentiment of His divine justice, God showed to me the awful abyss; I saw in the bowels of the Earth a dark and frightful cavern, whence an infinite number of demons were issuing forth, who under the form of men and beasts came to ravage the world, leaving everywhere ruins and blood. Happy will be all true and good Catholics! They shall experience the powerful protection of the holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who will watch over them lest they may be injured either in their persons or their property. Those evil spirits shall plunder every place where God has been outraged, despised, and blasphemed; the edifices they profaned will be pulled down and destroyed, and nothing but ruins shall remain of them. “After this frightful punishment, I saw the heavens opening, and St. Peter coming down again, upon Earth; he was vested in his pontifical robes, and surrounded by a great number of angels, who were chanting hymns in his honor, and they proclaimed him as sovereign of the Earth. I saw also St. Paul descending upon the Earth. By God’s command, he traversed the Earth and unchained the demons, whom he brought before St. Peter, who commanded them to return into Hell, whence they had come. “Then a great light appeared upon the Earth, which was the sign of the reconciliation of God with man. The angels conducted before the throne of the prince of the Apostles the small flock that had remained faithful to Jesus Christ. These good and zealous Christians testified to him the most profound respect, praising God and thanking the Apostles for having delivered them from the common destruction, and for having protected the Church of Jesus Christ by not permitting her to be infected with the false maxims of the world. St. Peter then chose the new pope. The Church was again organized; religious orders were re-established; the private families of ordinary Christians, through their great fervor and seal for the glory of God, became like the most exemplary religious communities. Such is the glorious triumph reserved for the Catholic Church; she shall be praised, honored, and esteemed by all men. All men shall become Catholics, and shall acknowledge the Pope as Vicar of Jesus Christ. Amen." This brought to mind St Malachi's prophecy of the popes: In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and the dreadful Judge will judge the people: The end. So, Peter the Roman would mean St Peter himself.
Here's a link to a Malachi Martin interview I listened to last night. I don't know who the interviewer is - it's not Art Bell. While I wouldn't agree with some of Fr. Martin's opinions, especially regarding St. John Paul, I'm staggered at his foresight. He died in 1999 which means that the interview must have taken place about 20 years ago. I don't think he would have been a fan of Bishop Barron, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine what he would have made of Pope Francis. I started to read Windswept house but didn't get very far into it. I think I'll have another go at reading it.
The Archbishop of Denver has issued a statement about this: https://archden.org/archbishop-clarifies-issues-with-fr-nix/#.W686K2hKg2z
Malachi Martin had his finger on the pulse well before most people in the Church - it is amazing how he was able to so accurately foretell the decline of the Church because he sounded the alarm as far back as the 60' warning that the new strategy of rapprochement with the world was part of the NWO plan... I have to say I love listening to him - he has the Irish gift of story-telling and at the same time is able to strike at the heart of issues.
Fr M Martin's obituary in the Irish Independent - well worth a read --Friday 6 August 1999 POPE JOHN Paul II "inherited a bedraggled church pushed to the brink by Pope Paul VI's huge betrayal and neglect," Malachi Martin wrote in 1981: a church with depopulated seminaries, politico bishops, lipsticked and mini-skirted nuns, bewildered lay people, plus a Vatican that housed Communist moles, clerical financial wizards, career diplomats, Marxist prelates, a brothel, overworked exorcists, hostile bureaucrats, some silent good people, and a hard-core 37 per cent of clerics and people who yearned for the church Paul VI had smothered. Martin's devastating critique of the Church he had served for 10 years as a Jesuit priest did not stop there. He went on to claim that Satan had taken hold of the Vatican and was even in a position to put his candidate on the papal throne (though he was convinced John Paul II was not a Satanist). "Lucifer, the biggest archangel, the leader of the revolt against God, has a big in with certain Vatican officials," he warned in 1997. Much of the decline experienced by the Catholic Church, Martin believed, could be put down to Pope John XXIII's refusal to act on the third of the prophecies revealed by the Virgin Mary to three Portuguese peasant children at Fatima in 1917, written down and kept in strict secrecy by the Vatican and read by the Pope in 1960. (Martin also claimed to have read it, but was under an oath not to reveal the contents which he felt unable to break.) He believed it was not until John Paul consecrated Russia to the Virgin Mary that the Virgin's wishes were fulfilled. Such lurid claims gained greater weight from Martin's carefully nurtured stature as a former Vatican insider who hinted at his initiation into the weightiest of the Vatican's secrets during his service in Rome from 1958 to 1964. He played on his reported closeness to Pope John. But his growing body of writing began to be regarded with increasing embarrassment by the Church he had once served. Martin grew up in a large, traditional Catholic family in County Kerry and in 1939 as a young man entered the Jesuit Order. He read for a BA in humanities at University College, Dublin, then spent three years studying philosophy followed by three years teaching in a Jesuit college in Ireland, and four years of theology studies at Milltown Park, Dublin (the college where Jesuits did their theological training). There he was ordained into the priesthood in 1954, taking his final vows as a Jesuit on 2 February 1957. His talents were soon apparent and he was sent for further studies outside Ireland. He received doctorates from the universities of Louvain and Oxford and from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he concentrated on knowledge of Jesus as transmitted in Islamic and Jewish sources. As a biblical scholar, Martin's main contribution was the book The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls, published in Louvain in 1958.
Marked out as a high-flyer, he became Professor of Palaeontology and Semitic Languages at the prestigious Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and was a theological adviser to Cardinal Augustin Bea, the head of the Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. This brought him into close contact with Pope John XXIII. Martin's years in Rome coincided with the start of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which was to transform the Catholic Church in a way that the initially-liberal Martin began to find distressing. Disillusioned by the reforms taking place among the Jesuits, the Church's largest religious order, Martin requested a release from his vows in 1964 and left Rome suddenly that June. He moved in 1965 to New York, where he first had to make ends meet as a dishwasher and taxi driver before being able to make his living by his writing (he also co-founded an antiques firm). Based in Manhattan with his companion Kakia Livanos, he became an American citizen in 1970. His succession of books on Catholic themes became more and more extravagant, moving him further away from the Church he appeared to be so concerned about. In his first, The Pilgrim (published in 1964 under the Armenian- sounding pseudonym Michael Serafian), he divulged Vatican efforts to block Pope John's intention to retract the Church's doctrine blaming the Jews for Christ's death. The book made a stir and gave him the taste for controversy. His 1976 book Hostage to the Devil - which was published soon after the film The Exorcist hit the cinema screen - was a lurid account of the possession and exorcism of five Americans. When his 1996 novel Windswept House appeared (which featured a fictionalised version of an actual ritual murder in Chicago), he was criticised for failing to report to the police the names of those he apparently knew were responsible. But the "decline and fall" of the Catholic Church remained his obsession. An opponent of the new rite Mass instituted by Pope Paul, Martin vocally opposed female altar-servers, believing they were a Trojan horse leading eventually to women priests. He opposed ecumenism vigorously, a curious position for someone once so close to Cardinal Bea, the Catholic ecumenical pioneer, and rejected liberation theology. The Final Conclave (1978) was a warning against alleged Soviet spies in the Vatican. Martin was easily dismissed by the majority of the Church as an exponent of the "Catholic occult" (not helped by his claims to have seen Satan in his own apartment). But even his historical reminiscences from his time in Rome were regarded with mistrust. Biographers of Pope John dismissed his claims that by the time of his death the pontiff bitterly regretted his decision to call the Vatican Council. Martin laid great stress on visions (Pope Pius XII had one, he claimed, as did Pope John Paul II). His own devotion to Mary is clear from the dedication of his books ("For the Immaculate Heart" reads one, "For the Assumption" another). If he had hopes of John Paul, Martin might have been disappointed that the pontiff has not yet fulfilled his greatest dream, as laid out at the close of his 1990 book The Keys of This Blood: Pope John Paul II versus Russia and the West for control of the New World Order. In Martin's vision, Pope "Valeska" summons an unexpected consistory, where he surprises - even shocks - the assembled cardinals by decreeing a "drastic and immediate reform" of the Church, removing theologically suspect cardinals, bishops and priests, suspending the Vatican bureaucracy, purging the new order of Mass and revoking the decrees of the Second Vatican Council. "I was told I could expect to be made a cardinal, that I had Biblical knowledge, a facility with languages, a good memory, all of which made me a candidate for advancement," Martin declared in a 1997 interview. The Vatican can be thankful he left when he did.
