I like and agree with a comment made by bigtex on Fr Z's blog about Jonathan Last's article above: "Regarding the Weekly Standard article, I would suggest there is a 5th option: 1. Council is called to determine if the apostolic constitution, Universi Dominici gregis, which expressly prohibits cardinals from forming pacts, agreements, promises, or commitments of any kind was violated in the election of Francis. 2. Council determines the pope was invalided elected. It also determines that the abdication of PBXVI was invalid because he was forced out by the lavender mafia. Therefore, Francis is declared an anti-Pope and if still alive, PBXVI is reinstated. 3. All of the encyclicals and other writings of Francis are declared invalid, because he is an anti-Pope. Neatly resolves the problem of his heretical teachings. Wishful thinking? Probably, but you never know."
I have no problem obeying the rightful authority of the Church, but it has yet to be done and even if such a Council was called, we cannot second guess the conclusions it might establish.
In Eastern Europe under the Communist tyranny they did the same thing. They ordained their own “priests” and sent them to the Catholic communities. No confessional seal for these men!! Reminds me of the book About the secret agent infiltrating the Church here in the West. Diabolical.
I suspect a lot of it had to do with the Seminaries. With what and how the were taught. Especially in the Spiritual Life. If they had been taught by true Spiritual Mothers and Fathers (I include nuns here) they would ahve served as Guards at the sheepfold discovering the goats and wolves). The same goes for the Bishops who were to have been true shephereds. I think a big mistake we made as a Church was to have had to big Dioceses, including super dioceses like , say Chicago were a Bishop jardly ever knew his priests and seminarian's , whereas he should have been a Father to them and lost the goats right away back to the world. It hink this was one of advantages Traditionalists had and have, small, elite seminaries. Spiritual Hothouses. Or to put it another way, in many occasions we got too big for our britches.
Makes me think about CS Lewis Screwtape Letters.....a wonderful lesson on the demonic and how they know where to get us....
Goodness if I were Cardinal Wuerl, Mc Carrick, Cupich, Farell et al I would die of shame. All those priests , Bishops anad Cardinals (not to say layfolk) looking at me with beady eyes and thinking and saying hard things. I really would die. I have to hand ti to them they have brass necks and do not let go of power easily (which shows , I suppose how much they loved it) . Yes I would just about die. Sad too . So many of them with those beautiful Irish names.
Yes. I think if we travel any length at all on the Spiritual Path the Holy Spirit will have bestowed us at least a fair measure of discernment. For those like Cardinals, Popes and Bishops who you expect to be real Masters of the Spiritual Life you should really expect themt to be masters of Discernment too. Not so. It is as if I was walking up an Irish Mountain and met someone with a surf board and Bermuda shorts; I would know at once he shouldn't be there. That he/she was the wrong person in the wrong place. This rarely seemed to ever happen. In fact the badder you were the further you seemed to rise. Talk about the, 'Good the Bad and the Ugly'.
"They" are not aiming for any particular Pope to bring down; they are aiming now and have always been aiming to bring down the papacy and therefore the bulwark of this earth's connection to the Creator God. They wish to obliterate any remnant of faith in the public square that would interfere with their planned Godless society because they consider themselves gods w/ therefore no need of any moral standard based on the Truth since they follow the father of lies, consciously or unconsciously after losing their reason. The person of the time at the top is for them only the mechanism for such ruin....and having one who is more easily suited for their purposes is when "they" go in for the "kill" of the whole thing. Many decades of working on this since "they" never stop while we have let ourselves weaken and rot from within w/o much push back.
Russian Orthodox Church cuts ties with Constantinople over Ukraine Image copyright AFP Image caption Patriarch Kirill (l) recently met the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, (r) and other Orthodox priests in Istanbul The Russian Orthodox Church has effectively cut diplomatic relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has authority over the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. It follows signs that Constantinople's Patriarch Bartholomew will recognise Ukraine's Church as independent from Moscow Patriarch, Kirill. Many Ukrainian Christians reject Kirill's perceived support for Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin says it will not interfere. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the reports of an impending split alarming, adding: "Of course for Moscow and indeed for the entire Orthodox world the single preferable scenario is the preservation of unity of this Orthodox world." Russia sees Kiev as the historic cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox church has long held sway over the church in Ukraine, but breakaway churches were set up during Ukraine's brief independence after the fall of the Russian empire and again after communism collapsed in 1991. Russian Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida said the ruling body, the Holy Synod, had decided to suspend participation in all structures chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It will cease all joint services and Patriarch Kirill will stop mentioning the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in his prayers, the Synod's decision says. Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Russian Church's foreign relations department, described it as "a breakdown of relations". "To take an example from secular life, the decision is roughly equivalent to cutting diplomatic ties," he was quoted by Ria news agency as saying.
“The Lord told us that the Church would always be suffering, in different ways, until the end of the world. […] As for the news that we can discover today (in this Third Secret of the Fatima message), there is also the fact that not only are the Pope and the Church attacked from outside, but the sufferings of the Church come from interior of the Church, from the sin that exists in the Church. This too has always been known, but today we see it in a truly terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from outside enemies, but arises from sin in the Church." —Pope Benedict XVI, on the flight back to Rome from Fatima on May 11, 2010, cited by Archbishop Georg Gänswein yesterday in Rome, during a presentation of the book by Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option, which he said caused him to recall the words of Pope Benedict on that occasion
Again, though we may suspect, by all appearances, Francis is our Pope. Benedict himself has confirmed this. This is the Church founded by Christ. He wants everyone saved, and is not going to have a secret Pope in hiding, letting people assume what is not true, leading millions to side with a false Pope, and be out of communion with Rome. It is for similar reasons that I can't side with the sedevantist views which claim all kinds of weird and hidden things. I understand *why* many feel the way they do. I really wish Francis was not the Pope, too. But while he does seem to have been validly elected, though clearly not the Holy Spirit's choice, I think it is safe to say, tentatively, that the man is likely a heretic. And will do and is doing horrible damage. Sadly, this does not make him not the Pope. Just a terrible one who needs our prayers, decades, sacrifices, and help.
I understand the above. And can relate to why someone would think it. It is possible. But we can't know yet. At the very least, we can say that anything Francis says, writes, puts out there, or declares which contradicts the Church is certainly void. This has been touched on by EWTN, Sensus Fidelium, and various priests, bloggers, and thinkers. And lay people. Francis is a likely formal heretic. But time will tell. It is more likely to me that Francis is our Pope, but should be prayed for rather than heeded. Maybe the whole conclave was a sham and is invalid. But is seems more likely to me that this is Prophecy unfolding. Edit: this is a good time to remember that our faith is in Christ, not men. An over emphasis on the hierarchy can lead to worry, conspiracy theories, dismay, schism, and isolationism. That is not our end goal. Our end goal is to follow Christ.
It is always a huge mistake to tie a local Church to a State. This has all to do with Russian/ Ukrainian Nationalism and little to do with God. God is neither Russian nor Ukrainian. Everyone taking sides and exchanging insults; so sad.
Yes. I was really getting into Eastern Orthodoxy for some time. Thought they were the Church. Certainly a lot of holiness, wisdom, sanctity, and faith there, but things like this highlight that the union within Eastern Orthodoxy is kind of a myth. Nationalism is not the Church.
Yes when Martin Luther broke with Rome he thought everyone would do as he said. Big mistake. One break leads to another and another and another. Finally you are left with yourself and the two dogs. ..and the two dogs want to bite you.
