While Pope Benedict has openly stated that he was not forced to resign he could have and probably did make a judicious decision, knowing that he was the target for bringing down the papacy when the talk of his own years as Bishop in Germany began and the reports of that surfaced and hit the news. He already was witnessing his own loss of control of official papers from his own Vatican office being stolen and leaked to the media at the time that he was too weak to get control of things and so left that position for another, hopefully stronger, and w/o any "baggage" to "Alinsky" him.....for the survival of the papacy. Also one might interpret that "bishop dressed in white" whom the children at Fatima only "assumed" was the Pope (when our Lady, in other parts of the secrets, did mention by name another Pope in whose time greater trials would occur) really stood for the papacy itself which would be struck with missiles from afar.....world atheistic communism....as well as arrows from nearby or the enemy from within the Vatican itself....."Masonry" using both. I wonder then if the Pope we are asked to pray for in prophecy isn't the suffering and weak Benedict who while that "papacy" is being struck from all sides as he watches, in the end, when the fulness of the invasion occurs, will himself have to flee for his very life. And that "papacy" will be struggling up hill while stepping over the bodies of the faithful and martyrs of that time!!
I see the Holy Father suggested in a Homily a few days ago that the Devil is exposing Bishops sins in order to scandilse the Faithful and cause harm in the Church: https://www.dailywire.com/news/35730/pope-shocks-homily-attacks-great-accuser-satan-emily-zanotti “In these times, it seems like the ‘Great Accuser’ has been unchained and is attacking bishops. True, we are all sinners, we bishops. He tries to uncover the sins, so they are visible in order to scandalize the people. The ‘Great Accuser,’ as he himself says to God in the first chapter of the Book of Job, ‘roams the earth looking for someone to accuse,'” Pope Francis said, according to an official report in Vatican news.' So then it is not the fault of the Child Abusers and those who cover up for them. It is not the fault of rampant perverts. No, for they wanted to cover up their sins. Like good Bishops and Cardinals ourght to. No it is the fault of Satan for wanting us to know all about them. Bad old Satan. Must be a journalist in his spare time. I am trying to imagine the reaction on the forum if it was discovered that I was a child abuser, covered up child abuse or a notorious pervert and in my defense I said that the devil was exposing my sins in order to scandalise people and make me look bad. People would leave the forum so quick they would not even say bye bye. Why should cardinals be treated any differently? Why should the Faithful listen to this utter nonsense from this guy? It's just totally crazy. But it's the sheer total hypocrisy of the, 'Zero Tolerance' thing that gets me. The real Zero Tolerance is of anyone who tires to expose this awful filth.
This self-appointed privilege, this placing of a certain caste above the normal reach of the law, canonical and civil, is clericalism. There is an ironic truth in Pope Francis' statement which sought to blame the crisis on this phenomenon. The difference is that it is the clerics themselves who are engaging in it, not the 'gullible' laity.
There is great advice here... Reflections on Sexual Abuse Scandals by the Clergy August 14, 2018 | Luiz Sérgio Solimeo | http://www.tfp.org/reflections-on-sexual-abuse-scandals-by-the-clergy/ There is nothing as vile as using an office, position or situation of influence to oppress or abuse a weaker person. This is particularly true in the case of sexual abuse. Still worse are those acts that not only violate the laws of justice and charity but those of nature. This is especially horrible when the office or situation of influence is of a religious nature. Abuses That Fill One With Outrage and Deserve Utter Scorn Thus, no words can adequately express our rejection of the sexual abuse scandals by members of the Catholic clergy. They betrayed their sacred vows and sullied the sacrament received in their priestly ordinations. Above all, they gravely offended God and His Church by their acts. So many do not consider that these acts are supreme offenses when dealing with the matter. Repeated reports of sexual abuse by ecclesiastics understandably provoke legitimate and healthy outrage. However, this outrage must be expressed carefully and sensibly. We must take care not to use the occasion to denigrate the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the sacred vows, or the hierarchical structure of the Church. This is precisely what both the secular media and their liberal Catholic counterparts are doing. 10 Razones Por las Cuales el “Matrimonio” Homosexual es Dañino y tiene que Ser Desaprobado We should not forget that this crisis is just one aspect of a greater and most terrible crisis which, by Divine permission, the Church is undergoing, as She suffers from continual attacks from both Her internal and external enemies. Complexity of the Problem We must take the complexity of the problem into account. As Pope Leo XIII noted, the Church does not fear the truth, even when it comes to admitting weaknesses and scandals of Her human element. However, Our Lord told us to be as prudent as doves but also as clever as serpents. Thus, we must be very cautious in dealing with the facts of clerical abuse by avoiding two simplifications. One simplification is to refuse to admit that such abuses occur, which would be naïve. The other is to react in such a way that would favor those who use such scandals to change the Church’s structures and doctrine. Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise. We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weaknesses and strive to overcome them and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride, and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for them too. According to the expression attributed to Saint Augustine, we “hate the sin but love the sinner.” And to love the sinner, as the same Doctor of the Church explains, is to wish for him the best we can possibly desire for ourselves, namely, “that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm) How to Avoid Naiveté and Recklessness To avoid both naiveté and recklessness, we should consider several factors in the crisis. First, we can observe that such infamous cases also occur in so many other situations in a world that has lost its sense of morality, justice and charity. We must ask ourselves why the media generally only create an uproar when they are perpetrated by members of the Catholic clergy. Secondly, we need to point out the contradictory attitude of secularists and Catholic liberals in these cases. They usually are tolerant of the practice of homosexual vice, but become intolerant and demand punishment when the facts lamentably involve Catholic clergy. Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law Another important observation is that in the ongoing media uproar about clerical scandals, the secularists and Catholic liberals usually blame the Church’s hierarchical structure as the cause of these abominations. In so doing, they affirm or imply that by changing this structure and thus ending inequality, abuses would cease or would not have existed. It is obviously not true since such abuses also occur in Protestant churches, which long ago abolished the hierarchical ecclesiastical structure and established equality between faithful and shepherds. Hence, we perceive how careful we must be. We cannot manifest our legitimate outrage in a way that would favor an egalitarian mindset that deep down seeks to destroy the ecclesiastical order established by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Do Not Fall Into the Trap Thus, we must be alert to the risk of inadvertently joining those who are taking advantage of the moral decay of members of the hierarchy and clergy to destroy the sacred structures of Holy Mother Church. Science Confirms: Angels Took the House of Our Lady of Nazareth to Loreto We are not proposing that we stop reporting the facts or, even less, cease our outrage over the scandals. However, we must be aware that we are in the midst of a religious “war,” that is part and parcel of the Culture War. As a result, we must adopt a strategy that does not favor the adversaries, which consists of the internal and external enemies of the Church. The “Easy Formula”—Practice the Virtue of Prudence It would seem there is no easy formula to resolve the crisis. However, practicing the virtue of prudence is the true and “easy formula,” because it allows us to analyze the complexity of the current crisis, and deal with the problems with wisdom. In fact, the wise man always has his attention focused on the adversary’s maneuvers and hidden intentions. He knows how to avoid the risk of inadvertently cooperating with the enemy. He acts to prevent the adversary from executing his plans and secret designs. May our indignation be guided by prudence. Then it will be truly virtuous. Part of the definition of prudence is “recta ratio agibilium,” the right criterion of action. By doing this, prudence then guides us in the practice of the other moral virtues. Learn All About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times We must keep calm and confide, remembering that although Our Lord Jesus Christ seems to be asleep in the Bark of Peter without caring about the storm that appears ready to sink it, He is attentive and in due time will command the winds to cease and the sea to calm down (cf. Matt. 8:23-27). Let us ask the Blessed Mother, Seat of Wisdom, to help us act properly in the present circumstances. *** I posted this full article on this thread earlier today but here is a link to it again in case you missed it, The Sexual Abuse Scandals: Symptom of a Profound Crisis of Faith September 12, 2018 | Luiz Sérgio Solimeo | http://www.tfp.org/the-sexual-abuse...gn=TFP180914+-+Why+the+Church+is+in+a+crisis
The extraordinary notion that those who covered up the abuse and who abused are more important than the abused themselves because of , 'Scandal'. The arrogance of it is breathtaking. No hope at all of any real reform when a guy like this is in charge. It's plain to see he'll do what he absolutely has to and not a drop more. It's the sheer stark hypocrisy of it all that really gets me. He just really doesn't get it and the little he does get he just doesn't give a damn about.
I’ve never believed in the Malachy prophecy. It smacks of the occult rather than authentic private revelation. The whole purpose of supernatural revelations and miracles accompanying private revelation is to direct our actions towards salvation, not to offer us a glimpse of the future for the sake of offering us a glimpse of the future. There are other reasons to be suspicious of the Malacy prophecy: “First, while the prophecy is supposed to have been written down by Saint Malachy in the 12th century, it was never spoken of even once before it surprisingly appeared out of nowhere at the very end of the 16th century. For a prophecy that supposedly predicts the Apocalypse in great detail, that's an amazing fact! Would a true prophecy really go more than 400 years without being mentioned even a single time? I don't think so. Second, while the prophecy proves to be rather accurate about all the popes before the 16th century, it is extremely vague and inaccurate for the popes who came after. Basically what that means is this: The 'prophecy' was written at the end of the 16th century So, whoever originally wrote it could simply look at the history of who had been pope, and be extremely accurate up to his own day For the list of the popes who would come after, it was just an elaborate and imaginative prediction of what would happen..” https://lifeteen.com/blog/the-last-pope-ever-the-truth-about-the-st-malachy-prophecy/
Lisa Bourne from LifeSiteNews doesn't believe that the synod planned for February will address everything that needs to be addressed, Fri Sep 14, 2018 Pope’s sex abuse prevention summit won’t address protecting seminarians By Lisa Bourne And there is this, Fri Sep 14, 2018 Pope Francis warns that those who complain may be ‘punished by serpents’ By Doug Mainwaring And you probably have seen the following by now, Thu Sep 13, 2018 Smiling faces? Vatican releases photos of Pope meeting US bishops over abuse crisis By John-Henry Westen
The reasons you give are the reasons I've always been sceptical of its authenticity. I wouldn't have associated it with the occult - I thought it had more to do with trying to get the edge for some Bishop who wanted to be Pope at the time the prophecy was "discovered". It's cited more often by Protestants than Catholics. Also, I wouldn't pay much attention to anything Bishop Ganswain says. He's the same Bishop who made some silly statement to suggest that we could have a contemplative Pope and an active Pope at the same time. The cynic in me suspects that his being secretary to both Popes had something to do with his statement. Would you put the prophecy about the Catholic Monarch into the category of offering us a glimpse of the future, or does the fact that a number of saints have given similar prophecies direct our actions towards salvation? Many people interpret that prophecy to mean that the Catholic Monarch will lead some kind of re-enactment of the Crusades.
That's their shocked expression. Cardinal Farrell must have been giving them lessons in facial expression and body language.
In 2010 (!) Father Amorth made a simple, direct statement: "SATAN RESIDES IN THE VATICAN" At the time this may have sounded far-fetched to some. I believe time has proven him right. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wo.../Chief-exorcist-says-Devil-is-in-Vatican.html But the devil was somehow restrained (by good pope Benedict?). But the restrainer was removed. Now he is running the show.
Carol55: Pope Francis warns that those who complain may be "punished by serpents". He further warned, “Do not approach him and he will not bite you; but if you try to caress him because you [are] attracted to him as if he were a puppy, prepare yourself, he will destroy you.” Pope Francis seems to be reiterating his warning from his homily yesterday, implying that those who are critical of the hierarchy are being mindlessly lured to aligning themselves with the work of the devil, as if they were drawn to pet a cute puppy. This really speaks to a case of non compos mentis! Aren't there any sane persons living in that residence?? One has to wonder just what it was personally that caused him to seek out, not an expert within his Faith community for any troubling questions, but rather a Jewish psychiatrist....for some weeks.....that apparently was a help to his reason.
It seems that there is some confusion over my point about papal infallibility. Let me try again. In essence, we as Catholics know that a pope cannot teach error (in definitive acts) because he is protected from it by God. According to Vatican I "We teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals." CCC 890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms: 891 "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. . . . The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council.418 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed,"419 and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith."420 This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.421 However, 1. PF proclaimed that the Buenos Aires bishops' interpretation of Amoris Laetitia and his (PF's) response to it are now official magisterial documents. 2. PF said that the death penalty is now inadmissible and it is now official teaching of the Church. Both the above are in contradiction to the teachings of our faith which have been handed down through the ages. So if we have a pope who is indeed teaching error in definitive acts as above, the only possible explanation is that he is not truly the pope.
I have never even read of this on any website before, but if I remember correctly, you have mentioned it before. To be clear, I hold no such view at all and find it not worthy of any consideration. Here, I was referring to what I believe is a distinct possibility: that PBXVI is still the true pope.
It's a slight exaggeration / satire of some of the theories that Sedevacantist groups develop to explain who the alleged real Pope is, why Vatican II is invalid, and how and why only a few dozen people are currently truly in union with the Real Rome. Some theories literally get almost that bad. It's just too secretive, specific, and esoteric for me to take it seriously. Similarly, theories about Francis not being the true Pope can easily become similarly complicated, conspiratorial, and specific. Too specific. Once you begin to speculate along those lines, there's a thousand different ways the truth could go. It is easier to simply say that Francis is our Pope. A very bad Shepherd, but still the valid Pope. I get why anyone with their eyes open might wonder about at least some of the ideas you mention. But Christ is not going to trick millions of Catholics into accepting a false Pope while the real Pope is in hiding, and therefor essentially trick millions of good souls out of communion with Rome. This is His Church, and the simplest course of action, it seems, instead of trying to prove that Benedict is still the valid Pope, is to pray for the one (Francis) we have.
