On the Validity of Pope Francis' Election & A Reflection on Rigidity

They also swear not to form groups to
intervene in the election. 

An article was published a few months ago on Bishop Rene Gradica's website. It's long, but well worth reading. Bishop Gracida prefaced the article with this:

John J. Aréchiga is known to me to be a researcher of exceptional ability. For some time I have read the results of his research and at my urging he has agreed to allow me to publish several of his essays. This essay addresses a matter of critical importance to the Roman Catholic Church at this moment in its history. I publish this essay in the hope that it will contribute to the efforts of persons in the Church in authority who have the power to find solutions to the problems that currently afflict the Church. 

+Rene Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi

Election of Pope Francis Pursuant to Universi Dominici Gregis 

By John J. Aréchiga 27 March 2017 

“My people have been a lost flock: their shepherds have caused them to go astray and have made them wander in the mountains. They have gone from the mountain to the hill: they have forgotten their resting place.” (Douay-Rheims translation, Old Testament, Jeremiah 50:6)

“According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they [i.e., Christian Faithful] have the right and even at 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, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.” (1983 CIC 212 §3)

The March 13, 2013, papal election of Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis) is arguably a high point in an ongoing MODERNIST conspiracy and this commentary will establish that Bergoglio’s (Pope Francis) papal election is invalid. 

Continued at Bishop Gracida's website....

Note the portion of the article that describes the conspiracy of the Sankt-Gallen Group to elect Bergoglio and the "shadow council" that met in Rome to manipulate the outcome on the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. We live in times when many Judases occupy high positions in the Church. I wonder how many have Masonic links. Did these men who were part of the group and also members of the College of Cardinals violate the oath of secrecy they took at the beginning of the papal conclave?

We must pray and fast for Holy Mother Church and continue to be faithful to her doctrines. And never mix up doctrine and discipline as Pope Francis so often does when he talks about rigidity. Without defining what he means by rigidity, Francis can easily confuse Catholics into believing that upholding doctrine is an example of "rigidity" that is sinful. He mentioned the loosening of the fast rules by Pope Pius XII in a December homily without saying it was a change in Church discipline not a doctrine. In fact, he treated discipline and doctrine as identical when he criticized the chief priests who said, "our discipline, our doctrine say this can’t be done!" The pope constantly confuses in this way when he speaks about rigidity as he did in his daily Mass homily on May 5th. He talked about St. Paul persecuting the Lord, "with the zeal of the law." Now from these statements would you not be led to believe that the law is bad and that the laws of discipline and the laws of doctrine are the same? If I were a poorly catechized Catholic, I certainly would. But they are not!

So what's the difference? Fr. John Hardon defines doctrine in his Catholic Dictionary as:

Any truth taught by the Church as necessary for acceptance by the faithful. The truth may be either formally revealed..., or a theological conclusion..., or part of the natural law....what makes it doctrine is that the Church authority teaches that it is to be believed. This teaching may be done either solemnly in ex cathedra pronouncements or ordinarily in the perennial exercise of the Church's magisterium or teaching authority. Dogmas are those doctrines which the Church proposes for belief as formally revealed by God.

We MUST BELIEVE the dogmas and doctrines of the Church which are God's laws.

Discipline, on the other hand, is an ecclesiastical law made by men:

An ordinance issued by legitimate authority in the Catholic Church. The legislators for the entire Church are the Roman Pontiff alone, or the Pope through the Roman Curia, or an ecumenical council together with the Pope; the bishops for their individual dioceses, or conferences of bishops for the territories under their jurisdiction....Every baptized person, even if one is not a professed Catholic, is subject to ecclesiastical laws except in such cases as are indicated in the law.

But these are Church laws that can be changed; not unchangeable doctrine or dogma. The rules for fasting fall under the category of Church discipline, the age of First Communion, etc. They can and have been changed. And, in fact, remember when the pharisees criticized the apostles for working on the Sabbath when they picked wheat kernels to eat? Jesus made it clear that the "Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath." The hundreds of rules relating to food and purifying utensils and beds and kettles were Jewish disciplines, not dogma.

The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, are dogma formally revealed by God to Moses. They cannot be changed. Jesus, in fact, was more rigid on them than the Pharisees. Remember when he told them that Moses allowed divorce because of the "hardness of your hearts?" He made it clear that God made marriage indissoluble and clearly stated that man may not divide what God has joined. He raised the bar on marriage to a more rigid standard.

In fact, Christ Himself was totally "rigid" on dogmatic truths. Remember when he said, "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matthew 5:17) Was Christ being rigid? Yes. Is being rigid about truth sinful or proof of mental illness? Of course not! We are called to be rigid when we proclaim the truth. Is a mathematician rigid when he says 2 + 2 = 4? 

So we must proclaim the truth; but we also are called to proclaim the truth in charity.  

We are called to build our houses on rigid rock, not shifting sand. If you are rigid on dogmatic truth, you are following the Master. You are like the martyrs who refused to burn a pinch of incense to false gods when threatened by tyrants. You are like the saints who refused to tickle ears to win followers through human respect. 

When you are called rigid for speaking the truth in love, have no fear. Shake the dust of the relativists from your feet and continue to embrace the dogma of the Church. And remember this saying which Pope Francis appears to have forgotten:

In essential things unity

In non-essential things freedom

In all things charity.