Yesterday I read Archbishop Vigano's letter to the pope. Like he did with the SSPX, Leo dissed the archbishop first agreeing to a private meeting and then changing his mind and refusing. Hmm...first thing I thought of was "Say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no."
Hypocrisy at the Vatican? Can you believe it? Or has that become the default position of many of our spiritual fathers? I personally wonder how many of the magisterium actually believe what the Church has taught for millennia. If they do, how can they abandon it so completely that they are ready to canonize a man I can only describe as a sexual predator, Bishop Alejandro Lbaka. What else can one call a priest who cavorted nude with young men and let them touch his genitals and bring about arousal? Is he going to be the patron of all the clergy sex predators who brought such scandal on the Church? Will his canonization be used to justify nudity and sexual play as natural?
One of Francis's worst moves was appointing a woman, a nun, to oversee all the religious congregations in the Church, both men and women. That was just one of his innovations, essentially changing canon law.
It is the responsibility of the clergy, not women religious or laity (neither men or women) to teach, GOVERN, and sanctify. Religious sisters and laity can cooperate in the work, but canon law prohibits their playing a juridical role. Check out this article:
Joseph Ratzinger in his book, Democracy in the Church: Possibilities and Limits, spoke of the "absolutely inadmissible de facto separation between the power of order and that of government" which relegates the sacraments to the "magical" and ecclesiastical jurisdiction "to the profane."
Archbishop Vigano also weighed in with a reality check about Pope Leo's early days.
It is normal and humanly understandable that more than a decade of open persecution of Catholics by the one who presented himself as their Pope would lead many of us to desire a truce, hoping that Our Lord would give His Church - if not a new Pius X - at least another Benedict XVI.
But this legitimate desire - certainly animated by good feelings and love for the Church - cannot transform itself into a virtual reality in which, even against all evidence, everything must necessarily be read as a confirmation of what we would like, and not of what is really happening. We cannot build for ourselves a "virtual church" with a "virtual papacy" that we love and serve in a consoling but unreal fiction.
The confirmation of a notorious heretic to the Cathedra of Saint Gallen in Switzerland; the appointment of a nun as Secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, in line with the appointment of a Prefectess by Bergoglio; the repeated references to the heretical documents of his predecessor and to Vatican II; the declarations on ecumenism and synodality, and finally the acceptance of climate fraud; all place Robert Francis Prevost in evident and disturbing continuity with his predecessor, and it will certainly not be the stole and mozzetta that will change reality.
Along with this, we have evidence of a new crackdown on the TLM (Traditional Latin Mass). In Charlotte, the bishop has banned the Mass of the Ages from all diocesan churches. He's relegated it to a Protestant church in Moorefields only two Sundays a month.
Steve Bannon interviewed Liz Yore about what's happening. Check out the interview here.
I couldn't help thinking of Antonio Gramsci as I listened to the interview. Gramsci developed a theory of Communism that replaced violent overthrow of western cultures with infiltration and the slow march through the institutions. If you're interested read more about Gramsci here.
It looks like enthusiasm over Pope Leo was premature. Let us pray for him, but have no illusions.
Don't hold your breath! This is their pathetic response in answer to the Pope's latest blasphemy against God:
WASHINGTON - In response to the Declaration “Fiducia supplicans” (FS) issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offered the following statement from its spokesperson, Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs.
“The Declaration issued today by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) articulated a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings, and pastoral blessings, which may be given to persons who desire God’s loving grace in their lives. The Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed, and this declaration affirms that, while also making an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings because each of us needs God’s healing love and mercy in our lives.”
Let's pray that more bishops act like brothers to this faithful priest of God!
Eleven years ago, on this very day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I had the honor of informing Msgr. Strickland-as I was then Apostolic Nuncio to the United States- that Benedict XVI had appointed him Bishop of Tyler.
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) September 14, 2023
The time has come to rediscover the sense of the… pic.twitter.com/egjsW3ET8x
Following up on my post about George Weigel's ugly attack on Archbishop Vigano, I offer this response to Weigel from the archbishop himself. As usual Archbishop Vigano is the voice of reason answering the spurious below-the-belt assaults from two men he apparently considered friends. Betrayal and again, betrayal! What an appropriate time for that to take place, eh? Jesus was betrayed and betrayed and betrayed! How painful it is when "friends" are the source of stab wounds. "Et tu, Roberto? Et tu, George?"
I'm printing the archbishop's response in full with my comments in red. Pray for Holy Mother Church. She has so few defenders these days. I have never liked neo-conservative warmonger George Weigel and never trusted him, but I did respect Roberto de Mattei and appreciated his book, Apologia for Tradition.
WHY TRUCKERS MATTER!
After years of this pontificate, we have all understood that the reasons given by Bergoglio for declining a meeting with a Prelate, a politician or a conservative intellectual do not apply to the molester Cardinal, the heretic Bishop, the abortionist politician, or the globalist intellectual. In short, there is a blatant difference in behavior, from which one can grasp the partiality and partisanship of Francis in favor of any ideology, thought, project, scientific, artistic or literary expression that is not Catholic. Anything that even only vaguely evokes anything Catholic seems to arouse in the tenant of Santa Marta an aversion that is disconcerting to say the least, if only in virtue of the Throne on which he is seated.
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| This man saved Spain from Communism. |
Franco won the Spanish Civil War against the Communist Left who have forever viciously attacked him and his memory, even to the point where Cancel Culture decided that Franco must not lie in peace - his dead body had to be dug up and laid to rest somewhere else out of the memory of the Spanish people whom "he saved from the worst fate that could befall any nation in the 20th century - conquest by Communism" and all its evil horrors.
"We must divest ourselves of the vilifying lies of the Left and their political poison. Franco was not a tyrant, not an oppressor, and certainly no totalitarian. He may have been too severe toward his enemies, but he never enslaved his own people. He had a cool head, great intelligence and formidable reserves of courage and will, a lion's heart and a cold-steel backbone. He thought war was a hateful business, was never a fascist nor had the smallest belief in any kind of Utopia or system." - Dr Warren Carroll, The Last Crusade
People like to label things. In a complicated world it's a kind of shorthand. For example, in religious terms we may label our affiliation saying: Archbishop Vigano has a message for all of us in the United States. It's time for intense prayer not for discouragement or for fear. Tell your beads tonight and have faith in God. Whatever happens, the gates of hell will never prevail against the God's truth. The integrity of the vote is in serious question. Many states took a three hour "pause" on election night and stopped counting the votes. Why? Were they looking for all those Biden ballots in the back room?
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| St. Ignatius is in mourning! |
Thank you, Bishop Strickland! A US Bishop Discovers the Traditional Latin MassCatholics are responding to the violence and vandalism of our time with love.
Catholics Gather for prayer vigil in Boston in front of Mary statue vandalized by arsonist
Catholics hold nightly prayer vigils at the statue of St. Louis IX
Every Good Friday between 12 noon and 3 p.m. I try to read Pierre Barbet's meditation on the Passion. Barbet was a surgeon who studied the wounds on the Shroud of Turin and wrote a book about his finding, A Doctor at Calvary.
