Last night I had a dream in which I was with a couple of laymen trying to save someone in the middle of immense and quickly rising flood waters. We were standing on some underwater wreckage in which this soul had been snagged.
It was like someone bid me to look over my shoulder. There was a bishop, alone, near us, but also impossibly too far away, standing in the midst of the strongest currents of the flood. He was in full regalia, head gear, cope (most extraordinarily embroidered), with well used crosier and gloves for this most solemn occasion of witnessing to Christ.
He was, despite the violent currents enveloping him in mere seconds, immovable, standing tall, with a face of determination, zero fear, never wavering, looking straight forward, though we were surely within the peripheral vision of his overseeing, his episcopacy. He was there to protect us in whatever way he could, though he surely knew he was presently laying down his life for his friends, from one second to the next.
As the waters immediately rose presently over his face…
I… was… aghast…
As the waters immediately rose presently over his face he was drowned without a struggle and, collapsing beneath the waters, was swept away, already dead, though alive in Christ Jesus.
I woke up at that point, of course… just… devastated… I saw his face clearly but I didn’t recognize him at all, perhaps because he was not necessarily any particular bishop, but rather a representative of any good shepherd being done in by the powers that be, by the powers that foment heresy, schism, apostasy, the flood vomited by Satan, the ancient serpent, the great dragon.
This bishop’s death was no sign of weakness, no sign of failure. Such stalwart followers of Jesus conquer by not running away, but by remaining to protect, to “oversee” those who also follow Jesus. Yet, it is heart wrenching to see a good bishop taken out, washed away, cancelled.
I recall another stalwart bishop:
He also was swept away in the flood of faithlessness and brought to a most violent death by the powers that be.
Perhaps I shouldn’t pay attention to dreams. But it kinda gutted me…
Do you see that bit of red in the circle-graph up on the screen? Those are the votes against blessings of mortal sin, that is, almost no one voted against mortal sin. All the rest of the votes are in favor of same-sex sex blessings and blessings for the divorced and “remarried” with no declaration of nullity and, effectively, blessings for whatever sin ever. This is to say that there is no sin, and therefore no redemption from sin, and therefore no salvation because there is nothing to be saved from. This is an attack on Jesus. It is to say Jesus is not divine, that Sacred Revelation is a lie, that we’re on our own. It’s to hate God, hate neighbor, hate oneself. What could go wrong? How violent could society become? See Romans chapter 1, all the way to the end, right into hell.
Is the faith democratic, therefore a lie? The method of synodality is itself heresy. We cannot reject the Living Truth of God to create “our own” truth, for “our own” truth apart from the Living Truth of God is UNtruth. A purposed lie is most violent: if sex isn’t for life in marriage it is immediately utilized for death. See Romans chapter 1, all the way to the end, right into hell.
Genesis 19:4-5 — “All the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.'”
The image of God is male/female/marriage/family, with the two becoming one not because any mere orgasm but one in their child, in whom, before God, they rejoice. That child is the least of the brethren, in the most dangerous place in the world, in the womb, the image of Jesus, who was in the womb for nine months. To vote for same-sex sex, or divorce and “remarriage” with no declaration of nullity is to attack the image of God, to attack God, to attack souls so as to bring them to hell. Is this not most malicious?
So, what will Pope Francis do about this? Most probably he’ll make some ambiguous statement, as always, you know, in great disappointment for not having waited, for having jumped the queue, for taking credit for change when – Hey! – Rome was going to lead the way. As we wait for his response, take a look at his defending those “in the devil’s gang” as he himself says:
And then Pope Francis is going to continue to penalize, persecute, mock and deride those “backwardists” who assist at the Traditional Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because, besides defending mortal sin with the devil, the most important thing ever is to attack Jesus whilst He hangs on the Cross for our Redemption and, please God, our salvation.
These people, seems to me, want to go to hell. Let them go. It’s too sad. But you stay in the Church. Say a prayer for their conversion. Say another prayer in thanksgiving for having been forgiven of sin that would bring you to hell, original sin and whatever personal sin. Say another prayer for final perseverance, that you might make it to heaven. Hail Mary… x3.
You think you’re entitled to leave (so as to sin, no doubt) because some filthy people chose to leave the Church? Compare yourself to Mary, who remained with Jesus in His Church, at the Cross, while Peter, the first Pope, denied Jesus, while Judas betrayed Jesus and committed suicide, while the apostles all fled Calvary. You suffered more than her? Nope. Stay with her. Be with John who came back. Jesus will see you there with His Mother. You’ll be with Jesus in paradise.
By the way, whatever “power” these likely-possessed-people think they have, they only speak for themselves. They are merely an auditorium of people, not the tens of millions of Catholics in Germany. The synod on synodality was always merely about bullying an already scripted outcome. If you start with the mortal sin of telling God the truth about the Living Truth He is, you’ll end where you started, in mortal sin. That’s surely very many laity, priests and bishops, but not all. If they declare themselves to be a new protestant church, that doesn’t mean that pious Catholics are protestants, it just means that they’ve been betrayed and now have a great opportunity to stand with Jesus in His trials. And I thank those who do stand with Jesus. They hold up the whole Church.
By the way, those few who voted against this? That’s just subterfuge, covering for the great lie, lending credibility to the system of shaking one’s fist at God: “We can vote about whether truth is truth or lies are truth, because we’re us and God is nothing.” That’s also heresy and, objectively, mortal sin.
Meanwhile, I hope the kids see through all the blah blah and continue to believe in Jesus and follow Him unreservedly. Let’s see, that’s 658 million views, 4.9 million likes and zero dislikes:
So, the vast majority of bishops and laity in Germany have voted to the effect that same-sex sex-acts are not sinful. And so they now offer deadly scandal which, of course, is taken up by those who very well otherwise could have been saved. Bishops and priests risk going to hell with the permanent, eternal character of the sacrament of Holy Orders on their souls, marking them special targets for punishment by the demons and all the rest who are there, but especially by those whom they scandalized.
Look, I’m no canonist, but it seems to me that direct, public, obstinate rejection of revealed doctrine and morality which has been taught not only in Sacred Revelation – with extreme clarity – but also believed and proclaimed by all men everywhere at all times – with extreme clarity – including entirely consistent interventions of the ordinary magisterium of the Church – with extreme clarity – an obstinate rejection about which they have been warned against doing… it seems to me that this places the vast majority of bishops and laity in Germany not only into the category of being heretics, but also makes them apostate, and, because a vast majority of the bishops are involved, also makes them schismatic, or are there canonical distinctions to be made? No matter! Hell fire is hell fire whatever it is that takes you there. One thing for sure, they are no longer Catholic. Taking note of the expressions of the kids at Fatima after they had just seen a vision of hell, I’m concluding that I don’t want to go to hell:
Same-sex sex-acts are a direct attack on the image of God spoken of in Genesis as male-female-marriage-family. This isn’t about brutal sexual activity. That’s just a vehicle, if you will, by which they do what they really want to do, and that’s all about mocking God. When sex isn’t about life in view of eternal life, it’s about death lurching toward eternal death. They mock the God of the living.
When reading through the Scriptures, we see that there were, here and there, shameful temple prostitutes, both female and male. Being naïve, we ask in shock: “How could that possibly have come about? We would never do that!”
It’s all about compromise and rationalizations, one after another, sinking one into the dark quagmire of no wisdom, no purity of heart, no agility of soul, no clarity of vision, no profundity of understanding. All gone. Lost. But with a vengeance, shaking one’s fist at God. And, yes, without the grace of God, anyone could do all of that and more. If we cannot say, “There but for the grace of God go I…” — if we cannot say that with honesty and integrity, looking at the risen but still wounded Christ Jesus in the Face, then we are already lost. Jesus is our Savior, not our aloofness (because, you know, we’re nice and don’t need to be saved by Jesus anyway).
Not getting that? Let’s re-assess: It’s not Germany alone. Look at Ireland. Completely annihilated regarding the faith. For a while, Ireland had a “tiger economy.” You know why? Because they murdered all their kids in the womb. They weren’t spending money on food and clothing, but on useless luxury. Because they stopped saying the Rosary in family on their knees daily. Because they stopped going to Confession. Because the vast majority of the priests and the bishops are homosexualismists, ideologues who in their fairy-ness brow-beat and bully those less compromised into being more the children of hell than they are. They went from about 95% Catholic and 95% Mass attendance to about nothing% and nothing%, in one generation. If it can happen in Ireland, it can happen here. Oh… wait… it’s happening…
Instead of encouragement to say the Rosary, what we get is damnable throwing up of all doctrine and morality into the air so as to “dialogue”. What a crock. Method is doctrine. Teaching and accepting the truth = good. Forbidding belief and rejecting the truth = heresy. One is life, one is death. The Greeks want to dialogue. Jesus’ response is that He must be crucified. That’s His dialogue. As the Master, so the disciple. Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire.
Aussie Mum writes her cri du cœur in a recent comment box which I’ve transferred here:
“For the past few weeks I haven’t had sufficient concentration to read much nor the strength to do much at all but have done my best today to read through this post regarding the papacy as it is very much on my mind. Like most everyone else who is troubled by Pope Francis’ words and actions I have no way of knowing if he is simply a bad pope or even if he is pope at all – only time will tell – but he certainly causes confusion and division. We can and should pray for him and for those he has led astray (those who believe and follow the heterodoxy he has encouraged and those others who have left the Church in disgust), and for us who remain that we do not fall into heresy or be led into schism.
“I am very concerned about the possibility of unintended schism by faithful Catholics. Servant of God Father John Hardon (1914-2000): ‘By the time of St. Jerome (342-420), the word (heresy) became fixed to designate a group cut off from the Church by reason of heterodox doctrine, as distinguished from schism which separated through disobedience to hierarchical authority’.
“Father, would you please consider doing a post on how to remain in union with the pope and avoid schism when one is not sure if the pope is the pope and when some (many?) in the hierarchy appear corrupt (heterodox and perhaps even apostate)? In other words, how do we go about obeying hierarchical authority in the present climate?”
Thank you, Aussie mum. Blessings upon you. Here are some succinct points of consideration. Perhaps you or our readers might have some others. I mean, I am weighed down by all of this, and many more things. Random and in no particular order whatsoever:
Be a little lamb of Jesus’ Little Flock. As one of our readers in Texas put it, something like: Run squealing with joy into the arms of our Heavenly Father. Yes, that is what we do as Jesus presents us a gift to our Heavenly Father; after all, our Heavenly Father so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to grab us, bring us to heaven, to do just that.
Be joyful to be under the maternal protection and maternal solicitude of the Immaculate, Virgin, Mother of God; it is this greatest of all women, greatest of all human beings, who brings us to Jesus by also being our Mother with her intercession under the Cross and right now, asking the Holy Spirit, her Divine Spouse, to sanctify as members of the very Body of Christ, Jesus the Head of the Body and we the members of that same one Body of Christ.
We are to keep us with the sacraments, being baptized, confirmed, keeping up regularly with Confession and the reception of Christ Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, our Eucharistic King, getting the Last Rites if we are in need… If bishops and priests are wimping out – cowards! – by refusing to provide the sacraments, at least we are regularly to make an act of perfect contrition (sorry to God for offending Him, instead of merely ourselves merely fearing the loss of heaven and our fearing the loss of hell) in conjunction with the intention to go to individual confession when this is possible, if ever.
Daily prayer, Rosary and devotions and – if possible – Adoration, which at least we have in our little parish. Don’t forget Kateri Tekakwitha who united herself throughout the day with Jesus wherever Holy Mass was being celebrated throughout the world, wherever He might be in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Don’t be entitled to the kind of anger that is not righteous but instead is merely our fallen cynical bitterness as rationalization for our own lack, you know, as in the attitude that so hates the actual person of Pope Francis or other Bergolianesque personages that we use them as an excuse to lose hope in being saved ourselves, recognizing ourselves to be weak, but then not turning to Jesus, but rather entrenching in our own rubbish, blaming them even while shaking our fists at God, shrieking that we would be faithful but all bets are off now that others present unfaithfulness to the church and the world. We’re never entitled to apostasy and schism. We are only entitled to look to the wounds of Jesus and know that He wants us with Him in His Church with His Mother.
Review that which is the unchangeable truth in, say, the canons of the Council of Trent, which we can find presented in felicitous format in, say, the Penny Catechism or any and all of the Baltimore Catechisms.
Review the lives of the saints even as did the soldier Ignatius on his convalescent bed of pain in monastery when a canon ball had hit his knee in battle. The “old man” Ignatius (fiery) became Saint Ignatius, now fiery with the ardent flames of love of the Holy Spirit. We need encouragement and we need to encourage each other.
On that note, I’m on the phone most of the day – hours and hours – with priests and laity looking for encouragement and providing encouragement. All times are difficult times as we always have our fallen human nature to deal with since Adam until the last man is conceived, but the green wood is now turning dry and we absolutely must support each other and help each other get to heaven. Eternity is eternity. We support each other as did groups of martyrs going to their deaths, singing the Te Deum in thanksgiving to God for the opportunity to suffer for the Name, singing hymns to dearest Mother Mary, happy, so happy to be the children of God.
We are to be full of gratitude for the sacraments that we have received – in other words, do a review of one’s life of sacraments! – rejoicing in pastoral solicitude of the Supreme Pastor, Christ Jesus, the Almighty, who crushes the evil coward pastors and pastors the flock Himself with the few faithful priests who run to His throne and to His dear Mother. Isn’t Jesus ever so good and kind? Yes, Jesus is very good, very kind.
In that thanksgiving, we are not to hold grudges against even the worst of sinners, no matter their position of influence or position in the Church, no matter how much objective sin they have committed, no matter how much scandal they have given, no matter how many (even by the hundreds of millions) they have even hotly desired that they be on their way to hell… you know… not to overlook all of that hell, but rather to ask Jesus that they be converted, which might reverse even quite a bit of the damage they have done. I want to put a caveat on that, however, with 1 John 5:16 – “If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is unto death, he is to pray and [God] will give him life. This is only for those sinning not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not speak about that, that he must pray.” – Praying for those whose (objective sin) is mortal, deadly, grievous, is a terrible burden. We are weak. We might pray for them. I do. But one must not be condemning them as if Jesus’ grace is not as powerful as their sin; that would be blasphemy. But one can simply refrain from praying for them. If one does pray for the terribly evil and corrupt (objectively speaking, right?), one must absolutely be keeping up with the sacraments and prayer, and do this with grace-given humility, and perhaps not only have a good confessor who might provide a brief word of encouragement even during the sacrament.
In keeping the mysteries of the Holy Rosary before us, thanking Jesus and Mary (not pretending to time travel but thanking them right now!) as those Hail Marys fly by, make it real: recognize, for instance, that Jesus chose all twelve apostles, one who betrayed Him and committed suicide, one who denied Him, all of whom ran away (thank God John came back to stand in solidarity with dearest Mary under the Cross).
Don’t run away from reality: “I don’t pay attention anymore because it depresses me! I’m an ostrich with my head in the sand!” Jesus severely reprimanded those of us who refuse with such malice to read the signs of the times. Jesus created us with reason and He graces us to have the fortitude to use it. If we have run so far away from God, have the humility to admit that for all of us, even me, even you (and that’s the hard part and why we run, right?), and then rejoice to rejoice that the Son of the Living God obeyed the Father to reach into our world just that far to grab us at great cost, so very much does He love us. Notice what’s going on. Bring that not to yourself with all subsequent frustration and despair, but to dearest Jesus, as a little lamb of His Little Flock.
As that little lamb, jump into Jesus’ arms as He carries us next to His Sacred Heart in the midst of the battle with the wolves, or as Jesus Himself puts it, with the vixens (the b****es). In other words, slightly diversely, “Don’t let the bas****s get you down.” :-) Jesus just says it like it is, as did his cousin John. Also, “Throw us not into the battle alone, but you (carrying us in your arms) deliver us in battle from the Evil One.” Yep. Not a bad prayer, that one, a deprecatory exorcism, you know, just to make a most literal persnickety translation. Don’t be doing imprecatory exorcisms wherein little you or little me command Satan when even Saint Michael did not do this, but rather, let’s also know our place, and simply ask God to put Satan down. This is not “less powerful”. Jesus does not despise the authority of His Church or the manner in which He Himself established the ministry of exorcism. Even if you’re a priest, you must have the direct express mandate of the bishop in order to directly address Satan. No, not even that pious little “prayer” which is actually a full blown exorcism. That too. And you. Don’t do it. Just humbly ask Jesus. Saint Michael is powerful not because he arrogantly bucks authority, but because of his humility. But this is a rabbit hole for most people. Don’t take the bait running down that hold. There will be a Serpent there. Just follow the authority of the Church. BTW, no one but no one has refuted what I’ve written in that post. They only disobeyed the Church and just got themselves into serious trouble for bucking the Church. I don’t know how many exorcisms I’ve been mandated by bishops to do right around the world because of arrogant people bucking the authority of the church on just this point.
Pray for priests. It is they who offer Holy Mass, provide absolution, Last Rites. We need priests who are believers, who go regularly to confession, who regularly provide the sacraments to those in need, who preach the immutable absolute unmanipulatable truth who Jesus is in season out of season, wanting to go heaven with Jesus’ Little Flock.
It’s a sin to allow oneself to take scandal. It’s a sin to despair. It’s a sin to leave the Church. We are to be crucified with Jesus in the Church. As the Master so the disciple. We must rejoice in the joy we have to rejoice in when we are privileged to be on the cross with Jesus in the very short time we have in this world before please God – being on way to heaven. And it is not a sin to hope to go to heaven! It is imperative to have that hope. And there is great joy in hope, which is also a present reality, founded in such as receiving an absolution (at least in the manner of an act of perfect description in the circumstances describe above) in receiving Holy Communion, as least “spiritually” if that is all that is possible, either because of persecution inside or from outside the Church.
Don’t ever think that it is legitimate to obey an evil edict, for what is evil is never a law. It is instead supreme obedience to obey the Canon Law of the Church, to obey natural law, to obey the commandments. It is not obedience to obey some bishop, even the bishop of Rome, who acts ULTRA VIRES , meaning, beyond one’s legitimate capacities. Those powers of office never include the right to command anyone to sin.
Know that those who arrogantly, viciously, maliciously, and with great hatred of God and man persevere in all that which is truly bad and evil, they will themselves run themselves into hell and want to be there, never going to heaven because they will never want to go to heaven, always entrenching in hell in ever more arrogance, viciousness, malice and hatred. Thank God that they will not be in heaven. I want to go heaven and I don’t want to have hell in heaven. I thank Jesus that there is a hell for the bad actors. I would rather they repent before they die. I can’t judge myself, but I think that by the grace of God I have repented of any rubbish I’ve committed in my life. I pray that I keep this repentance and enjoy the great grace of final perseverance, enduring to the end, singing in my soul the Te Deum and Marian hymns right to heaven. I hope. And that’s a great joy in all hope. I wish everyone had that hope and joy. But, that’s on them. Let’s not ourselves lose hope and joy because of them.
So, I’m repeating myself. Please add to the list in the comments box. I’ve written as fast as I can on my keyboard (which is quite fast). It’s what’s in my little heart. There is salvation in much counsel. תְשׁוּעָה בְּרֹב יוֹעֵץ (Proverbs 11:14) [That’s cited in deep red somewhat visible Hebrew cursive lettering in the header-picture of this blog, on the left, between the lightning and the feet of Jesus, above the words in white color]. In other words, help us out with how to get through the battle of heresy and immorality while avoiding apostasy and schism…
One last thing, to repeat: We’re never entitled to apostasy and schism. We are only entitled to look to the wounds of Jesus and know that He wants us with Him in His Church with His Mother. We are only entitled to look into her eyes and answer her: “Come, all you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering.” (Lamentations 1:12) Can you really tell her that you hate her Son’s Church and you hate that Jesus stayed with His Little Flock, suffering for them in the midst of the Church, He the Head of the Body and we the members… that we hate that, hate Him, hate ourselves, hate others, hate… her… dearest Mary?
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 