It Just Doesn't Matter Anymore

Written by  Megaera Erinyes

Dear Miss Erinyes

I'm just wondering what your opinion is. Do you think that Francis really is pope? I cannot imagine the real pope doing and saying the things that Francis is doing and saying. Do you think that it is possible that the last conclave was rigged, making Francis' election illegitimate? - Fr. M

Dear Father, 

The truth is that I have no idea. I am not a canonist; I have no training in theology or Church history and have no special ability to discern between the various arguments now being commonly bruited about the internet. I can see that we have a very large problem, one in the person of Francis that seems to equal the horrifying problems in the world. He seems to me to be, indeed, an intrinsic part of those external problems, a product of them, one might even say.

Unfortunately, I also have no special knowledge, other than what can be found out on the internet, about what happened in the Vatican in the last 2 years. I know what I have seen, and what I have heard, and it is obviously going to go down in Church history (if there is going to be anyone to write such things down in what is left of our future) as one of our most dangerous and inexplicable periods. Other than that, I know what anyone knows; rumours and counter rumours. 

What I can see as a simple observer is that we are in a situation, with the Church and the world as a whole, that is apparently totally unprecedented in our long history. I hope you will forgive a long answer, since your question, as simple as it seems, encompasses quite a lot. 

I suppose it is possible, and has probably happened in the past, that a pope has been brought out of illicit elections who really is pope, and has gone on to do his duty as perfectly as any pope. I don't think that the nature of the election process is so crucial, though given our situation I can see why it is an attractive answer. We have a serious problem with Bergoglio, and it is one that an irregular election would solve, if it could be proved. What a relief it would be to simply shrug off his strange speeches by saying, “Oh, just more anti-pope talk.”  Tempting indeed. 

But I think there is a more generally useful answer that can be taken on board by any Catholic who still believes: If the pope is not a Catholic, and is pursuing goals contrary to those of Christ, does it matter if he is canonically an anti-pope? Does it matter if the election process was violated in this or that way? 

Since the Ascension of Our Lord, we Christians have been charged with the conversion of the whole world. I do not find it surprising that it has taken us 2000 years to accomplish this, particularly since at the time the charge was given we still had much of the world left to discover and were dependent upon others to invent things like sailing ships and oceanic navigational tools. Given distractions like the human love of making war and the Black Death, I find a time frame of two millennia to be fairly reasonable. But in the end, by the end of the 19th century or thereabouts, I think we have done as well as we could be expected to do.

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Francis and Kasper: The Modern Pharisees

Written by  Brian M. McCall

The dispute between the Pharisees and Our Lord is being misrepresented. It was the Pharisees through their technical distortion of the meaning of the words of the law that were advocating a minimalist compliance with the natural and divine law. In fact, Our Lord came to demand a more rigorous application of the Law and the Prophets.

Perhaps you have experienced a similar ad hominem attack as I have when simply stating or defending the very simple dogma on marriage that has been held by Catholics everywhere and always (at least before the gnostic oracle of Cardinal Kasper came on the scene). Marriage is the union between one man and one woman which bond is broken only by the death of one of the spouses. Our grandparents would have considered inconceivable that such a simple and basic statement could become the source of ridicule and persecution by fellow Catholics. Yet, utter this truth today and you are likely to be confronted with something like the following: “You are being like the Pharisees. Christ came to bring mercy and the Pharisees stubbornly held on to the letter of the law rather than embracing Christ’s new spirit of mercy. Like the Pharisees of old you obstinately are refusing the law of mercy Pope Francis seeks to promote.”

In reaction to the shocking mid-Synod report, Maria Madise, coordinator of Voice of the Family notes the same line of attack: “The Synod’s mid-way report will increase the incidence of faithful Catholics being labelled as ‘Pharisees’, simply for upholding Catholic teaching on sexual purity.” Like much of the pseudo-historical drivel being doctored up to support the jettisoning of natural and divine law (See Roberto de Mattei’s article on the abuse of the Council of Trent for an example here), such an attack completely misrepresents the real dispute between Our Lord and the Pharisees. This dispute was not between an overly rigid literalist interpretation of the law by the Pharisees and a lenient merciful more up-to-date spirit of the law interpretation by Our Savior. Rather, it was the exact opposite.

Inaccurately the dispute between the Pharisees and Our Lord is being misrepresented as a dispute between the rigid, legalistic, close-minded Pharisees clinging to the letter of the law whereas the merciful Savior liberally went beyond the letter of the law. Thus, those repeating the perennial proposition that a spouse engaging in marital acts with another person while his or her spouse still lives are objectively committing adultery (regardless of what human civil law calls it) and therefore cannot be admitted to a Sacrament of the Living, Holy Communion, are merely “Pharisees applying the strict letter of the law.”

“Francis and Kasper seek simply to extend the hand of mercy.” If we examine the testimony of Sacred Scripture (as confirmed by the Tradition of the Church) we find reality to be the exact opposite. It was in fact Our Lord who came to demand a more rigorous, not lax, application of the Law and the Prophets. It was the Pharisees through their technical distortion of the meaning of the words of the law that were advocating a minimalist compliance with the natural and divine law. As long as the letter of the law was fulfilled, they argued, we were justified. On the contrary our Lord came to call all Men to a more rigorous and perfect obedience to the law. We will examine the incident as reported by St. Matthew in which Our Lord clearly distinguishes His demand for rigor from the practice of the Pharisees.

Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. . . . For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:17-20)

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The Papal Trip to Korea: An Anguished Catholic’s Perspective

From the Remnant

In departing for Seoul, Pope Francis flew in a personal helicopter to a chartered jet embossed with a Vatican logo for the trip. During the flight an Alitalia crew provided first-class treatment to the Pope, who occupied “the first seat in business class with no one next to him,” and his large entourage. The service included a four-course Italian dinner: sparkling wine and salsiccie (diced sausage and olives), fresh cannelloni with ricotta cheese, rocket salad, Italian prosciutto ham and cantaloupe, and “a hearty beef stew.”  On arrival, the Pope walked down a long, red-carpeted airstair, and then a red carpet that appeared to be at least 200-feet-long, at the end of which he was greeted by leading South Korean dignitaries.

But then, at the end of the red carpet, Francis squeezed into the back seat of a Kia Soul, the kind of car a high school student might drive, provided upon his specific request for the “the smallest South Korean car during his visit” (that model is actually the second-smallest). This was supposed to demonstrate the Pope’s humility and frugality—after a chartered flight with first-class dining that must have cost more than a million dollars for the Pope and his entourage.

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Islam, the Pope, and the End of Christianity in the Middle East

by  Vincent Chiarello | Remnant Columnist

Full disclosure: for more than two years, I have written about the attempts by jihadi Muslims who wage "holy war against the infidel," in both Syria and Iraq, and who seek to destroy completely the remnants of the remaining Christian culture in those two countries. Recall that in Syria areas of remaining Christians still speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ, but they can no longer openly worship, and they are not alone. 

In the past two years or longer, the U.N. and other world bodies have stood idly by and done next to nothing to aid these people who are currently the targets of genocidal ragtag armies whose strength has increased over the past several years primarily due to the combination of indifference by the West, and strong financial support by other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

Christianity has not been so endangered as it is today in the Middle East since the time of the Crusades. But if the U.S., the U.N., and other world bodies appear reluctant to aid the embattled Christians, what can be said of the Vatican's efforts? The answer to that question is both perplexing and disturbing at the same time, for much of the information about the Christians' horrific plight has been noted on the Vatican website, Fides.

More than two years ago, a Greek Melchite Archimandrite (a prior of a monastery), Rev. Philip Tournyol Clos, described the perilous situation for Christians in Syria who, fearing for their lives, were fleeing to Lebanon. In June of 2012, Mother Agnes Miriam de la Croix, Mother Superior of the Carmelite Convent in Homs, Syria, provided additional details at a talk at a church in Rome. Part of her (recorded) talk included this: "I've lived in Syria since 1994 under the regime of Assad, in which there was an enviable security (for Christians), but also a social fabric in which there was a form of peace among the groups." It should be added that Mother Superior spoke in a Methodist church in Rome, for not one Catholic parish would receive her!(Emphasis mine) The Melkite priest and Mother Superior's descriptions were confirmed by the American journalist, Michael Carl, and Martin Janssen, a Dutch journalist and human rights analyst. 

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Crowd Pleasing

The Church in the UK was growing exponentially from the end of the war until 1965, measured by all indicators of Catholic health: baptisms were up year on year; Mass attendance, conversions, vocations and Catholic marriages likewise. This steady advance came to a grinding halt in 1965; a broad plateau then lasted until 1969, from whence it went into free fall, and this is where we have been ever since. When I became a Catholic sixty years ago there were three million people at Mass every Sunday in England and Wales, today there is around 600,000, of which a third are immigrants and two thirds of the remainder are heretics who could best be described as Roman Protestants.

Coincidentally, Vatican II closed it doors in 1965 and the Novus Ordo was imposed on the Church in 1969. Within a mere seven years of the latter novelty nearly half the priests in the world had resigned their ministry and three quarters of the laity had abandoned going to Mass. But all this is of course mere coincidence, it must be mere coincidence because neo-Catholics keep telling us it is so.

The tragedy is that the Church in this country did not whither on the vine, it was deliberately killed off by the corrupt modernist bureaucracy that has replaced our once great Catholic hierarchy. And with a man on the see of Peter who is clearly more interested in crowd pleasing than preaching the Catholic faith, our fortunes are unlikely to change any time soon. Among numerous mob-pleasing statements made by Pope Who-am- I-to-judge Francis, one of the most bizarre in my estimation was, "I believe in God, not in a Catholic God. There is no Catholic God...." Oh, really!

The Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Christ when He walked the earth 2000 years ago. It is called "Catholic" - meaning for all men and for all time - to distinguish it from the innumerable sects founded by men, that have none of the sacerdotal powers of Christ's Church, that have proliferated, especially over the last five hundred years. Christ was God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and His Church, i.e. the Catholic Church, is, so the Scriptures teaches, His body. Does God then have a Catholic body and a non-Catholic head? The Scriptures also teaches us that Christ is wedded to His Church, He is the bridegroom and she is His bride. Is it now an article of faith that this is a mixed marriage?