If this be not apostasy, what then?

An article at The Atlantic proudly reports that, "Congregations across the country increasingly accept, nurture, and even marry their gay brethren. Polls show majorities of major Christian denominations -- including American Catholics, despite their church's staunch opposition -- support legal gay marriage. Leaders of some of the most conservative sects, like the Southern Baptists, have moved away from the vitriolic rhetoric of yesteryear and toward a more compassionate tone. Mormons march in gay-pride parades. A sitting Republican senator, a Methodist from the heartland state of Ohio, says the question was settled for him by 'the Bible's overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we are all children of God.' A new pope says, 'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?'"  See here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/the-quiet-gay-rights-revolution-in-americas-churches/278646/

A militant homosexual propagandist proudly asks, "Is Pope Francis cracking down on Catholic homophobia?  See here:
http://queeringthechurch.com/2013/08/10/is-francis-cracking-down-on-catholic-homophobia/

And faithful Catholics are not supposed to be concerned?  A rising tide of militant atheism is sweeping rapidly across not just the United States but throughout the entire West and various other regions of the globe.  The "gay rights" revolution is nothing short of demonic.  The world indeed needs consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (see here:  http://protectthepope.com/?p=7925) but such a consecration must be accompanied by fidelity to Christ Jesus and His Word or it is a fraud.

Some years ago, Fr. Vincent Miceli warned that: "The West has divinized Security and Technocracy; the East, Science and Revolution. But in both camps atheistic humanism has become the State religion. And both of these systems of secular humanism eclipse the person, eliminate his freedom, deny his human-divine value and subject him to the tyranny of technological impersonalism. The alarming signs of the times testify to a fierce spirit of evil advancing everywhere. It is the spirit of rebellion against God and man. Hitherto the powers of government in each country, as yet relying on God and reason, were firm and vigorous enough to restrain this rebellion. But today many agnostic countries can barely contain that lawless spirit, while many others have actually legalized the principle of lawlessness itself, the principle of license masquerading as liberty.


We are reminded of St. Paul's warning to the Thessalonians. In the last days there will be an aweful, unparalleled outbreak of evil everywhere. This will be called the Great Apostasy. In the midst of this general falling away a certain Man of Sin, having the image of Satan and breathing hatred toward God and man, will appear. He will exercise frightening preternatural powers of destruction against the just. This Child of Perdition will be so special and singular an enemy of Christ that he will be called Antichrist. For just as types of Christ went before Jesus, heralding his coming, so shadows of Antichrist have already preceded him....

But compared to the final Antichrist all forerunners of him were so many mini-Antichrists. This Arch-Antichrist will orchestrate revolutions so expertly that the very framework of society will shatter into pieces under his wicked hand. In a stunningly evil way, he will knit together his totalitarian rule of heresy, sedition, revolution, schism, war - indeed of every evil movement - and hurl them effectively against the Church. Preceded by apostasy, conceived in apostasy, gestated in apostasy, born in apostasy, the Man of Sin will come to power through a General Apostasy. In other words, Antichrist could never have existed except for the decision of the majority of persons in East and West to apostatize from God and to join the forces of atheism.." (Essay entitled "Detente All Around: Prelude to Antichrist?").

Evil is indeed spreading everywhere. Men have grown weary of being men and are beginning to deny Christ more and more. Even in the Church, many are coming to accept homosexuality and abortion as good. Such persons, such enemies of Christ, may still use Christian jargon as they go through the motions of Christian worship, but at base they have opted for evil and radiate the spirit of Antichrist. More than a century ago, Cardinal John Henry Newman predicted the Desolate City which we find ourselves in today: "Surely there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it..."

Our own time is a fulfillment of the prophecy issued by St. Louis de Montfort in his Prayer for Missionaries: "Tempus faciendi, Domine, dissipaverunt legem tuam: it is time to act, O Lord, they have rejected your law. It is indeed time to fulfill your promise. Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your servants. The whole land is desolate, ungodliness reigns supreme, your sanctuary is desecrated and the abomination of desolation has even contaminated the holy place.." (PM, 5).

Not long ago, a Catholic priest who refused to distribute petitions against Washington's same-sex "marriage" law received a standing ovation from his congregation. In the same city [Seattle], a "Pastoral Life Coordinator" also refused to circulate the petitions and this week is essentially calling for the legalization of homosexual unions as a matter of justice and equality. And a prominent Catholic writer asserted that a homosexual man who lived with his male partner is his role model, is one of the Church's finest ornaments, and is "very likely" a saint.

In prophecy St. Montfort saw our troubled time, when so many souls - even those within the Church [if only in a bodily manner - see Lumen Gentium, 14] are deserting the Lord Jesus in their minds and hearts and assembling against Him. In his Prayer for Missionaries, the great marian saint writes: "Look, Lord God of hosts, the captains of war are forming companies, each with its full complement of soldiers; and potentates have recruited vast armies. The ship owners have whole fleets at their disposal. What a motley assembly of ungodly men! Thieves, drunkards, and profligates gather together every day under the flimsiest pretexts in order to oppose you! Blow a whistle, beat a drum, show the blunt point of a sword, promise a withered laurel branch as a reward, offer a piece of gold or silver; in short, a whiff of fame, a worthless reward, a vile beastly pleasure and, in the twinkling of an eye, along come the thieves, soldiers rally by batallions and merchants flock together. Gambling dens and market places are crammed full and the whole of land and sea is covered with an innumerable multitude of reprobates. These people, although at variance among themselves for reasons of distance, temperament or personal interest, are nevertheless all unanimously resolved to wage war to the death against you, under the banner and leadership of the devil." (PM, 27).

Today so many are selling out Christ and His Church as surely as Judas did for a worthless reward - for earthly fame, for what the world considers "power," or for material gain or for what Montfort referred to as "a vile beastly pleasure" - what so many today regard as "harmless fun and sex games."

A motley assembly is gathering, an unholy assembly which will form the Mystical Body of Antichrist in opposition to the Mystical Body of Christ.

There are some within the Church who would have you believe "all is well" and that we are not living in times of apostasy.  But the fruits of our culture are obvious to those who still pray and consecrate themselves to the Immaculata every day.

We are witnessing the denial of God's existence and this spirit of atheism is leading to the complete disintegration of morality.  Today, men want to be unchained from the shackles of religion, belief in God (or anything which has the character of coming from above) and a moral code.  Christianity (at least as we know it) must be destroyed to make way for a New Age of Aquarius, an age where God is dead - for no God translates into no right or wrong.

Romano Guardini, one of the greatest Catholic writers of his day and a man known and respected for his incredible intellect and profound spirituality, had this to say on the subject: "One day the Antichrist will come: a human being who introduces an order of things in which rebellion against God will attain its ultimate power. He will be filled with enlightenment and strength. The ultimate aim of all aims will be to prove that existence without Christ is possible - nay rather, that Christ is the enemy of existence, which can be fully realized only when all Christian values have been destroyed. His arguments will be so impressive, supportd by means of such tremendous power - violent and diplomatic, material and intellectual - that to reject them will result in almost insurmountable scandal, and everyone whose eyes are not opened by grace will be lost. Then it will be clear what the Christian essence really is: that which stems not from the world, but from the heart of God; victory of grace over the world; redemption of the world, for her true essence is not to be found in herself, but in God, from whom she has received it. When God becomes all in all, the world will finally burst into flower." - The Lord, p. 513.

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He intends to set up a false Christ and a false Church

The spirit of Judas

In my last post, I quoted from the highly-placed Masonic author who referred to himself as Nubius and who outlined the plans of Masonry for a Masonic Pope thoroughly imbued with the tenets of masonry.  An individual named Tim left a comment at this Blog saying, "Excuse my ignorance, but I was led to believe that the Pope (all Popes) were chosen by the Holy Spirit.  How does that fit with your post?"

Very easily, actually.  As an article written by Dr. Warren H. Carroll explains:

"There have been perhaps 30 or 40 Antipopes in the 2000-year history of the papacy.

An antipope is a person claiming to be Pope who was not duly elected or proclaimed while a duly elected Pope was still in office.

To begin with, it is vital to understand that there is no power on earth which may depose a Pope. Any duly elected Pope remains therefore in office until he dies or resigns (as has happened just seven times). Anyone, therefore, who claims to be Pope while a duly elected Pope is living and has not resigned is, ipso facto, an Antipope.

Papal election procedures are governed by the prescription of the last Pope who provided for them (that is, any Pope can change them, but they remain in effect until they are changed by a duly elected Pope).

During the first thousand years of the history of the Papacy the electors were the clergy of Rome (priests and deacons); during the second thousand years we have had the College of Cardinals.

But each Pope, having unlimited sovereign power as head of the Church, can prescribe any method for the election of his successor(s) that he chooses. These methods must then be followed in the next election after the death of the Pope who prescribed it, and thereafter until they are changed. A Papal claimant not following these methods is also an Antipope.

Since Antipopes by definition base their claims on defiance of proper Church authority, all have been harmful to the Church, though a few have later reformed after giving up their claims." (See: http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/ANTIPOPE.TXT

Not everyone is convinced of the legitimacy of this Pope's reign.  Writes one individual (in the comments section of my last Blog post):

"Upon Pope Benedict's resignation (by devious means on behalf of the Masons within the curia) the Keys were immediately given back to Saint Peter who is now under the command of God the Father. I have never seen a pope like this, ever. When Francis issued a sermon in May that Catholics and Atheists should meet on common ground 'doing good', the red flag was raised. He then cited the Gospel of Mark to reinforce his point. In this section of scripture John was telling Jesus that he and others had tried to stop a man in another town, who wasn't one of us, driving out a demon in Jesus' name. Jesus then said that John should not stop him because those who are not against Me must be for me. Jesus was not condoning Atheism, in fact, Pope Francis not only quoted scripture out of context but he twisted the truth of God's Holy word. We all need to pray for the pope and especially for The Church because it's under wicked attack from within. God bless you all."

The Third Secret of Fatima is largely believed to allude to a crisis of faith in the Church and to the manifestation of the Antichrist from within the Church.  He intends to set up a false Christ and a false Church which will last until the crisis is overcome by the faithful flock [the Remnant].  The defeat of the Man of Sin will coincide with the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  We have this from St. Louis de Montfort.

Already in 1957, before the Second Vatican Council - which this writer fully embraces - not the so-called "spirit" of Vatican II but the actual documents, Sister Lucy confided to Father Fuentes that, "The Most Blessed Virgin told me that the devil is in the process of engaging in a decisive battle with the Virgin...and since he knows what offends God the most and what will gain him the greatest number of souls in a short time, he is doing everything to win souls consecrated to God, for in this manner he leaves the field of souls undefended, and thus he will take them more easily."

Writing to another priest, Sister Lucy says, "I see by your letter that you are concerned over the confusion of our times.  It is sad indeed that so many persons should let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave that is sweeping the world and that they should be blinded to the point of being incapable of perceiving error!  Their chief fault is that they gave abandoned prayer; they have thus distanced themselves from God, and without God, everything fails them..."

Has ecclesiastical masonry infiltrated even the Vatican?  I believe so.  I believe that an individual who reaches the heights of the spiritual life will be seduced by Satan and will betray the Church like Judas seeking to pervert it from within.  Our times are growing very dark.  If you cannot perceive this, it is very likely that you cannot perceive it because you have abandoned the prayer life.

More to come...

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A new masonic Pope imbued with Italian and humanitarian principles to corrupt the Church from within?

Michael Brown over at Spirit Daily is carrying a link to a National Catholic Reporter article suggesting that a revolution has quietly begun at the Vatican.  See here.   For centuries the Freemasons have been working to infiltrate the Vatican and to install their own Pope while emphasizing a "social gospel."  


What is the "Social Gospel"? Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich was shown this secular humanism which would disguise itself as Christianity:


"...this church was born without a Saviour, good works without faith, the communion of the unbelieving with the appearance but not the reality of virtue; in a word, the anti-Church whose centre is malice, error, falsehood, hypocrisy, tepidity, and the cunning of all the demons of the period... Its mysteries are to have no mysteries and, consequently, its action is temporal, finite, full of pride and presumption, a teacher of evil clothed in specious raiment."

An authentic charity always places God first. We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that, "Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God" (1822).

Proponents of the Social Gospel attempt to reverse this order. They would have us put man first and God (if at all) after. For some 40 years now Catholics have been subjected to a watered-down Catholicism which seeks to replace many basic truths of the Faith with an emphasis on the temporal. It was Bishop Fulton John Sheen who said that the unrepentant sinner turns to 'social justice" to ease his conscience.
The results? In the words of Stephen Brady, President of Roman Catholic Faithful, "By direct promotion of, or by simply ignoring the use of the birth control pill by the faithful, the corrupt Hierarchy has purchased the souls of millions of Catholics who now live as unrepentant sinners. These compromised Catholics are, for the most part, the ones who are pro-choice, pro-homosexual, and represent the liberal wing of the Church that accept all the sinful innovations that have now found a home in the local parish. This sodomite sexual revolution, aided by the abortifacient pill, has brought on all of society's ills, including unchecked abortion, adultery, fornication, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, divorce, sexually transmitted disease like AIDS, and the complete breakdown of the family. This compromised morality, winked at by the Church Hierarchy, has brought about the corruption of every segment of society. The moral guidepost, known as the Catholic Church, has been so weakened by the current Church leadership, that any true moral guidance offered by a Bishop is now ignored."

We have seen this repeatedly. When a faithful Bishop or other member of the Church's hierarchy speaks out against sin, he almost inevitably receives criticism. Especially from the Main Stream Media. Recall what happened when Cardinal Francis Arinze spoke out against the evils of our day (abortion, contraception, sodomy etc) - all of which are destroying the family - in an address given at Georgetown University.

The Social Gospel is not the true Gospel of Christ. It is a counterfeit which has been constructed to pave the way for the Man of Sin. For centuries Freemasons have been working to infiltrate the Vatican and to defeat the Church from within by substituting the social "gospel" for the true Gospel of Christ Jesus (see Galatians 1: 8).

As I Noted in a previous post, "Many popes have warned (and most notably Pope Leo XIII) about the designs of Freemasonry.  It was Pope Leo XIII who warned that, "Freemasonry is the permanent personification of the Revolution; it constitutes a sort of society in reverse whose aim is to exercise an occult overlordship upon society as we know it, and whose sole raison d'etre consists in waging war against God and His Church." (Encyclical Letter On the 25th year of Our Pontificate, March 19, 1902).

Freemasons believe that the Catholic Church must fall apart and dissolve and that a secular, humanitarian religion must - and will - take its place - Freemasonry.  In his Encyclical Letter Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII emphasizes that the ultimate aim of Freemasonry "is to uproot completely the whole religious and political order of the world, which has been brought into existence by Christianity, and to replace it by another in harmony with their way of thinking.  This will mean that the foundation and the laws of the new structure of society will be drawn from pure Naturalism."

In a letter dated April 3, 1844, a high-ranking mason known as Nubius called to choose the Pontiff who must reign; and this Pontiff, like most of his contemporaries, will be more or less imbued with Italian and humanitarian principles that we will start placing in circulation.....Let the clergy move forward under your standard always believing they are advancing under the banner of the apostolic Keys.  Cast your net like Simon Bar Jonas; spread it to the bottom of sacristies, seminaries, and convents...we promise you a catch even more miraculous than his....You will have fished a revolution dressed in the Pope's triple crown and cape, carrying the cross and the flag, a revolution that will need only a small stimulus to set fire to the four corners of the earth." (Taken from Les infiltrations maconiques dans l'Eglise, by Father Emmanuel Barbier, p. 5).

This is the plan of ecclesiastical masonry - a corrupt pope who will lead his flock into the new kingdom of sin which will be presided over by the Son of Perdition, the very person of the Antichrist.

Commented to another highly-placed mason: "Now then, in order to ensure a pope in the required proportions, we must first of all prepare a generation worthy of the kingdom of which we dream...Cast aside the old and men of a mature age, go to the youth, and if possible, even to children....It is to the youth that we must go, it is the youth that we must lead, unperceived by them, under the flag of the secret societies...Once your reputation has been established....Such reputation will give your doctrine access to the young clergy and to convents.  In a few years, this clergy will naturally have invaded all functions; they will govern, administer, judge, form the Sovereign's council.


The NCR article states that, "Veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister recently observed, 'It cannot be an accident that after 120 days of his pontificate, Pope Francis has not yet spoken the words abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage,' adding that 'this silence of his is another of the factors that explain the benevolence of secular public opinion.'...

Yet Francis has imposed no such gag order on himself when it comes to other political topics, such as poverty, the environment and immigration. It's telling that for this first trip outside Rome, Francis chose the southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a major point of arrival for impoverished African and Middle Eastern immigrants seeking to reach Europe. The pope called for greater compassion for these migrants, chiding the world for a 'globalization of indifference.'"

Small wonder this Pope is receiving better press than Pope Benedict XVI  or even Pope John Paul II.  He hasn't offended the media elite with the "offensive" Gospel of Jesus Christ which points out sin and is therefore seen as "intolerant."  In fact, we have Pope Francis' assurance that he will not judge "gays."

Can the Man of Sin be far off?

Watch and pray.  Discern the times.  The persecution will intensify.

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Facebook does not consider hate-filled attacks on the Virgin Mary to constitute a violation of its standards

 

 

A website which exposes cases of Christianophobia is reporting that in July, an anti-Christian Facebook page stated that “Mary should have aborted”. The page was reported to the facebook service but they responded that this content does not violate community standards on hate speech.

 

The page shows a drawing of the virgin Mary who lifts up her dress and says, looking at her pregnant belly: "Fuck.” There are other insulting pictures, comics and statements on that facebook page, such as Mary saying: “It’s ok Joseph, I’m not a whore. The lord came upon me and I conceived.”; Joseph: “Yeah okay someone *came upon you* but I don’t think it was the lord.” This is “liked” by over 1900 people. A facebook user wrote to the facebook service to report that page. The answer was: “Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed THE PAGE you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it DOESN’T violate our community standard on hate speech.”

Our times are growing ever darker.  And even though Our Lady has provided us with a most efficacious spiritual weapon in the Holy Rosary, few Catholic priests today emphasize its power in driving out devils.  Pope Pius XII, in his Letter to the Master General of the Order of Friars Preachers (Novimus libenter) of July 11, 1957, noted that the Holy Rosary, whether recited in churches or in homes, is "very valuable in obtaining divine grace for us and in bringing about a reformation of Christian morals."

 

The Holy Father also stressed that, in his Encyclical Letter Ingruentium malorum, he strongly recommended the marian rosary to Christians of every human condition, "as if we had confidence - and we indeed do - that the most powerful Mother of God, implored by the voice of so many of her children, would in her goodness obtain from God that private and public morals might be restored more and more with each day, and that the Catholic religion, free everywhere from every and all possible unjust obstacles, might fulfill the role entrusted to it by God, and exercise its redemptive power not only in the soul of every citizen, but also in the very arteries of nations, with the result that the mutual duties and rights of all might be governed and applied in a right order, and that in this way concord and not division, charity and not hatred, the advancement of this peace and not the ruins of a new war, might rise."

 

Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Letter Ingravescentibus malis, assures us that, "...if in the intoxication of its pride our age pokes fun at the holy rosary and scornfully rejects it, there is a countless multitude of saints of every age and condition of life who have always held it dear.  They have recited it with great devotion and have had recourse to it at all times as a very powerful weapon to put demons to flight, to preserve integrity of life, to acquire virtue more easily, and to obtain peace among men..."

 

Our priests (for the most part) no longer emphasize the importance of the Holy Rosary.  And we wonder why we have no peace throughout our broken, angry culture.  And we wonder why dissent has spread like a cancer throughout the Church while so many - both priests and laity - have succumbed to immorality and every sort of vice.

 

I have tried in vain to promote the Holy Rosary as a spiritual remedy within my Diocese [Worcester, Mass]. This, no doubt, is why I am about as welcome as Andrew Dice Clay would be at a NOW meeting.  We have tried to convert our culture on our own power and with our own strength.  How far have we gotten?  Isn't it time to have recourse to Saint Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration and daily recitation of the Holy Rosary?

 

If not now, when? 

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A question for Pope Francis....

The Roman Catholic apostolate Courage, which assists those with a homosexual inclination to live authentically Catholic lives, embracing chastity, explains why it will not use the terms "gay" and "lesbian":

Q. Why doesn’t Courage use the terms “gay” and “lesbian”?



A. Courage discourages persons with same-sex attractions from labeling themselves “gay” and “lesbian” for the following reasons:


1) The secular world usually uses those terms to refer to someone who is either actively homosexual or intends to be. When a person decides to “come out” and say “I am gay” or “I am lesbian”, the person usually means “this is who I am – I was born this way and I intend to live this way. I have a right to find a same-sex partner with whom to have a romantic sexual relationship.” To “come out” as being “gay” or “lesbian” doesn’t usually mean “I have homosexual attractions and I have a deep commitment to living a chaste life”.


2) By labeling someone, we discourage those who may wish to try and move beyond homosexual attractions. Some people, especially young people, are able to further their psychosexual development with spiritual and psychological aid. If we labeled them “gay” and “lesbian”, they might think there’s no possibility of moving beyond these attractions.


3) There is more to a person than one’s sexual attractions. Even if one experienced same-sex attractions for most of one’s life, he or she is first and foremost a child of God created in His image. To refer to that person as “gay” or “lesbian” is a reductionist way of speaking about someone. We are even trying now to avoid using the term homosexual as a noun, or as an adjective directly describing the person (i.e. homosexual person). Although it takes more words, we prefer to speak of “persons with same-sex attractions”. Fr. Harvey has said that, if he could, he would rename his first book “The Homosexual Person” to something else like “The Person With Homosexual Attractions”.


There are people within the Catholic Church who might argue that those who label themselves “gay” or “lesbian” aren’t necessarily living unchastely. That’s true, but the implications of the terms in today’s society don’t commonly connote chaste living. Furthermore, they are limiting their own possibilities of growth by such self-labeling, and reducing their whole identity by defining themselves according to their sexual attractions. At Courage, we choose not to label people according to an inclination which, although psychologically understandable, is still objectively disordered.


See here: http://couragerc.net/FAQs.html

Courage refuses to use the words "gay" and "lesbian."  Why then does Pope Francis use the word "gay"?

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Ray Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester Diocese, puts his spin on Pope Francis' "gay clergy" comments

In an article entitled "Locals hail Pope's comments," published in the July 30th edition of the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, Ray Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester Diocese, referring to Pope Francis' comments recently on "gay priests," is quoted as having said that his comments didn't break new ground and that, "..there is nothing new there."

Mr. Delisle is being dishonest.  I addressed this fact in my last post: http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2013/07/pope-francis-quo-vadis.html 

Pope Francis' comments run contrary to the established teaching of the Church.  The 1961 Vatican Instruction on Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders stated that, "Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers."

And not just for them.  The fact remains that most of the abuse cases within the Church have been homosexual in nature.  Even conservative studies such as the John Jay Study put the figure around 82 percent.

According to Catholic doctrine (which Mr. Delisle probably could care less about), any disorderly tendency, and above all to a vice which is contrary to nature, cannot have a right of citizenship in a person's thoughts.  If someone in his mind makes a concession to such a tendency, he sins.  Therefore, it is not only homosexual acts which are sinful.  A person also sins when his external conduct is allowed to express a homosexual tendency.  See for example, Deuteronomy 22: 5 and Isaiah 3: 4-13).

Increasingly, the Church is being feminized and effeminized.  This is a great tragedy because, as Dr. Leon Podles explains, "Since men continue to want to be masculine, they will continue (unless there are major changes in the Church) to put a greater or lesser distance between themselves and the Church....Feminism and homosexual propaganda dominate the liberal churches, and both drive men even further away.  Apart from some groups of evangelical Protestants, whose commitment to Scripture has made them aware of the lack of men and led them to use tactics which have had at least initial effectiveness, all other varieties of Western Christianity are totally bent on expanding the role of women in the Church and choose to ignore the absence of the male laity....Catholic and mainline Protestant churches that cultivate a gay atmosphere...will keep heterosexual men away.  Fear of effeminacy is one of the strongest motivations in men who will sometimes die rather than appear effeminate....Christianity has within it the resources that allow it to appeal to men, to show that not only will Christianity not undermine their masculinity, but it will also fulfill and perfect it."

But the Church continues capitulate to the Cult of Softness.  And we wonder why vocations are drying up.  I cannot even apply for the priesthood in Worcester.  But the Diocese has ordained men who acted out homosexually or who committed acts of satanic pedophilia.

Rather than trying to cater to the homosexual elements within the Church, our Holy Father should be working to restore sound Catholic doctrine and pastoral practice.

Do we have to be a Church which caters to disorderly tendencies and a criminal subculture? 

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Pope Francis: Quo Vadis?

Fox News is reporting that, "Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip. 'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?' Francis asked.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten." (See here).

This is disturbing on many levels.  First of all, a homosexual man who identifies himself as "gay" is obviously not committed toward living a chaste life which homosexuals are called to (CCC, 2358, 2359).


Secondly, before entering into any state of life, a divine vocation is necessary. This because without such a vocation, it is difficult if not impossible to fulfil the obligations which pertain to that state and to obtain salvation. This is particularly true for the ministerial priesthood or any other ecclesiastical state. After all, it was Our Lord Who said: "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1).

Consequently, the man who takes holy orders without a call from God is convicted of theft in taking by force a dignity which God has not called him to and does not desire to bestow upon him. This is the teaching of Saint Paul:"Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was. So Christ also did not glorify Himself that He might be made a high priest; but he that said unto Him: Thou art My Son; this day I have begotten Thee." (Hebrews 5:4,5).

It matters not then how learned or prudent or holy a man may be. No man may place himself into the holy sanctuary unless he is first called and introduced to the same by Almighty God. Jesus Our Lord was certainly the most learned and holy among all men, full of grace and truth (John 1:14), the Son of Man in Whom were (and are) hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). And yet, Jesus required a divine call to assume the dignity of the priesthood. This is the teaching of the Council of Trent. That the Church regards the man who assumes the priesthood without a vocation not as a minister but as a robber: "Decernit sancta Synodus eos qui ea (ministeria) propria temeritate sibi sumunt, omnes, non Ecclesiae ministros, sed fures et latrones per ostium non ingressos habendos esse" (Session 23, cap. 4).

Those who seize the priesthood without a vocation may labor and toil exhaustively. But their labors will profit them very little before God. In fact, the very works which would be considered of much merit when performed by others will deserve chastisement for such souls. Because such men are not in conformity with the divine will, not having a vocation to the state of life which they have usurped, the Lord Jesus will not accept their toils: "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will not receive a gift of your hand" (Malachi 1:10).

Not only will God refuse the gifts of their hand, He will punish the works of the minister who has entered the sanctuary without being called; without a vocation:"What stranger soever cometh to it (the Tabernacle) shall be slain." (Numbers 1:51). Bearing all of this in mind, please read the following which first appeared in The Wanderer [I submitted it back in 2001] and may be found at the Faithfulvoice.com website:

On October 1, 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published an instruction entitled, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Pastoral Service for Homosexual Persons, signed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and approved by Pope John Paul II. In this Instruction, Cardinal Ratzinger writes, "It is necessary to point out that the particular inclination of a homosexual person, though not a sin in itself, nevertheless constitutes a more or less strong tendency to an intrinsically evil behavior from the moral standpoint. For this reason, the very inclination should be considered as objectively disordered." (No. 3).

This would appear to be especially significant since Canon 1040 of the Code of Canon Law states that: "Persons who are affected by a perpetual impediment, which is called an irregularity, or a simple impediment, are prevented from receiving orders." Now, irregularities arise either from defect (ex defectu) or from crime (ex delicto). It seems clear that a homosexual inclination, which Cardinal Ratzinger has referred to as "objectively disordered," constitutes an irregularity ex defectu. In fact, when asked by a Bishop if it is licit to confer priestly ordination to men with manifest homosexual tendencies, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments replied with a letter signed by Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez which stated that, "Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from the pastoral point of view, very risky. A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders."

What does Pope Francis mean when he says that he won't judge "gay priests"?  If Christians' love of neighbor is genuine, it not only permits but REQUIRES THEM both to 'hold fast to what is good' and to 'hate what is evil' (Romans 12:9)." And again, according to Dr. Grisez, "Vatican II neatly formulates the prohibition against judging others" 'God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts; for that reason, he forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone' (Gaudium et Spes, No. 28). This norm, however, does not preclude JUDGMENTS necessary for determining that one should try to dissuade others from committing sins or to encourage them to repent if they have sinned."

 Judging isn't always sinful. It is only sinful when we judge another's interior dispositions or internal guilt, when we judge their soul. But we are entirely free to judge words, ideas and actions which fail to hold up when placed in the Lumen Christi (Light of Christ).Sacred Scripture  makes this abundantly clear: "should you not judge those inside the Church"? (1 Corinthians 5:12), and again: "the saints will judge the world and angels" (1 Corinthians 6:2-3), and again: "the spiritual man judges all things" (1 Corinthians 2:15), and again: "Let prophets speak and the others judge" (1 Corinthians 14:29).

It should be obvious that not all judging is sinful. This is just common sense. Our legal system is structured in such a way that when a person commits a crime, he or she is tried before a judge and sentenced (judged) if found guilty. Likewise, it is our right (and duty) to judge words, ideas and actions which are not in conformity with the Gospels or which fail to conform to the Magisterial teaching of Christ's Church and to expose these as fallacious and/or sinful. In so doing, we are not rendering a judgment against a person. We are following the teaching of the great Saint Augustine (Bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church), who said: "Interficere errorem, diligere errantem" - kill the error, love the one who errs. This killing of what is sinful or erroneous is necessary if our charity - our love of neighbor - is to be genuine. Otherwise, our love is counterfeit. It is a fraud

Where is Pope Francis going with all of this?  This represents a real prayer need for the remnant Church.  See here.

Related reading here.

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