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Jorge Mario Bergoglio |
The statements of this "Pope" have been so outlandish and heretical that we have strongly suspected from early in his time on the Chair of Saint Peter that he is NOT an authentic and true successor to the rock upon which the Church was founded. Perhaps like some Popes in the past he is simply an apostate, an anti-Pope, or possibly he is not guided by the Holy Spirit because his election was
invalid from the outset. Whatever explains the apostasy at the highest level of the Church, we have been here before and still we have Christ's promise to remain with His Church until the end of time.
Catholics have the teaching of two great Popes who preceded Bergoglio, we have the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, faithful media like
EWTN, the lives of the saints, the timeless teachings of Holy Mother the Church and many of our Cardinals, bishops and priests who remain faithful, and of course we have Tradition and Scripture to serve as guide and protector against those who serve the Father of Lies.
Our longtime readers know that this website published virtually every homily, speech and reflection uttered by the holy Pope Benedict XVI. Unlike many in the Church, we cannot and will not pretend that there is any continuity between that
extraordinary pontificate and this one. For the last several years, we have thought it best to remain silent on this site regarding the tragedy that has befallen the Church, but silence is acquiescence and we will not acquiesce to falsehood.
We know, however corrupt its earthly leaders may be from time to time, the Church is both human and divine. The Mystical Body of Christ can be bloodied and soiled, but will never be severed from its true head. We will pray for our Church, for its faithful leaders, for a holy conclave, and for a true, faithful, holy successor to Saint Peter.
John-Henry Westen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of
LifeSiteNews.com has summed up the tragedy in the Vatican:
Confusing even the devout: the troubling statements of Pope Francis
By John-Henry Westen
June 3, 2016 (
LifeSiteNews)
– Two weeks ago the latest controversial interview with Pope Francis
hit the press, this time in France with the daily newspaper La Croix.
Contrary to the teaching of previous popes, such as Leo XIII in
Libertas and Pius XI in
Quas Primas,
Pope Francis said,
“States must be secular. Confessional states end badly. That goes
against the grain of History.” In the same interview, Francis suggested a
comparison between Christianity and Islamic adherents’ use of conquest
to impose their beliefs. “It is true that the idea of conquest is
inherent in the soul of Islam,” he said. “However, it is also possible
to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his
disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.”
The shocking statements reminded me of the very first leaked Q&A
with Pope Francis at the beginning of his papacy. It’s an interview
remembered most for the pope's admission that there is a “gay lobby”
inside the Vatican. Despite the fact that such explosive news would have
been huge for LifeSiteNews, you won’t find that first interview covered
on LifeSiteNews anywhere near the date of its release. I simply could
not believe it to be authentic or accurate – not because of the ‘gay
lobby’ comment – but because the Pope had spoken disparagingly about a
spiritual bouquet of rosaries he had received upon his election.
It concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of
these groups, and they said: “Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual
treasure: 3,525 rosaries.” Why don't they say, “we pray for you, we
ask...”, but this thing of counting... And these groups return to
practices and to disciplines that I lived through - not you, because you
are not old - to disciplines, to things that in that moment took place,
but not now, they do not exist today...
“There is no way,” I remember thinking to myself, “a Pope would ever
say anything slighting the rosary.” That aspect of the interview made me
question whether any of it was authentic. Thus, I resisted the
pressure to publish a story on the Pope’s remarks on the ‘gay lobby’ in
the Vatican. A few weeks later I was in Rome and finally got a chance
to ask someone in the know about the leaked interview. I was shocked to
hear: “of course it was true.” It was, I was told, the first example of a
new communications method employed by the Pope using different
channels.
That sense, of “there’s no way a pope could ever say such a thing,”
has resurfaced time and again over the last few years, and not only from
the Holy Father’s off-the-cuff and leaked interviews. Even in official
teachings such as his Angelus addresses and homilies at big events, Pope
Francis has shocked Catholic sensibilities. Such as the
Angelus of June 2, 2013,
where he spoke about Christ’s miracle of the multiplication of the
loaves and fishes as taking place by "sharing." “This is the miracle:
rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and
prayer,” he said.
He was even more explicit about it in July of last year in a
homily preached in Christ the Redeemer Square in Bolivia.
Pope Francis said, “This is how the miracle takes place. It is not
magic or sorcery. … Jesus managed to generate a current among his
followers: they all went on sharing what was their own, turning it into a
gift for the others; and that is how they all got to eat their fill.
Incredibly, food was left over: they collected it in seven baskets.”
There have been many of these jarring incidents. Here is a list of some of them:
- In July 2013 when a reporter asked why during his trip to Brazil he
failed to speak of abortion and homosexuality despite the fact that the
nation had just approved laws concerning these matters, the Pope replied:
“The Church has already spoken quite clearly on this. It was
unnecessary to return to it, just as I didn’t speak about cheating,
lying, or other matters on which the Church has a clear teaching!”
- In an October 2013 interview with La Repubblica,
Pope Francis was reported to have said: “The most serious of the evils
that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the
loneliness of the old… the most urgent problem that the Church is
facing.” In the same interview he said: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense,
it makes no sense.” And also: “I believe in God, not in a Catholic God,
there is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ,
his incarnation.”
- The November 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium
was similar to the Repubblica interview in that the Pope focuses on
“two great issues” that, he says, “will shape the future of humanity.”
“These issues are first, the inclusion of the poor in society, and
second, peace and social dialogue,” he wrote.
- In the 2014 book on Pope Francis, The Great Reformer,
we learn from papal biographer Austin Ivereigh that Tony Palmer, an
Anglican and long time friend of Pope Francis, spoke to then-Cardinal
Bergoglio about whether he should become Catholic. Mr. Palmer described
the then-Cardinal’s response as: “[Bergoglio] told me that we need to
have bridge-builders. He counseled me not to take the step because it
looked like I was choosing a side and I would cease to be a
bridge-builder.”
- In January of 2015 came the “don’t breed like rabbits” in-flight interview on
his return from Manila. Speaking of a woman he knows who was pregnant
with her eighth child after having the first seven by C-section, he said
he had “rebuked” her, saying, “But do you want to leave seven orphans?
That is to tempt God!” “That is an irresponsibility,” he added, “God
gives you methods to be responsible.” Pope Francis then said, “Some
think that, excuse me if I use that word, that in order to be good
Catholics we have to be like rabbits.” He added, “No. Responsible
parenthood!”
- In March 2015 came another interview with Repubblica
in which the Pope seemed to suggest no person could go to hell, but if
they fully rejected God they would be annihilated. The article says:
“What happens to that lost soul? Will it be punished? And how? The
response of Francis is distinct and clear: there is no punishment, but
the annihilation of that soul. All the others will participate in the
beatitude of living in the presence of the Father. The souls that are
annihilated will not take part in that banquet; with the death of the
body their journey is finished.”
- There was some controversy over Repubblica's Scalfari interview.
The Vatican would neither verify nor deny it in its specific parts, but
nevertheless published it in the Vatican newspaper, and on the Vatican
website. It was later deleted from the website, only to republish it
again, then delete it again. Vatican watchers compared the most
controversial part regarding the impossibility of people going to hell
for all eternity to the statement from the Pope’s latest exhortation Amoris Laetitia, in which he said, “No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!”
- In a February 2016 interview
with one of Italy’s most prominent dailies, Corriere Della Sera, Pope
Francis praised Italy’s leading proponent of abortion, Emma Bonino, as
one of the nation’s “forgotten greats,” comparing her to great
historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman. The Pope
praised her for her work with refugees from Africa. Bonino was famously
arrested for illegal abortions and then became a politician who has led
the fight for the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, homosexual
“marriage,” legalization of recreational drugs, graphic sex education,
and more.
- On February 18, 2016 on the papal plane returning from Mexico, the
Pope commented on Donald Trump during the Presidential Primaries. “A
person who only thinks about building walls, wherever they may be, and
not building bridges, is not Christian,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
In the same press scrum, the Pope said he would not comment on Italy’s
same-sex civil union legislation “because the pope is for everybody and
he can’t insert himself in the specific internal politics of a country.”
This small sampling gives enough reason why faithful Catholics who
love the Church and the Holy Father are concerned. They are so concerned
they are overcoming the natural reticence to criticize the actions of
the Pope – the Vicar of Christ on earth. With reverence and love, with
prayer and prudence—as well as the pain of children questioning their
father—they are beginning to speak with greater boldness, sensing that
the result of remaining silent about the current trajectory implies
acquiescence and even approval, which would only contribute to the
spreading ambiguities about the meaning of morality, faith and
salvation.