Well at least there is one good thing at least you understand the total horror of what has occurred. You are not blind to the full truth of how wicked this is. I have the uneasy feeling that some even very,very good, wise ,very holy learned Catholic folks who reject all this nonsense for the evil it is , still don't really get how bad this all is. They don't really get how bad things are. That the Gates of Hell have really opened up here.
I also am totally rattled. I'm trying to pull myself together to get ready for Christmas. My whole family of 12 adults and 10 children are coming. Today I remembered a holy missionary priest who used to visit my friends house saying the day will come when all we will have will be the rosary and the crucifix. We are now looking down the barrel of the gun and I feel totally not able for it. We got a new parish priest some months ago and he gave lovely sermons or so I thought. He had a scripture night recently on Advent and he quoted Pope Francis and Richard Roer extensively. I have had such a feeling of doom since. We also have a very saintly retired parish priest. He is there every morning praying before and after Mass. He says the weekday masses. I'll stay as long as he is there. God help us all.
Fr is in denial. I haven't read the document but James Martin is already blessing gay couples and over the moon about it. Something definitely doesn't add up.
Such confusion has only one source. We have Fr Mark Goring saying it's not as bad as people are making out. We have Fr Martin disco dancing to the news down at the YMCA. Diabolical disorientation at its worst.
I think this is true. Apparently during WW2 he told someone that he was more worried by the future of the church than the war itself.
The massive problem we have is that Catholic unity has always centred on one source the vicar of Christ. Now that we have a head who is confusing everyone he has created an utter mess in ten years. One pastor says one thing another pastor the opposite. Bishop against bishop, cardinal Vs cardinal. We are like sheep without shepherds there will only be fractional divisions and schisms. We have no visible point of unity. To whom shall we go you have the message of eternal life?
Letter of St. Athanasius to his flock May God console you! ...What saddens you ...is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises─but you have the apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle-the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...You are the ones who are happy: you who remain within the church by your faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your faith, beloved brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ. (Coll. selecta SS. Eccl. Patrum, Caillau and Guillou, Vol. 32, pp. 411-412)
St Francis of Assisi Prophecies, Great Schism and Tribulations in the Church “Francis, repair my church, which as you see is falling into ruins.” St Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 – 3 October 1226) St. Francis of Assisi had a gift of prophecy about a future Church crisis such as ours. He described a corrupt pontificate where Our Lord had placed a “non-canonically elected destroyer” into the visible seat. This prophecy, with Imprimatur, an official license by the Roman Catholic Church to print an ecclesiastical or religious book, is below: Act bravely, my Brethren; take courage, and trust in the Lord. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase. The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death. Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it. There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God. Then our Rule and manner of life will be violently opposed by some, and terrible trials will come upon us. Those who are found faithful will receive the crown of life; but woe to those who, trusting solely in their Order, shall fall into tepidity, for they will not be able to support the temptations permitted for the proving of the elect. Those who preserve their fervour and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth. But the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head [Jesus Christ], these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish [physically] rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy. Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer. St Francis of Assisi Prophecies cited in the above excerpt come from the “Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis Of Assisi“, Imprimatur, [London: R. Washbourne, 1882], pp. 248-250. https://www.virgosacrata.com/st-francis-of-assisi-prophecies.html
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM The Church's ultimate trial 675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.573 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth574 will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.575 676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,576 especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.577 677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.578 The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.579 God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.580 573 Cf. Lk 18:8; Mt 24:12. 574 Cf. Lk 21:12; Jn 15:19-20. 575 Cf. 2 Th 2:4-12; I Th 5:2-3; 2 Jn 7; I Jn 2:1 8, 22. 576 Cf. DS 3839. 577 Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, condemning the "false mysticism" of this "counterfeit of the redemption of the lowly"; cf. GS 20-21. 578 Cf. Rev 19:1-9. 579 Cf Rev 13:8; 20:7-10; 21:2-4. 580 Cf. Rev 20:12 2 Pt 3:12-13.
How's the storm now, AED? When all the lights go out, may the True Light within us supply us the hope and strength we need.
Father likely hasn't seen this from the Bishop of Hamilton (Ontario) Although it is from the "day before the big dump", it pretty much is self-explanatory. https://x.com/bishop_crosby/status/1736450259876815209?s=46 "our" Pope
I can not say with certainty that he was elected canonically. It’s hard for me to not connect the dots that St Francis was referring to this time, and this pontificate.
Thanks for asking. I am using data minutes. We have no internet or power. The whole state is under siege but our county got it the worst apparently. We are waiting for a propane delivery to get our generator up and running. I am looking at it as a mortification for Advent and trying to pray through it. Offering it as best I can. Others have it much worse. I am thankful for what we have. Our Woods stove keeps us warm and we can heat soup. You are so right about the true Light.
You're having it tough, Aed. May light come with the morn. I think many are facing some difficulty or other in the lead up to Christmas. Your response is the right one - trying to offer it up. Someone somewhere needs our suffering.
