A lot of Catholics are still wondering: What happened seven years ago on the 11th of February, 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI read out the Declaratio, which being with the Latin words, Non solum proper?
In appearances, all Hell broke loose. That’s what. The Cardinals, all of whom did not understand what the Pope had just read — some because they do not know Latin well enough and others because the act was full of nearly 40 errors in the Latin — nevertheless decided to exploit the aged pontiff and tell the world what they wanted it to mean, and perhaps what the pope thought it meant.
But in the Church, a juridical act has an objective meaning, whether the one writing it or the one reading it, thinks otherwise. And the Church has to act this way, because it has a 2000 year history of incompetence and corruption, overcome by sanity and reason and law. — Those who want it otherwise, are simply false apostles and pathological liars.
Canonically, what happened?
By renouncing the ministerium which was entrusted to him, but not the office, the munus, or the power of the office of Saint Peter, Pope Benedict XVI arguable postied a juridical act which was valid but which did NOT separate himself from the office of Being the Pope or Roman Pontiff.
However, by renouncing the petrine ministry, he withdrew consent from every juridical act which would be posted for the remaining of his lifetime and put the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia to a test, to see if they were loyal to Christ and Church Law or simply wanton careerists.
Whether Pope Benedict XVI intended this or not, that is the objective meaning of his act. — I won’t go into the fact that the Latin text actually says that he did this to excommunicate the College of Cardinals and liberate the Church from their corruption.
Canonically, what should have been the response?
True loyalty to a superior means serving him in fulfilling the legitimate and honest intentions he has in his acts of governance. This is especially true of the Roman Pontiff. And it is a mortal sin of great severity to obstruct the Roman Pontiff in such affairs. However, one can obstruct the will of the Roman Pontiff, not only by preventing him from doing what he wants, when it is legitimate, but by not correcting his proposed juridical acts which are defective.
On that fateful day of February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI — we can say now — had no friends or allies who were both competent in Latin and Canon Law and willing to help him. Some may have seen errors in the Latin, but did not understand the consequences. Some may have seen errors in the juridical form, but said nothing, because on the one hand they wanted him to resign and get out of their way, and on the other hand they hoped the latent error would one day defeat God’s enemies.
We may never know who was of which disposition, then, but we can know today. Every Catholic who has authentic and true loyalty to the institution of the Papacy is gravely bound to advocate that the passing of this august office from one man to the next be done in accord with the Will of Christ, which is the norm of Canon Law, which requires the renunciation of petrine munus. — In this grave duty, all the Cardinals and all the Bishops alive today are either so ignorant they do not realize the problem, or so incompetent they have not the moral virtue to move to solve it, or so venial that they want the problem to persist. In each case, they probably will go to Hell for all eternity, and drag hundreds of millions of souls with them UNLESS we who know what the problem is, and know how to fix it — through a special Council, after the manner of the Synod of Sutri in 1046 — advocate that this be done.
POPE BENEDICT XVI IS STILL GLORIOUSLY REIGNING
And it is a special grace of God to know this and recognize this. But as to whom more is given, more shall be asked, let us not repose in the gladness of knowing the truth, but realize the great responsibility we have before God and before the entire Church to preach this truth!
So do not let yourself get sucked into the narrative control machinery and flow of propaganda of invalid and illicit acts coming out of the Vatican, keep insisting with your sacred Pastors that Benedict is the Pope and that they will be damned for all eternity if they persist in rejecting the norm of Canon law and leading the flock entrusted to them into the sheepfold of a liar, heretic, usurper and Antichrist.
Finally, let us keep praying for the Holy Father, who is nearly 93 years old, and who, God willing, by the end of July will have been the oldest reigning Roman Pontiff in the last 1000 years and perhaps ever.
On thing that is not well reported in the English speaking world is that the doubts about the validity of Pope Benedict’s resignation did not emanate from conspiracy theorists working in their mothers’ basements, but were pronounced publicly by some of the highest members of the Catholic Hierarchy.
Having just republished our report on Archbishop Lenga, in which he expresses the same doubts — doubts which I did not take seriously in 2015 because I assumed the men in the Vatican could not be psychopathic liars — I want to feature here in English some of the things said by Archbishopi Negi, of Ferrara, Italy — now retired — on Benedict’s act of Feb. 11, 2013, from what has been reported in the Italian Press.
I also do this to let the Vatican Secretary of State know, that if you are going to ruff up Br. Bugnolo in the Piazza San Pietro, thinking you are going to discourage him, that he wants you to know that you have succeeded only in making him more of lion who will ever be on your heels.
Mons. Negri’s stunning admissions
His stunning comments were published in Rimini 2.0, an online Italian News Journal, on March 6, 2017, nearly 3 years ago.
In that interview, after being asked about his close friendship with Pope Benedict, the Franco Fregni asks him this question — which I here present first in the original Italian and then in my own English translation:
Visto questo rapporto, si è fatto un’opinione sul perché Benedetto abbia rinunciato al papato, un gesto clamoroso nella millenaria storia della Chiesa?
“Si è trattato di un gesto inaudito. Negli ultimi incontri l’ho visto infragilito fisicamente, ma lucidissimo nel pensiero. Ho poca conoscenza – per fortuna – dei fatti della Curia romana, ma sono certo che un giorno emergeranno gravi responsabilità dentro e fuori il Vaticano. Benedetto XVI ha subito pressioni enormi. Non è un caso che in America, anche sulla base di ciò che è stato pubblicato da Wikileaks, alcuni gruppi di cattolici abbiano chiesto al presidente Trump di aprire una commissione d’inchiesta per indagare se l’amministrazione di Barack Obama abbia esercitato pressioni su Benedetto. Resta per ora un mistero gravissimo, ma sono certo che le responsabilità verranno fuori. Si avvicina la mia personale “fine del mondo” e la prima domanda che rivolgerò a San Pietro sarà proprio su questa vicenda”.
My English translation:
In view of this friendship, have you formed an opinion on why Benedict renounced the papacy, a clamorous gesture in the millennial history of the Church?
Yes, it certainly was an unheard of gesture. In my last meetings with him, I saw him physically enfeebled, but most lucid in his thoughts. I have little knowledge — thankfully — of the inner workings of the Roman Curia, but I am certain that one day grave faults will emerge both inside and outside the Vatican. Benedict XVI suffered enormous pressures. It is not by chance that in America, even on the basis of what was published in Wikileaks, some groups of Catholics asked President Trump to open a commission of inquest to investigate if Barrack Obama’s administration exercised pressure on Benedict. For now, it remains a most grave mystery, but I am certain that those responsible will be exposed. My own “end of the world” is approaching and the first question that I will ask of Saint Peter will be precisely on this affair.
And Pope Benedict’s Mysterious Reply
To refute the testimony of the Archbishop, La Stampa, one of the major Marxist newspapers of Italy, quoted words attributed to Pope Benedict by the German Journalist, Peter Seewald, which make Benedict appear to be someone who was never manipulated by anyone and who was always in perfect control of the Curia prior to Feb. 2013. — Words which now have been discredited by multiple sources, including by Archbishop Viganò. But one phrase of Seewald’s words, attributed to Benedict does not settle so well on the side of those who claimed he resigned:
Se avessero provato a farlo non me ne sarei andato perché non bisogna lasciare quando si è sotto pressione
My English translation, according to the context of the whole passage:
If anyone had tried to (force me to resign), I would NOT have gone, because there is no need to leave, when one is under pressure.
Pope Benedict is a brilliant man. He knows how to spill the beans while convincing his enemies he is not doing anything of the kind.
I won’t point out here, that by resigning ministry, and not munus, as Canon 332 §2 requires for a valid papal resignation, Benedict did in fact remain, against all apparent pressures. QED.
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CREDITS: The Featured Image is a screen shot of the report from Rimini 2.0, used here in accord with fair use standards for editorial commentary.
Its far to late to keep pretending that Amoris Laetitia — officially interpreted by Bergoglio by means of a personal letter he sent to the Bishops of Argentina, and published in the Act Apostolica Sedes, as allowing communion for public sinners — is NOT a heretical document, and that its faithful adherents by now are NOT formal pertinacious heretics.
Those who keep up this pretense, even if they call themselves Traditional Catholics are nothing of the sort.
The Council of Trent is clear, in its 13th Session and 11th Canon:
CANON XI.: If any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burdened with mortal sin, howsoever contrite they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated.
If anyone thinks still that those who accept Amoris Laetitia do not deserve to be declared expelled from the Church, then they clearly are not Catholic, and are clearly opposing a sacrosanct, infallible Ecumenical Council on dogmatic and disciplinary measures which are valid until the end of time.
This Canon requires all of us who are Catholic to call Councils and Synods to condemn Bergoglio as a heretic and declare him and his collaborators outside of the Church. If you won’t act on that — I do not care who you are or what kind of threats you are under — you obviously do not have the faith which will save your soul. You are completely useless to Jesus Christ. This is a grave obligation for all Bishops. They will be damned if they go to their grave and not publicly call for such a Synod or Council. The salvation of all souls demands it.
So the next time someone tells you to “Recognize and Resist”, ask them when they decided to reject the teaching of the Council of Trent?
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CREDITS: The Featured Image is a fresco of the Council of Trent in the Palazzo del Buonconsiglio at Trent, Italy, which is used here in accord with a Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 unported licencse, as described here.
The Rev. Walter Covens has translated this article into French, here.
Tomorrow is the Feast of Bl. Anna-Katerina Emmerick, established by Pope John Paul II in the year of Our Lord 2003. In English, we spell her name, Ann Catherine Emmerich.
Origins, Childhood and the call of Grace
Anna-Katerina was born into a poor family of farmers in Germany, on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, in the year of 1774, at Flamschen, at Coesfeld, a small farming town in Westphalia, in the Diocese of Münster.
As a child she worked in the fields helping her parents and 9 brothers and sisters. As she grew, she went to work for a three year stint at a larger farm to earn money for her family. She then became a seamstress, for the same reasons. She had very little education, but from childhood was devoted to prayer.
Sensing the call to dedicate herself to Christ as one of His faithful virgins, she sought admission to several convents. In those years, Convents required that the prospective vocations bring with them the basic necessities of life and sometimes even money. This was called the convent dowry. Being poor she could not afford this, then, so she took a job with a nearby family, to earn the money necessary. And her charity was so great, that seeing the poverty of that family she helped them rather than saved money, and so delayed some years outside of the Convent.
Eventually, at the age of 28, along with one of the daughters of the same family, she was admitted to the Augustinian Nuns at Agnetenburg in Dülmen, in the same Diocese of Münster. Soon she would show, as many late vocations who persevered through many trials to arrive, exceptional virtue.
Virginity and Devotion, path to Sainthood
After a year of formation, she took her vows. — Back then, perpetual vows were made after only a year. It was a good practice for the sincere since it enabled them to have more certainly for their vocation and protected them from many doubts that turn many vocations away in the current system of 3 to 5 years of formation.
She was known for her strict observance of the Rule of the Convent, a thing which characterizes every Saint of the Church who was a monk or nun or friar. And soon, in reward for her true devotion to her duties as Christ’s virgin bride, she was graced with an exalted mystical life and frequent ecstasies. Her extreme penances and fasts also caused her to have poor health. And both circumstances made her the object of much misunderstanding from her fellow nuns.
In 1812, the godless Jerome Bonaparte, now King of the French puppet state of Westphalia dissolved the monasteries and seized the property of her convent. She was forced to take refuge with a local widow. To the left, you can see a picture of the house where she would live for nearly the next 12 years.
In 1815, the Lord Jesus gave her His stigmata — mystically produced wounds which replicated some of those which He endured for our salvation. Her wounds bled and remained on her body until 1818. Their miraculous nature and inexplicable duration was the cause of must astonishment among the doctors and scientists of the region, and remained a source of much controversy. She was written off by one local priest as a self-induced madwoman, because the shape of one of her wounds was that of the Cross in a local Church! At one point the hysteria about her wounds was such, that the Local Authorities detained her for 3 weeks under constant guard, and seeing that the wounds had no natural cause nor closed, let her go.
Mystical Life
Bl. Anna Katerina, in her sick bed.
In the Catholic Church, mysticism refers to the personal encounters of the soul with God and the Saints in extraordinary visible, audible or physical events. From her writings we know that Bl. Emmerich had visions of Jesus as a little girl and spoke with the souls in Purgatory. She was given the tremendous and very rare grace to behold the Most Holy Trinity under the form of an Angelic-iconic form, of 3 Circles, concentric about one another.
Of her visions, she best tried to describe them to Clemens Brentano as she could, so it is not surprising that some of her descriptions are very child-like or take from local lore and legend in an attempt to explain what she saw.
What most Catholics do not know, is that when Saints have visions they are nearly always things imaginary, audible or even physical produced by the Holy Angels who are sent to the Saints to help them understand divine things in a simple childlike manner. Not all saints understand what they see, because that is a separate grace and requires also some natural intelligence. And this is why Holy Mother Church is very cautious in proposing any credence to be given to visions of any kind, because they are very difficult to interpret, being caused by Angelic intelligences far beyond our own, intelligences which have a perfect knowledge of symbology and Scripture, which few of even the most learned theologians have an inkling of.
But her character and personal holiness demonstrated her credibility and soon she had acquired among her friends Father Clemens von Droest, future Archbishop of Cologne, and Johan Saller, Bishop of Ratisbon. Among her noble supporters were the Prince Archbishop, Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg of Regensburg, the Arch-Chancellor and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.
Author
Sketch of Anna Katerina as a Religious Sister.
Bl. Emmerick on account of her poor education was inspired by God to ask Clemens Brentano to write her visions down, when he visited her, after many years, in 1818. Attacked and vilified by all the enemies of the Blessed, Brentano fulfilled the task so faithfully that he has become ever since the object of scorn by all who wish to de-legitimize Anna-Katerina and the graces she was given by Jesus.
After 10 years of taking dictation and re-editing the material, he published in 1833, Bl. Emmerich’s monumental Life of Christ, entitled, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich. He then began her second book, but died before it could be completed. It was published ten years after his death in 1852, under the title, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Visions of Anna Catherine Emmerich.
Tomorrow will be the 1996th anniversary of the passing of Blessed Anna-Katerina to eternal glory, as she died on Feb. 9, 1824 in Dülmen, where her Convent had stood.
True Prophecies
Though the works of Bretano has been severely criticized and its authenticity attacked and discarded by many, the information related by Bl. Emmerich is without doubt prophetic.
The first such confirmation came in 1881, when Father Julien Gouyet, a French priest, believing in her visions, as transcribed by Brentano, rediscovered the House of Our Lady at Ephesus, using information related by Anna-Katerina. This ancient structure, which was venerated by Greek Christians in the earliest centuries, as the residence of Our Lady, when Saint John the Apostle preached at Ephesus, had been lost and forgotten for hundreds of years, with no trace of its exact location being know to scholars of that age.
Enemies Attack & are defeated
A reconstruction of what Anna-Katerina’s room looked like at the time of her death.
Her cause for beatification was begun in 1892, but was stopped in 1925 by the Vatican on account of the criticisms of Brentano’s work, which was believed to be more of his own production, than that of the Blessed. Subsequently, however, the Vatican laid aside his writings and began her process again, in 1973, based solely on her personal virtues and example.
The Congregation for the Saints approved the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession in July of 2003. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on the vigil of Saint Francis of Assisi, in 2004, 16 years to the date of the abominable idolatrous rituals in the Vatican, which she foresaw in part. — This seems to be an indication that the Pope had read her writings and put profound faith in what she had said about the coming war between the Church of Light and the Church of Darkness.
Her writings inspired Mel Gibson in his depiction of the Passion of the Christ, the movie.
God rewards Faith, Hope and Charity with prophecy
The great lesson of Bl. Anna-Katerina’s life is that God rewards his faithful servants with knowledge of divine and future things. He does this to console us, lead us to Heaven and help us know of troubles ahead here on Earth so that we can recognize them as such when they arrive. We are blessed if we accept them with the same simple faith that Bl. Emmerich had in receiving them.
It is in this childlike trust in her prophecies regarding Saint Mary Major’s, that Veri Catholici, the international Association of Catholics opposed to the St. Gallen Mafia, has sponsored the 40 Days of Prayer against the Church of Darkness, which FromRome.Info Video features every night at 11:52 PM Rome Time, on its video channel and with a post here at FromRome.Info.
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CREDITS: The image of the widow’s house is used in accord with a GNU Free license, and is take from this source. The Featured Image is used in accord with a Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 license and is taken from this source. — The sketch of the Blessed is by Thomas Jessen, used with permission granted, as stated here in this source. — The photo of the reconstruction of her room is in the public domain and is by Rabanus Flavus.
As a convert, one of the aspects of Catholicism that I find most appealing is the Communion of Saints. Here, awaiting only our willingness to read and learn, is a treasure-trove of inspiration and wisdom, both practical and intellectual. Coming from every conceivable background, the most humble fisherman to the high-born, the dregs of society to royalty, the saints teach us how to live virtuously, to receive and revere the Sacraments, to overcome the greatest of challenges, to pray and practice devotions: in short, how to get to Heaven — if we will but follow their example.
It would be hard to find a more compelling example of a holy and virtuous life than that set by St. Ivo1 of Kermartin, who is revered as a patron saint of lawyers and judges as well as abandoned children. Most everyone has heard of St. Thomas More, also a patron saint of lawyers, but St. Ivo seems to be lesser known. Ervoan “Ivo” Helori, meaning “son of Helor”, was born in 1253 at the Manor of Kermartin near the town of Treguiér in Brittany, in the northwest of France, to a “noble and virtuous” family. His parents chose to educate him at home rather than sending him to a monastery or convent school. At that time, of course, the “progressive” institution of public, secular schools, (deemed by Marx and Engels to be a key component of a model communist society),2did not yet exist in France.3
Saint Ivo went to the University of Paris in 1267 at age 14 to study the liberal arts and theology. According to Butler — whose account cites the evidence given in support of St. Ivo’s canonization as well as the Bull of canonization itself 4 — Ivo strongly desired to live a holy life, having been inspired from his childhood by his mother’s exhortations, and was repulsed by the hedonistic behavior of many classmates, devoting himself instead to his academic studies and to prayer. In his spare time he visited the sick at local hospitals. It was believed that Ivo’s example served to convince some of his fellows to reform their own ways. Following his years at Paris, Ivo moved on in 1277 to Orleans to study under two different clerics who later became bishops, one also being created Cardinal . Throughout his course of education, Ivo was noted both for his ability to learn and his piety.
By this time Ivo had established an ascetic way of life that would be unthinkable to most people today, when relatively few Catholics even know the fundamentals of the Faith, much less practice severe forms of self-discipline. He wore a hair shirt under his clothing, slept only sparingly, and then on straw or a mat, using a stone pillow. He strictly observed both Lent and Advent with bread and water fasts, as well as on vigils, ember days and other days during the year, and abstained from both meat and wine at all times. Privately, he took a vow of chastity, politely declining a number of offers of possible marriage without disclosing the real reason.
On completion of his course of study at Paris and Orleans, Ivo returned to Brittany where he was appointed to an ecclesiastical judgeship in the city of Rennes, on account of on minor orders he had received at Orleans. Wigmore points out that, at this point in history, the Church courts were the most advanced in Europe, having civil and criminal, as well as ecclesiastical, jurisdiction. Here Saint Ivo began in earnest his service to the poor, carefully protecting them from legal oppression, sometimes even representing indigent clients in other courts, paying their expenses, and visiting them in jail. His reputation as a judge among all parties was one of fairness and impartiality, and he would not accept the judicial bribes that were then common, nor did he ever accept fees for representation of the indigent. As a result of his actions, Ivo gained the informal appellation “Advocatus pauperum” (Advocate of the Poor).
St. Ivo, Defender of the Poor
Ordered by the Bishop of Treguier to return to his home diocese, 5 Ivo was ordained a priest over his initial objections in 1284. There, he proceeded to discharge the duties of that vocation just as virtuously and enthusiastically as he did his work in the law, often traveling throughout the diocese to preach at different parish churches, sometimes as many as seven times in a single day, with crowds sometimes following him from town to town. He arose nightly at midnight to pray the Office of Matins, and lay prostrate in prayer before the tabernacle before celebrating the Mass, at which he routinely shed tears of joy. His austere life style continued and even deepened during his priesthood, as he engaged in bread and water fasting several times per week year round, as well as throughout Advent and Lent as noted earlier. He continued his abstinence from meat and wine, celebrating high feast days by adding a couple of eggs to his regular spare vegetarian meals. Whether Saint Ivo ever took the habit of the Franciscan Third Order is disputed, according to Butler, with Gonzaga holding that he did so, but another ancient historian, Papebroke, denying that claim. Source.
On the legal side, he continued in the same capacity as at Rennes, advocating for the poor without remuneration when not serving as judge in his own court, and frequently prevailing upon litigating parties to settle their differences amicably. On one occasion, unable to convince a mother and her son to drop a particularly unpleasant legal dispute, Saint Ivo offered up a Mass for their reconciliation, whereupon they settled immediately. In another instance, Ivo saved a widow from being fleeced by two con-men, when he saw through their scheme and forced them to reveal their chicanery in open court.
In addition to his work before the bar and at the altar of the Holy Sacrifice, Ivo undertook to compile in one volume a record of all the various customary laws of Brittany, which was then “a welter of all sorts of unwritten and conflicting traditions as to tenure, dues, privileges, and the like.” Source. This book did not surface until about 20 years after St. Ivo’s death, but most likely proved quite useful to the legal profession and others for many years thereafter.
Saint Ivo died at the age of 49 on May 19, 1303, perhaps weakened by his hard work and severe fasting. His death was widely mourned in the region and throughout the country, with the cause for his canonization being championed by many, including John, Duke of Brittany, as well as King Philip and Queen Anne of France.
A commission was convened to examine the cause in 1330, which is reported to have heard a total of 800 witnesses: 500 at one sitting in the local church, and another 300 who were individually deposed.
Over 100 miracles were attested to by these witnesses, among which was the following account: A woman who lived in Treguier, after having discovered that her home had been robbed, prayed at the tomb of Ivo seeking his intercession. As she prayed, she heard Ivo’s voice speaking the names of three burglars. Two were apprehended and much of the missing property recovered; however, the third had apparently escaped. He, however, suddenly went blind and, believing he was being punished by God for his crime, returned to Treguier and gave back what he had stolen from the woman. His sight was instantly restored. This man himself was one of the individual witnesses before the commission.
Another miracle was attested by the Duke of Brittany, who averred that after praying for Ivo’s intercession, he had been cured of a “distemper” which his physicians had been unable to treat successfully.
The Relics of St. Ivo borne in procession at Tréguier, France
The evidence taken by the commission ultimately resulted in the canonization of St. Ivo by Pope Clement VI, on the anniversary of his passing to glory, May 19 in the year 1347. Although not recognized as a feast day by the universal Church, the date is celebrated by the several dioceses in the Brittany region, and the Saint is listed in the Martyrologium Romanum for May 19: “In Brittany, [in the year 1303,] the holy Priest and Confessor Yves, who for the love of Christ pled the cause of orphans, widows, and the poor.” (Source). In addition, the University of Nantes, in the south of Brittany, once placed itself under his patronage, and the chapel of Kermartin is named after him, as are two churches in Rome, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza and Sant’Ivo dei Bretoni. (Source.)
According to a 1991 article in the New York Times, local legend relates that the soul of St. Ivo approached the gates of Heaven along with a group of nuns. St. Peter asked the nuns to wait in Purgatory because there were already plenty of nuns in Heaven, but he told the Saint “You can enter immediately. We don’t yet have a single lawyer.” Another reported local saying about St. Ivo is “Advocatus sed non latro, res miranda populo,” or “A lawyer yet not a rascal, a thing that made the people wonder.”
The admiration shown by the people for Ivo has been shared also by many in the legal profession over the centuries, and even today brings lawyers and judges from around the world to the annual celebration of the Saint’s festival, the “pardon” (or pilgrimage) at Treguiers Cathedral, which contains an elaborate and beautiful cenotaph. (See photo below.) Visitors and locals also pay homage to the Saint at the church he endowed at the nearby suburb of Minihy, where his original tomb was located.
As stated earlier, the saints provide us with many types of wisdom and inspiration by their examples as well as their written works. Unfortunately, we have no written opus of St. Ivo from which to benefit, except for his compilation of Breton common law, which presumably did not also contain his own commentaries. What we do have, of course, is his sterling example of a life of service to his fellow man, as a priest, lawyer and judge. I daresay his virtuous conduct of these vocations would meet with universal approval today as well as in his own time, and well it should.
But perhaps an even more timely lesson might be drawn from St. Ivo’s ascetic life, with his frequent fasting and his lifelong abstinence from meat and alcohol. Indeed, his asceticism was so pervasive that it arguably shortened his earthly life, though it undoubtedly hastened his passage through purgatory and into the Divine Presence. In today’s society in which, even in the Church, worldly matters seem to take complete precedence over any concern for death, judgment, Heaven, and hell, a man who showed such disdain for creature comforts would be scorned and ridiculed. Of course, that is how most of the world today reacts to all faithful Christians, even those of us who do not engage in the strict disciplines followed by St. Ivo. But the lesson remains, which once was, and ought now to be, urgently taught in every Catholic home, school and parish: the present world is but a proving ground for the world to come, the new Heaven and the new Earth, the promise of Christ to all His faithful disciples. We are to live in this world but not be of this world. To lose sight of this is to lose sight of Christ Himself. Let us pray that our Church regains its bearings and returns to this first principle.
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FOOTNOTES
1 Or Ives, in English, or Yves, in French
2 Marx & Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chapter II, p. 27, Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1987, 2000, 2010.
3 Secular education at public expense became mandated in France in 1882 as a result of legislation advocated by Jules Ferry, then Prime Minister of the Republic, who helped to continue the French renunciation of its Catholic history begun by the Revolution of 1789.
4 Unfortunately, as of this writing the web archive of the Holy See includes only one document from the papacy of Clement VI, who canonized St. Ivo, and it is not the bull of canonization. Additionally, there seem to be no historical studies of the Saint extant in English. Thus, not being fluent in French, we are constrained to rely chiefly upon Butler’s and Wigmore’s narratives for most details of the saint’s life and canonization.
5 The diocese was suppressed and combined with another by the Concordat of 1802 between Napoleon and the Holy See.
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CREDITS: Rogier de Weyden, St. Ivo reading, in the National Gallery of Art, USA, is in the public domain (see here). — The Image of the procession is used under a GNU license (see here)
One of the greatest popes of all time, was born nearly 1000 years ago, in 1035 A. D., at Châtillon-sur-Marne, in the Kingdom of the Franks, to a noble family of knights and warriors who dominated that countryside.
Moved by the grace of God, in his youth, he forsook the easy life of a diocesan priest, with promises of being a local Bishop, and gave up this world and became a humble son of Saint Benedict, at the famous Monastery of Cluny, nearby. Cluny was one of the leading religious communities in the Church. Founded nearly a century ago by Saint William in the remote forests, it grew to be a great center of monastic life, on account of the zeal and devotion of its monks and that it was free from all Feudal obligations of tax, tithe and service.
So talented and devout was Odo de Lagery, that he was chosen Prior of Cluny some time before 1046 A.D., as I estimate it. And as such he received a guest that would forever change the history of the world. I speak of Saint Hildebrand
Hildebrand was an Italian. The son of a blacksmith in southern Tuscany. He had been a guest-student at the Benedictine Monastery of Tre Fontane in Rome, and had attached himself to the retinue of the man he thought was the pope, John Gratian, reigning under the name of Gregory VI However, at the Council of Sutri in 1046, Gratian was deposed for the crime of having obtained the papacy by simony. At the time his acolyte, was but 16 year of age, and so when he went into exile he took the young Hildebrand with him.
Gratian died shortly afterwards, and Hildebrand, finding himself in Burgundy sought out the Monks of Cluny for lodging, perhaps having nothing to live upon and no where to go, as the former acolyte of an Antipope. But Prior Odo took him in for several weeks. Whereupon he left and attached himself to a Bishop in Burgundy, who was close friends with the Monks of Cluny: Saint Bruno of Egisheim, Bishop of Toul, who at the Diet of Worms late in 1048 was elected as Pope Leo IX.
Years later, after battling against simony and the abuse of lay princes in nominating Bishops, Saint Hildebrand, himself was raised to the Apostolic Throne, in April of 1073, and took the name, Gregory VII: he went on to become one of the top 10 greatest popes in history, and certainly the greatest of the Middle Ages for his unswerving zeal for the liberty of the Church of Christ.
Seven years later, Gregory VII named Prior Odo, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, and in 1084 made him Apostolic Legate to the Holy Roman Empire. He was so trusted by Saint Hildebrand, that the Saint named him as one of the three men that should succeed him. Blessed Odo was the third, in that succession, and became Pope at Terracina, on March 12, 1088.
Pope Urban II
He took the name Urban II, recalling the Saint and Martyr by that name who reigned on the See of Peter at the beginning of the Third Century.
But Pope Urban II did not inherit a Church at peace, for in the strife which reigned between Pope Gregory VII and the German Emperor, the Emperor had descended to Rome in 1084 and set up the Antipope Clement III who had reigned there firmly ever since. So from day one, Bl. Urban II had to contend with an Anti-pope.
It is to be noted, that the mere fact that an Antipope controls Rome is NO OBSTACLE for the Church of Rome to elect a successor to the true Pope.
Many a man, and many a pope, would have run away or become so totally obsessed with the bad position in which he was in, as to take ineffective measured and let the Schism go on. But not Bl. Urban.
He traveled Italy — staying away from Rome — and held Councils at Amalfi, Troia and Benevento, condemning the Antipope and restoring ecclesiastical discipline with those Bishops who were favorable to true reform and renewal. Ancient canons were re-established, guilty clergy were punished and expelled. He assisted faithful Catholic nobility and clergy throughout Western Europe by sound counsel and decrees. He was ever open to holy suggestions.
The First Crusade
Upon the mountain of merits he had accumulated, God sent him the answer to his troubles which he never foresaw.
This answer began with a man called Peter the Hermit. It is not clear if he was a hermit or simply a priest of Northern Francis with that surname. Inspired by love of God he had traveled to the Holy Land on pilgrimage in 1093-4 and found himself in the spring of 1094 praying one midnight in the Holy Sepulcher, where Christ was buried and rose from the dead. There, he had a vision of Christ Crucified who commanded him to speak with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and call upon the Bishop of Rome to call upon the Men of the West to liberate the Holy Land from the cruel yoke of the Muslims under which it had labored for centuries but, very heavily in the last 60 years. Peter complied, and the Patriarch wrote the Catholic Bishop of Rome asking for help.
Peter met Bl. Urban at Bari, in Apulia, in the fall of 1094, and traveled with him to Piacenza, in northern Italy, in March 1095, where the Greek Orthodox Emperor of Constantinople renewed the call for military assistance. Bl. Urban had met his destiny and eagerly responded.
He went to Clermont, France, where he had summoned all the Bishops of the West, and on the 27th of November of 1095 gave a speech which changed the history of the world: for he called on the Catholic knights and noblemen present to lay down their arms against their brothers in the faith and take them up in a penitential pilgrimage to Jerusalem to free it from the infidel. — The crowds were so moved with fervor at his speech, that they shouted out DEUS VULT! God wills it.
Bl. Urban II died on July 29, 1099 A.D., fourteen days after the Catholic Forces of the First Crusade had captured Jerusalem, in a military venture which was so unexpected and miraculous that all historians since have spoken of it and tried to explain it. The Crusaders took the city because the True Pope had called them and promised them victory. And God granted it, because Urban II and not Clement III was His Vicar on Earth.
The First Crusade was followed by 9 others, and they forever changed Europe, because they opened the Catholic World up to the idea of bringing the Gospel to all the Earth and defending the rights of Christians everywhere against the forces of unbelief. For this reason, Bl. Urban is the most hated pope by all the enemies of the Church, inside and outside the Church. But should be the most beloved by all who truly love the true God.
Bl. Urban had the consolation in seeing his rival also driven from power in 1097. Because one of the many Crusader contingents, passing through Italy on the way to Jerusalem, drove the Antipope from Rome and re-established the authority of the true pope.
The moral of the story is, be generous with God and He will be generous with you. And all take heart and be of good cheer, because all the Providence of God is at the back of those who support the True Pope!
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CREDITS: The Featured Image is a photo of the Statue of Bl. Urban at the Place de la Victoire, Clermont-Ferrand, France, and is used here according to the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 unported license described here. — The sketch of Bl. Urban is by Artaud de Montor, see here for more info.
This is a follow-up report to my article on how the members of the Rampolla episcopal lineage were instrumental in helping Nazi war criminals escape to Argentina, and how the wealth and ideas they took with them might be at the foundation of the St. Gallen Mafia. Not all members of the St. Gallen Mafia are Rampolla men, but those who are not trace their lineages back to close friends, collaborators and allies of that Sicilian Cardinal.
Here I will list the Bishops and Cardinals in the German and Austrian Episcopates who were Nazi sympathizers or collaborators, so you can see that when Bergoglio denounces anyone as a Nazi, he probably does not mean it as an insult, but merely as political theatre. All of them are Rampolla men, or like the St. Gallen Mafia members, descendants of Rampolla allies.
Theodor Cardinal Innitzer , Archbishop of Vienna (1932-1955)
The first worthy of mention, is Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna, Austria, who on the occasion of the annexation of Austria by Hitler in 1938, he ordered the Catholic Churches of the city to display the Nazi flag and ring their bells to greet the Dictator upon his arrival in the City on March 14th of that year.
Needless to say, Cardinal Innizter was a member of the House of Rampolla del Tindaro, just like Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, since both trace their episcopal lineage back to the Sicilian Cardinal, by a direct line of principal consecrators. See the evidence here for Cardinal Innizter and here for Cardinal Bergoglio.
Cardinal Innitzer, however, by October of the same year of 1938, had turned against the Nazi Regime, when he saw what it really meant. But his act of ordering Nazi flags to fly lead many astray.
The next Nazi collaborator was Bishop Alois Hudal, whose co-consecrator was Bishop Ferdinand S. Pawlikowski, a Rampolla man. Historical sources also indicate that Hudal was promoted to Bishop by none other than Cardinal Merry del Val, a Rampolla man and close collaborator with Rampolla.
As I mentioned in my article on Nazi Refugees, Hudal was instrumental in organizing at least one Rat Line to help Nazis escape Germany after the War.
But what I did not mention, was that Hudal rose in power at the Vatican after key members of the Rampolla faction — Cardinal Gaspari to be specific — praised a book written by the Austrian Diplomat, Pastor, who was the patron of Hudal. This is the kind of indirect methods of influence and control for which the St. Gallen Mafia moved their members into key positions during the Pontificate of John Paul II — I speak of Cardinal Daneels.
So zealous was Hudal for Hitler than he attempted to get Austrian clergy to vote in favor of the Anschlaus of Austria, by inviting them to do it upon the German Heavy Cruiser, the Admiral Scheer, in the harbor of Gaeta, Italy, in April of 1938.
Bishop Hudal in 1937 published a book, whose title in English translates as, The Foundations of National Socialism, in which he praised the Nazi State and its vision for Germany but criticized elements of their ideology as a bad form of National Socialism. That Cardinal Innizter gave the book an Imprimatur, shows that Hudal was clearly the spokesman for the Rampolla pro Nazi faction. Hitler is said to have been impressed by the book, though he ordered it banned in Germany because it advocated that the education of Catholic boys be kept in the hands of the clergy.
Bishop Hudal, after the War was one of the chief organizers of Ratlines to help escaped war criminals. The evidence is quite devastating, so I will quote it from his Wikipedia article:
In 1994, Erich Priebke, a former SS Captain, told Italian journalist Emanuela Audisio, La Repubblica, that Hudal helped him reach Buenos Aires, verified by church historian Robert Graham, a Jesuit priest from the United States.[53]
In 1945, Hudal gave refuge to Otto Wächter.[54] From 1939 onward, as governor of the Cracow district, Wächter organized the persecution of the Jews and ordered the establishment of the Cracow Ghetto in 1941. Wächter is mentioned as one of the leading advocates in the General Government who were in favor of the Jewish extermination by gassing and as a member of the SS team who under Himmler‘s supervision and Odilo Globocnik‘s direction planned Operation Reinhard, the first phase of the Final Solution, leading to the death of more than 2,000,000 Polish Jews.[55] After the war, Wächter lived in a Roman monastery “as a monk”, under Hudal’s protection. Wächter died on 14 July 1949 in the Santo Spirito hospital in Rome.[56][57]
While his official status was minor, Hudal clearly played a role in the ratlines. In 1999, Italian researcher Matteo Sanfilippo revealed a letter drafted on 31 August 1948 by Bishop Hudal to Argentinian President Juan Perón, requesting 5,000 visas, 3,000 for German and 2,000 for Austrian “soldiers”.[58][59] In the letter, Hudal explained that these were not (Nazi) refugees, but anti-Communist fighters “whose wartime sacrifice” had saved Europe from Soviet domination.[15]
It cannot be ignored that Hudal had help in Argentina and that his chief efforts were to export Nazis to Argentina. Cardinal Bergoglio, it must be remembered, is the heir of the Rampolla faction in Argentina.
Bishop Franz Justus Rarkowski, Head of the Military Ordinate of the Third Reich
Finally, there is Bishop Franz Justus Rarkowski, a man promoted by Cardinal Gasparri, a close Rampolla ally and collaborator. Rarkowski was the Bishop chaplain of the Germany Army during the Second world war, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi State. Here are the exact words of the Bishop:
“The German Nation has a great duty to fulfill in the face of the Eternal Almighty. Abroad and at home the Fuehrer has thanked God that his plea for His blessing for our good and just cause was expressed more than once, and was understood. Certainly, other nations opposed to us pray to God and beg Him to grant them victory. God is, in the same manner, Father of all nations, but He is not, in the same manner, arbiter of justice and injustice, of honesty and mendacity. From reports of field chaplains who were with you on all fronts during the past year, I was able to observe how naturally and joyfully you participated in religious services and received the sacraments, not only immediately before battle, but also in the many months when the fronts were quiet. Your Christian faith was everywhere where you, as soldiers, often had to achieve the superhuman, and was a valuable part of your spiritual and moral equipment.”[4]
Rarkowski praised the annexation of Catholic Poland, whose Bishops were nearly all non Rampolla men. For Rarkowski it was a just war.
That war continues today against all Bishop who will not buckle under the St. Gallen Mafia regime, ruling the Vatican.
To get an idea of how much material from Nazi Germany made it to Argentina and was kept in Buenas Aires, see this video:
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CREDITS: The images are all in the public domain. The Featured Image shows Bishop Lugwig Sebastian, Bishop of Speyer and Bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser, Bishop of Trier, giving the Nazi Salute at an official celebration in Saarbruken City Hall, following the annexation of the Saarland. Neither are Rampolla men.
The student of the history of the Catholic Church cannot ignore the fact of its longevity. It is the only visible institution in the history of mankind to outlast every government and temporal power, and every other kind of institution — using the term properly — of mankind. Countless Empires, Kingdoms, Duchies, Principalities, Unions and Nations have come and gone, but the Catholic Church remains.
This truth is found also in regard to the Apostolic See: the institution of the Papacy.
A fisherman — we do not even know if he was literate — from Galilee one day drops his nets and follows Jesus’ call to be a fisher of men. He tramps around the dusty byways of Galilee for 3 years hearing Him preach and seeing Him work astounding miracles. And one day, after giving the right answer to a single question, he received in return, the promise of the an amazing office, and had his name changed, from Simon bar Jonah, to Cephas, the Rock — which is rendered in Latin, as “Peter”.
The meaning of this name has been variously explained by theologians and ecclesiastical writers for 2000 years, but, here I want to consider the effect of that name in history.
Because, if you read the history of the Church, you see that that Name also has a meaning: the Rock, against which every power which takes up its hand, has been broken and destroyed from history.
This fisherman, after many labors and wanderings, came to Rome, and probably was seen fishing along the Tiber, where the fish are wont to be seen, down near where the Via Conciliazione leads today. He preached Jesus and with another man, called Saul of Tarsus, but who changed his name to Paul, they founded the Catholic Church at Rome.
There was Nero, who put Saint Peter to death. But Nero was almost immediately murdered by his supporters.
There were 9 more persecutions in the Roman Empire, and every one failed to exterminate the Church at Rome. Each of the Emperors involved, was quickly removed from power by his enemies.
When the Roman Empire fell, the Church of Rome and its Pope remained. The entire inheritance, cultural and physical of the eternal city fell into the hands of the Church, in a historic irony the importance of which is not ignored by all historians of Rome. Even the chief title of the religious leader, the Bridge-builder, in Latin, Pontifex, was inherited by the successors of that Galilean fisherman.
The Lombards sought to subject the Pop to their authority in the 6th Century, but the Kingdom of the Lombards has passed into history. The Greek Emperors tried in the 7th and 8th centuries, and their Empire has long ago fallen. The German Emperors were rather unique in this that they often came to the help of the Apostolic See, when it was tossed hither and thither by the rival clans of Roman Nobility, all of which have passed into history.
In the Middle Ages, a King of France at the beginning of the fourteenth century, sent his thugs to beat the pope to death. And not only did he die shortly afterwards, his dynasty is extinct, and his Kingdom is no more.
In more recent centuries, the Kingdom of Piedmont — which renamed itself the Kingdom of Italy — attempted to exterminate the Papacy, but it too is no more. The very enemy of the Apostolic See, after little more than 70 years, was conquered by all the forces of the West, in the Second World War and the Dynasty which governed it remains still, in its male heirs, exiled from the Italian peninsula.
From this we can see, that the Apostolic See, the Office of Peter, is the Rock of history. It is a Rock like a shoal in the sea, where, if any man dare to chart a course against it, he is smashed and defeated.
For these reasons, we can be sure that we shall soon see the power of that gift which Our Lord gave to that Fisherman from Galilee. Those who attacked him over His book on Celibacy, will shortly see their entire project smashed.
It cannot be otherwise, because he alone is the True Peter, the true Rock of the Ages.
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CREDITS: The Featured Image if a photograph of Saint Peter’s Basilica, built over the spot where the Fisherman from Galilee was buried in 69 A. D.. It was taken by Br. Bugnolo.
The present Crisis in the Church, of having two popes, is not new in the Church. There have been more than a dozen such instances in Church history.
While nearly all of them included rivals which were supported by diverse factions of notable size (perhaps that of Benedict IX was not the case in 1046), yet they gave occasion for God to show us the way out of such crises by the example given to us by His Saints during those crises of ages past.
One such saint is Saint Vincent Ferrer. I have to admit, that of all the Saints of the Order of Preachers, he is my favorite, because he is such a stunning example of holiness and was so determined in the teaching of what it means to be holy.
Most Catholics, however, have no idea who he was. So let me tell you something about his life, and then show you how his example should be imitated by all Catholics right now.
So remarkable, many have thought he was a legend
Saint Vincent was born 670 years ago, on January 23, in the height of the Black Death.
The Catholic world was shaken to its core: millions were dying each month. It is estimated that more 100 million died in the entire world, and perhaps as much as 30 million in Europe alone, from the onset of the Plague in 1347 to 1351. It was a virulent strain of the Bubonic plague, which had spread from infected rats in the Gobi Desert to Caravans carrying rare goods to the Genoese trading port on the Black Sea, Kaffa, and thence by Genoese ships to Sicily and Western Europe.
The demographic, sociologic, psychological and economic effects were profound. So many bodies were piling up that people fled their villages, local priests fled their parishes in fear of dying. People took refuge in the wilderness and avoided contact with anyone with a cough. The strain was so virulent that those exposed in the morning were dead before midnight. It was spread by flees on rats but then became pneumonic, that is spread through the air by coughing. It is called the Black Death, because the lymph glands of the body would swell and then turn black, with death ensuing rapidly.
Catholics universally thought it was the end of the world, a fulfillment of the Apocalypse, which spoke of the fallen star Wormwood turning the waters of a third of the world poison. As there was no medical art which could precisely understand the causes, panic spread everywhere. The pope of the time survived only by sequestering himself in his palace at Avignon and having a huge fire set in his private chamber’s fireplace which was kept burning without stop for many months.
Into this horror, was born a Saint through which God would call most of Western Europe back from despair and apostasy, Saint Vincent Ferrer. At an early age he dedicated himself to Jesus Christ, and became a son of Saint Dominic.
Saint Vincent, being an devote practitioner of the ascetical life, quickly passed every spiritual test and was endowed by the Lord with extraordinary gifts of prophesy, foreknowledge, conversion, and miracle working.
On one occasion, being in a port which was suffering famine and starvation, he preached to the people to remain calm and that the Lord would send them ships filled with grain the next day. Sure enough, the next day a fleet loaded with food arrived.
But his fame began with a deadly fever which he contracted at Avignon, while the service of the anti Pope. You see, St. Vincent was a follower of Cardinal Pedro de Luna, who was one of the Cardinals who pledged obedience to the pope at Avignon, even though the Cardinal knew that he was an antipope and lied to Saint Vincent. But I will get to that, later.
It was at Avignon, while the forces of the Charles VI besieged the City to capture the antipope — the King of France was intelligent enough to investigate the controversy between the rival claimants to the papacy, and switch his allegiance back to the Pope at Rome — that Saint Vincent nearly died. But in the midst of his mortal fever, Our Lord appeared to him, along with Saints Dominic and Francis of Assisi, and commissioned him to be the 4th Angel of the Apocalypse: to preach penance everywhere, telling men that if they did not repent God would come and destroy the world. This was in September of 1398 A.D.. A year later, convinced of his divine mission, the Antipope appointed the Saint Missionary a lateri Christi, that is, sent from Christ Himself. The Saint spent the next 20 years in a most extraordinary apostolate which single-handedly saved Christianity in Europe.
He preached from Northern France to Italy and back to Spain. Upon seeing Bernardine of Sienna in Italy, he prophesied that Bernardine would convert Italy back to the faith. The crowds came to hear Saint Vincent were so great he could not preach in Churches, but had to use Piazzas and open fields. And his mission was signed by extraordinary miracles the likes of which have never again been seen in Christendom.
When he preached, his voice has a miraculous power to be heard at great distances. Those who could not enter the towns where he preached, would climb bell towers in near by villages and hear his voice distinctly at the distance of two to three miles!
One day he led the crowds listening to him to storm a Synagogue and immediately began preaching in Hebrew to the Jews. He was so convincing in their own tongue and from their own version of scripture, that he converted the entire congregation to the Catholic Faith and they immediately consecrated the place a Catholic Church!
On another occasion, he led the crowds from the Piazza in which he was preaching, to the Castle above the town, saying that great sin must be stopped. He broke through the gates of the Castle and found the noblemen in the most evil debauchery. He cursed them for their sin and everyone of them turned to stone! A thing witnessed by all the officials of the town to the amazement and terror of everyone. Upon hearing the pleas of the relatives, he commanded that the afflicted return to life, heard their confessions and after giving them his blessing they all dropped dead, but this time, went to eternal life.
His preaching of penance was so persuasive that huge crowds of penitents followed him everywhere, beating themselves with chains and hooks and nails to blood. The sight of these flagellants arriving was the signal that St. Vincent was on his way and this news would empty the fields and villages of the area, for all wanted to hear him preach. In whatever language they could understand, his voice was miraculously heard, even though he always spoke in his own dialect or in Latin.
He is known to have raised from the dead at least 7 persons. On one occasion, in a most extraordinary way. To a fellow Dominican who did not believe his claims to be sent by Christ to preach, he said: Do you doubt that I am one the Angels of the Apocalypse? Bring a dead man here, one who has been dead 4 days and whose body is rotting, and I will prove that I am telling the truth. Whereupon, he commanded the decaying corpse to arise and give testimony. And the man came back to life and his body was instantly restored to perfect health!
I could go on and on about the wonders and virtues of Saint Vincent. But I recommend you find a biography about him and read it. It will change your life and make you want to abandon all and become a devout religious. A thing the Church really needs in great quantity now.
The Great Schism
Despite all the graces and gifts which Saint Vincent had, and despite the great wisdom and learning he possessed from years of studying — for example he memorized the entire Latin version of the Bible and spoke 5 languages: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French and Langue d’óc — CHRIST WITHHELD from the Saint graces to see who was and who was not the true pope. Our Lord did this, in my opinion, to give us as lesson for our own time.
The Saint was a close friend to Cardinal Pedro de Luna, who was a supporter of the Antipope. The Schism began in 1378, when the previous pope, having been persuaded by Saint Catherine of Sienna to return to Rome, died. And the new Pope Urban VI was elected at Rome. The French Cardinals did not accept the election and immediately elected Clement VII. Cardinal Pedro knew his election was uncanonical, but concealed the facts from Saint Vincent for 38 years! In 1394, Cardinal Pedro was elected to succeed the antipope, and took the name Benedict XIII.
Saint Vincent was so deceived by Cardinal Pedro that he preached to convince the people of the Kingdom of Aragon to give allegiance to the Antipope of Avignon and to break from Rome! So troublesome was this schism to the soul of Saint Vincent that he said to others that it frequently made him ill.
The Great Western Schism had begun on a dispute where the wrong side was making claims on the basis of their allegations of being forced to vote. This kind of claim was really impossible to prove, it rested solely on the testimony of the alleged victims. No one disputed that the antipope was elected second. No one disputed the laws which govern the election.
But though he was a convinced supporter of the antipope of Avignon, Saint Vincent, nevertheless, loved the Church more than his personal friend, the Cardinal, and thus he urged Councils to end the Schism. And here is where his virtue is a lesson for us.
Because in Council of Perpignan, in the Kingdom of Aragon, in January 6, 1416, when the evidence was presented to Saint Vincent by the King of Aragon that Benedict XIII’s claim was not well founded, Benedict’s supporters could give no response and defend his claim against the charges. Saint Vincent had come to the Council a supporter of Benedict. He even preached in his defense. But when no evidence could be brought to defend the claim of the man whom he thought was the pope, St. Vincent immediately switched allegiance, for he recognized, being a master of Logic — a text book on which he had written — that when one side refuses to answer or has no argument, it means that they have no valid claim at all for their position.
In shame and penance for his having supported for so many years the wrong man, he went to France and spent the rest of his life in exile from his native land.
The “Renunciation” of Pope Benedict
The Great Western Schism began when the Cardinals elected Pope Urban VI and immediately upon his enthronement, seeing that he would curb their power, left the city, declared that they had been forced to vote for him, and elected instead Robert of Savoy as Clement VII.
We are in an analogous situation today. The Cardinals, not wanting to endure Pope Benedict XVI any longer, claimed on Feb. 11, 2013 that he had renounced the papacy. But in truth he had only announced his retirement from active ministry. They published false news to the world and through their personal contacts have suborned the entire Episcopate and Catholic Media to believe this lie. That is why they remain silent. They are the criminals of this Great Modern Schism.
Pope Benedict XVI for his part has been ignored and effectively locked up at the Vatican. But the truth of what he did on Feb. 11, 2013 has become known and now all Christendom can do what Saint Vincent did: ask the side which thinks Bergoglio is the pope for their explanation. Ann Barnhardt and hundreds of other Catholics have been doing this: she for four years, nearly, and others longer or less. But still there is no canonical explanation from the other side.
I think you can see how easy the choice is, who the real pope is. Do what Vincent did!
The Great Schism in its causes also sheds light on the principles of how to discern who today is the true pope and who is not. As a legal case the solution of the disputed election of 1378 was a simple one: possession is 9 tenths of the law, that is, the first man elected is always presumed be the legitimate claimant, the second one elected has to prove that the laws were violated in the first election, not just claim that they were. This is especially true with those Cardinals who voted for the first claimant. Their votes are explicit consent to the validity and legality of that act. — Today, the same principal applies: Benedict must be presumed to remain the true pope, until there is a proof in canonical form that his renunciation — not anything he said before or after, or anything he did before or after — is conformable with the terms of Canon 332 §2. No proof has ever been given! So those who sustain Bergoglio is the pope, have no case!
Saint Vincent for all his supernatural gifts, erred for many years, because he put his trust in his favorite Cardinal, who was lying to him. And he never bothered to examine the case calmly according to the principles of the law. — He was not a canon lawyer, and so that failing is understandable in a man who was so humble as to never think evil of others. But it nevertheless was such a grave error in law, that God Himself did not give him the grace to see it by supernatural means. The truth came to him by the testimony of fellow men.
In November, I asked Cardinal Burke through Canon Lenhart for an audience to discuss the Renunciation. In December, I returned and asked again and was promised one in January. January has come and is now ended. Still no audience or response to my Scholastic Question, containing 39 arguments which conclude that Pope Benedict XVI is the true Pope.
In November, I shared that same Question with 700 members of the Clergy of the Diocese of Rome. But I got no canonical argument in response to refute it. In December I distributed 500 copies of the same to the students of theology and canon law in the City, at Pontifical Universities. I got no response in reply.
I say this to give you a personal testimony. I think you should now understand what it means. St. Vincent shows us the way.
POSTSCRIPT: Saint Vincent died at Vannes, France on April 5, 1419. He was canonized by Pope Calixtus III in 1455. He is buried in the Cathedral of Vannes, but you can find relics of his right arm at his Church in New York City, or in the parish Church at Castle Umberto, in the province of Messina, Sicily, where I stop by every time I am in town, to venerate them.
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CREDITS: The Featured Image and Image of Saint Vincent is by Giovanni Bellini and is conserved at Venice. It is in the public domain as a work of art older than 200 years.
This week we peruse the repertoire of Sacred Music from the 15th century. We begin with this piece by Guillaume Du Fay, his, Missa Ecce ancilla Domini, written in honor of Our Lady.
Du fay had a colorful life. Born as a bastard of a priest at Cambrai (now France); he was raised by his mother and, having shown exceptional musical talent, received the help of many clerics who gave him an excellent musical formation. He obtained a benefice as a chaplain at the age of 16, at Cambrai, traveled to Contanz for the Ecumenical Council held there 1415-1418. Returning to Cambrai, he was made a subdeacon at the Cathedral, where he served two years. Then he spent four years traveling in Italy and working as a musician for the Nobility. Worn out by travels he returned home for two years, beginning in 1426.
He then traveled to Bologna, in Italy, and was taken under the patronage of Cardinal Louis Aleman, the papal legal. He was ordained a deacon, and then a priest at Bologna. He fled Bologna in 1428, when it rebelled against the Pope, and went to Rome where he entered the service of Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. There he became the most famous musician in Europe of his time. When the forces of Conciliarists drove Pope Eugene from Rome and set up a temporary republic, he accepted invitations to courts from all over Europe.
He was the court composer for the Duke of Savoy in 1434, and returned to the service of Pope Eugene IV at Florence in 1435. When the schismatic Council of Basel deposed Pope Eugene IV, he fled to Turin and got a degree in law and then returned home to Cambrai, where he obtained a position as Canon of the Cathedral in 1440.
From 1452 he traveled Italy seeking the patronage of the Nobility, writing and composing music to pay his way. In his final years, he returned to and remained at Cambrai, where his fame drew students of music and composers from all of Europe to collaborate with him. He completely revised the musical books used by the Cathedral and set in motion the rise of sacred polyphony for the next generation.
He died on Nov. 27, 1470, and as he passed requested that his motet, Ave Regina Caelorum be sung. Thus died a great servant of Our Lady and the Church.
In this article I am going to carpet bomb any notion you had that Bergoglio and his supportive faction are politically the opposite end of the spectrum from the Nazi Party of Germany in the Second World War. And I am not going to do it by a political or ideological analysis, but by a historical demonstration of collaboration. At every point, I will out the member of the House of Rampolla del Tindaro, who was involved or probably was involved. I mention Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro, because his episcopal descendants form the core axis of membership in the St. Gallen Mafia (a.k.a, “Team Bergoglio”), as have demonstrated some time ago (see report here).
Rat Lines
“Rat Lines” is the term given to organized routes of escape used by member of the Nazi Party and German Government and Military to flee Germany at the end of the War while avoiding capture by the Allied powers.
THE VATICAN RAT LINE
Historians have identified that the first Rat Lines were created using the existing network of relations between the Vatican and Argentina. As I reported yesterday, Argentina was nearly entirely in the control of the House of Rampolla.
These connections were no doubt facilitated by a Rampolla man: the Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina, Archbishop Giuseppe Fietta, who was named to that post on June 20, 1936 (Wikipedia has the wrong date, according to Catholic-Hierarchy.org) — He had been the Nuncio to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, since Sept. 23, 1930. — Months later, on Dec. 11, 1936 he was also named Nuncio to Paraguay, but resigned on Nov. 12, 1939 shortly before Italy entered the war on the Axis side. Wikipedia gives more detail on how the Cardinal may have done this without getting his own hands dirty:
As early as 1942, Monsignor Luigi Maglione contacted Ambassador Llobet, inquiring as to the “willingness of the government of the Argentine Republic to apply its immigration law generously, in order to encourage at the opportune moment European Catholic immigrants to seek the necessary land and capital in our country”.[6] Afterwards, a German priest, Anton Weber, the head of the Rome-based Society of Saint Raphael, traveled to Portugal, continuing to Argentina, to lay the groundwork for future Catholic immigration; this was to be a route which fascist exiles would exploit. According to historian Michael Phayer, “this was the innocent origin of what would become the Vatican ratline”.[6]
Bishop Alois Hudal
Bishop Hudal is the first prelate we know by name to have aided and abbetted German war criminals to escape from Europe. We know this because he confesses it his memoirs. He was a Nazi sympathizer. He was appointed by the Vatican in Dec. 1944 to visit prisoner of war camps. Being a German and rector of the Pontifical Teutonic Institute at Rome (a seminary for German and Austrian students) he used every means he could to help them escape. One of Bishop Hudal’s co-consecrators was Bishop Ferdinand Stanislaus Pawlikowski, a Rampolla man, and it makes sense that Archbishop Fiettta may have urged his nomination to the position he received.
Hudal and other Catholic clergy used their influence with the International Red Cross to forge papers as necessary to obtain for the war criminals visas to travel overseas. But Hudal’s efforts were numerically small in scope
San Girolamo Ratline
The first large scale effort to assist large numbers to escape was organized by Franciscan clergy in Croatia and Austria. Both countries were heavily dominated in those years by Rampolla men in the major Bishoprics: Innsbruck, Salburg, Feldkirk, and Vienna, all had Rampolla Bishops and auxiliary Bishops during Word War II. As Bishops at the end of the war, due to their contacts with the Red Cross they would be the natural go-to persons for those wishing to escape Germany.
The San Girolamo Ratline is called by that name, because the Croatian clergy at the College by that name at Rome, facilitated the operation. The actual Rat Line ran from Austrian and Croatia to the port of Genoa. Why Genoa? The Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa from 1938 to 1946 was Cardinal Pietro Boetto, S. J., a Rampolla man.
Argentine Ratlines
On orders of the Dictator Peron, Argentina made overtures to welcome refugees from Nazi Germany. Argentines were instrumental in establishing Rat Lines from Scandinavia, Switzerland and Belgium.
Why Switzerland? The Bishop of Chur, on the German border, was a Rampolla man: Bishop Lauenz Matthew Vincenz, until 1941. And the Bishop of St. Gallen from 1938 to 1957, was Bishop Joseph Meile, who co-consecrated a Rampolla man. So it is highly probably that the House of Rampolla had priests in Eastern Switzerland, whom they ordained, to be operative for such a work.
Why Belgium? Both the Dioceses of Melchen and Tournai had had Rampolla men in them prior to the War. There would be then an abundance of Rampolla Clergy in the country, where there was already a strong pro-Nazi movement among Catholics at Louvain
But the key Rampolla man in all of this was Cardinal Caggiano. I quote from Wikipedia, again:
According to Goñi, Argentina’s first move into Nazi smuggling was in January 1946, when Argentine bishop Antonio Caggiano, leader of the Argentine chapter of Catholic Action flew with another bishop, Agustín Barrére, to Rome where Caggiano was due to be anointed Cardinal. In Rome the Argentine bishops met with French Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, where they passed on a message (recorded in Argentina’s diplomatic archives) that “the Government of the Argentine Republic was willing to receive French persons, whose political attitude during the recent war would expose them, should they return to France, to harsh measures and private revenge”
Cardinal Caggiano was one of the most prolific consecrators of Rampolla men in Argentina. That it was he to make the overtures to open the Rat Lines to Argentina makes the supposition that the House of Rampolla collaborated with the Nazis to help them escape from Europe, indisputable.
In 2004, over 700 FBI documents were declassified, a study of which showed that the U.S. Government was aware of rumors and evidence which shows that even Adolf Hitler, after faking a death in Berlin, had used one of these Rat Lines to escape to Argentina. These stunning revelations were subject of a multi part series by National Geographic, which alleged to know even of the final resting place and residence of the former Dictator in the Argentine Andes.
Spanish Ratlines
According to the report by National Geographic, Hitler was smuggled to Spain and hid in Galicia until he could flee to South America. This is no surprise, because Zacarías Martínez y Núñez, O.S.A., a Rampolla man had been the Bishop of Santiago de Compostella from 1927 to 1933, and was replaced by a Bishop whose co-consecrator was a Rampolla man. Therefore, it is highly probable that there were pro Rampolla clergy in the province to be used in any task at hand.
CONCLUSIONS
At the time of World War II, Rampolla men occupied the Bishoprics of Munich-Freising, Regensburg, Augsburg, Passau, Linz, Seckau, Sankt Pölten, Salzburg and Innsbruck. These all were either part of existing Rat Lines or natural door ways to them. Some of them are in close proximity to Berchtesgaden, the effective Head Quarters of the Third Reich, Hitler’s mountain residence in Southern Bavaria.
Thus both in Germany and in Argentina the House of Rampolla was present to exploit the opportunity. And in Argentina they took the initiative to begin the effort.
But maybe the cooperation went further than that. Maybe it did not end with Rat Lines. Let us not forget the ominous words of Adolf Hitler in the final weeks of World War II, in regarded a question put to him: What would become of the Nazi party, would it disappear after the war? No, he said, it would return in 100 years, but not as a party, but as a religion.
When persons fled, money and information fled. Where did Bergoglio get the 70 million euros from the Archdiocese of Buenas Aires to invest in the Vatican Bank during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II? Is that what bought him the leadership position in the St. Gallen Mafia?
The St. Gallen Mafia was founded around 1992. It’s Bishop, Ivo Furer, was not a Rampolla man, but the co-consecrator of his co-consecrator was. The diocese of St. Gallen is in eastern Switzerland, along the German border, the very border through which thousands of Nazis seeking to escape allied forces escaped to Spain and South America.
So when you next hear Bergoglio calling his enemies, “Nazis”, perhaps you can check it off as another act of psychological projection.
As I continue my series of investigations into episcopal lineages and what they imply as regards factions among the Cardinals and Bishops of today, I cannot omit the most important for this investigation: the House of Rampolla del Tindaro, on account of its centrality in the history of the Church since the reign of Pope Leo XIII right down to Jorge Mario Bergoglio. See my previous report on the St. Gallen Mafia’s ties to Rampolla, here.
This faction is very large and very powerful. You can see the power of Cardinal Rampolla in the very fact that he was never the co-consecrator of any bishop, he was always the principal consecrator.
Next, you can see the power of the man shown in this, that nearly a third of all those Bishops whom he consecrated became Cardinals of the Roman Church. You can also see the power of the man, through the generations, by the number of men who seek as their principal consecrator a Cardinal or Bishop whose episcopal lineage traces back to Cardinal Rampolla. This is no accident of fame. Cardinal Rampolla is not known for his holiness, he was the rival of Saint Pius X. Who would want such a lineage?
As can be seen from this list, the House of Rampolla comprises a large part of the hierarchy of Brazil, and many bishops in the Amazon, for generations. Thus, when next you hear of the Amazon Synod, understand that its name is no accident: it is a code word for The Synod of the House of Rampolla del Tindaro, Godfather of the St. Gallen Mafia.
From this study, one can also see the power bases of the House of Rampolla, in addition to Italy and Brazil: Venezuela, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Argentina, Macau and Portugal. Also, other nations where Bergoglio has visited, such as Vietnam, Sudan/South Sudan, Mozambique. And others he has not, like Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, Riwanda, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
Indeed, as I reported the other day, the prevalence that is seen here of Rampolla men in Portugal and its former colonies of Brazil and Mozambique is another indication that Cardinal Nuno da Cunha de Athaíde from Portugal has had a lasting influence in the geopolitics of the faction.
This is further evidence of why Our Lady chose Fatima, in the heart of Portugal, for the decisive place of Her most magnificent miracle in all history and God’s most magnificent promises of salvation since Pentecost. The fact that Saint John says in the Apocalypse that the Dragon will seek out the woman who flees to the countryside, may be a reference to Fatima and its location. Moreover, we know that of all the Apostles, after Saint John, his brother Saint James went to Iberia to preach the Gospel and was active in the area of Portugal. Perhaps he too knew from Our Lady and his brother, where the decisive spiritual battle would take place at the end of times.
Another avenue of research will be to see how many Rampolla men were voting at the Second Vatican Council, to determine how much of that Council was produced under their direction, as the truth of that investigation may blow the lid off all claims that the Council was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the insistence of Bergoglian supporters to claim that Bergoglio is fulfilling the Council may already answer that question.
You will find some very notable names on this list. One is that of Cardinal Siri, whom many sedevacantists hold was elected pope but forced to step aside. Whether he accepted an election or not, perhaps can be never known, but if he was forced to step aside, the request to do so may have come from the very faction to which he belonged!
Another is Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong. Annother Cardinal Ruini, Cardinal Merry del Val and Cardinal Manning. Another is the Bergoglian created Cardinal of Tonga, in the South Pacific.
So, for your information and the further research of scholars, here are the men whom he consecrated. In this list, the date is the date of consecration as a Bishop. The cross indicates that he persons is no longer alive. To each bishop, I have subordinated in turn the men whom he has consecrated, and so on. Thus, thus the men who are not subordinated, were consecrated by Cardinal Rampolla. The men who are subordinated only one indenture, were consecrated by the man above them who is not subordinated at all. And so on.
Many Catholics in the Church, right now, are extremely worried and upset at the ongoing apostasy and silence of nearly the entire Catholic Hierarchy. Many believe that we have entered the Great Apostasy, foretold by Saint John the Apostle in the Book of the Apocalypse.
But there is one Bishop who gives the faithful hope, by his words and example: the Most Rev. René Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi. This is because, since February 2013, he has been an outspoken critique of the Resignation of Pope Benedict, the election of Jorge Bergoglio and the consistent heretical and erratic behavior of that man. You can read his writings and musings at his blog, Abyssum.org.
Narrative controlled Catholic Media have concealed from nearly the entire Church the strong Catholic stance of Bishop Gracida, who has not only written many Cardinals and Bishops urging a canonical investigation into the election irregularities perpetrated before and during the Conclave of 2013, but has publicly supported calls for an Imperfect Synod, publicly condemned Bergoglio for his idolatry in the Vatican Gardens, and holds that Bergoglio should be tried for heresy.
FromRome.Info as a truly Catholic Media Outlet praises Bishop Gracida for acting as all Bishops and Cardinals should act, and urges all Cardinals and Bishops to do the same! We should constantly encourage and reprove Bishops who are not doing their duty in this most urgent crisis in the Church, in which the Catholic party should prove itself by at least doing what Bishop Gracida has done.
But since Bishop Gracida is not so well known, let me first relate a little of his personal history, and then explain how the teaching of the Church on Patients’ Rights, as regards nutrition and hydration, was formulated thanks to Bishop Gracida’s defense of the Deposit of the Faith on the Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue: Thou shalt not kill.
It all began in Louisiana
René Henry Gracida was born on June 9, 1923, nearly a 100 years ago, in New Orleans. His father was an engineer and architect of Mexican descent, and his mother a 5th generation Cajun lass. His great uncle was a vicar general of a diocese in Mexico and rather well know for his strictness in matters of religion.
In 1942, he went to college at Rice University, in Houston, and signed up with the U.S. Army Corp Air Reserve, to anticipate being drafted. He was called to active duty in the Summer of 1943.
303 Air Expeditionary Bomber Group Emblem
The future Bishop became a tail gunner in the 303 Hell’s Angels Air Expeditionary Bomber Group, the most active Bomber Group in the US Military during the war. It became active in February 1942, and flew more than 75 combat missions.
If you know anything about Areal Warfare during the Second World War, then you know how horrific, harrowing, and down right terrifying it was for men to fly Bomber missions through enemy territory and relatively undefended from German Fighter plans and Flak attacks. Each mission was a possible no return.
After the War, he studied at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland, and the University of Houston, where he earned a degree in Architecture.
Under the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia . . .
Then the grace of God hit him. — Having read the lives of the Jesuit Martyrs as a youth, and familiarized himself with the life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, he decided to become a monk and dedicate himself to the divine service of God. — So you can imagine how his father, who disliked his own uncle for that reason, reacted when his son revealed he wanted to follow Saint Benedict and become a Monk!
He entered the Benedictine Order in 1951, and went on to study at St. Vincent’s College and St Vincent Seminary, in Latrobe, PA, where he earned a Masters in Divinity. He took solemn vows in 1956 and became a Deacon in 1958.
He was ordained a Priest on May 23, 1959, at the age of 36, just before the Second Vatican Council opened.
Following reprisals for a sincere critique of his Abbots plan for a new Monastery, he separated from the Benedictine Order and was accepted as a priest in the Diocese of Miami, which had need of an Architect. He was incardinated there in 1961, and on account of his faithful service to the Church was nominated by Pope Paul VI, on Dec. 6, 1971, as Auxiliary of the Diocese.
In the footsteps of the Apostles . . .
He was consecrated Bishop, on January 25, 1972. — That means, in just 2 days, he will celebrate the 48th anniversary of his episcopal consecration!
On account of his being consecrated by Archbishop Dearden, he traces his episcopal lineage back to Saint Pius X, and then to Popes Clement XIII, Benedict XIV and Benedict XIII.
He was so highly respected as an administrator of God’s House that Pope Paul VI promoted him to the Bishopric of Pensacola-Talahasse in 1975. Pope John Paul II, in 1983, then promoted him again to the Bishopric of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he served until his retirement for reasons of health at nearly 74 years of age, in 1997.
As Bishop of Corpus Christi he was known for his refusal of communion to public sinners. He also published a pastoral letter rebuking all the other Bishops of Texas for their official public statement on Patient’s Rights, in which they taught that food and water could in some circumstances be denied patients.
In response, Bishop Gracida, in full fidelity to his duty as a Successor of the Apostles, published a public Letter correcting the errors of his brother Bishops, on May 25, 1990.
The doctrine he handed down would be taken up by Pope John Paul II in 2004 and affirmed as the official position of the Catholic Church on the right of patients to food and hydration.
For your edification, I share here, with the permission of His Excellency, the text of his Pastoral Letter of 1990.
A Dissent From the ‘Interim Pastoral Statement on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration’
Authored By: Bishop Gracida
INTERIM PASTORAL STATEMENT ON ARTIFICIAL NUTRITION AND HYDRATION
Bishop Rene H. Gracida
A Dissent From The “Interim Pastoral Statement On Artificial Nutrition And Hydration” Issued By The Texas Conference Of Catholic Health Facilities And Some Of The Bishops Of Texas
Recently the Texas Catholic Conference in Austin released the final text of the document approved by the Texas Catholic Conference of Health Facilities and sixteen of the twenty-one Bishops of Texas. I had declined to sign the document because I consider it to be seriously flawed.
It seems to me that the document gives a higher priority to efforts to relieve the burden caused by a serious illness rather than efforts to protect the sick person’s right to life. The document deals with the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from a seriously ill patient.
This whole matter is one which is being debated by the legal and medical professions as well as by theologians and ethicists. The Holy See has this whole controversial area of morality under review and will undoubtedly issue a major declaration on the subject sometime in the next year or two.
In the meantime, I would have preferred to see my fellow Bishops of Texas issue a document which would have made a stronger statement in support of the sick person’s right to receive food and drink as the basic necessities of life.
My specific objections to the text of the statement which was recently made public, are:
1. In the title and throughout the text, the phrase “artificial nutrition and hydration” is used. This is inaccurate: the food and water used are not artificial. It is medically appropriate to speak of “artificially assisted nutrition and hydration.” It is the mode of assistance that is artificial.
2. Under “Basic Moral Principles” the Declaration on Euthanasia is used selectively. As the title of that document indicates, one must begin with a rejection of euthanasia—defined by the Declaration as “an action or an order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated.”
Only “after” one has established that an omission of care or treatment is not directly intended to bring about death should one turn to the complex task of assessing benefits and burdens. The question of intention is central here: If the removal of a life-sustaining procedure is intended to avoid an unreasonable burden of the procedure, so that a quicker death is only an unintended side-effect of the decision, it is not a case of euthanasia.
3. Also not treated here is the question whether artificially assisted feeding may be classified as “normal care” rather than “treatment.” The “Declaration” says normal care must be provided even when one has removed “forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life” for an imminently dying patient.
Whether tube feeding may constitute “normal care” is not currently resolved by the magisterium; three non-magisterial bodies (Pontifical Council Cor Unum, editorial board of La Civilta Cattolica, and a working group of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) have issued statements answering the question in the affirmative. If tube feeding has some aspects of “normal care,” this would strengthen the presumption in favor of providing it in most cases.
4. The inclusion of burdens on “others—family, care provider, or community”—is more broadly stated than in existing Church documents. The Declaration on Euthanasia speaks of the “patient himself” validly making a self-sacrificing decision not to burden other: when those “others” are the agents making the decision, other factors (including the Golden Rule) come into play.
“All” long-term care for seriously impaired patients is a “burden” on the community, but it may be a burden that has to be willingly shouldered: “The respect, the dedication, the time and means required for the care of handicapped persons, even of those whose mental faculties are gravely affected, is the price that a society should generously pay in order to remain truly human” (Document of the Holy See for the International Year of Disabled Persons, 1981.)
5. The phrase about “investment in medical technology and personnel disproportionate to the expected results” is taken from a paragraph in the Declaration on Euthanasia that concerns “the most advanced medical techniques,” especially those “at the experimental stage.” This document applies the phrases to life-supporting means generally.
6. I know of no Church document that says treatment is disproportionate when it involves “inequitable resource allocation.” This could be a broad loophole for communities saying that severely impaired persons are not worth the money. The phrase should be clarified or deleted.
7. The restrictive statement that “maintenance of life” is a benefit only when it involves reasonable hop of recovery” could ground discriminatory withholding of life preserving means from people with incurable disabilities.
It vitiates the principle that everyone has the same basic “right to life” regardless of age or condition, which in Catholic social teaching means that every person has the same basic right to the necessities that sustain life. Life is “always a good.” How can it be a good without being a benefit?
8. The equation between “foregoing” and “withdrawing” is an oversimplification. What of cases where initiation of tube feeding entails the transient risks and burdens of minor surgery under general or local anesthesia, but its maintenance does not involve these burdens? Must this change in the burden/benefit calculus be ignored?
9. The claim that the NCCB Pro-Life Committee came to the “same conclusion” is overstated. The Committee’s chief message was rejection of any efforts at “intentionally hastening the deaths of vulnerable patients by starvation or dehydration”; as was said in point #2 above, the text under consideration does not have this focus.
Also, the Pro-Life Committee document clearly supports tube feeding that can “effectively preserve ‘life’ without involving too grave a burden”; the present draft, as noted above, judges effectiveness in terms of preserving “life with reasonable hope of recovery,” which is a different standard.
10. The question of “cause of death” is a major open question in the current debate. This text overstates the importance of that question, because traditional moral teaching puts great weight on “intention.”
It also understates the causal role of an omission of nutrition and hydration in hastening death, in cases where a patient could have survived in a medically stable condition for years with continued feeding. The phrase “proximate physical means” is obscure, and should have been replaced by “proximate physical cause of death.” One can recognize that the omission is the proximate cause leading to death, while reaffirming that the hastening of death is “praeter intentionem” in some cases.
11. The claim that all these decisions are made “by the patients themselves and by no one else” is not supported in the Church documents. The Declaration says “account will have to be taken of the ‘reasonable’ wishes of the wishes of the patient ‘and the patient’s family,’ as also of ‘the advice of the doctors’ who are specially competent in the matter.”
In cases of doubt “it pertains to the conscience either of the sick person, ‘or’ of the doctors, to decide, in the light of moral obligations and of the various aspects of the case.” In the Declaration a major “moral obligation” binding on “all” decision makers is the rejection of euthanasia by action or omission. Theses qualifications are all absent from (even explicitly rejected by) the document.
12. To say the “morally appropriate” withdrawal of tubal feeding is not “abandoning the person” is a truism. It is equally true to say: “The morally inappropriate withdrawal of tube feeding ‘is’ abandonment of the person.”
This leaves us nowhere, because the text gives no guidelines on when the burdens of artificially assisted feeding are grave enough to render this means optional (except for the overboard standard cited above that whatever the patient says is right).
13. The statement that the patient should not be impeded from “taking the final step” has an ominous sound to it; it might give the impression that hastening death can be directly intended. A phrase like “accepting the inevitability of death ” would have been better.
14. The phrase “threat ‘of’ life” on page 5, line 19 is, I hope, a misprint for “threat ‘to’ life.” The presumption seems to be that death from a life-threatening condition is the “normal consequence” that should occur, and one needs a special reason to “impede” this “normal” state of affairs.
The burden of proof should go the other way: We have a “prima facie” obligation to save someone’s life unless there is a special reason (e.g., ineffectiveness, grave burdensomeness) not to do so. One senses here a very passive model for human action in the world in cases of preventable death—one that does not comport well with the stated “presumption” in favor of averting death.
15. The document as a whole should have distinguished more clearly between two classes of patients: Those who are dying soon no matter what we do for them (e.g., terminal cancer patient), and those who are medically stable and are “not” dying if provided with continued nutrients and fluids.
A much more permissive standard is possible for the former class of patients, for whom continued feeding may become strictly useless in prolonging life. A strong presumption could be established in favor of life-sustaining feeding for the latter class, rebuttable in cases of excessive burden.
A strong presumption here is especially important because, in some celebrated cases, tube feeding has apparently been withdrawn from the latter class of patients precisely because they are “not” dying and someone wants death to occur (see ACLU brief in the Hector Rodas case, cautionary statements by ethicist Daniel Callahan, and concurring opinion by Judge Lynn Compton in the Elizabeth Bouvia case).
This statement was published in the May 25, 1990 edition of the Corpus Christi “Diocesan Press.”
Here follows the teaching of Pope John Paul II, on the same issue:
ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
ON “LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENTS AND VEGETATIVE STATE:
SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS”
Saturday, 20 March 2004
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. I cordially greet all of you who took part in the International Congress: “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas”.I wish to extend a special greeting to Bishop Elio Sgreccia, Vice-President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and to Prof. Gian Luigi Gigli, President of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and selfless champion of the fundamental value of life, who has kindly expressed your shared feelings.
This important Congress, organized jointly by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, is dealing with a very significant issue: the clinical condition called the “vegetative state”. The complex scientific, ethical, social and pastoral implications of such a condition require in-depth reflections and a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue, as evidenced by the intense and carefully structured programme of your work sessions.
2. With deep esteem and sincere hope, the Church encourages the efforts of men and women of science who, sometimes at great sacrifice, daily dedicate their task of study and research to the improvement of the diagnostic, therapeutic, prognostic and rehabilitative possibilities confronting those patients who rely completely on those who care for and assist them. The person in a vegetative state, in fact, shows no evident sign of self-awareness or of awareness of the environment, and seems unable to interact with others or to react to specific stimuli.
Scientists and researchers realize that one must, first of all, arrive at a correct diagnosis, which usually requires prolonged and careful observation in specialized centres, given also the high number of diagnostic errors reported in the literature. Moreover, not a few of these persons, with appropriate treatment and with specific rehabilitation programmes, have been able to emerge from a vegetative state. On the contrary, many others unfortunately remain prisoners of their condition even for long stretches of time and without needing technological support.
In particular, the term permanent vegetative state has been coined to indicate the condition of those patients whose “vegetative state” continues for over a year. Actually, there is no different diagnosis that corresponds to such a definition, but only a conventional prognostic judgment, relative to the fact that the recovery of patients, statistically speaking, is ever more difficult as the condition of vegetative state is prolonged in time.
However, we must neither forget nor underestimate that there are well-documented cases of at least partial recovery even after many years; we can thus state that medical science, up until now, is still unable to predict with certainty who among patients in this condition will recover and who will not.
3. Faced with patients in similar clinical conditions, there are some who cast doubt on the persistence of the “human quality” itself, almost as if the adjective “vegetative” (whose use is now solidly established), which symbolically describes a clinical state, could or should be instead applied to the sick as such, actually demeaning their value and personal dignity. In this sense, it must be noted that this term, even when confined to the clinical context, is certainly not the most felicitous when applied to human beings.
In opposition to such trends of thought, I feel the duty to reaffirm strongly that the intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being do not change, no matter what the concrete circumstances of his or her life. A man, even if seriously ill or disabled in the exercise of his highest functions, is and always will be a man, and he will never become a “vegetable” or an “animal”.
Even our brothers and sisters who find themselves in the clinical condition of a “vegetative state” retain their human dignity in all its fullness. The loving gaze of God the Father continues to fall upon them, acknowledging them as his sons and daughters, especially in need of help.
4. Medical doctors and health-care personnel, society and the Church have moral duties toward these persons from which they cannot exempt themselves without lessening the demands both of professional ethics and human and Christian solidarity.
The sick person in a vegetative state, awaiting recovery or a natural end, still has the right to basic health care (nutrition, hydration, cleanliness, warmth, etc.), and to the prevention of complications related to his confinement to bed. He also has the right to appropriate rehabilitative care and to be monitored for clinical signs of eventual recovery.
I should like particularly to underline how the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality, which in the present case consists in providing nourishment to the patient and alleviation of his suffering.
The obligation to provide the “normal care due to the sick in such cases” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Iura et Bona, p. IV) includes, in fact, the use of nutrition and hydration (cf. Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, Dans le Cadre, 2, 4, 4; Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, Charter of Health Care Workers, n. 120). The evaluation of probabilities, founded on waning hopes for recovery when the vegetative state is prolonged beyond a year, cannot ethically justify the cessation or interruption of minimal care for the patient, including nutrition and hydration. Death by starvation or dehydration is, in fact, the only possible outcome as a result of their withdrawal. In this sense it ends up becoming, if done knowingly and willingly, true and proper euthanasia by omission.
In this regard, I recall what I wrote in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, making it clear that “by euthanasia in the true and proper sense must be understood an action or omission which by its very nature and intention brings about death, with the purpose of eliminating all pain”; such an act is always “a serious violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person” (n. 65).
Besides, the moral principle is well known, according to which even the simple doubt of being in the presence of a living person already imposes the obligation of full respect and of abstaining from any act that aims at anticipating the person’s death.
5. Considerations about the “quality of life”, often actually dictated by psychological, social and economic pressures, cannot take precedence over general principles.
First of all, no evaluation of costs can outweigh the value of the fundamental good which we are trying to protect, that of human life. Moreover, to admit that decisions regarding man’s life can be based on the external acknowledgment of its quality, is the same as acknowledging that increasing and decreasing levels of quality of life, and therefore of human dignity, can be attributed from an external perspective to any subject, thus introducing into social relations a discriminatory and eugenic principle.
Moreover, it is not possible to rule out a priori that the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration, as reported by authoritative studies, is the source of considerable suffering for the sick person, even if we can see only the reactions at the level of the autonomic nervous system or of gestures. Modern clinical neurophysiology and neuro-imaging techniques, in fact, seem to point to the lasting quality in these patients of elementary forms of communication and analysis of stimuli.
6. However, it is not enough to reaffirm the general principle according to which the value of a man’s life cannot be made subordinate to any judgment of its quality expressed by other men; it is necessary to promote the taking of positive actions as a stand against pressures to withdraw hydration and nutrition as a way to put an end to the lives of these patients.
It is necessary, above all, to support those families who have had one of their loved ones struck down by this terrible clinical condition. They cannot be left alone with their heavy human, psychological and financial burden. Although the care for these patients is not, in general, particularly costly, society must allot sufficient resources for the care of this sort of frailty, by way of bringing about appropriate, concrete initiatives such as, for example, the creation of a network of awakening centres with specialized treatment and rehabilitation programmes; financial support and home assistance for families when patients are moved back home at the end of intensive rehabilitation programmes; the establishment of facilities which can accommodate those cases in which there is no family able to deal with the problem or to provide “breaks” for those families who are at risk of psychological and moral burn-out.
Proper care for these patients and their families should, moreover, include the presence and the witness of a medical doctor and an entire team, who are asked to help the family understand that they are there as allies who are in this struggle with them. The participation of volunteers represents a basic support to enable the family to break out of its isolation and to help it to realize that it is a precious and not a forsaken part of the social fabric.
In these situations, then, spiritual counselling and pastoral aid are particularly important as help for recovering the deepest meaning of an apparently desperate condition.
7. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in conclusion I exhort you, as men and women of science responsible for the dignity of the medical profession, to guard jealously the principle according to which the true task of medicine is “to cure if possible, always to care”.
As a pledge and support of this, your authentic humanitarian mission to give comfort and support to your suffering brothers and sisters, I remind you of the words of Jesus: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25: 40).
In this light, I invoke upon you the assistance of him, whom a meaningful saying of the Church Fathers describes as Christus medicus, and in entrusting your work to the protection of Mary, Consoler of the sick and Comforter of the dying, I lovingly bestow on all of you a special Apostolic Blessing.
Thus, Pope John Paul II.
I think that what Bishop Gracida did for the weak and suffering and elderly has the blessing of God. For in the Old Testament, the care of the elderly has a blessing: Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt have a long life on the land. Bishop Gracida is nearly 97 years of age, and is still a staunch defender of the Holy Catholic Faith. We owe him our support.
_________
CREDITS: The Featured Image is of Bishop Gracida and Pope John Paul II during a meeting in Poland. The text of John Paul II’s Address is from the Vatican Website. The Text of the Bishops Pastoral Letter can today be found on the website of EWTN. The Image of the Bomber Group Logo is in the public domain.
Three days after the publication of this article,
Bergoglio named Cardinal Re dean of his college of Cardinals.
It is not easy for Catholics to understand why Cardinals do and do not do what they do. Especially in these times, when the Cardinals should be warning and reproving and taking steps to clean up the mess at the Vatican, which is leading the apostasy of the world.
For this “why” I cannot give an explanation. But understanding where Cardinals come from and to which faction in the Church they may belong, may shed some light on this “why”, however so superficial.
With this in mind, let us examine the Faction of Cardinals which has as its co-consecrator, Giovanni Battista Re, one of the most important Cardinals in the College of Cardinals, which is seen by the fact that Bergoglio selected him to be Vice-Dean of his college of cardinals on June 10, 2017. A position he has weathered despite the unceremonious demotion of the Cardinal Dean of many years, Cardinal Sodano, in December.
Let me begin by saying that Cardinal Re’s episcopal lineage does not descend from Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro, the god-father of the St Gallen Mafia. It descends rather from Pope John Paul II.
Second, that Cardinal Re is an impressive Bishop in action. He has participated in over 165 Episcopal consecrations in his life time. A truly remarkable number, which makes him one of the greatest all time consecrators of bishops in the Church. This is due to the fact, that when Pope John Paul II consecrated Bishops, Cardinal Re was normally assisting as a co-consecrator, by some special arrangement of the Pope.
Normally, factions in the Church among Bishops are denoted by lineages of principal consecrators, not co-consecrators. A principal consecrator is the Bishop who presides over the consecration of a man who has been nominated to be a bishop. A co-consecrator is one of two or more Bishops who assist in the consecration of the nominated.
However, Cardinal Re was not the principal consecrator of any Bishop who later became a Cardinal. A fact which means, that no one upon whom his favor rested that much, was ever raised to the dignity of a Cardinal. However, he is the co-consecrator of 18 Cardinals, which is extraordinary. Nevertheless, this seems to be because these future Cardinals were all consecrated by Pope John Paul II, with few exceptions.
Let me list the names of those Bishops and Cardinals, in the order of the year they were co-consecrated Bishop by Cardinal Re. You might recognize someone you know:
Patriarch Michel Sabbah (1988)
Archbishop Marian Oles † (1988)
Archbishop Emery Kabongo Kanundowi (1988)
Bishop Luís d’Andrea, O.F.M. Conv. † (1988)
Bishop Victor Adibe Chikwe † (1988)
Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh † (1988)
Bishop José Raúl Vera López, O.P. (1988)
Bishop Srecko Badurina, T.O.R. † (1988)
Bishop Luigi Belloli † (1988)
Bishop John Gavin Nolan † (1988) José Cardinal Saraiva Martins, C.M.F. (1988)
Bishop Giuseppe Matarrese (1989) ###
Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci (1990)
Archbishop Ignazio Bedini, S.D.B. (1990)
Archbishop Mario Milano (1990)
Archbishop Giovanni Ceirano † (1990)
Archbishop Oscar Rizzato (1990) Antonio Ignacio Cardinal Velasco Garcia, S.D.B. † (1990)
Archbishop Paul Runangaza Ruzoka (1990)
Bishop Marian Błażej Kruszyłowicz, O.F.M. Conv. (1990)
Bishop Pierre François Marie Joseph Duprey, M. Afr. † (1990)
Archbishop Domenico Umberto D’Ambrosio (1990)
Bishop Edward Dajczak (1990)
Bishop Benjamin de Jesus Almoneda (1990)
Archbishop Francesco Gioia, O.F.M. Cap. (1990)
Archbishop Edward Nowak (1990)
Archbishop Giacinto Berloco (1990)
Archbishop Erwin Josef Ender (1990) Jean-Louis Pierre Cardinal Tauran † (1991) Vinko Cardinal Puljić (1991)
Archbishop Marcello Costalunga † (1991)
Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla (1991) Francisco Javier Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa, P. Schönstatt (1991)
Bishop Bruno Pius Ngonyani (1991)
Bishop Francis Emmanuel Ogbonna Okobo (1991)
Bishop Andrea Gemma, F.D.P. † (1991)
Bishop Joseph Habib Hitti (1991)
Bishop Jacinto Guerrero Torres † (1991)
Bishop Bl. Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano † (1991) Julián Cardinal Herranz Casado (1991)
Archbishop Bruno Bertagna † (1991)
Archbishop Ernesto Maria Fiore † (1992)
Archbishop Rino Passigato (1992)
Bishop Juan Matogo Oyana, C.M.F. (1992)
Bishop Gastone Simoni (1992)
Bishop Iñaki Mallona Txertudi, C.P. (1992)
Bishop Philippe Nkiere Keana, C.I.C.M. (1992)
Bishop Benjamin David de Jesus, O.M.I. † (1992)
Bishop John Joseph Glynn † (1992)
Bishop Petar Šolic † (1992) Michael Louis Cardinal Fitzgerald, M. Afr. (1992)
Bishop Henri Salina, C.R.A. † (1992)
Archbishop Diego Causero (1993)
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle (1993) Elio Cardinal Sgreccia † (1993)
Bishop Henryk Marian Tomasik (1993)
Archbishop Henry Joseph Mansell (1993)
Bishop Jan Kopiec (1993)
Archbishop Alojzij Uran (1993)
Bishop Luigi Sposito † (1993)
Bishop Norbert Klemens Strotmann Hoppe, M.S.C. (1993)
Bishop Elmo Noel Joseph Perera † (1993)
Archbishop Csaba Ternyák (1993)
Archbishop Domenico De Luca † (1993) ###
Archbishop Peter Paul Prabhu † (1994)
Archbishop Peter Stephan Zurbriggen (1994)
Archbishop Jean-Paul Aimé Gobel (1994)
Bishop Julien Mawule Kouto † (1994)
Bishop Edward James Slattery (1994)
Bishop Uriah Adolphus Ashley Maclean (1994)
Bishop Emiliano Antonio Cisneros Martínez, O.A.R. (1994)
Bishop Américo do Couto Oliveira † (1994)
Bishop Christo Proykov (1994)
Archbishop Ramon Cabrera Argüelles (1994)
Bishop Ricardo Jorge Valenzuela Rios (1994)
Bishop Paolo Gillet (1994)
Bishop Antoni Józef Długosz (1994)
Archbishop Bruno Musarò (1995)
Bishop Petko Jordanov Christov, O.F.M. Conv. (1995)
Bishop Antonio Napoletano, C.SS.R. † (1995)
Bishop Zacharias Cenita Jimenez † (1995) Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke (1995)
Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez † (1995)
Bishop Pierfranco Pastore † (1995)
Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk, O.F.M. (1995)
Bishop Paweł Cieślik (1995)
Bishop Stefan Regmunt (1995)
Archbishop Charles Asa Schleck, C.S.C. † (1995)
Archbishop Luigi Ventura (1995) ### Carlo Cardinal Caffarra † (1995)
Archbishop José Paulino Ríos Reynoso (1996)
Archbishop Riccardo Fontana (1996)
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli (1996)
Archbishop Jaime Vieira Rocha (1996) Kurt Cardinal Koch (1996)
Bishop Ārvaldis Andrejs Brumanis † (1996)
Bishop Antons Justs † (1996)
Archbishop Francisco Pérez González (1996)
Archbishop Richard Anthony Burke, S.P.S. (1996)
Bishop Marko Sopi † (1996)
Bishop Rafael Ramón Conde Alfonzo (1996)
Bishop Riccardo Ruotolo † (1996)
Bishop Antal Majnek, O.F.M. (1996) Stanisław Cardinal Ryłko (1996)
Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellín (1996) ###
Archbishop Luigi Conti (1996) ###
Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto (1997) Paolo Cardinal Sardi † (1997) Titular Bishop of Sutri, Italy Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, C.SS.R. † (1997)
Bishop Delio Lucarelli (1997)
Bishop Ignace Baguibassa Sambar-Talkena † (1997)
Bishop Luciano Pacomio (1997)
Archbishop Angelo Massafra, O.F.M. (1997)
Bishop Florentin Crihălmeanu (1997)
Archbishop Jean-Claude Périsset (1997)
Bishop Piotr Libera (1997)
Bishop Basílio do Nascimento (1997)
Bishop Hil Kabashi, O.F.M. (1997) Leonardo Cardinal Sandri (1997) ### Mario Francesco Cardinal Pompedda † (1998)
Archbishop Marco Dino Brogi, O.F.M. (1998)
Bishop Peter Kwaku Atuahene (1998)
Bishop Filippo Strofaldi † (1998)
Archbishop Wiktor Paweł Skworc (1998)
Bishop Franco Dalla Valle, S.D.B. † (1998)
Archbishop Angelito Rendon Lampon, O.M.I. (1998)
Bishop Tomislav Koljatic Maroevic (1998)
Bishop Francesco Saverio Salerno † (1998)
Archbishop Alessandro D’Errico (1999)
Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio (1999)
Archbishop Alain Paul Charles Lebeaupin (1999)
Bishop Cesare Mazzolari, M.C.C.I. † (1999)
Bishop Pierre Trân Ðinh Tu (1999)
Bishop Rafael Cob García (1999)
Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt, O.S.B. (1999)
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (1999)
Bishop José Luis Redrado Marchite, O.H. (1999)
(Layman) Józef Wesołowski † (2000)
Archbishop Giacomo Guido Ottonello (2000)
Archbishop George Panikulam (2000)
Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello (2000)
Bishop Ivo Baldi Gaburri (2000)
Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi, C.S.Sp. (2000)
Bishop David Laurin Ricken (2000)
Bishop Anton Coşa (2000)
Bishop András Veres (2000) Péter Cardinal Erdő (2000)
Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, C.S.S. (2000)
Bishop Franco Croci (2000)
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (2000) ### Fernando Cardinal Filoni (2001)
Archbishop Henryk Józef Nowacki (2001)
Archbishop Timothy Paul Andrew Broglio (2001)
Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino (2001)
Archbishop Tomash (Tomasz) Bernard Peta (2001)
Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo (2001) Marc Armand Cardinal Ouellet, P.S.S. (2001)
Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi (2001)
Bishop Đura Džudžar (2001)
Bishop Fabio Fabene (2014) ###
Now look at that list again. I have colored in RED the Cardinals who were suspected as members of the group which engineered the election of Bergoglio in the uncanonical Conclave of 2013. They formed a group called by Austen Ivereigh, “Team Bergoglio”. There are at least 3, Cardinal Koch, Bishop of Basel Switzerland might be the fourth.
I have colored in Green, those who were Cardinal Electors in 2013, but whose allegiance in voting is not known. There are 7 of these, not counting Cardinal Koch.
I have colored in BLUE the men whom Bergoglio presumed to name Cardinals. I say presumed, because as an Anti-pope, he has no authority to name Cardinals (To do that you need to hold the petrine munus, which Pope Benedict clearly and textually never renounced.) There are 2 Cardinals in this category.
Three of the Cardinals on this list are publicly known for having criticized the Bergoglian regime: Cardinal Sandri, who is rumored to have bitterly denounced Bergoglio to his face for attacking the Discipline of the Sacraments; Cardinal Caffara who was renowned for denouncing relativism (God rest his soul); and Cardinal Burke, whose reputation is such it need not be summarized here, after his numerous public statements in favor of the Eternal Faith and in criticism of the policies of Bergoglio, even if he continues to hold Bergoglio as the Pope.
The Cardinals and Bishops whose episcopal lineage descends from Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro, are marked with a ### in Black (there are 3); those who descend from Cardinal de Lai, both of whose co-consecrators descend from Cardinal Rampolla, or from Cardinal Gasparri, the secretary of Cardinal Rampolla, are marked with a ### in Red (There are 5, nearly all Sodano men).
I think it is important to note, that in all the cases in which Cardinal Re is not assisting Pope John Paul II as principal consecrator, he is assisting an ally or direct descendant of Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro.
The only reasonable inference that can be made from that, is that Cardinal Re was a member of the St. Gallen Mafia, by adoption. And that would explain why he is now Vice-Dean of Bergoglio’s college of cardinals.
The fact that he was trusted by Pope John Paul II in so many ceremonies of episcopal ordination, shows that he succeed so well in gaining the confidence of the Pope that he served as a sort of minder of his activities during his pontificate. This may imply that Cardinal Re was one of the chief St. Gallen Mafia secret agents in the Vatican for many years, hiding in plain sight.
So the next time you ask why any Cardinal on this list, like Cardinal Burke, may not be doing what you want him to do, read this list and contemplate what it might mean. They might be hedging, so that in the next conclave they elect someone from the House of Cardinal Re, which, alas, might not be a good thing after all.
After centuries of interference in the Election of the Roman Pontiff by the Emperors of Constantinople and of the Holy Roman Empire, by the military, by the Roman Nobility and by rogue Nobles of diverse parts of Italy, Pope Nicholas II decreed a historic Bull which restricted the right of election — which had from ancient times been vested by Saint Peter the Apostle in the whole Church of Rome, and subsequently to the clergy — to the Cardinal Bishops principally, and then to the other Cardinals, the rest of the Clergy and the Faithful of the Diocese of Rome. This Bull led to the formation of the institutions which we know of today as the College of Cardinals and the Conclave. Due to its crucial importance in the history of the regulation of the election of the Roman Pontiff, the From Rome Blog here presents its own English translation of the Latin Text (which can be download in PDF — the authenticity of which I have presumed from internal criteria). — Following the translation, I will give a commentary.
In Nomine Domini
In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Savior, in the One Thousand and Fifty-Ninth year from His Incarnation, in the month of April, in the twelfth indiction, with the sacrosant Gospels laid before Us, with the most Reverend and Blessed Pope Nicholas also presiding in the Patriarchàs Lateran Basilica, which is named the Constantinian: with the most Reverent Bishops, Abbots, Priests and Deacons sitting with him: the same Venerable Pontiff decreeing by Apostolic authority concerning the Election of the Supreme Pontiff, said:
Your Beatitude knows, most beloved Brother (Cardinals), and Co-Bishops, and it is also not hidden to inferior members ( of the clergy), that with the passing of Our predecessor, the divine Stephen, of good memory, how many adversities this Apostolic See, which I serve with God as my author, has born, and how many repeated hammers, and frequent blows, She has been subjected to through the brokers of simonaical heresy: so much, indeed, that the Column of the living God almost seemed to totter, and the net of the Fisherman, with the storms having swelled, would be driven into the depths of shipwreck to be submerged, wherefore if it please thy Brotherhood, We ought, with the God assisting, take care prudently that future cases do not occur, and this by Ecclesiastical statute, lest recurring — far be it — the evils prevail.
The Election of the Pope pertains, first of all, to the Cardinal Bishops, who serve also as Metropolitians, the to the Cardinal Clerics, and the rest of the Clergy, and the People, only proffer their consent to the election.
§1. On which account, having been instructed by Our predecessors, and by the authority of the other Holy Fathers, We decree, and establish, that with the passing of the Pontiff of this Catholic Roman Church, first of all, the Cardinal Bishops, treating most diligently together concerning the election, summon immediately the Cardinal Clerics of Christ; and in this manner let the rest of the Clergy, and the People approach to consent to the new election taking the greatest care beforehand, lest the deadly disease of venality insinuate itself by an occasion, and for that reason let the most religious men be the chief leaders in promoting the election of the Pontiff, but the rest be their followers. Moreover, the certain and even legitimate order here of the election is carefully considered, if it be gathered from having examined the diverse rules of the Fathers, or their deeds, and even that sentence of Blessed Leo, Our predecessor: “No reason permits, that there be had among Bishops, those who have neither been elected from the Clerics, nor requested by the common people, nor consecrated by the co-provincial Bishops with the judgement of the Metropolitans; but because the Apostolic See takes precedence to all other Churches throughout the earth, for that reason She also can have over Her no Metropolitan, the Cardinal Bishops with out doubt serve instead as Metropolitans, who namely, proceed to consecrate the apex of the Apostolic brow, once elected as Bishop“.
The Pope ought to be elected from the womb of the Roman Church if one is found to be suitable, otherwise he is to be elected from another Church.
§2. Moreover, let him be elected from the very womb of the Church, if one is found to be suitable, and/or if one not be found in Her, let him be taken from another; with due honor being served, and reverence for Our beloved son, Henry, who is held as King at the present, and with God conceding hoped as the future Emperor, as We have already conceded to him, just as to the successors of him, who personally begged this right from this Apostolic See.
If the Pope cannot be elected in the City, because of obstacles,
he can be elected elsewhere by the Cardinals, and by others, though few, of whom (We spoke) above.
§3. Wherefore, if the perversity of depraved, and iniquitous men, so prevail, that a pure, sincere and free election cannot be held in the City, the Cardinal Bishops with the religious Clerics, and the Catholic laity, though few, obtain the right of power (ius potestatis) to elect the Pontiff of the Apostolic See, where it might be fitting.
If the elected Pope cannot be enthroned, by these men, here, on account of obstacles, nevertheless he is a true Pope, and can rule the Roman Church, and dispose of all Her faculties.
§4. Plainly, after the election has been completed, if there be a bellicose conflict, and/or if the struggle of any kind of men resists by the earnestness of wickedness, such that he, who has been elected, cannot prevail to be enthroned in the Apostolic See according to the custom, nevertheless, the elect obtains as the true Pope the authority to rule the Roman Church, and to dispose of all Her faculties, which Blessed Gregory, We know, did, before his own consecration.
The pope elected against the form of this Decree is to be punished, as this one was, with his supporters.
§5. On which account, if anyone has been elected, or even ordained, or enthroned, against this Decree of Ours promulgated by Synodal sentence, whether through sedition, and/or presumption, or any guile, let him be cast down by the Divine Authority, and that of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, by a perpetual anathema with his promoters and supporters and followers as one separated from the thresholds of the Holy Church, just as the Anti-Christ, both an invader and destroyer of the whole of Christendom, and let no audience be given him over this, but let him be deposed from every ecclesiastical grade unto whatever was before his, without any objection made, to whom if anyone whatsoever adheres, and/or exhibits any kind of reverence as to the Pontiff, or presumes to defend him in anything, let him be abandoned by equal sentence, which if anyone shows himself to be a violator of this sentence of Our Holy Decree, and has tried to confound the Roman Church by his presumption, and to raise disturbance against this Statute, let him be damned by perpetual anathema and excommunication, and let him be reputed among the impious, who shall not rise again in judgement, let him know the wrath of the Omnipotent One against him, and that of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, whose Church he has presumed to fool, let him know a ravaging madness in this life and in the future; let his dwelling become deserted, and let there be no one who dwells in his tents: let his sons be orphans, and his wife a widow, let him be shaken completely to madness, and may his sons go about begging, and be cast out of their dwellings, may the money-lender ravage all his substance, and may foreigner lay waste to his labors: Let the whole world fight against him, and let all the other elements be against him, and may the merits of all the Saints resting above confound him.
For the observers of this Decree, the Pope prays for the grace of God and pardon for their sins.
§6. Moreover, let the grace of the Omnipotent One protect the observers of this Our decree, and let the authority of the Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul absolve them from all the bonds of their sins.
COMMENTARY
Pope Nicholas II
Oh the faith and zeal of the men of God of ages past! How shining their nobility of mind, how forthright their speech, how determined their mind, how strong their justice against all wickedness, how prudent in particulars, how unbending in ideals and purpose. Many a Catholic reading of the Church in ages past has commented thus of our forebears in faith, who on account of the distance of the ages, we can assuredly count among some of our relatives of old.
What makes them so different from our own age, is that with the passing of time, and the corruption of men, the mystical body of the Antichrist has grown up inside the Church, pretending to be one of the faithful, but deceiving all, to such an extent, that the mass and number of the wicked in the Church has reached critical stage and the likeness of the monster of iniquity is taking form inside the members of the Church long dead and separated from the vital sap of Our Lord, the True Vine of the Father.
We can see openly how less a corrupt age it was, by the few precepts to be had to govern a papal election. This was not because the age knew nothing of Law. The great legal works of the Emperor Justinian and the Roman Jurist Ulpian had long before been written and studied. No, it was the rarity of the boldness of demonic impiety, which is now common day and an every day manifestation, which made this first Papal Decree on the Election of the Popes so simple and direct.
Yet, in its simplicity it shows forth several important legal institutions and principles which would characterize papal law on the election of the Roman Pontiff for the next nearly thousand years. Let us examine them in their order of appearance in the Decree.
Three Conditions for the man Elected
The Ancient and Apostolic custom of the Church of Rome was ever that three conditions prevail for the election of a Roman Pontiff: his selection by the Clergy of the City, his approval by the faithful of the city, his consecration by the Metropolitian, or what we call the suburbican Bishops, of the ecclesiastical province: the Bishop who oversaw the dioceses immediately adjacent to Rome.
This custom was the orderly application of the Apostolic Right by which the Roman Pontiff was elected from the time of the Apostle Peter’s death, and may have been suggested by the Apostle St. Paul, who ministered in the City for a year or more before his own decapitation and martyrdom.
Pope Nicholas II by this decree modifies the ancient custom and restricts the discernment and selection of the one to be elected to the Cardinal Bishops. They are then to summon the other Cardinal Clergy, the rest of the clergy of the City and all the Faithful and ask for their consent.
No Elections in secret
The wisdom of this institution prevented the usurpation of the Church by foreigners, the election of men who were unknown to the local clergy, and or who did not enjoy an honest reputation among the faithful of the city. It also prevented simony — the offering of money for votes — to some extent, since you cannot bribe everyone, and without any obligation of proceeding in secret, the motivation for voting for this one or that, would certainly come out and quickly become known to all.
Respect for Tradition
Pope Nicholas shows his respect for the Apostolic right by quoted Pope Leo the Great, who explains the manner in which the election was conducted in his age, some five centuries before, when all the clergy has the right to vote, not just the Cardinals.
Preference for a Roman
To prevent foreign influence and contro and to guarantee not only the independence of the Church of Rome but that She have a pastor who saw himself as Her shepherd by innate ties and bonds, Pope Nicholas urges the election of a man born at Rome and Roman. This hearkens back to the Old Testament where God required that the people select one of their own kin to rule over them.
Flexibility in non essentials
Pope Nicholas II shows the sanity of the medieval mind, by allowing the election under special circumstances of necessity to be conducted outside the city. There was no fixed or prescribed place for the election, and this prevented it being controlled from beforehand, as well as from being prevented or impeded in its execution.
A Man is made pope by Election, not consecration or enthronement.
Here there is a principle which comes down from at least the time of Pope Gregory the Great, namely, that the man elected Pope, from that moment becomes the pope, even if he has not yet been consecrated a Bishop and even before he is enthroned in the Lateran Basilica (the Cathedral of Rome prior to the 14th century).
Grave Sanctions for those who transgress
Finally, Pope Nicholas II imposes the most grave and extreme sanctions upon those who transgress his Law on Elections: anathema, excommunication, reduction to the state in which he was prior to the election or usurpation. And this punishment is extended to all his promoters, supporters and followers. A promoter is he who encouraged his candidacy, a supporter is he who voted for him, and a follower is he who joined his faction and vied that it prevail.
Just read n. 5 above, if you want to know how a usurper of the office of Pope should be treated for his crime. It makes you understand the moral gravity of the crime, a thing which a godless cleric has no understanding of.
Equity and Wisdom
In this Decree, one can see that Pope Nicholas II is trying to balance the different and disparate forces which were vying to control the election of the Roman Pontiff in his own age, and to place that election securely in the hands of those who could be more trusted to elect a man of God, without however, restricting the process so much as to prevent a man of God being elected. His emphasis that the holier members of the Church take a principle part in the election is a strong reminder to our own age of the folly of legislation which thinks that in the precise observance of minutiae one can guarantee holiness. For this reason, Nicholas II promulgated a law which was to have a lasting effect on papal legislation for a thousand years. May God grant the clergy of Rome a similar wisdom and courage to execute their duties before God.
Criticism
Pope Nicholas II has gone to his reward, so I will allow myself to make one criticism of his papal law, and that is this: by restricting the right to vote to Bishops alone he imposed on the Roman Church the practice which prevailed in the provinces and in the Eastern Churches. This ended up helping the papacy, in one sense, to have men who had experience in government and fiscal management, but, on the other hand, tended to restrict candidates to the class of the landed gentry. It would end the habit of popular candidates, who sometimes, not always, in the past had been men who corrected the wrongs and injustice of the landed class and returned the Apostolic See to a more evangelical road.
What if, God forbid, Pope Benedict XVI dies while the Cardinal Electors remain fast with the Antipope?
I get a lot of questions from the Catholic Faithful who hold that Benedict is still the Pope because they simply follow the norm of Canon Law, unlike the precipitous and rash College of Cardinals who did not even implement canons 40 and 41 following the Declaratio of Pope Benedicct XVI on Feb. 11, 2013. For that reason, the Cardinals are in de facto schism from Christ and His Church, because they have violated canon 359 and Universi Dominici Gregis, n. 37, by electing another Pope when there was no legal sede vacante.
For that reason many of the faithful worry that the Petrine Succession might be abolished or lost, if when Benedict dies, the Cardinals do not convene in Conclave to elect his successor. This is because, the current papal law, published in an age in which there has not be an Anti-pope for nearly 500 years, does not address what is to happen if it should be that all the Cardinal Electors who are canonically valid (appointed by Popes John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI) omit convening in Conclave after Benedict’s death.
In such a case, whatever Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Monsignori, Priests and Deacons, who are incardinated in the Diocese of Rome or at the Vatican, remain in communion with Benedict and assemble after his death, whomsoever they elect by a simply majority will be the Pope. In such an election the laity can also participate, since the Apostolic Right pertains to the whole Church. — If Arcibishop Vigano shows at such an assembly, he would probably be surely elected.
The Church desperately needs a popular candidate for the papacy, because, as in times prior to the law of Pope Nicholas II, In Nomine Domini, the Church is need of a dire correction in its pastoral objectives and needs a reformer who will return the Faith to Her rightful queenship of governance in the Church. Pope Benedict XVI by his evangelical prudence or by mistake, has providentially prepared, perhaps, the next papal election to proceed in just such a manner.
14th of December 1542. King James V. of Scotland held his seven-day-old baby daughter Mary in his arms and with his last breath may have whispered to her?
‘My darling lassie, I’m so sorry to leave you in these dreadful times surrounded by devils. Now you will be queen, as I fear my life slipping away’.
With the death of James V. dawned an era that was about to change the world, and especially Scotland for the worst.
The Reformation and the doom and gloom of Protestantism that would plunge the country into the bloodiest period it had ever witnessed in its troubled history.
Never before or since had there been a more devious collection of contemptuous Vultures accumulated on the political stage of Scotland or England who created havoc and division, that would last for hundreds of years.
The number one culprit in the scenario was without a doubt John Knox, who betrayed everything starting with God, Queen, and Country and that was before he started to get serious.
Henry VIII and his illegitimate daughter Elizabeth I…. came in second and third though in all honesty it was a photo finish.
A whole posse of Scottish so called Nobles are included in the scenario, and if one can imagine the henchmen of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi party and the horrors that they committed prior to and during the second world war, then that will give one a pretty clear idea of the Scottish Nobility at the time.
The devil’s personal servant the illegitimate half brother of Queen Mary of Scotland, James Stuart, Prior of St. Andrews, later to become the Earl of Moray, who was a murderous lying cheat and protector of Knox.
The Earl of Bothwell, Morton, Ruthven, James and Andrew Melville, along with the sadistic child abuser George Buchanan ‘theologian’? to mention but a few all pursued demonic ideals and forced the Scottish Proletariat to follow them.
I will include the author J. Mackintosh who’s History of Scotland, circa 1891, is almost dedicated to the promotion of the devil’s own faith, Protestantism.
The Reign of James V had given hope to Scotland
When Europe was on the verge of the Reformation the Scottish king James IV had been killed in battle at Flodden in September 1513. October 1513 his son an infant was crowned James V at Scone in Perth and his mother was named as Regent, but this only lasted for one year due to her marriage with the Earl of Angus. Some of the of nobles wanted the Duke of Albany to be Regent, he was a son of Alexander Stuart a brother of King James III and after the infant king was next heir to the crown, he had been living in France and accepted the role and arrived in Scotland in May 1515.
The task of restoring order among the nobles was enormously difficult he was French in manner and custom and was at the disadvantage of being unacquainted with the habits of the Scots, although a very talented man he soon found the obstacles that the nobles put in front of him impossible to deal with and within a short space of time realised the hopelessness of his task.
He returned often to France to escape the constant turmoil and after a fluctuating sway of eight years his regency ended in 1524. The Earl of Angus who during the duke of Albany’s Regency had been up to some missdoings had been forced to flee from Scotland and with the concurrence of the Earl of Arran, Angus returned and started to push for power. He took on the mantle of chancellor and made his uncle treasurer. He became the guardian of the young king James V, though in reality he held James as a prisoner and they compelled the young king to sign everything which they presented to him, with the aid of some loyal nobles the young king escaped from the imprisonment imposed upon him and from that day in May 1528, until the end of his life James hunted and pursued Angus and his accomplices with relentless vigour and severity.
The Earl of Angus’s estates were forfeited and he fled to England under the protection of Henry VIII where he stayed until the plot with Henry, to return to Scotland and steal the baby queen Mary after the death of King James V.
Once James had found his freedom he started making drastic changes in the government. He appointed the archbishop of Glasgow as chancellor and leaned more towards the clergy to help him govern the country and the king pursued his policy of crushing the nobles. 1541 parliament passed an act confirming the revocation of all grants of land customs borough rents fishing and gifts, which the king had been compelled to sign while being held prisoner under the Earl of Angus.
Another act which enraged the nobles annexed to the crown the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland the act also took over Bothwell, Preston, Douglas, Tantallon, Crawford, Lindsay, Bonhill, Jedbourgh Forest, Glammis, Liddesdale, Evandale and the Earldom of Angus and everything that belonged to it. These acts were within the constitution but overbold, as the crown had not the power to enforce them the nobles were nervously apprehensive and they were sure to make a move against the king.
1542, Henry VIII demanded King James V to attend a conference at York, James failed to attend and Henry proclaimed war on Scotland. James mustered his army and marched to meet his enemy, now the opportunity arose for the nobles to destroy their king.
He was daring and fearless in leading his army but the traitorous Nobles turned back with their men and left the king defenceless, not unlike the scenarios that William Wallace and Bonnie Prince Charlie also endured, James had no alternative other than to turn back.
Shortly afterwards the king managed to raise a small force to be led by Oliver Sinclair as its commander he was a close friend of the king and James knew he couldn’t trust the nobles, as the army was approaching English ground the nobles started arguing with the commander, and a great deal of confusion arose as to who was to do this or that.
The English commander, Lord Dacre, observed this and while the Scots were arguing with each other three hundred English cavalry dashed into the Scottish ranks and slaughtered them. As these were his only loyal soldiers he knew he was finished it sapped all his strength and he died with his newborn baby Mary in his arms on l4th of December 1542.
The Reformation brought a distorted notion of society to Scotland
To understand this, one must go directly to the official word of the Protestant church referring to its power over the civil government.
‘This power and ecclesiastical polity is different and distinct from that which is called the civil power, and belongs to the civil government of the commonwealth; Although they are both of God and tend to the same end, if they be rightly used, namely, to advance the glory of God, and to have good subjects.
This ecclesiastical power flows immediately from God and the Mediator, Christ Jesus, and is spiritual, not having a temporal head on earth, but only Christ, the spiritual King and Governor of His Church.
Therefore this power and polity of the Church should lean upon the Word of God immediately, as the only ground thereof, and should be taken from the pure fountains of the Scriptures, hearing the voice of Christ, the only spiritual King, and being ruled by His laws….
The civil power should command the spiritual to exercise and perform their office according to the Word of God.
The spiritual rulers should require the Christian magistrates to administer justice and punish vice; and to maintain the liberty and peace of the Church within their bound….
The magistrate ought to assist, maintain, and fortify the jurisdiction of the Church.
The ministers ought to assist their princes in all things agreeable to the Word of God, provided they do not neglect their own charge by involving themselves in civil affairs.’
What I seem to understand from the mentioned constitution, is that it leans heavily towards the powers of the land and to protect the Church a Church that was imposed upon the Proletariat, and the absolute destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and as has been seen in later years the turmoil against the Episcopalian Church, and the split into 1000s of factions of the Protestant Churches.
The Scottish Protestants seemed to think that they were the only people capable of determining the way that God should be worshipped, contrary to the way that Jesus Christ wished.
Yet, St. Peter and the Apostles were ordained to carry the Word and the Message of Christ, and to ordain in His name and appoint successors on earth for them to continue spreading His Word. Lets face it for over 1500 years these appointed people carried out a pretty good method of going about what they did. Eleven very frighten men and some women in fear of death brought His Word all the nations of the world, not all accept it but all respect it.
Yet in Scotland in the mid sixteenth century all that was undone to the extent that even the very grass roots preacher, in the humblest of parishes had to be appointed or nominated by the Noble, or Earl, or Lord, actually by anyone as long as they were above the Proletariat and this system existed for hundreds of years, and the truth is that was what created the original grounds for the Reformation.
The people were conned and the Nobility took the spoils and riches of the Catholic Church and set up the system of a Bourgeoisie Church.
Perhaps the biggest thought provoker was the cancellation of the foundation of Christianity the feast and celebration of Christmas and Easter the very essence of the faith.
As a Catholic, my understanding of Jesus Christ is that he is the Son of God. But, I fail to find in the constitution of the Protestant Church this acknowledgment.
The term Mediator is used King and Governor is also used, these terms could refer to anyone and was this the reason for the abolishment of Easter the most important feast for all Christians, as the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead proved that he was The Son of God…
To be a follower of Jesus you have to accept and believe this if you don’t well try again ’cause if you want to He will come to you only if you want Him.
From the early days of the reformation in Scotland it was total chaos, as this was a business move for the Nobles and a handful of greedy power grabbing vain men, who preyed on the weakness of the poor serf classes who were easily aroused by their false hopes and promises that never materialized as we now look back from the twenty first century.
Over four hundred years have passed from the days of Knox and in reality it is only since the end of the Second World War though mostly from the 1960s onward, and the great labour movements have the Proletariat moved out of slums and into slightly better housing and education.
Prior to this period under the Protestant rule from London by the undemocratic government based there ruling the Scots through the House of Lords a government or parliament of the Bourgeoisie, lets face it the Protestant thing did not aid the Proletariat.
A state religion developed for the upper classes who reaped all the cream off the top and created a power for themselves, with the support of the Protestant Church’s leaders.
The Scots prior to the reformation enjoyed one of the most progressive free societies in the then known world. The political and religious freedom was centuries ahead of England and the cultural exchanges between our European neighbours were superb.
For hundreds of years the English had been constantly at war and had neglected the real issues in the quality of life of their peoples, and the Hierarchy constantly suppressed the Proletariat mostly for the purpose to fight wars for them as still exists today.
I am sure that the Scots and many decent English prior to the Reformation, wanted desperately to live in harmony and peace and the rulers of Scotland up to the death of James V. encouraged what was then a good deal of democracy, that was eyed by the English Bourgeoisie as a threat to its totalitarian state.
This is something that in the twentieth century one has witnessed throughout the world, brought directly into our homes by the technology that is available these days. The most prominent issue in the present day life of the Scottish population is the judicial system, how can a society be free and equal when the Courts of Law and the Judiciary are so strongly entwined with the Church of Scotland.
I have stated that the end of Protestantism is imminent, though I must emphasize that the dying beast has a sharp bite with strong jaws that cannot easily be prized open.
Until recently the Judges of the Court of Session the highest court in the land, have paraded themselves unashamedly in their ridiculous outdated robes and wigs, at St. Giles the Church stolen from Scottish Catholics in Edinburgh on Protestant appointed days.
I cannot see what these acts do to contribute to an equal and democratic society for everyone of any persuasion to enjoy, without the subliminal feeling of inadequacy.
These ‘special’ days are also attended by the Bourgeoisie from Scottish Universities and medical associations who all by their very presence at these events, are actually endorsing Protestant dominance over the Scottish Proletariat, and as we now live in a multifarious society this is an outrageous scandal and humiliation towards the whole of the image of the Scottish nation in the eyes of the civilized democratic world, to which part Scotland has yet to participate.
The more that I delve into the history of the Reformation and life after it brings a wry smile to my lips, and to come to the conclusion that one would have to be an out and out idiot to believe all the gush that has been stuffed down Protestant throats but what can one say when Protestant stalwarts such as Meikle, and not opposed by one of his contemporaries the so called ’eminent scholar’ Professor Gordon Donaldson that it is grand to be a bad Christian but great to be a good Protestant?
For many years Knox had been in league with known English collaborators, Cockburn of Ormiston, George Wishart, David and George Forrest, and many others had been planted by the English under Henry VIII, after Scotland had been invaded in 1544 and with the destruction of the Scottish religious institutions by the English allowed the Knox led traitors to lay down plans for the over throw of the Catholic people of Scotland, and eventually the Scottish government by bad Christians but Good Protestants.
The hard and true facts about Scotland as a nation she had enjoyed independence for over two hundred years until the ugly head of the reformation sold the soul of Scotland to the English, without a doubt due to the leadership of the John Knox’s Protestant Church from then until now, Scotland has ceased to be a nation in her own right.
Having lived in many European countries and Hong Kong over the past twenty years I am sad to say that so many Europeans think that Scotland is just an area in the north of England and that is the people with some understanding of geography others less knowledgeable though not less intelligent scratch their heads and look bemused, as to the exact location and purpose of claiming to be Scottish rather than British as in the eyes of the world the nation of Scotland the country is no more than an English colony with tens of 1000s of English troops based in Scotland in one guise or another even today!
Although I have had quite a few heated discussions with foreign nationals over the status of my country of birth I cannot other than agree that Scotland is nothing more than a satellite state of England.
So let me tell you the story of how Scotland fell…
The Hatred and Bitterness of Henry VIII
Henry VIII
After Henry VIII’s apostasy from the Catholic Church, his bitterness and evilly-distorted hatred towards the Scottish people was brought to the fore, along with his detestation of anyone who opposed him. His hatred against the Scottish Cardinal Beaton, who was the chief opponent of his wicked policies, was pre-eminent.
Many of the Scots nobles also had plots to murder the Cardinal and Henry offered a reward to anyone who would kill him. Cardinal Beaton evaded his enemies during 1544, but all around him were major plotters notably, the Earl of Cassillis, the Earl of Glencairn. The Laird of Brunston, the Laird of Ormiston and the Laird of Calder and a Protestant preacher was implicated; all were traitorously deeply in league with Henry VIII. and were plotting the murder of Cardinal Beaton.
The Protestant preacher George Wishart had the support of the Earls and Lairds and Henry and during January 1546 he was preaching at Haddington against the Cardinal accompanied by John Knox he was apprehended by the Earl of Bothwell and was taken to Edinburgh and shortly afterword was conveyed to St. Andrews. He was tried and convicted of heresy and implicated in the plot to murder Cardinal Beaton the last bastion of Scottish freedom against Henry VIII and his fiendish ambitions to enslave the Scots.
Wishart was condemned to death and was executed on 11 march 1546 for his part in the invasion by English forces that had destroyed the major Scottish learning institutions and Abbeys.
Saint Andrews’ Castle (click for credits)
Cardinal Beaton had endeavoured in every way possible to strengthen his position by discrediting the rogue nobles, constantly the vultures were hovering and late in May 1546 the Cardinal received word that Henry was preparing another invasion of Scotland and he put his castle on a defensive footing for the forthcoming English attack.
The Cardinal was in residence at his castle opposite the magnificent cathedral and centre of pilgrimage in St. Andrews the ancient capital of Scotland named after the brother of St. Peter the Apostle because the relics of the bones of St. Andrew first arrived at this place in Scotland.
Early on the morning of 29th. May 1546 Cardinal Beaton was brutally murdered.
Norman Lesley and James Melville along with a group of armed traitors told the gatekeeper that they had arranged an interview with Cardinal Beaton as he had no knowledge of this and noting they were all heavily armed the gatekeeper told them to wait until he reported to the Cardinal, the traitors immediately pounced on the helpless fellow and stabbed him to death in the name of Protestantism. Within a matter of minutes the gang were inside the castle grounds but the noise of the commotion aroused the defenders.
Cardinal David Beaton, Last Scottish Cardinal of an independent Scotland
The Cardinal was woken and rose from his bed as he was coming downstairs from his bed chamber Lesley and Melville with the others in the dastardly party confronted him and ruthlessly murdered him Henry VIII had his wish come true. From that moment marked the last days of freedom for Scotland as an nation in her own right as the country was to be plunged into hundreds of years of Presbyterian doom and gloom.
29th of May 1546 was and still is a tragic day in the annuls of Scottish history! Cardinal Beaton was one of the last bastions of an independent Scottish nation in her own right, and with his murder Scotland was thrown into the hands of evil and treacherous devils.
Henry VIII unbeknown to him had less than a year of his life left perhaps for invoking the name of God the demon king of England was riddled by the venereal disease syphilis.
His bones were to rot and he would go blind and his brain would be totally deteriorated and paralysis would encompass his whole body, a dreadful agonising death confronted Henry as he pursued the destruction of the Scots and the holy faith; Scotland was thrown into a period of unmatched turmoil in her history.
The murderous conspirator’s ranks were soon swelled to over one hundred and fifty traitors within the castle at St. Andrew’s
The Earl of Arran who was the regent a limp wrist fellow tried for more that a year to oust the rogues.
During April 1547 John Knox joined the rebels he had been in hiding awaiting a safe time to return.
Knox had wanted to be a Catholic priest but he didn’t like the discipline and faith demanded by the Church of Rome, or for that matter the law and order of his own Scottish government as he was paid and supported by the English invaders waiting in their war ships laying off the coast at St.Andrew’s. He rejected his faith a faith that fed and educated him then his government and was in league with the enemy who had burned murdered and destroyed half of Scotland and her people for hundreds of years this is not unique in history that the common people can be duped and brainwashed into the desires of one man with lieutenants of a similar train of thought as can be seen from recent history.
The Scottish Parliament asked her French allies to come to their aid to get the English ships away from the ancient capital and to help recapture the castle, in the hope of keeping Scotland free from English domination. June 1547 French galleys attacked the English and destroyed them and recaptured the castle after a bloody battle. The traitors surrendered to the French commander and were deported to France John Knox was among those imprisoned and taken to France. Though on the intervention of the English government he would be set free two years later to continue his insatiable desire to crush the Catholics of Scotland.
Queen Mary drove Knox from Scotland
Mary Queen of Scots, by Unknown artist,painting,circa 1560-1592
Although the monster Henry VIII had died in January 1547 and the French had helped to take back the castle at St. Andrew’s his evil policy was continued for the destruction of Scotland, and the search for the child Mary Queen of Scots. Lord Hertford now titled the Duke of Somerset was engaged of bringing the Scots to their knees with the great atrocities that the English were imposing on the nation. The Scots had no army to defend herself and what little defenders they had were slaughtered at Pinkie in the later part of 1541.
Emissaries were dispatched to France with the young queen Mary for her safekeeping.
The following year seven thousand French forces landed in Scotland and they mustard the Scots into some form of self belief to rise something of an army and the Scots together with their old trusted allies fought the English who still had control of many castles in Scotland, not without tremendous battles and struggles against the formidable fortifications the enemy had enveloped around her plundering murderous armies did the allies give the enemy a taste of there own medicine and drove the remnants of the invaders out of the country.
By 1550 at last Scotland had rid herself of the oppressors but an uneasy peace rained and the seeds of discontent had been sown and John Knox had been freed by the French as he was in the employ of the English where he was a Royal chaplain though he had never taken any vows to Edward VI. who was a boy and England was being run by the Duke of Northumberland who was acting as regent.
He had assumed this mantle from the discredited Duke of Somerset the butcher who ruthlessly tried to obliterate the Scots when he was the Earl of Hertford, he was to lose his head-on the chopping block in the turmoil of the English political mayhem.
During the next few years there was much to-ing and fro-ing over the reform movement in Scotland, and the child queen Mary of Scots was in the safekeeping of the French meanwhile in England another Mary the daughter of Henry VIII queen Mary 1 of England married Philip II of Spain in 1554 and restored the Roman Catholic Church into England.
On Mary’s accession to throne of England John Knox deserted his post as royal chaplain to the court of England and fled abroad again due to his popularity? In Scotland the young queen Mary’s mother Mary of Guise, the widow of King James V was exerting all her influence to take over as Regent, the Earl of Arran’s Regency was a flop and through the vacillating character of the government his estimation in the eyes of the nation was zero.
Arran resigned the regency of Scotland in April 1554 and the queen mother Mary of Guise took his place she was a woman of exceptional talents and had during her time in Scotland acquired a love and knowledge of the character and habits of her adopted nation. She ruled with remarkable moderation and showed herself to be tactful and considerate but she had many adverse influences and circumstances to contend with.
The nobles were never to be trusted and John Knox returned to Scotland in September 1555 and was defiantly preaching against his mother church the prior of St. Andrew’s who later became the Regent Moray the Earl of Argyle then Lord Lorne and others who had an eye on the church’s property were supporting Knox as he was an ideal patsy for them to manipulate or so they thought as he became the puppet master.
Knox was preaching zealously and venomously against the doctrines of the Catholic Church and he wanted to impose on the Scots the strict and drastic theocracy of John Calvin a Frenchman living in Geneva. His theology is centred on predestination under which the elect are predestined by God to salvation.
John Knox had betrayed his own church and country and sided with Henry VIII now he wanted his fellow Scots to believe his ways to be good, true and faithful. He had an intense hatred against the Scottish Catholic Church perhaps because he never rose above the position of a scribe.
The Catholic clergy were alarmed at the sermons Knox was preaching against the church and they realised the ulterior motives of the nobles, who were now openly supporting Knox. Many of the nobles had been in exile living under the wing of Henry VIII and had slunk back into Scotland after their protectors death during the weak regency of Arran.
Knox was summoned to appear before the court in Edinburgh on 15th of May 1556 but when Erskine and other nobles turned out with a massive force and demanded the citation to be withdrawn, instead of appearing before the court Knox preached to the gullible forces under the command of Erskine and the other rogue nobles.
Knox fled Scotland once again soon after this as other law-abiding nobles were searching for him and he escaped to Geneva, meanwhile as Scotland seemed to be slipping into a dark abyss the rest of the world was enjoying the discovery of new and colourful worlds.
Columbus had found the Americas by accident as he sailed to discover a new sea-route to the spice world of India spices were a vital part of life especially for keeping foodstuffs preserved. Pepper was the most valuable spice and accounted for seventy per cent of the requirements of Europe and the best of pepper was native to the sub continent of India, therefore whoever discovered a fast route to India could control the economic power of the spices. Great explorers emerged such as Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Vespucci and Magellan on tiny skips they sailed uncharted seas and brought back news of new discoveries of lands and peoples.
Instead of being a part of this new adventures the Scots economy and resources had been drained with over forty years of war with the English under Henry VIII.
Or, Why did Pope Benedict XVI do what he did on Feb. 11, 2013?
by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
Pope Benedict XVI, who has been lauded by many as a brilliant theologian, is in my opinion, a more brilliant chess player, for he has defeated the AntiChurch with the most incredibly subtle and effective manuever which could ever be conceived, and which takes a great deal of study to recognize, if you, like myself, took at face value the hearsay which has been put out for the last six years.
Admittedly, the honor and glory for it belong first of all to God, Who enlightens all men and inspires them at times to do things mere mortals could never conceive of. But also, thanks goes to God for sending Our Lady to Fatima to reveal to Sr. Lucia a secret which has until this day remained hidden, so as to give sound counsel to the true Successor of Saint Peter in the End Times.
How Pope John Paul II strengthened the Bulwark of the Church against the AntiChurch
I believe that with that knowledge, Pope John Paul II did 3 things: first, he chose Joseph Ratzinger to come to Rome and prepared him to succeed him (perhaps because he sensed that Ratzinger had the gift of prophecy); second, in 1983, he added the term munus to canon 332 §2, to constrain all of his successors to the obligation of renouncing the Petrine Munus so as to resign the papacy; and third, in 1996, he promulgated a new law on Papal Elections, which would nullify any attempt of the AntiChurch to usurp the Papacy or elect successors to AntiPopes (by requiring that all valid conclaves meet within 20 days after the death of valid popes).
Pope John Paul II warned the Church of the AntiChurch which was rising. He beatified Ann Catherine Emmerich (on the Vigil of St. Francis of Assisi, in 2004) to give papal approval to her own visions in this regard. It should not be surprising then, that in secret, or I should say, in the bright light of day, in papal acts he prepared the Church against that Evil to come!
By these three acts, Pope John Paul II set the chess board and enabled his chosen successor, Ratzinger to enact a stratagem of deception to defeat the forces of darkness.
The Forces of the AntiChurch struck quickly
No sooner than Pope John Paul II had died that the St Gallen Mafia, which had been meeting in that Swiss town for some years, mobilized to put Bergoglio on the Apostolic Throne in the Conclave of 2005. Bergoglio, as is now known, garnered the most votes after Ratzinger. In his campaign to get elected he promised radical financial reforms in the Vatican, so he could pose as a savior and reformer, though his agenda was that of Cardinal Martini, to make the Church into the Bride of the Anti-Christ.
Recently an Argentine Priest revealed, that Pope Benedict, soon after his election in 2005, had asked Bergoglio to be Secretary of State (see report here). Benedict intended by this offer to diffuse the conflict which arose in the Conclave, and to draw out the real intentions of Bergoglio. Bergoglio’s refusal manifested his deceit, because all the reasons given in the Conclave for his election, which in truth could be done by a Secretary of State, if honest, would have spurred him to accept Benedict’s offer. But without the papal authority, his evil and malign agenda could not be advanced. — By this sign of offering the olive branch of peace, Benedict signaled to his own supporters, that after himself there would come an Anti-pope (cf. Prophecy of St Malachy).
With the threefold knowledge of the future had from the Third Secret, from Pope John Paul II and from his own experience in the CDF, Pope Benedict now knew what he had to do. He knew Bergoglio wanted power and would be blinded by its offer. He took preparations to defend the Church with tradition and as the pressure built from the St Gallen Mafia, he crafted their defeat in secret. At the same time, he openly warned the faithful, that the Message of Fatima was about to be fulfilled (On May 13, 2010, saying “We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete…”).
Benedict knew that removing the Lavender Mafia from the Vatican was key to defending the Church. But as court documents revealed, in the WikiLeaks controversy, as that effort led to the destruction of the careers of many sodomites, they moved against Benedict to have him removed. His Pontificate had removed hundreds perverts from the clergy.
As I have written before, there was in my estimation a formal attempt at a Coup d’etat (see report here). And this was actually put in motion, with the intent to effectively imprison Pope Benedict (see Report here). — The Conclave pact in 2005 among the warring factions of Ratzinger (Church) and Bergoglio (Anti-Church) also prepared the way (see report here). But, with their cause lost at that conclave, the St. Gallen Mafia would have to wait for Benedict to resign, because being old, he revealed that he was inclined to resign in a few years, anyhow. As he lingered on, however, their rage and impatience exploded.
The restoration of the Ancient Mass (July 7, 2007) and the expansion of the permissions for its use (April 30, 2011) caused a general outburst among the wicked clerics. I myself know this took place in the Italian Bishop’s Conference in 2011, because a Bishop who attended told me how Cardinals and Bishops stood up, one after another, and said the most vile things against Benedict. I also know personally, from the testimony of a Sicilian Businessman, who was in Shanghai, that the Cardinal of Palermo had warned that Benedict could die within a year from poor health. The St Gallen Controlled Media expanded this and reported it as if the Cardinal has said that Benedict had a year to live or else. That report was published around Feb. 11, 2012! (note the date)
Benedict’s Master Stroke
Pope Benedict XVI then played his master stroke. In the Summer of 2012 he indicated to Cardinal Bertone that he was going to resign. He discussed the matter with no one but his secretary Ganswein and a few others. I believe that he wrote the text of abdication in the Fall of 2012. I also postulate that he intentionally showed the Latin text (the invalid one) and a faulty German translation (which makes it appear the Latin is a valid formula) to members of the St Gallen Mafia, to obtain their consent to it. By that act he sealed their doom.
Because only one who was fluent in Latin and knowledgeable about Canon Law and who accepted the traditional metaphysics of the Church would be able to see that the resignation by that formula would be invalid. Ratzinger further prepared the ground by emphasizing for years before, that his favorite theologian was Saint Bonaventure. This caused scholars, like myself, to start studying St. Bonanveture’s Scholatic method for textual analysis of the signification of expressions, which is unparalleled among all the Doctors of the Church.
The only thing is, that Benedict began to give signs of the truth, not only for the sake of the Faithful, but to annoy the St Gallen Mafia. He kept wearing the papal cassock, retained the titles of Your Holiness and signed with PP. Benedictus XVI, and continued to give the papal blessing. He did these things to get faithful Catholics to examine the text of resignation and discover it was invalid. — He did this also, because, I believe, he was obeying Our Lady’s word at Fatima, in which She had revealed that there would come a time in which the Catholic world thought there were 2 popes, but only one of which was the true pope. The one who was the true Pope would continue to wear white, the other would usurp the office; and that the Anti-Church would attack the true Pope and the faithful gathered about him.
By an invalid resignation Pope Benedict has canonically invalidated everything Bergoglio has done, can do, and can ever do! Bergoglio is now an AntiPope because of the clever trick Benedict played on him. And Bergoglio is so entangled by this stratagem of Benedict that he cannot admit its existence, because if he does, he must give up his claim to the papacy.
If Benedict should die, then there will be no valid Successor of Saint Peter unless the pre-Bergoglian Cardinals meet in conclave within 20 days. Otherwise, as Pope John Paul II declares in the promulgation of Universi Dominici Gregis, at the end of the text, any action the Cardinal Electors take will be invalid. If they fail to do this, the Church will not be bereft of a pope, because, as Pope John Paul II taught in UDG’s prologue, the institution of the College is “not necessary for a valid election” of the Roman Pontiff: there is still the ancient Apostolic Law regarding the right of the Roman Church to elect the Pope.*
Benedict has defeated “Francis”!
Note: I wish to publicly apologize to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for anything I have said in criticism of him, since it was not until today that I understood what he had did and why he had done it, nor that as Pope he was acting for the good of the Church in the best and only way he could see to do, acting on the basis of the counsels of Our Lady and Pope John Paul II. — Finally, I entertain the possibility that some Cardinals know of this grand stratagem of Benedict and that is why they act so dumb when asked about the question of validity or invalidity of the resignation.
FOOTNOTE:
* The right of election will fall to those Catholics of the Diocese Rome, who recognize that Benedict always was the only true pope, and that Bergoglio was always and is only, and nothing more, an Antipope. See my Disputed Question on Defecting Cardinals, here.
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In 1812, the godless Jerome Bonaparte, now King of the French puppet state of Westphalia dissolved the monasteries and seized the property of her convent. She was forced to take refuge with a local widow. To the left, you can see a picture of the house where she would live for nearly the next 12 years.
He took the name Urban II, recalling the Saint and Martyr by that name who reigned on the See of Peter at the beginning of the Third Century.
The next Nazi collaborator was Bishop Alois Hudal, whose co-consecrator was Bishop Ferdinand S. Pawlikowski, a Rampolla man. Historical sources also indicate that Hudal was promoted to Bishop by none other than Cardinal Merry del Val, a Rampolla man and close collaborator with Rampolla.
But there is one Bishop who gives the faithful hope, by his words and example: the Most Rev. René Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi. This is because, since February 2013, he has been an outspoken critique of the Resignation of Pope Benedict, the election of Jorge Bergoglio and the consistent heretical and erratic behavior of that man. You can read his writings and musings at his blog, 
He was so highly respected as an administrator of God’s House that Pope Paul VI promoted him to the Bishopric of Pensacola-Talahasse in 1975. Pope John Paul II, in 1983, then promoted him again to the Bishopric of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he served until his retirement for reasons of health at nearly 74 years of age, in 1997.
