Tag Archives: Heresy

ITALY: Bishop of Palestrina “excommunicates” Don Santonocito for saying “Bergoglio is not the Pope”

Canonical commentary by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Traduzione italiana

Don Natale Santonocito, a priest of the suburbican diocese of Palestrina, was excommunicated yesterday by Msgr. Mauro Parmeggiani (yes, the same name as the cheese*), the Bishop of Palestrina-Tivoli, who declared an excommunication in virtue of canon 1364 for “heretical and schismatic” teachings.

The official Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Italy newspaper, L’Avvenire, says in the article above, that the priest was given an opportunity of legal defense with a lawyer assigned to him, ex officio. — In previous public statements, Don Santonocito said he would not oppose the extra-juridical process (a canonical process undertaken by a superior without the presence of a tribunal) because he did not recognize the appointment of Msgr. Parmeggiani as valid, it having been made by Pope Francis and not Pope Benedict XVI.

Father Santonocito holds that the Apostolic See is vacant after the death of Benedict and that Pope Francis by reason of his manifest heresy is ipso facto excommunicated and thus not the pope.

The excommunication was declared not imposed, since the announcement of the Diocesan Chancery cites canon 1364’s provision for latae sententiae excommunication.

This excommunication is null and void, in my opinion, for its error in ascribing Don Santonocito’s views to a crime punishable under canon 1364 for “heresy” or “schism”, since holding that a papal renunciation was invalid, when it was invalid, and hence that a conclave was invalid when it was invalid, are neither heretical nor schismatic acts, punishable by the Code of Canon Law. Don Santonocito has made clear in his many videos that he refuses communion with those he holds to be in manifest heresy (Pope Francis etc.) and thus cannot be held to be either a heretic or schismatic by intention. And without the intention to violate Canon 1364, a person cannot be punished.

The notice in the above news article tries to make it appear that Don Santonocito was sufficiently and duly notified of his errors and given a chance to retract them, but it is clear that Bishop Parmeggiani proceeded with a very shallow and incorrect view of the precise position of Don Santonocito.

Bishop Parmeggiani cannot, in my view, be excused of gravely violating the rights an good name of Don Natale Santonocito, because he has already received dozens if not hundreds of petitions to convoke a Provincial Council to hear the charges that Jorge Mario Bergoglio does not hold a valid claim to the Apostolic Throne. This makes Bishop Parmeggiani legally presumed to be in a state of bad will, precisely because he should have referred the case of Don Natale Santonocito to the Provincial Council, since what Don Natale is saying directly pertains to the charges in the Sutri Initiative. Bad will must also be presumed because the charges of heresy and schism to not apply to Don Natale Santonocito’s publicly affirmed positions.

By proceeding against Don Santonocito himself, and without bringing the matter before his diocesan tribunal, where the judges are supposed to be both learned in ecclesiastical jurisprudence and impartial, the Bishop has furthermore shown prejudice of aforethought against Don Santonocito.

In fact, I do not believe jurists trained in ecclesiastical right would have held Don Natale’s statements configurable under the delicts of heresy or schism, since all the classical sources of ecclesiastical right, expressly say such disagreements of opinion about papal elections and abdications are not such delicts.

Finally, the malice of Msgr. Parmeggiani is made most evident by the terms of his penal decree against Don Natale, which forbids him “to receive the Sacraments”. That blanket statement means that poor Don Natale, even if penitent, cannot go to confession again for the rest of his life. How is this in any way pastoral? Nay, it is clear that his bishop has an ideological-political motivation contrary to the entire Catholic Faith. — Even Heretics and Schismatics are allowed to receive the Sacrament of Penance, as this is the required means for them to be received back into the Church.

In short, Don Natale’s Bishop has shut the door in his face and nailed it shut. And for what?

Msgr. Mauro Parmeggiani is the first Bishop in the Roman Province to take public action which shows that he is an adherent to the heresies, blasphemies and apostasies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. There are 14 other such Bishops in the province who have also been petitioned.

Supporters of the Sutri Initiative or of Don Santonocito can now appeal to the other 14 bishops and demand an immediate convocation of the Provincial Council to address the grave crimes committed against Don Santonocito and his serious allegations against Pope Francis. This is the true Catholic and juridical approach, it is also the true Synodal approach the Church has always used in the past in such grave matters pertaining to the Apostolic See, impeded by dubious claims of pretenders to the Throne of Saint Peter.

Don Santonocito’s own errors lie in thinking that just because he can discern manifest heresy in another person or superior, that that person is not a member of the Church nor holds an office. But this contradicts canon 194 §2, which says the loss of office for those who abandon the Catholic Faith does not take effect without the decree of the same competent authority which declared the heretical depravity. And this is precisely the reason for the necessity of the Sutri Initiative.

Needless to say, Catholics everywhere should be disappointed that superiors in the Church are acting in this manner. There seems to be a deep and habitual incapacity of so many of the clergy to confront the reality of their own actions and to follow the rules of their own Church. There also seems to be a total lack of fraternal interventions by fellow Clergy and Bishops to prevent mutual violations of ecclesiastical right. — Let us pray for our Bishops and our Priests, and let us do whatever we can to encourage them to be more respectful of one another for the sake of the weak who will be harmed by the scandals, like this, which erupt weekly.

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* The famous Italian cheese from Parma, Parmigiano, is the Italian standard for grating cheese over pasta, or eating cheese with green melons and cantaloupes. It’s name refers to the City from which it comes, that is the cheese of Parma, just as the surname of the Bishop means, those men from Parma. Parma is one of the principle cities of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy. It’s more famous sister city is Bologna: and yes, that is where bologna, the cold-cut, originates.

Eric Sammons redefines the Deposit of the Faith

Editor’s Note: This article by Eric Sammons, who once worked for the U. S. Government in data collection, is 100% cringe worthy for his audacious presumption to tell Catholics — even though he is a convert — what the Deposit of our Holy Faith contains and does not contain. Here he pontificates and insists that the Hexameron’s teaching that the world was created in 6 days is NOT part of the Deposit of the Faith, and that therefore Catholics cannot claim that belief in alien intelligent corporeal life is contrary to scripture.

For Catholics who know their faith, they will recognize immediately Eric Sammons fallacy, when he insists, that since the Magisterium has not defined either beliefs, they are not part of the Deposit of the Faith. He is quite wrong.

The Deposit of the Faith contains the whole of Sacred Scripture and the whole of Divine and Apostolic Tradition. Sacred Scripture includes all the books of the Bible accepted in the canon at the Council of Trent. The narrative of the creation of the world, in the Book of Genesis, is part of that canon. As Saint Thomas says, to deny that any verse of scripture is true is heresy by definition. To cut out an entire book or part thereof is obviously way worse, being an act of apostasy, because if you change the foundation upon which you build, it’s obvious you are not building the same house.

Also, I seem to remember that the infallible, inerrant prophet Isaiah said in chapter 45:18, that “God made the world … to be lived in.”. A verse which clearly means that a place for life requires the Divine Intervention.

It may not be obvious to Eric Sammons, but the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, has to be at work for life to exist. And if Scripture does not say He was at work, then the Deposit of Faith does not say there is life there.

Eric Sammons has shown himself to be a classical modernist and a deceptive publisher, who like many laymen throughout the ages has gone off the cliff of presumption and begun to be his own pope. Like nearly all Catholic social media personalities, who are converts, you waste your time listening to these persons, who are often if not nearly always wrong in something, even when they have academic degrees from Catholic institutions.

Eric Sammons also seems to be utterly uninformed about the recent discoveries in cosmology and biology, both of which by an ever growing consensus of empirical scientists require such a precise and mathematically impossible arrangement of things and causes, that God is the only rational explanation for the existence of the planet Earth and of the abundant life on it. So the truth is, that Sammons by denying parts of the Deposit of the Faith to make room for science, is really making room for scientism and disbelief.

Morrison: If Pope Francis is not Catholic, we should leave him in office & go into schism

Editor’s Note: I think some persons have spent so much time detailing the heresies of Pope Francis, that they no longer do an examination of conscience themselves, but run like dumb cattle off the nearest cliff. Evidently, Mr. Morrison is one of these, because while he recognizes pervasive heresy in the Church including that of Pope Francis, he despairs of removing him from office and counsels that Catholics should schism themselves from other Catholics as the solution.

I ask any sane reader of the above article, if that sounds like a Catholic solution? The answer is obvious: he is counseling just what a heretical Pope bent on destroying the Church would want him to say.

He is “Francis infected”.

I would encourage readers of FromRome.Info to try to post a comment on that article, with some sort of refreshing comment to snap him back into reality.

The Sutri Initiative remains the only Catholic, courageous, hope-filled, just and sane solution still, after 15 months since it was proposed. Ask  your favorite Catholic writer why he or she won’t speak of it!

NCR embraces heresy of Female Ordination, scolds Pope Francis for opposing it

Critique by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Traduction française

In a shocking break from their editorial policy, the National Catholic Reporter — a Catholic newspaper formerly owned by the Legionaries of Christ, but now by EWTN, the TV channel founded by the saintly Mother Angelica — has run an article praising the ordination of the first woman deacon by Archbishop Seraphim, a bishop of the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria (an ecclesiastical entity of the Greek Orthodox Church).

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria has been criticized repeatedly by other Orthodox Churches since 2016, when it announced its intention “to restore” the deaconate for women. That they took 8 years to actually “ordain” a woman shows how strong the opposition was. But even among the Orthodox, the theologians agree with the Catholic Church that women cannot be ordained members of the clergy, despite whatever words be used in the ceremony to make it appear otherwise.

The St. Pheobe Center for Deaconesses is clearly — cited in the article above as the source of its news — from their own language involved in a Marxist re-write of the Orthodox Church’s theology on ordination, for they say they want something that will cause confusion, but do not want to affirm that woman are really being ordained deacons, since that is theologically impossible. This is the exact same logic as the modernist change-theology-through-chainging-practice.

The reasons woman cannot be ordained in the Catholic Church are profound and touch upon the very essence of the Christian religion, as the one true religion revealed by God and established by the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father: the ministerial service of the Deaconate and Priesthood are sacramental manifestations (impressed upon the souls of the clergy by supernatural characters) of the Divine Dignity and Mission of the only-begotten Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, by which when serving in their sacred functions, whether during liturgy or outside of liturgy, all their actions which accord with the Great Mandate given by Our Lord on the first Ascension Thursday are accepted by the Eternal Father for their imprecatory value, since in them He sees His own Son’s perfect and most acceptable service in fulfillment of the Mission He entrusted to Him in His Incarnation as Man. Thus, there is no possibility of manufacturing any sort of sacramental mark or status by which a woman could be raised to the level of being seen by the Eternal Father as representing His Eternal Son, as the discord of female with male would require the Eternal Father to disregard the masculinity of His Eternal Son as part of that identity.

Thus the implication of ordaining a woman to any clerical status in the Catholic Church, whether in minor orders or major orders, is the most horrible sacrilege and offense to the Eternal Father, and makes Him the target and victim of a Marxist agenda to deny human sexuality as essential to the individual human nature. This is the worse sacrilege, blasphemy, and abuse possible of the Divine Father and His Most Sacred Majesty.

Moreover, God’s eternal decision to establish men alone as His ministers on Earth participates in the sacred and apocalyptic (“end times”) mystery of scandal to the world, by which “the first are made last and the last first”, to show that the ways of God are as high as the heavens from the ways of man, since in the natural order God created the women last, and thus made them participate more intimately in the procreation of human persons than any other creature, including men; hence, in the New Creation of mankind in Christ’s Resurrection and Paschal Mystery, the man is made first, in the order of recreation, so that now by the sacred action of individual men, in the clerical orders, we might be born again to new life, fed, nurtured, forgiven and blessed, without any intervention of a woman.

That is why the Catholic Church automatically excommunicates any woman who claims to be ordained to anything, since such an action automatically by its very nature signifies and communicates that the clergy who participate and the woman who step forward, as well as all who attend the ceremony and consent to it, have completely apostatized from the Christian religion and are involved in a Satanic mockery of the same.

Pope Francis must resign or be removed from office!

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Unless you live on Mars or have been in a coma since 2013, as a Catholic you are aware of the immense and innumerable scandalous acts, statements, meetings and documents published by Pope Francis.

The outrage of the Catholic world against this man is justified. First for his usurpation of the papal office, while Pope Benedict XVI lived, since he never abdicated it. Second for his manifest heretical statements against the right of the state to impose capital punishment, the utility of capital punishment, the moral legitimacy of capital punishment, Catholic Marriage’s indissolubility, the Apostolic Tradition regarding shunning sinners and refusing the Sacraments to the impenitent, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture, the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and most recently — to omit a list which would go on for pages — for his attack against the Divine Name Itself by approving of “Gay Blessings”.

Numerous Letters calling for his repentance, reprehension or removal from office have been signed by thousands of Catholics since 2013.

First, there was the petition to the Cardinals in 2016, reported by FromRome.info on April 17 of that year, signed by 1317 Catholics and calling for the Cardinals to investigate Pope Francis and declare him deposed for heresy: a petition censored by Trad Inc. and the Grifter Collective, whose job has only been to defend Pope Francis from being removed from office.

In that year, a milk toast letter of indignation was published by scholars against the erroneous implications and statements contained in Amoris Laetitia. But no one remembers that today.

Then, 3 years later, they upped their game by issuing a Letter accusing him of the crime of heresy in 2019. But still they took no action.

Most recently, there has been the petition of Catholics to the Bishops of the Roman Province to put Pope Francis on trial. The Grifter Collective and Trad Inc. have stubbornly refused even to mention the existence of this one, which is the first to call for a canonically valid way of removing Pope Francis from office.

But I am not going to hold my breath, as it were, waiting that they will ever talk about it, because they both do not report the news to solve the problems, only to stir and, then, diffuse the anger against Pope Francis, as a sort of control mechanism for guaranteeing submission to heresy and apostasy.

But here at FromRome.Info, neither I nor my loyal readers play such diabolical games.

We say OPENLY, CLEARLY and without any hesitation and shame, today on the 11th anniversary of his usurpation of the Papacy:

Pope Francis must resign or be removed from office!

In this FromRome.info has never wavered or changed its position since 2014.


If you know of other petitions against the errors,, scandals, heresies of Pope Francis, whether they call for his removal from office, or resignation, please share links to them in the comments below.

Why true Catholics are gravely obliged to militate for a Council to rebuke Bergoglio

Back in April of 2021, Br. Bugnolo made the above video about “judging the signs of the times”, and the expectations of Our Lord that we Catholics use our intellects. The video included an impassioned demonstration about what constitutes the honest response of Catholics who hold that Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a heretic.

In this video, Br. Bugnolo explained the difference between a private judgment, that a man whom I think is the Pope be a heretic, and the public duty of a Catholic who is honestly convinced of that, to call for a Council to declare the matter.

No one listened to Br. Bugnolo in these last 27 months. Which shows you the level of honesty out there.

So FromRome.Info is republishing that video.

But since that time a good number of those dishonest persons have attempted to characterize Br. Bugnolo as inconsistent or self-contradictory, because of the events subsequent to the death of Pope Benedict XVI, wherein he was involved in the Assembly of Catholics of the Roman Church,* in the election of Pope Benedict XVI’s successor by apostolic right, even though Brother able refuted these critics in a number of articles in English (here) and several videos in Italian (here, here, and here), FromRome.Info NOW publishes a new video by Br. Bugnolo responding to the public declarations of Fr. Altman and others, that Bergoglio is a heretic.

These individuals remained silent when Br. Bugnolo began to say the same things back in 2014, and remained silent to just recently. Since. Br. Bugnolo is way ahead of them on the details of what this means, it behooves anyone who is honest in his estimation that Bergoglio be a heretic, to hear him out, even if it is only to avoid appearing in public like someone who is totally uninformed or ignorant of the issues at hand.

The Duty of Catholics to urge a Council to rebuke an errant Pope*

The above video was recorded on Sept. 13, 2023, in English: however, due to a lack of space on Brother’s cellphone the video ends abruptly. Nevertheless, providentially it ends on a high note, so Br. Bugnolo has decided to publish as is.

For Brother’s articles on the Synod of Sutri and on how to call a Provincial Council See here below. Please note, that while they speak of these topics, they do not address directly and specifically a movement, now, to depose Pope Francis. They serve to inform the public how it would be done, and the canonical principles and historical precedents.

https://www.fromrome.info/?s=Synod+of+Sutri

https://www.fromrome.info/?s=Council+of+Sutri

https://www.fromrome.info/2021/04/11/a-canonical-justification-for-the-second-synod-of-sutri/

For the addresses, fax numbers and telephone numbers of each of the Bishops of the Roman Province:

https://www.fromrome.info/2022/09/30/archbishop-gansweins-admissions-require-redress-before-a-provincial-council-of-rome/

WHAT YOU CAN DO LOCALLY

In every part of the world, it will be useful to begin writing the bishops of every diocese. Start with your own diocese.

Here is an example of the kind of letter, and respectful tone, that could be sent:

Your Excellency,

for more than 10 years I and many other Catholics have been gravely scandalized by the behavior, comportment, statements, documents and teachings of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. It is clear to me that it is theologically both possible and highly probable that this man does not hold the Catholic Faith. Many have rebuked him publicly already, in letters, books, interviews etc.. Even Cardinals of the Roman Church weekly are now rebuking and warning him against his errors and the morally depraved cabal he is recruiting around himself. Why even the other day he appointed as undersecretary to the Dicastery on Catholic Education a man who wrote an editorial, in August, declaring that Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, was a bigot and racist.

Things have gone way beyond what can be tolerated. It is clear that the time has come for the Church in Council to rebuke and remonstrate with the man, and if he refuse correction, to pronounce him a manifest pertinacious heretic, deposed in virtue of canon 1364.

I write to urge you to insist on the convocation of such a council. Even a provincial council in our ecclesiastical province can issue a solemn declaration of rebuke, which would be of great value.

Finally, I honestly urge you to take my letter into serious consideration, because if you think the situation is different than I have described, then I respectfully suggest that your spiritual life is in shambles.

Sincerely,

_______________________

*  In this assembly the Catholics of Rome elected Bergoglio as the pope, because not being yet condemned by Church authority as a heretic, he was eligible, and because no other candidate presented himself; nor did any other candidate have supporters at the Assembly, even though notice of it was made effectively to 2 million Catholics at Rome. This assembly was opposed before it took place, by all those who said Pope Benedict XVI was the pope (excepting the readers of FromRome.info, who raised all the monies for the assembly). The Catholics at the assembly chose to elect the man everyone thought was the pope, so that the Church would return back into juridical and spiritual communion with Christ Her Head, for that was all it could do at that moment.

** (Note that on at least 3 occasions in this video, Br. Bugnolo says “Pope” when he intended to say “heretic”, because he had not yet had his morning cup of coffee.)

How Bergoglio’s permanence means the apostasy of the Flock

From Rome has been ahead of many issues way before the general public confronted them. One of these regards the problem of having a man whom you think is the Pope be a man whom you know is a heretic.

From Rome answered this in an editorial of May 12, 2016, nearly 6 and a half years ago. Back then nearly no one took notice. It was too politically incorrect. But now many, having seen the unending monstrosity of Bergoglio who is willing to publicly slap and excoriate with the most foul language a woman merely for pleading for the help of fellow Catholics who were being persecuted by his Marxist allies in China, and his total lack of insouciance at the publication of a book by Pope Benedict on Celibacy, the barriers of non-think have, are or about to fall in the minds of the general populace.

Some readers have remarked that From Rome does not speak so much about the heresies or errors of Bergoglio anymore, but this is not because he has stopped, or that this publication finds them tolerable, but because the solution to the problem of Bergoglio is simple: Restore Benedict XVI because he was robbed of the Papacy, and we were robbed of his Pontificate! And now, we say, Elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, so we may have a true Pastor for the true sheep of Christ!

In this editorial, written when the pretensions to the Papacy of Bergoglio were still commonly held, hope was held out for his repentance. But now after nearly 4 years, that is clearly never going to come about. Those still hoping for it, are deceiving the faithful.

Nevertheless, we share with our readers now in January of 2023, what we published in May of 2016, for your edification and thought, and to share with your fellow Catholics who are still struggling to understand Bergoglio and why the clergy are obsessed with remaining in communion with him.

How Bergoglio’s Permanence means the apostasy of the Flock

Rome, May 12, 2016 A.D:  There is no greater and more radical challenge for the Christian believer than to take another as his Master.

Indeed, Christians are recognized by the fact that they regard Jesus Christ, and Him alone, as their Master, in accord with the scripture verse, in which Christ condemned the religious leaders of ancient Israel, Matthew 23:10 ff:

10 Neither be ye called masters; for one is you master, Christ. 11 He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Indeed, its very tempting, in today’s world in which truth is up for grabs and violent political clashes are being waged on all sides, for the Christian to take an “I’m ok, you’re ok” view, that is, a “get along with everyone” kind of attitude, in which truth does not matter, only co-existence.

The Loadstone of Hope

The only problem is, that there is a vast difference between the man who thinks Christ is a religious teacher and the man who is loyal to Christ no matter what.  First first regards Him as one might regard a philosopher:  taking the man’s teachings here and there, according to his personal tastes and likes, but not as a rule of life.

The second regards Him as the Incarnate Son of God, apart from Whose teaching No man on Earth can escape eternal and perpetual damnation in the fires of Hell.

As St. Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Indeed, what distinguishes the Christian from all other men is Hope.

Hope is that theological virtue least spoke of today, because in modern times a proper understanding and appreciation of it has been so attacked in the minds of men, that nearly nobody appears to have it or cultivate it or use it.

Hope is that theological virtue which puts full faith and confidence in the promises of God for those who keep them.  Its the most essential and key Christian virtue, given to us in Baptism, but cultivated only with good works.  If you do not really hope that God will reward you for fidelity to Christ, then obviously you will not be faithful to Him.  Likewise, if you think that you can manage for yourself the rules by which you will get into Heaven, there is no need for you to have hope in God’s promises, you can presume for yourself — a presumption which is both your ultimate self-deceit and the absolute guarantee of your own damnation.

All of this has an ecclesiological impact, that is, all of this effects the Church, what She is and your place in or outside of Her, who alone is the ark of Salvation, the Pillar of the truth, apart from AND outside of which no man woman or child can be saved.

The Temptation of Bergoglio

The great temptation presented by the election and presence of Bergoglio on the Apostolic Throne, then, is precisely this: the offer of a Church, of a Christianity, in which Christ is no longer The master, but merely a guide post from which one can wander here or there and remain a “christian” without fidelity and without the need to practice hope.

This temptation is offered the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests, the religious and the laity, is offered thus to the whole Church, because in Bergoglio they have, without any shadow of a doubt, a man who does not believe in Christ as his Sole Master, who does not love or tolerate the Church as Christ founded it or gave it, does not suffer the rules the Apostles, the Faithful Disciples of the Lord handed down to us, and is filled with compassion and love for the traitor who sold Christ for 30 shekels of silver.

To have a public manifest heretic on the throne of the Apostle Peter, and tolerate him, presents for every true Christian, the opportunity of pretense, to keep the name “Christian” or “Catholic” without any more obligation to Christ.  Its the ultimate game-plan of Lucifer.

Either Bergoglio must Change or the Church has changed

Finally, if one were to accept this situation and the principles which erroneously lead to it, as have been briefly described here, it would be enough to end this article with the usual lament.  Because with faith it is possible to lament these things, but with hope it is not possible to tolerate them.  Nearly every author on the Internet today, and as far as we know, all the Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church since April 8, 2016, the date on which “Amoris Laetitia” what released, do not have or are not acting faithfully to Christian Hope.

For the man with Christian hope, would declare and manifestly insist and demand that Bergoglio be canonically reprimanded, and if refusing 3x, be declared to be in open schism with Christ and His Church, and self-deposed by reason of his malice and heresy against Him and His Bride, the Church, whose first duty is to keep herself immaculate and worthy of Him.

Either Bergoglio must change or the Church has in fact changed, because if he repents, the Church is saved in Her fidelity to Christ, and Christ is glorified above all human whim, even the human whims of the Roman Pontiff. But if Bergoglio does not change AND the Church tolerates him, it is the Church which has changed, She has committed adultery with Bergoglio, accepting him rather than Jesus Christ as Her spouse, the God above all other gods…

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CREDITS: The featured image is of the Medieval Manuscript depicting The False Shepherd, a detail of the illumination from the mss. Douce 266 in the Bodleian Library. As a faithful reproduction of a work of art produced more than 200 years ago, it is in the public domain.

Do not say the Heretical ‘Our Father’

By Br. Alexis Bugnolo

It is the height of heresy and pride to presume to correct Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and the One Master and Teacher of all.

But this is the madness and insane perfidy of Bergoglio and his luciferian followers: they insist that the Our Father needs to be changed because it is theologically incorrect!

What blasphemy!

What sacrilege!

What diabolic impudence!

These men need to be slapped in the face, like it is said Saint Nicholas of Myra did to Arius the heretic. I say, heretic, because to break from Jesus Christ’s version of the Our Father is to break with Christ and His Church totally. And that is what heresy, means, to divide.

The Pater Noster

When we speak of the prayer, known as the ‘Our Father’, we are speaking of THE prayer taught by Jesus Christ — the only prayer He actually taught us — which is found in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 6, verses 9 though 13.

The argument these godless deceivers use to support their claims and confuse the faithful — I think you have to be a read idiot of a Christian to think the pope can change the Our Father — is that God does not tempt anyone.

First, I do not understand their objection. Because it is clear that their god is the Devil and their glory is in their shame. And everyone knows the devils tempt every man.

But as to the text of the Our Father:

In English:

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

In Latin:

et ne nos inducas in tentationem sed libera nos a malo.

In the Greek of the Scripture text (sources everywhere), which faithfully and inerrantly reproduces the exact words of Our Lord:

KAI MH EIΣENEΓKHΣ HMAΣ EIΣ ΠEIPAΣMON, AΛΛA PΥΣAI HMAΣ AΠO TOΥ ΠONHPOY

The words of controversy are lead and temptation, or in the Latin: inducas and tentationem, and in the Greek EIΣENEΓKHΣ and ΠEIPAΣMON.

First, I will comment on the Latin. Those who think the Latin word means always and only the kind of occurrence in which a thing or person or demon tempts you to commit a sin, by suggesting it to your, or being the occasion of a vicious habit you have to commit sin, are completely ignorant of the Latin tongue. Because tentatio means a testing or a being tested. The sense of temptation is only a Late classical usage.

The English translation of the Latin, therefore, is simply literal. English, it must be remembered, as we speak it today, is the product of Catholic Monks working for centuries to teach the Normans and Angles, Welsh and Scottish to speak coherently. When a monk wrote temptation he was thinking of the Latin sense of tentatio not temptation as it is used in modern English commonly.

Some idiots who parade as scholars hold that the masses are so ignorant that you better change the words rather than teach them the proper meaning of words. This is complete elitist and intellectualist C**P — excuse my English!

As a Latin translator, I know that all you need to do, to correct problems of mis-comprehension is to put a footnote. A single homily on the topic can serve the same purpose. There is no need to change the translation because it is obvious from Scripture that God puts men to the test, and that since the grace to weather God’s tests is not our by right, but by gift, we ought in humility pray not to be put to the test, rather than in pride and presumption, to pray for the grace to resist all tests, as if we were some sort of supernatural champion who never falls or fails in a test.

As for the Greek, all the Greek Lexicons of the New Testament agree with the Latin Translation: for the first Greek word means to lead into and the second Greek word means a testing or trying.

So if you hear anyone in your Parish start saying the wrong words, correct them. And if the priest insists on the wrong words, SHOUT HIM DOWN and tell him if he will not submit to Jesus Christ as his Master, to GET the hell OUT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH and become a Lutheran!

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CREDITS: The Featured Image is a screen shot of https://www.lonweb.org/ourfather/pn-gre-ing.htm and complies with fair use.  The text of the Our Father is copyrighted by God and cannot be infringed without the penalty of eternal and everlasting torments in Hell.

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You have a right to question your priest

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

It is a principle of natural law, that anyone who presents himself as anything, has the duty to give reasons which justify his claims in public. This in past ages has never been much of an issue with regard to Catholic priests or Bishops. It was sufficient to know that he was a priest or a Bishop.

But with the planned and organized and generation-long effort by Masons in and outside the Church to corrupt the priesthood of Jesus Christ in the Church, it is no longer always and everywhere safe to presume the priest you know is Catholic, that is correct in doctrine, even when he is a Catholic priest.

So you should ask your local priest questions and not merely act as dumb sheep, if he appears to deviate from right doctrine or orthodox practice.

And no, I am not talking about him mistakenly leaving the cruets on the Altar rather than on the credence table. I am talking about issues which regard whether he has accepted the religion of Globalism or whether he is a Catholic.

If he says in a homily, that Greta Thurnburg is a Saint. Then you do not need to discuss anything with him, you need to denounce him as a heretic to your Bishop. I counseled one laymen on this matter recently, and after writing his bishop, the priest was removed as pastor from his parish.

No, I am speaking about ambiguous speech.  If a priest says we must be accepting to habitual sinners and goes on and on about this, then you should question him, because he may be a habitual sinner himself with intentions of corruption your sons and/or daughters.

If he says he hates honest politicians like Donald Trump or Matteo Salvini, you should question him about his politics. Because if he is a Marxist he is an apostate on account of this, that he rejects the entire soteriology of the Church.  Soteriology is the theology of salvation. Salvation consists in our supernatural conformity, body and soul, to the will of God, through the Sacraments, with the merit of eternal life in Heaven. It does not consist in fulfilling the political platform of the local left wing party.

In fact, if your priest admits he votes for the Left, you should question him, because with a few questions you will be able to reveal that he is either a heretic or an apostate, and then you can denounce him to your Bishop and leave the parish for another one.

If he preaches against the prolife movement, against those who want right doctrine or praxis, if he says that truth does not matter or says things which are confused, you should question him. I remember years ago, I was visiting a Church on Holy Trinity Sunday, and the priest said: At the baptism of Jesus a voice was heard, the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “This is my beloved son, listen to him”.  In charity I assumed the priest was drunk on some physical liquid, and so I denounced him by letter to his bishop. In a week or two he was removed from the parish.

I know of a real case, in the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, where a priest spoke in favor of contraception and abortion during a homily. The whole parish rose up and physically ran him out of the parish. The Bishop graciously responded by removing the priest as pastor. They questioned him before the ran him out, but they did the right and Catholic thing. God bless both them and their Bishop.

So it is important to speak with your priest, when he starts acting strange. Because if you don’t, it will lead to more serious scandals and the lost of faith of your brother and sisters in Christ. And do not hesitate to denounce bad priests, because this is a blessing for all: for by denouncing bad priests, you make the life of every other good priest in the Diocese easier, by removing a stain, a cross and a plague on the local Church.

If you have a question about the strange behavior of a priest, and seek advice, publish your story in a comment, but remove all identifying information as to place and person, so as to protect the reputations of all involved.

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CREDITS: The featured image is of Fra Angelico’s,  The arrest of Christ, and is in the public domain, being a faithful reproduction of an original work of art which is mroe than 200 years old.

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Heresy, Heretics and Imperfect Councils

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

A good number of laymen who never studied theology, or studied it at B rated institutions are at it again on social media, over the question of whether a heretical pope is still the pope.

So let us make some distinctions, so as not to get lost in the fog of controversy.

Saint Robert Bellarmine classifies the true and Catholic position as the 5th opinion, namely that a formal heretic loses all office in the Church ipso facto, that is, by the very adhesion to heresy. This is the position of all the ancient Fathers. And it is the only Catholic position. It is enshrined in Canon 1364 of Pope John Paul II’s Code of Canon Law of 1983.

Remember, heresy is both a false proposition in of itself, an erroneous judgement in the mind and a deviant profession of the mouth.

  • It is a false proposition, whether written down or comprehended in the mind. And example of this is:  Jesus Christ is not God.
  • It is an erroneous judgment of the mind as if when you were to think: I judge that Jesus Christ is not God.
  • It is a deviant profession of the mouth, as if you were to write or say aloud:  Jesus Christ is not God.

As a canonical crime, however, one deals only with the external profession. Thus no one can be judged by the Church to be a heretic without an external profession of heresy. The profession must be witnessed or recorded on paper or other medium.

If you know anything about Church History, however, you know that very few men have been condemned by name as heretics in the entire history of the Church. Why is this? Because the Church, which was founded to save souls, recognizes that every deviant profession might not come forth from a mind which adheres to error. It might come forth from a mind which is ignorant, or from a will which wants to offend others. So not every deviant profession represents formal heresy (of the kind which is a sin, though canon law presumes that such deviant profession is presumed to be imputable, until proven otherwise in a due process). Nor does every deviant profession represent pertinacity. Pertinacity is the quality of adhesion to the error such that even when shown that it contradicts revealed truth, the one holding the error remains steadfast in its profession.

Pertinacity is determined canonically after 3 reproofs before witnesses. In the great Councils of the Church even notorious public and certainly pertinacious heretics were asked 3 times to recant.

But if the Church has a process for deposing heretics from their offices, does not that mean that St. Robert Bellarmine was wrong when he said the 5th opinion was the true thesis?

Here we must remember that there is a distinction between what is true in itself and what is true inasmuch as the Church can know it. As soon as one commits the sin of heresy, even in secret, you lose the gift of faith and commit a mortal sin. You are separted from God. This is true whether any man ever knows of your sin or not, before the General Judgement on the Last Day.

However, in the Church, since some men have a better ability and some a worse ability to detect heresy, there has to be a public process for determining who is a formal pertinacious heretic, so as to officially deprive them from office. For otherwise, there would be chaos in the Church. Here the Church has recourse to the teaching of Jesus about fraternal correction, first in private, then with witnesses, and finally before the whole Church. This also confirms the principles of the cessation of power is not presumed. You cannot therefor presume a heretic has lost his office on the basis of your personal discernment. You are not infallible and you cannot know hearts.

In the case of notorious professions, which are made in public and spread on social media, every Catholic has the right to condemn the profession as heretical. You need not go to the person in private or correspond with him in private. His Bishop should and his superiors should. But not everyone has to. Because the common good requires that every public heretical profession be immediately confuted by a public orthodox profession.

At the same time, none of this denies that by the Catholic Faith each of us is capable of discerning heresy which is formal, even if in the person it may not be pertinacious. This ability is simply the application of comparing revealed truth with the perverse profession to manifest that it is perverse and deviant.

Likewise, since the salvation of souls is the greatest law, every Catholic has the right to separate himself from heretics, whether by avoiding them at all times or avoiding them in their Churches. So no one can be forced to receive the Sacraments from someone they know has made a deviant profession. And in this, the individual cannot be coerced, and the Church has never coerced them in such matters, because it has happened that heretics have  been men who once occupied offices of power in the Church before.

Nor are you obliged to obey your superior in anything when his heretical spirit becomes manifest. Canon 41 gives you this right broadly. So the right to resist illegitimate commands is sufficient, in the law, to defend the rights of the faithful from a superior, who is heretical, before he is condemned as such by the Church and declared to have lost his office.

For this reason, IT IS THE GRAVE DUTY OF EVERY CATHOLIC to publicly denounce deviant professions, whether they be made by laymen, clergy or even those they think are the pope. Without the public denunciation, the faith is not guarded, the consciences of the faithful are not stirred to action, and souls are put in danger, because without the true Faith it is impossible for anyone to be saved — though admittedly God requires the faith that is willing to believe Him in everything (the perfect kind formally), more than the faith which knows every revealed truth and accepts all of them (the perfect kind formally and materially)

Therefore, there is an absolute necessity to call Synods and Councils to condemn the most notorious heretics and heresies. And if the man whom you think is the pope is one whom you consider a heretic, then you should not be silent, you should urge a council. And a council of Bishops, anywhere on the planet, has the Apostolic right and duty to hear the case, because if he is a heretic, he is no longer the pope, but it remains the duty of Bishops to discern and judge that fact.

Finally, if you take pleasure condemning others for heresy, because it suits your fancy, you probably do not have right discernment and you surely risk damnation for risking the mortal sin of falsely or rashly judging others, not to mention damaging or destroying their reputations. Likewise, if you know a man is a heretic and refuse to correct him, when he shows an ability to be corrected, you sin against charity. If he is harming souls and you remain silent, then you are complicit in that harm. And if you think you do not have to seek a canonical condemnation of a heretic, because you judge all in authority heretics, then you might be committing all those sins I just mentioned. This is what distinguishes Catholics from sedevacantists. We believe that the Church will never be overcome by any single or by every heresy together, because there will always be at lest one Bishop willing to condemn them. And to him we turn for their condemnation.

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CREDITS: The Featured Image is of an ancient Greek Icon, depicting the Saints who defended the Creed of Nicaea, which is written in Greek on the scroll they are holding in hand.

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How Bergoglio’s permanence means the apostasy of the Flock

From Rome has been ahead of many issues way before the general public confronted them. One of these regards the problem of having a man whom you think is the Pope be a man whom you know is a heretic.

From Rome answered this in an editorial of May 12, 2016, nearly 3 and a half years ago. Back then nearly no one took notice. It was too politically incorrect. But now many, having seen the unending monstrosity of Bergoglio who is willing to publicly slap and excoriate with the most foul language a woman merely for pleading for the help of fellow Catholics who were being persecuted by his Marxist allies in China, and his total lack of insouciance at the publication of a book by Pope Benedict on Celibacy, the barriers of non-think have, are or about to fall in the minds of the general populace.

Some readers have remarked that From Rome does not speak so much about the heresies or errors of Bergoglio anymore, but this is not because he has stopped, or that this publication finds them tolerable, but because the solution to the problem of Bergoglio is simple: Restore Benedict XVI because he was robbed of the Papacy, and we were robbed of his Pontificate!

In this editorial, written when the pretensions to the Papacy of Bergoglio were still commonly held, hope was held out for his repentance. But now after nearly 4 years, that is clearly never going to come about. Those still hoping for it, are deceiving the faithful.

Nevertheless, we share with our readers now in January of 2020, what we published in May of 2016, for your edification and thought, and to share with your fellow Catholics who are still struggling to understand Bergoglio and why the clergy are obsessed with remaining in communion with him.

How Bergoglio’s Permanence means the apostasy of the Flock

Rome, May 12, 2016 A.D:  There is no greater and more radical challenge for the Christian believer than to take another as his Master.

Indeed, Christians are recognized by the fact that they regard Jesus Christ, and Him alone, as their Master, in accord with the scripture verse, in which Christ condemned the religious leaders of ancient Israel, Matthew 23:10 ff:

10 Neither be ye called masters; for one is you master, Christ. 11 He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Indeed, its very tempting, in today’s world in which truth is up for grabs and violent political clashes are being waged on all sides, for the Christian to take an “I’m ok, you’re ok” view, that is, a “get along with everyone” kind of attitude, in which truth does not matter, only co-existence.

The Loadstone of Hope

The only problem is, that there is a vast difference between the man who thinks Christ is a religious teacher and the man who is loyal to Christ no matter what.  First first regards Him as one might regard a philosopher:  taking the man’s teachings here and there, according to his personal tastes and likes, but not as a rule of life.

The second regards Him as the Incarnate Son of God, apart from Whose teaching No man on Earth can escape eternal and perpetual damnation in the fires of Hell.

As St. Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Indeed, what distinguishes the Christian from all other men is Hope.

Hope is that theological virtue least spoke of today, because in modern times a proper understanding and appreciation of it has been so attacked in the minds of men, that nearly nobody appears to have it or cultivate it or use it.

Hope is that theological virtue which puts full faith and confidence in the promises of God for those who keep them.  Its the most essential and key Christian virtue, given to us in Baptism, but cultivated only with good works.  If you do not really hope that God will reward you for fidelity to Christ, then obviously you will not be faithful to Him.  Likewise, if you think that you can manage for yourself the rules by which you will get into Heaven, there is no need for you to have hope in God’s promises, you can presume for yourself — a presumption which is both your ultimate self-deceit and the absolute guarantee of your own damnation.

All of this has an ecclesiological impact, that is, all of this effects the Church, what She is and your place in or outside of Her, who alone is the ark of Salvation, the Pillar of the truth, apart from AND outside of which no man woman or child can be saved.

The Temptation of Bergoglio

The great temptation presented by the election and presence of Bergoglio on the Apostolic Throne, then, is precisely this: the offer of a Church, of a Christianity, in which Christ is no longer The master, but merely a guide post from which one can wander here or there and remain a “christian” without fidelity and without the need to practice hope.

This temptation is offered the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests, the religious and the laity, is offered thus to the whole Church, because in Bergoglio they have, without any shadow of a doubt, a man who does not believe in Christ as his Sole Master, who does not love or tolerate the Church as Christ founded it or gave it, does not suffer the rules the Apostles, the Faithful Disciples of the Lord handed down to us, and is filled with compassion and love for the traitor who sold Christ for 30 shekels of silver.

To have a public manifest heretic on the throne of the Apostle Peter, and tolerate him, presents for every true Christian, the opportunity of pretense, to keep the name “Christian” or “Catholic” without any more obligation to Christ.  Its the ultimate game-plan of Lucifer.

Either Bergoglio must Change or the Church has changed

Finally, if one were to accept this situation and the principles which erroneously lead to it, as have been briefly described here, it would be enough to end this article with the usual lament.  Because with faith it is possible to lament these things, but with hope it is not possible to tolerate them.  Nearly every author on the Internet today, and as far as we know, all the Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church since April 8, 2016, the date on which “Amoris Laetitia” what released, do not have or are not acting faithfully to Christian Hope.

For the man with Christian hope, would declare and manifestly insist and demand that Bergoglio be canonically reprimanded, and if refusing 3x, be declared to be in open schism with Christ and His Church, and self-deposed by reason of his malice and heresy against Him and His Bride, the Church, whose first duty is to keep herself immaculate and worthy of Him.

Either Bergoglio must change or the Church has in fact changed, because if he repents, the Church is saved in Her fidelity to Christ, and Christ is glorified above all human whim, even the human whims of the Roman Pontiff. But if Bergoglio does not change AND the Church tolerates him, it is the Church which has changed, She has committed adultery with Bergoglio, accepting him rather than Jesus Christ as Her spouse, the God above all other gods…

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CREDITS: The featured image is of the Medieval Manuscript depicting The False Shepherd, a detail of the illumination from the mss. Douce 266 in the Bodleian Library. As a faithful reproduction of a work of art produced more than 200 years ago, it is in the public domain.

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May 30, 2010, Our Lady of the Pine forewarned the world about Bergoglio, the imposter

Here at the From Rome Blog private unapproved revelations are not normally discussed. But when an as-of-yet unapproved private revelation exactly foretells 9 years beforehand what is happening today, every Catholic has to stop and wonder and pay attention, because God alone knows the future of contingent events… Here follows our English translation of the words of Our Lady of the Pine on May 30, 2010, to a humble soul in the environs of Avola, Sicily, in the Diocese of Noto: (Italian original)

Our Lady: “My Sons, today I desire to share with you this wonderful friendship and the joy, that one finds in helping others.

All this while I have been inviting you, as a preparation, to the parousia of My Son in His second coming. I am pointing out to you this bridge of protection which We are giving you, and you will be escorted to My triumph, by means of the purification I am providing.

You must understand that We are protecting your souls.

Do not fear what will happen, these are things which must happen, but occupy yourselves solely with your duty to My Son.

You, Giuseppe, have the great responsibility to reveal to the world Our messages, but do it with joy, as an instrument of God.

Except for the messages of March 25, 2010, of the night of April 9, 2010 and that of April 11, all the others have been published, but no one wanted to listen to Our words.

Everything which has happened and which will happen has been revealed and no one can say: “We were not told beforehand”.

You have been called to be a living witness of God.

Announce that sorrows, horrors will yet occur.  Entire nations will disappear from the Earth and all humanity will drink the bitter chalice.

My Sons, walk on this bridge which I have indicated to you, to share with Us the joy and the era of peace on earth for yourselves.

Evil will be driven out and the victory of My Son will liberate you, but you must pray to have guidance, because very soon you will see a schism in My Church.

My faithful remnant follows the present Pope, Benedict XVI, whom they want to eliminate.

Continue to follow him and to remain faithful to Him and to the teaching of My Church, founded upon the Apostles. Do not allow yourselves to be turned aside by the apostasy and by heresies.

I tell you, that the next pope will be an imposter and the forces of evil stand behind this schism.

My Sons, be prepared, in this way you can follow those priests who are faithful to the Pope and to the teaching of the Church. Preserve the holy Missals and the books of the old Holy Mass, because the apostates will change the words in a dramatic way.

My sons and daughters, have courage and trust.  You, My son, do not fear if you are persecuted for Our cause, I and My Son will be with you to protect you and to help you in this hard trial.

Blessing you all, I am Mary, the Immaculate Virgin, the Mother of Sorrows.

Bergoglio was a pertinacious public heretic years before the 2013 Conclave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXUKhY3KVPg

As the prophecy given by Zacharia gives in Chapter 11:16-17:

For behold I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish that which standeth, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat ones, and break their hoofs. [17] O shepherd, and idol, that forsaketh the flock: the sword upon his arm and upon his right eye: his arm shall quite wither away, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened!

This ‘Amoris Laetitia’ cannot be tolerated in silence

o-POPE-ROLLING-STONE-570Rome, April 9, 2016 A.D:  The universal scandal given by and contained in the new Papal Post-Synodal Exhortation on the Family, Amoris Laetitia, cannot be tolerated in silence. It must be denounced.  Numerous commentators throughout the world and Church have pointed out how it is fundamentally and diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christ, the Apostles and Apostolic Tradition on the matter of the discipline of the Sacraments and the nature and discernment of the gravity of sin.

What many have not noticed is that the entire argument advanced in Amoris Laetitia presupposes that Ecclesiastical Tradition is merely a human hand-me-down, left over from a darker more puritanical age, and that it does not come from Christ nor was it faithful to the Apostolic Preaching.

For this reason, one must say with many others that this document is in toto, heretical. That is represents, from even a brief study of the history of the Pontificate of Cardinal Bergoglio, a manifest and pertinacious attack upon the Church and denial of revealed truths.

It is exceedingly pertinacious, since the Pope received the corrections of numbers of theologians formally and informally, yet still published it.

On account of the universal scandal given by it, on account of its universal reception by the press as signifying the abandonment of Scripture and Tradition as the remote Rule of Faith in the Church; inasmuch as it is recognized by all and the author itself to contain novel doctrines, which contradict the past ones and past pastoral practice, every Catholic is obliged to REJECT and CONDEMN it AND DISREGARD the authority the author pretends to exercise in it.

Furthermore, the document Amoris Laetitia in itself is sufficient canonical evidence for the Cardinals of the Roman Church, the clergy of Rome and the bishops of the Catholic Church to now issue the first public rebuke to Francis, pointing out that unless he rescind or repudiate the document, that he has ipso facto lost his office on account of formal manifest pertinacious heresy.

If he does not, they must warn him 2x more, and if he still does not change, they must convene a Synod and declare him self-deposed.

Finally, it is obvious on account of the gravest moral obligation of charity for the whole Church, that these three groups are obliged to act, and that if they do not act, each of them individually merits ETERNAL DAMNATION for having loved themselves more than Christ and His Church.

In the coming day and weeks, we shall see which of these cleaves to Christ and which deny him by an effeminate silence.

A Catholic without “heresy”, is a “catholic” without faith, hope & charity

St Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea. Icon at Soumela Monastery, Maçka/Trabzon, Turkey.
St Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea. Icon at Soumela Monastery, Maçka/Trabzon, Turkey.

Editorial, May 25, 2015:  All Christians know that Christ Jesus is their Lord and Master.  By “master”, we mean “teacher”, “instructor”, the One who shows us the way to Heaven and the way to get to Heaven.

Consequently, the teachings of Jesus Christ are the very essence of Christianity, and Christianity is in its essence a religion defined by Christ’s teachings.

Now, just as the christian church which is true to Christ in all His teachings, both doctrinal and moral, is the true Church of Christ — and this is the Catholic Church — so is Christian faith, hope and charity defined by the affirmation of Christ’s teachings, and not just some of them (for even a pagan can admire some of them), but all of them.  And not just professing with one’s lips that they are true, but living and obeying them in one’s own person and life.  This is, infact, what it means to be a true Christian, a true Catholic.

It follows then, that saying what is NOT the teaching of Christ and what transgresses His teaching is absolutely necessary.  For just as it is necessary to every property owner, who wishes to retain his property, that he know the boundaries of that property and defend them and his title to them, so in matters of being a Christian, the fidelity which leads one to accept and put into practice the teachings of Our Lord and Master, requires that we know precisely where those boundaries are, so that we might not be fooled into thinking that something is nor is not part of Christ’s teaching.

The ancient word, which Christians use for this, comes from the Greek word, αἵρεσις (haeresis), which means “choice”.  The first Christians used this word to signify a teaching which differed from Christ’s teaching, because they understood simply and truly that the litmus test for being a disciple of Christ was that the disciple accepted everything Christ taught and chose to believe nothing which was disharmonious with it.

So, the choice to believe other masters was called a αἵρεσις, and thus that false doctrine was called also a heresy.

For this reason, we can say that without the word, “heresy”, a Christian could not distinguish a true disciple from a false one.  For many are the antichrists which have gone out from us, says the Apostle St. John in 1 Jn 2:18 ff..:

18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us. 20 But you have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things. 21 I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also. 24 As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning, abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. 

Hence, the Christian who refuses to use the word, “heresy”, in regard to false teaching, is in truth the Christian who no longer wishes to follow Jesus Christ.  He has chosen instead to live and get along and not rock the boat.  And thus he no longer has either right faith, nor true hope in the salvation Christ’s promised; and most of all, he has not the charity which binds the disciple to His Master and holds his fellow Christian as dear as himself, wishing to guard him from the danger of damnation by warning him, with the word, “Beware, what that man is saying is heresy!”

It is a heresy to say Capital Punishment is immoral, or can be abolished

When Christ stood before Pilate, no one stood with Him:  will you stand at His side?
When Christ stood before Pilate, no one stood with Him: will you stand at His side?

Rome, March 6, 2015:  The agenda of Communism* to disarm Christendom more and more has reached fever pitch this week with pronouncements by the Vatican Observer at the United Nations, the Pope, and several media outlets in the United States against the death penalty.

Patheos a left-wing, source for news and opinion for Catholics in the English speaking world, is running a story today about this, entitled, “Catholic Media Unite in Opposition to the Death Penalty“.  That article in part reads:

‘Capital Punishment Must End.’  That’s the bold headline in the National Catholic Register this morning.  The Register, in a groundbreaking collaboration with three other Catholic journals, published a strong statement opposing capital punishment.

The editorial boards of the Register, the National Catholic Reporter, Our Sunday Visitor and America joined in opposition to the death penalty, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in Glossip v. Gross, a case out of Oklahoma that challenges the most widely used lethal injection protocol as being cruel and unusual punishment.

The title of their article is more than misleading, it is implicitly heretical

For this simple reason, that it is de fide, that is a truth of Divine Revelation itself, that the State has the authority to punish wicked doers with capital punishment.

This is the teaching of Our Lord during His very Passion, when to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Procurator of Judea, insisting that He not be silent but answer his questions, He replied to him, declaring:

You would have no power over Me if it were not given you from above (John 19:11).

This truth was taught by St. Paul in other words, when he said,

1 LET every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. 2 Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation. 3 For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good: and thou shalt have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to thee, for good. But if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God’s minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. 5 Wherefore be subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For therefore also you pay tribute. For they are the ministers of God, serving unto this purpose. 7 Render therefore to all men their dues. Tribute, to whom tribute is due: custom, to whom custom: fear, to whom fear: honour, to whom honour.

Therefore, the Catholic Faith has ever held that the state has the authority from God to punish criminals with capital punishment, since the metaphor “power of the sword” in St. Paul’s day referred to the punishment of beheading which was inflicted upon citizens of the empire for grave crimes.

The State, thus, has the moral right and the duty to impose this punishment in appropriate cases, the propriety of which arises not from the subjective dispositions of the individual, but from the objective transgression of the moral law committed by the evil doer.

This truth of the faith is intimately associated with another truth, namely that the Moral Law — which says what is right and wrong, which has God as its author and which is legible in the works of His creation — is superior in dignity to the individual human person, inasmuch as every human person is a creature of God Who is the Author of the moral law. For every law shares in the dignity of the one who issues it.

For these reasons it is not only an error, but a heresy against the Faith of Christ, to say that capital punishment is evil, un-useful or inappropriate, either in itself, or in its application. It is always useful and necessary to the state, because there will always be in this world, individuals who gravely offend the particular or common good in such wise as to merit the supreme temporal punishment, the loss of their own life.  That is a fact of original sin.

The Roman Catechism, which summarized the Faith of the Catholic Church at the time of the Council of Trent had this to say on capital punishment:

Capital Punishment

That Pope John Paul II said that there exists other means to remediate the criminal does not mean that capital punishment is evil in itself or to be entirely abolished.  He spoke about the remediation of the individual, not the duty of the state or the right of the state  nor of the greater common good.  And if he meant anything contrary to the teaching of Christ, it is obvious, that he erred and is not to be followed in that, since Vatican I required that Popes teach nothing contrary to Christ and His Apostles, and exhorted Catholics not to follow them if they do so.

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* Marx held that the way to social justice was through class revolution, and that capital punishment was the tool of the rulers to suppress the masses: this error promoted through liberation theology has spread from Europe to most of Latin America.

° Inasmuch as it says that such pronouncements are Catholic.

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