Vatican II Is the Primary Fountainhead of Today’s Diabolical Pretending

Quote:“For decades, ‘pretending’ has been a powerful shield. For some, also a weapon. For many others a comforting survival mechanism.  Pretending relies upon a lot, including definitions of mis-dis, & mal-information. However, pretending is no match for the fact there is only truth and lies.”

Quote:“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,' will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’ He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..”

Quote:“It was inevitable. We have been together from the outset of the conversation where we admitted to ourselves that sooner or later the pretending was going to have to stop. Well, here we are. President Donald Trump begins a very uncomfortable process to peel back the mask that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy represents. This is needed . . .”

Quote:“The Church has always opposed these errors. Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations. Not, certainly, that there is a lack of fallacious teaching, opinions and dangerous concepts to be guarded against and dissipated.”

Quote:“By the frankness and openness of its debates, the Council has put an end to what may be described as the inflexibility of the system. We take ‘system’ to mean a coherent set of codified teachings, casuistically-specified rules of procedure, a detailed and very hierarchic organization, means of control and surveillance, rubrics regulating worship — all this is the legacy of scholasticism, the Counter-reformation and the Catholic Restoration of the nineteenth century, subjected to an effective Roman discipline. It will be recalled that Pius XII is supposed to have said: ‘I will be the last Pope to keep all this going.’” (Congar, Challenge to the Church: The Case of Archbishop Lefebvre,

Conservatives and liberals alike reached similar conclusions about the Council, and in the years immediately following Vatican II, no serious observer would have honestly believed that the Council really was in continuity with what the Church had always taught. Pretending otherwise was only popularized long after the Council, most importantly through the later work of Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI). As Cardinal Ratzinger had stated closer to the end of the Council, though, he saw it as a true break from what the pre-Vatican II popes had taught, and a reconciliation with the principles of the French Revolution:

[quote]“If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty [Dignitatis Humanae] and world religions [Nostra Aetate]) it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of countersyllabus. . . Let us be content to say that the text serves as a countersyllabus and, as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789.” (Principles of Catholic Theology, 1987, pp. 381-2)

Quote:“At the heart of Synod 2021-2024, ‘For a Synodal Church. Communion, participation, mission’ is a call to joy and to the renewal of the People of God in following the Lord and in their commitment to serving His mission. The call to be missionary disciples is based on our common baptismal identity and is rooted in the diversity of the contexts in which the Church is present and finds its unity in the one Father, the one Lord, and the one Spirit. It is a call to all the baptised, without exception.” (Instrumentum Laboris for October 2024 session)

Quote:“The Church, today, is going through a moment of disquiet. Some indulge in self-criticism, one would say even self-destruction. It is like an acute and complex inner upheaval, which no one would have expected after the Council. One thought of a flourishing, a serene expansion of the concepts matured in the great conciliar assembly. There is also this aspect in the Church, there is the flourishing, but . . . for the most part one comes to notice the painful aspect. The Church is hit also by he who is part of it.” (December 7, 1968)

“Through some cracks the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: there is doubt, uncertainty, problematic, anxiety, confrontation. One does not trust the Church anymore; one trusts the first prophet that comes to talk to us from some newspapers or some social movement, and then rush after him and ask him if he held the formula of real life. And we fail to perceive, instead, that we are the masters of life already. Doubt has entered our conscience, and it has entered through windows that were sup- posed to be opened to the light instead. . . Even in the Church this state of uncertainty rules. One thought that after the Council there would come a shiny day for the history of the Church. A cloudy day came instead, a day of tempest, gloom, quest, and uncertainty. We preach ecumenism and drift farther and farther from the others. We attempt to dig abysses instead of filling them.” (June 29, 1972)

How Can We Begin a Holy Life? Insights from Venerable Louis de Granada

Fray Luis de Granada

Quote:“Have by you Lewis of Granada entire. Let him be your second breviary. Saint Charles Borromeo had no other theology to preach but Lewis of Granada, yet he preached very well; but this is not his principal use; it is that he will form your mind to the love of true devotion and all spiritual exercises necessary for you. My wish is that you begin to read him with the great Guide for Sinners, that you then pass on to the Memorial, and, in fine, that you read all he wrote. But to read him with fruit you must not run through him hastily; he must be pondered, and have his full weight, and chapter after chapter must be mused upon and applied to the soul with much thought and prayer to God. You must read him with reverence and devotion, like a book containing the most useful inspirations man can receive from on high, and thereby reform all the powers of the soul.”[v]

Quote:“Before entering upon this subject, bear in mind that there; are two principles in which you must be firmly established if you would change your life and give yourself to God. The first is a just appreciation of the importance of the labor you are about to undertake; you must be convinced that this is the sole interest, the sole profit, the sole wisdom in the world.”

Quote:“The second principle with which you must be imbued is that as this is such a glorious and profitable engagement, you must undertake it with vigor and a firm determination to conquer. Be persuaded that all the dangers which you will encounter will be of little moment compared to the sublime end you have in view. It is a law of nature that nothing great is accomplished without labor and trouble, You will no sooner have resolved to give yourself to God than Hell will send out its forces against you.”

Quote:“Your first determination must be a deep and unshaken resolution never to commit mortal sin, for it can only rob us of the grace and friendship of God. Such a resolution is the basis of a virtuous life.”

Quote:Holiness is synonymous with repentance for past sins, penitential works, and good (i.e., meritorious) deeds—all grounded in a firm decision to sin no more.

Pope Francis receives blood transfusions, Vatican keeping prognosis confidential
'This morning Pope Francis presented with an asthmatic respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude, which also required the application of oxygen at high flows,' announced the Vatican, listing Francis' condition as 'critical.'


Feb 22, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis, who remains in critical condition, was recently administered a blood transfusion and “high flows” of oxygen, the Vatican announced Saturday, adding that at this time his prognosis is being withheld from the public.

Quote:The Holy Father’s condition continues to be critical, therefore, as explained yesterday, the Pope is not out of danger.

This morning Pope Francis presented with an asthmatic respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude, which also required the application of oxygen at high flows.

Today’s blood tests also showed plateletopenia, associated with anemia, which required the administration of hemotransfusions.

The Holy Father continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair although in more pain than yesterday. At the moment the prognosis is reserved.