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| Why is Pope Francis embracing the patriarchy (of the West)? |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-14-2024, 06:02 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Why is Pope Francis embracing the patriarchy (of the West)?
Pope Francis has revived the papal title Patriarch of the West, bringing back the style which has fallen in and out of usage over the centuries and was most recently dropped by Benedict XVI in 2006.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...00x600.png]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf34ddc7-b72c-4f69-9747-b7a4001c8c1f_900x600.png)
Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Servant of the Servants of God, presides at a prayer vigil at the Vatican on Oct. 4, 2014. © Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
THE PILLAR [slightly adapted] | April 10, 2024
In the 2024 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican’s annual statistical yearbook, Patriarch of the West once again appears in the litany of formal papal dignities listed at the opening.
It’s an historical title, though sometimes controversial, which was in continuous use for more than a century after it was first introduced into the annuario by Pius IX in 1863. Before that, the style was used more or less at the pope’s pleasure, after being first coined by Theodore I in the seventh century.
The Vatican has not, as yet, made any statement or clarification on why the title has suddenly come back into use, or what, if anything, Pope Francis intends to signal by reasserting his claim to it.
But what does it mean, anyway?
Which way is West?
At the time “Patriarch of the West” was dropped by Benedict XVI, the then-Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity issued a clarifying statement recapping the history of the title and claiming that dropping it from the list of papal styles and dignities would be a boost to ecumenical relations with the Orthodox Churches.
Historically speaking, the council (now dicastery) explained, “the ancient Patriarchates of the East, fixed by the Councils of Constantinople (381) and Chalcedon (451), were related to a fairly clearly circumscribed territory, when the territory of the See of the Bishop of Rome remained vague.”
“Within the imperial ecclesiastical system of Justinian, alongside the four Eastern Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), the Pope was understood as Patriarch of the West.”
Coined as a formal style of the pope by Theodore I in 642, the title itself, though, was “only rarely resorted to and had no clear meaning,” but became fashionable in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during a period when papal titles multiplied, said the council.
At the time it was dropped from formal usage in 2006, the Vatican’s ecumenical department noted that the notion of “the West” had become something of a geographic contradiction.
While it was traditionally understood to mean what had been the western European part of the Roman Empire, in the modern world it applied loosely to the whole Latin Church, which stretched from New Zealand around the world to Hawaii.
As such, the council called it “obsolete and practically no longer usable. It therefore seems meaningless to insist on dragging it behind [the pope’s name].”
Giving up the title was an expression of “historical and theological realism,” the pontifical council said.
But if that’s the case, what does bringing it back now signal?
An ecumenical matter?
The ecumenical dicastery also suggested in 2006 that dropping the title “could be of benefit to ecumenical dialogue” with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, though it wasn’t clear how that might happen — nor is it obvious that it’s made a difference in the last 17 years.
As regards the perennially thorny issue of papal primacy and ecumenical relations, the council’s statement noted that “without using the title of ‘Patriarch of the West,’ the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869–70), the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Council of Florence (1439), listed the Pope as the first of the then five Patriarchs.”
For the avoidance of all doubt, it also said dropping the title “clearly changes nothing” regarding the status of the Roman Pontiff as head of the global Church and (in the words of Lumen gentium) “the successor of Peter” and “the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful.”
So, what were they hoping it might do? Well, some speculated at the time that shedding the title “Patriarch of the West” could better articulate the Roman Pontiff’s role as head of the universal Church, East and West, and not specifically or problematically concerned only with the governance of the Latin Church.
Conversely, some worried at the time that the move was a kind of subtle assertion of universal papal primacy over the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs and generated some pushback in ecumenical relations.
This kind of criticism actually followed the pontifical council’s statement, even though it tried to make clear that while the pope wasn’t giving up any actual authority or prominence — just a title — “even less” was he asserting any substantive new claim.
It’s possible that in the course of more than fifteen years of ecumenical talks since 2006, Benedict’s move simply hasn’t been received well by the Orthodox, and it was quietly recommended that Francis bring the title back since the people to whom it’s renunciation was most meant to appeal actually didn’t care for it.
Is this about… synodality?
Of course, it’s possible Francis’ decision to bring back the title has nothing to do with ecumenism at all. In fact, it could be he’s rethought the whole idea of a western patriarchy, so to speak, in the light of his own brand of applied ecclesiology, and decided it’s a useful way to think about how he sees his role in the Catholic Church.
Writing in 2006, the dicastery for Christian unity made an interesting point about Vatican Council II and how the Catholic Church expresses its unity and hierarchy in the modern age.
Calling the title “meaningless” in the modern age, the pontifical council said at the time that “this is all the more so since the Catholic Church, with the Second Vatican Council, found for the Latin Church in the form of the episcopal conferences and their international meetings of episcopal conferences, the canonical order adapted to today’s needs.”
While bishops’ conferences continue to play an important role in Church affairs, Pope Francis has made synodality a fundamental expression of how he sees the Church growing and functioning in the coming years. To this end, he has also made the ongoing synod on synodality his signature legacy in office, and it’s a process in which he may have decided the old patriarchal title might just be useful.
In the Catholic Church, the rank of patriarch is somewhat rare.
In addition to heads of some Eastern Catholic Churches, the rank is given to the head of the Latin diocese of Jerusalem, the archbishops of Venice, Lisbon, and Goa and Deman in India (known as the Patriarch of the East Indies) — dioceses of historically seafaring cities or otherwise expansive territories and widely scattered communities.
In addition to ceremonial precedence, patriarchs historically functioned as a kind of “super metropolitan,” presiding over metropolitan archbishops in the same way archbishops head up ecclesiastical provinces.
It could be that as Pope Francis is encouraging increased synodality in the life of the Church — both theoretical and practical — he has decided that the traditional patriarchal title is a useful expression of how he sees papal hierarchical leadership functioning in an increasingly synodal Church.
Whatever the reason for the change, Pope Francis’ move is likely to prompt questions about his reasons. Whether the Vatican plans to offer any answers remains to be seen.
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| Senator Rand Paul: “Smoking Gun” Connecting Fauci To Research That Led To COVID Creation |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-11-2024, 05:22 AM - Forum: Health
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Sen. Rand Paul accuses 15 gov’t agencies of covering up knowledge about COVID origins at Wuhan lab
The Kentucky senator said that not one of these agencies warned anyone that the Chinese lab had already put together plans to create a virus.
![[Image: Rand-Paul.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rand-Paul.png)
Sen. Rand Paul
YouTube
Apr 10, 2024
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted]) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says that officials from 15 U.S. government agencies were aware that the Chinese-run Wuhan Institute of Virology was “trying to create a coronavirus like COVID-19” yet remained silent about it.
Paul, a Republican who has represented Kentucky in the Senate since 2011, has been Congress’ most vocal critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Many of their combative interactions during Senate hearings over the past five years have gone viral on social media.
Paul published an op-ed for Fox News this week alleging to have uncovered what some have called “smoking gun” evidence that shows Fauci and more than a dozen government agencies essentially lied about collaborating with China.
“These officials knew that the Chinese lab was proposing to create a COVID 19-like virus and not one of these officials revealed this scheme to the public,” Paul wrote. “In fact, 15 agencies with knowledge of this project have continuously refused to release any information concerning this alarming and dangerous research.”
Paul alleges that the agencies were made aware of an initiative by British Dr. Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that Paul has said received millions in taxpayer dollars, in conjunction with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The project, dubbed the “DEFUSE” project, aimed to create a coronavirus “that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus.”
“For years, I have been fighting to obtain records from dozens of federal agencies relating to the origins of COVID-19 and the DEFUSE project,” Paul wrote. “Under duress, the administration finally released documents that show that the DEFUSE project was pitched to at least 15 agencies in January 2018.”
“Disturbingly, not one of these 15 agencies spoke up to warn us that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been pitching this research. Not one of these agencies warned anyone that this Chinese lab had already put together plans to create such a virus.”
EcoHealth issued a press release on August 9 disputing Paul’s findings. The group said that they “did submit a proposal for a project named DEFUSE” but that it was declined and that it was “never submitted to any other federal agencies for consideration.” The statement also says EcoHealth “did not support ‘gain-of-function’ research” at the Wuhan Institute.
Investigative reporter John Stossel exposed the connection between EcoHealth, Dr. Fauci, and the Wuhan lab during a story he did on Paul’s findings.
Paul maintains that Daszak “concealed” information about the proposal during previous Congressional testimony. He also says Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases “was not only briefed on Wuhan’s desire to create this virus, [it] was actually listed as a participant in the initial DEFUSE pitch. Fauci’s Rocky Mountain Lab was named as a partner alongside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the proposal.”
Paul credits Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy, a whistleblower, for informing the public about the DEFUSE project.
“Likely, hundreds of people in the government knew of this proposal to create a COVID-19-like virus and virtually every one of these people chose to keep quiet, to obscure, and ultimately to conceal information that might have saved lives by letting the world know this was no sleepy animal virus with poor transmission,” he wrote. “All evidence suggests COVID-19 was a laboratory-enhanced virus purposefully adapted for human transmission.
Paul believes those who have “covered up” the DEFUSE project “should be punished but likely won’t.”
“At the very least … the perpetrators should be made to admit the truth and Congress should finally put in place sufficient oversight to make sure dangerous gain of function experiments are sufficiently vetted and, if necessary, prevented.”
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| Climate Experiment Kept Quiet to Avoid Public Backlash |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-10-2024, 07:11 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Geoengineering Test Quietly Launches Salt Crystals into Atmosphere
A solar geoengineering experiment in San Francisco could lead to brighter clouds that reflect sunlight. The risks are numerous.
[Emphasis mine.]
April 4, 2024
CLIMATEWIRE via Scientific American | The nation's first outdoor test to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover launched Tuesday from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay.
The experiment, which organizers didn't widely announce to avoid public backlash, marks the acceleration of a contentious field of research known as solar radiation modification. The concept involves shooting substances such as aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.
The move led by researchers at the University of Washington has renewed questions about how to effectively and ethically study promising climate technologies that could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways. The experiment is spraying microscopic salt particles into the air, and the secrecy surrounding its timing caught even some experts off guard.
"Since this experiment was kept under wraps until the test started, we are eager to see how public engagement is being planned and who will be involved," said Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, a nonprofit that seeks to include developing countries in decisions about solar modification, also known as geoengineering.
"While it complies with all current regulatory requirements, there is a clear need to reexamine what a strong regulatory framework must look like in a world where [solar radiation modification] experimentation is happening," she added.
The Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement, or CAARE, project is using specially built sprayers to shoot trillions of sea salt particles into the sky in an effort to increase the density — and reflective capacity — of marine clouds. The experiment is taking place, when conditions permit, atop the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda, California, and will run through the end of May, according to a weather modification form the team filed with federal regulators.
The project comes as global heat continues to obliterate monthly and yearly temperature records and amid growing interest in solar radiation modification from Silicon Valley funders and some environmental groups. It also follows the termination of a Harvard University experiment last month that planned to inject reflective aerosols into the stratosphere near Sweden before it was canceled after encountering opposition from Indigenous groups.
Solar radiation modification is controversial because widespread use of technologies like marine cloud brightening could alter weather patterns in unclear ways and potentially limit the productivity of fisheries and farms. It also wouldn't address the main cause of climate change — the use of fossil fuels — and could lead to a catastrophic spike in global temperatures if major geoengineering activities were discontinued before greenhouse gases decrease to manageable levels.
The University of Washington and SilverLining, a geoengineering research advocacy group involved in the CAARE project, declined interview requests. The mayor of Alameda, where the experiment is being conducted, didn't respond to emailed questions about the project.
The secrecy surrounding the landmark experiment seems to have been by design, according to The New York Times, which, along with a local newspaper, was granted exclusive access to cover the initial firing of the spray cannons.
"The idea of interfering with nature is so contentious, organizers of Tuesday's test kept the details tightly held, concerned that critics would try to stop them," the Times reported. The White House also distanced itself from the experiment, which is being conducted with the cooperation of a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.
The project team has touted its transparency, noting that visitors to the USS Hornet, which now serves as a floating museum, will be able to view the experiment.
"The world needs to rapidly advance its understanding of the effects of aerosol particles on climate,” Kelly Wanser, the executive director of SilverLining, said in a press release. "With a deep commitment to open science and a culture of humility, the University of Washington has developed an approach that integrates science with societal engagement, and can help society in essential steps toward advancing science, developing regulations, promoting equitable and effective decision-making, and building shared understanding in these areas."
The CAARE project is part of a larger coastal study that the University of Washington consortium is planning to pursue. The second phase of that effort would take place on a pier around a mile offshore in a coastal environment, according to a study description the school released Monday.
While a peer review of that proposal was generally positive, the scientists also flagged some transparency shortcomings.
"One reviewer noted that it would help to have more information on the site location," said a Washington-University-commissioned report. "Is there local resistance or concerns (whether founded or unfounded) around issues like local air quality, etc.? How many options exist, and how do different options affect the field study plan?"
The study plan also made no mention of its potential ecological impacts, a key consideration recommended by a 2022 Biden administration marine cloud brightening workshop. That's a significant oversight, according to Greg Goldsmith, the associate dean for research and development at Chapman University.
"History has shown us that when we insert ourselves into modification of nature, there are always very serious unintended consequences," said Goldsmith, who studies the implications of climate change for plant structure and function. "And therefore, it would be prudent to listen to what history has shown and look for consequences."
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| SSPX Priest on Trial for Abusing 7 Children |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-09-2024, 06:52 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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How horrifying and tragic...
SSPX Priest on Trial for Abusing 7 Children
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/be00658c-19a3-4de6-9fc0-358ce018c6d6/rostand-1.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
Stella Maris [adapted] | April 6, 2024
A priest of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is on trial for abusing seven children.
On April 4, Fr. Arnaud Rostand, former U.S. district superior, appeared in criminal court in Gap, France, where he is charged with sexually assaulting multiple minors from 2002 to 2018 in France, Switzerland and Spain.
In his court testimony, the 58-year-old priest admitted to his crimes and apologized to victims, saying he has “always struggled against this attraction” to adolescents.
Significantly, Rostand made his SSPX superiors aware of his struggles as early as 1998, writing a letter to his superiors admitting his attraction to children. He repeated his concerns to superiors in 2000, 2006 and 2016.
Rostand himself confirmed in a 2010 interview, “In August of 2008, Bishop Fellay, the General Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, appointed me as Superior of the District of the United States.” He served as district superior from 2008–2014.
In spite of these warnings, the SSPX, primarily through Fellay, continued placing Rostand in positions of authority in Europe, Asia and the United States.
Rostand’s victims were former students of SSPX academies.
The priest said he has been receiving psychiatric care since 2019.
“I realize today that I should have acted differently,” he conceded in court.
In response to questioning over why he never turned himself in to police, he said, “I ask forgiveness from the victims and regret profoundly everything I have done.”
TRACK RECORD OF ABUSE
The charges against Fr. Rostand come less than a year after fellow French SSPX priest Fr. Pierre de Maillard was convicted in court for abusing 27 minors over the course of 25 years.
The trial was reported across French media as a "horror trial," with de Maillard gaining the singular reputation of being named “the greatest serial predator” in France.
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/be00658c-19a3-4de6-9fc0-358ce018c6d6/2023-05-15_maillard_sspx.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
Fr. Pierre de Maillard, convicted in 2023 of abusing 27 children
Rostand’s trial also comes a year and a half after American SSPX priest Fr. Matthew Stafki pleaded guilty to molesting his six-year-old niece over the course of three years.
In December 2020, an SSPX teacher in France was convicted for abusing 13 children, and just two months prior, in October 2020, SSPX priest Fr. Frederic Abbet was apprehended and imprisoned in Switzerland for abusing at least five boys in his care.
In 2017, SSPX priest Fr. Christophe Roisnel was sentenced to 19 years in prison for raping and torturing three female teachers at an SSPX academy in France.
Because victims are largely shunned and ostracized by their SSPX community if they accuse a priest, and leadership has used heavyhanded tactics to silence witnesses, it remains unknown how many actual victims exist, and how many SSPX priests have abused their flock. (Read this archive for more reports.)
Former U.S. District Superior Fr. Jürgen Wegner admitted in a leaked phone call that he knew of "hundreds of cases" of abuse within the Society. [...]
Lawyers for Rostand tried to minimize his harm, dismissing claims that Rostand was a dangerous predator, instead calling him “a weak, fragile, reprehensible man.”
Public Prosecutor Violaine Perrot is asking that Rostand be sentenced to four years monitored probation, with treatment, and a total ban on volunteer work or any professional ministry involving minors. She is also asking for financial compensation for the victims.
The court will issue its judgment and sentence on June 6.
SSPX RESPONDS
The SSPX issued an official statement on April 5, claiming that superiors suspended Rostand in 2014 “after ambiguous and inappropriate attitudes were brought to their attention.”
“For ten years, the accused has been subject to appropriate disciplinary supervision within the Society,” the statement continues.
The SSPX notes that it reported Rostand to law enforcement in 2019.
The statement ends with a call to prayer for the victims.
“As usual, Menzingen issues a press release full of half-truths and self-congratulation,” said one European source whose family member was abused by an SSPX priest. He requested anonymity to protect his family.
In recent years Rostand served in an administrative capacity at SSPX headquarters in Menzingen, Switzerland, until the current superior general, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, promoted him to the post of prior (equivalent to parish priest) in 2018.
“I also know that catechism classes for children are given in the part of the general house allocated to this priory,” the source said, indicating that Rostand would have had access to children, in spite of the SSPX’s claims that he was under “disciplinary supervision.”
The SSPX's statement omits the fact that superiors knew of Rostand’s pedophilic tendencies as early as 1998, yet placed him in positions of authority on several continents. These include Asia (Ceylon and Manila, Philippines) and North America.
In 2022, Rostand was sent to Montgardin, France — nicknamed the “Golden Prison” because it serves as the SSPX’s home for troubled clergy.
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/be00658c-19a3-4de6-9fc0-358ce018c6d6/montgardin.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
Montgardin, nicknamed "the Golden Prison"
For instance, SSPX priest Fr. Damien Carlisle, accused of abusing young boys in Gabon, Africa, and later in New Zealand, also spends his days in Montgardin.
PLACING PREDATORS IN POWER
Numerous reports show that Fellay has a track record of placing predators back in ministry, after a short stint in “prayer and penance.” The abusers often go on to continue their abuse — and so it seems in the case of Fr. Rostand.
Bishop Fellay was replaced as superior general in 2018 by Fr. Davide Pagliarani, who has been accused of following the same modus operandi as his predecessor.
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/be00658c-19a3-4de6-9fc0-358ce018c6d6/Proof.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
Proof that Fr. Rostand was named prior in 2019 (taken from SSPX bulletin "Le Rocher")
“Pagliarani has acted with the same criminal recklessness and deliberate endangerment,” said the European source, “since as soon as he took office (July 2018) he moved Rostand, physically in the same building in Menzingen, from bureaucrat with no pastoral function (‘communications officer’) to prior, therefore necessarily in contact with the faithful, families, children, etc.”
Pagliarani also placed admitted pedophile Fr. Patrick Groche [...], where he is accused of molesting African boys — in Maison Saint-Ignace in Lourdes, France in 2020, near the world-famous shrine. While he technically placed restrictions on Groche to be strictly supervised, there is evidence that Groche comes and goes as he pleases and that he has access to children.
One of his victims visited the Lourdes priory in July 2022, where Groche was seen surrounded by altar boys before Mass. When Groche learned that one of his victims was present, he disappeared and remained absent throughout Mass.
Concerns remain that Rostand may have unnamed victims in India, the Philippines and North America.
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| Ignatian Retreats 2024 - US |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-04-2024, 06:52 AM - Forum: Event Schedule
- Replies (1)
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IGNATIAN RETREATS 2024
Fr. Hewko is planning again to hold Ignatian Retreats (a week for the men and a week for the women) this year. The dates are as follows:
- Women’s Retreat will be Monday, June 24th (beginning at 12:30 PM) through Saturday, June 29th (ending after lunch).
- Men’s Retreat will be Monday, July 1st (beginning at 12:30 PM) through Saturday, July 6th (ending after lunch).
The venue will be the same as last year - at the Red Rock Guest Ranch in Soldier, Kansas, USA.
More details to follow.
May many graces flow from these powerful retreats!
Please email the following address to register olgs.twincities@outlook.com or with any questions.
*Fr. Hewko is also asking for generous souls to assist with the cooking for any portion of time during those two weeks!
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| Requiescat in pace: Bp. Vitus Huonder |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-04-2024, 05:31 AM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer
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![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginal...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F46%2F9f%2F0b%2F469f0b2ab708a4ad977fe5fae0ef4092.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
In your charity, please pray for the soul of Bishop Vitus Huonder who passed away today, April 3, 2024.
Bp. Huonder was a Novus Ordo priest and bishop who spent the last several years in Swiss and German SSPX priories and schools. His Novus Ordo training, ordination, and consecration caused much consternation in traditional circles, where there was uncertainty considering the validity of the Sacraments his administered, the Holy Oils he consecrated, and most recently, the SSPX Priory he consecrated.
But even prior to these issues, he noted that he joined the SSPX as the request of Rome/Pope Francis [January 2015]. "... he [Bp. Huonder] frankly admits: «I fulfilled this mandate [of Holy See], and I'm still filling it out.» This is clear: Mgr Huonder works, even today, the integration of the Brotherhood into the Conciliary Church..." [taken from here]. May all these concerns be now laid to rest. And may his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
✠ ✠ ✠
The De Profundis - Psalm 129
Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If Thou, O Lord, shalt mark our iniquities: O Lord, who can abide it?
For with Thee there is mercy: and by reason of Thy law I have waited on Thee, O Lord.
My soul hath waited on His word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even unto night: let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord And let perpetual light shine upon him.
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| Pope Francis Overrules the 2024 Synod |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-02-2024, 06:12 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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FRANCIS OVERRULES THE 2024 SYNOD
![[Image: bev290-Dic.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/bevimages(250-299)/bev290-Dic.jpg)
TIA | April 1, 2024
In a letter to the Card. Mario Grech, Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, made public on March 14, 2024 but dated February 22, 2024, Pope Francis seems to have thrown the coming Second Session of the Synod on synodality under the bus.
In fact, Francis alleged that there is no time to deal with the agenda established by the First Session (October 2023) for the Second Session (October 2024): “As it will not be possible to carry out this study by the time of the Second Session (2-27 October 2024), I am arranging for them [the topics] to be assigned to specific Study Groups, so that they may be properly examined.” (Bolletino, Sala Stampa della Santa Sede)
Bergoglio ordered Grech to establish those groups after the latter consults with the proper Vatican organs, and then to follow them to assure they will “operate according to an authentically synodal method, of which I ask you to be the guarantor.”
Francis listed 10 important topics to be discussed by these groups until June 2025, the new date to conclude their work – “if possible.” That is, he leaves a door open for the groups to continue after that deadline.
Later in this article, I will say a word on each one of these 10 topics. Now, let me continue to analyze the political aspect of the maneuver.
After dismissing the Second Session from dealing with these topics, the Pope gave the Synod 2024 a “consolation price.” Here is how he worded the overruling: “This will enable the Assembly, in its Second Session, to focus more easily on the general theme that I assigned to it at the time, and which can now be summarized in the question: ‘How to be a synodal Church in mission.’”
So, I would say that Francis is punishing the Synod and passing on its task to the 10 study groups. Why?
Actually, soon after the 2023 Synod released its final document, we pointed out that it was an empty document (here and here). The participants of the First Session chose to remain in generalities and postponed any decisions on the topics they discussed until the October 2024 Synod. Doing this, they were able to avoid dealing with the hot topics Francis wanted them to develop – woman deacons, married priests, blessings for homo couples, Communion for the divorced, downplaying the Papacy etc. There is a good chance that they would do the same this coming October.
![[Image: bev290-Hom.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/bevimages(250-299)/bev290-Hom.jpg)
Above, Fr. James Martin performs a blessing of a homo couple the day after Fiducia supplicans
Thus, Francis counter-attacked in two ways:
First, he did by himself whatever he could:- He allowed blessings for homo couples with Fiducia supplicans;
- He is giving minor orders to women and admitting the possibility of deacon women (here, here, here, and here).
- He is promoting married priests as much as he can (here, here, here, and here).
- Second, he is now placing the 2024 Synod in limbo and passing on its tasks to the mentioned Study Groups that he order Grech to create.
In his known caudillo [dictator] style, he punishes those who dare play games with the boss.
Topics removed from the Synod
The same day that Francis’ letter to Grech became public, the latter issued an official document establishing 10 study groups, each to deal with one of the topics that Francis indicated.
Below, I will say a short word on each topic and present the particular group’s agenda.
1. Relations between Eastern Catholics & Latin Catholics
Given the large immigration of Eastern Catholics to the West, many begin to mix with the Latin Catholics. This demands some form of regularization. Since many Eastern Hierarchs are more conservative than the Western ones, Francis wants to use this regularization process to bring a greater number of Eastern representatives to Rome to make them more progressivist.
![[Image: bev290-Gre.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/bevimages(250-299)/bev290-Gre.jpg)
Card. Grech:, chosen as central figure in Pope’s plan to change the Church
2. Listening to the cry of the poor
This topic includes ministering to all types of the poor and “marginalized.” So, besides the rampant Liberation Theology that promotes class struggle, the homosexuals, prostitutes, feminists, etc. should be heard as well and accompanied. This study group should suggest better ways to denounce “injustices” and produce a spirituality to sustain the “victims.” This agenda also includes hearing the “cry of the land” and caring for the “common house.”
3. Adapting to the digital environment
This group should suggest the theological, spiritual and canonical changes to be made in the structure of the Church to develop her “digital mission.” Among the changes to be considered is the adaptation of the existing notions of parish and diocese to the new reality. So far, these notions rely on the idea of territory and jurisdiction, but for the “digital environment” territories no longer count.
4. Revising the formation of seminarians
Seminarians should be “linked to the daily life of the communities,” without creating “an artificial ambience separated from the common life of the faithful.” Each Conference of Bishops should have its own program for seminarians. The group should suggest what aspects of the formation of priests must be “re-thought” and what can be left to the competence of the Bishops’ Conferences.
5. Theological & canonical questions on new ministerial forms
Baptized laymen and women “should participate in the mission of the Church.” The sacrament of Orders should be considered as a service, and “problems derived from a wrong notion of ecclesial authority” should be addressed. The place of the woman in the Church and their participation in decisions and pastoral tasks must be addressed. This group should also deal with women’s access to the deaconate.
![[Image: bev290-Dea.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/bevimages(250-299)/bev290-Dea.jpg)
Francis poses with an Anglican ‘priestess’ while pushing for women’s ordination
6. Revision of the Bishop's role regarding religious and lay organizations
The power of the Bishop as a Lord of his Diocese must diminish to give more power to the Bishops Conference; on the other hand, more power must be given to old and new religious and lay communities such as the communist Base Christian Communities and charismatic groups. Consultations with and counsels from these groups must play a role in the final decisions of the Bishop.
7. On the ministry of the Bishops
How should the local churches enter the process of selecting their Bishop in a synodal Church? How should the Nuncio evaluate the interests of the people of God? How should the ad limina visit of the Bishops to the Pope become an exercise of collegiality? These are questions for which this study group should propose answers.
8. Role of the pontifical representatives
The local churches should be given instruments to evaluate the action of the papal representatives so that their services could become more perfect. The Bishops Conferences should also be re-thought from a synodal perspective. This group should also reassess ecclesiastical provinces with the aim of “reinforcing” the local churches.
9. Synodal criteria to resolve disputed theological, pastoral & moral questions
This study group should “re-read” the traditional principles of human behavior, salvation and morals in order to better clarify the relationship between truth and love, as well as the doctrinal and the pastoral, in regard to disputed questions – married priests, woman deacon, homosexuality, transgenderism, Communion to the divorced, feminism etc. They should find a way to avoid simplified judgments that hurt persons and the Church.
![[Image: bev290-Tra.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/bevimages(250-299)/bev290-Tra.jpg)
Pope greets a transgender prostitute in public
10. Fruits of ecumenism
This group should study the interdependence between synodality and the primacy of the Pope with relation to ecumenical dialogues. Also, theological and canonical aspects of “Eucharistic hospitality” – communicatio in sacris or sharing the Eucharist with heretics – should be more deeply considered. Special attention should be given to “non-denominational” communities and Christian charismatic movements.
Here are the 10 points with which Pope Bergoglio wants to wipe out everything that 60 years of the Conciliar Revolution still has not destroyed.
Since we know that synodality is a code name to democratize the Church, we see that with or without the synod the Catholic Church as a Monarchy is doomed to die if her Divine King, Our Lord Jesus Christ, will not come to rescue her from this last forceful attack by her infiltrated enemies.
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| Cardinal Müller joins calls for US bishops to excommunicate Biden |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-02-2024, 05:38 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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NB: It is my understanding that Cardinal Müller while a strong 'conservative' voice in the Novus Ordo, does not see anything wrong with Vatican II. Nevertheless, it is good to see bishops and cardinals showing some backbone and attempting to uphold and defend some parts of the Catholic Faith, at least the most basic ones, in this case, against the murder of the innocent unborn.
Cardinal Müller joins calls for US bishops to excommunicate Biden
Cardinal Müller condemned the killing of the unborn as ‘infanticide’ and likened it to the ‘Nazi times,’ stressing how previous popes and bishops ‘had no fear to excommunicate’ for grave crimes.
![[Image: muller-1.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/muller-1.jpg)
Cardinal Müller preaches during a traditional Mass.
Istituto del Buon Pastore
Mar 28, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [adapted]) –– The former prefect of the Vatican’s highest doctrine office, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, condemned U.S. President Joe Biden’s support for abortion, saying it is “infanticide” and that those promoting “infanticide” should be “excommunicated.”
“The word ‘abortion’ is too much a soft word. The reality is killing, murder of a living person,” said Gerhard Cardinal Müller. “There’s no right to kill another person. It’s absolutely against the Fifth Commandment.”
The cardinal made his comments condemning President Joe Biden during an extensive interview with LifeSiteNews in Rome. {Parts I and II can be found here and here.} His forthright critique of Biden’s very public and consistent pro-abortion stance came shortly after the president used his 2024 State of the Union Address to promise to “restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.”
Cardinal Müller likened the killing of the unborn and the elderly to the “Nazi” times, saying that “it’s absolutely unacceptable that you can say you are a Catholic and promote and justify killing of human persons, human beings [from] the beginning in the mother’s womb, until the last respiration [with] euthanasia… Killing of ill people, like in the Nazi times, is euthanasia.”
Biden is very public about his self-professed Catholic faith, but Cardinal Müller suggested that while Biden is “nominally a Catholic, in reality he is a Nihilist. It’s cynicism and absolute cynicism.”
The prelate contrasted Biden with Catholics and other Christians throughout America who “know and accept as everybody also, the nonbelievers, with their own mere reason, they can understand that it’s not possible that one human being has a right to kill another one.”
Drawing on the example of St. Ambrose of Milan and his excommunication of the Emperor Theodosius, Cardinal Müller commented how “in other times people like this would be excommunicated. In former times the Popes and the bishops had no fear to excommunicate, like St. Ambrose of Milan.”
Quote:He stood up and also we should stand up and without looking to the consequences for us we have to stand up and to open our mouth for the innocent people and to protect their life. St. John the Baptist said to Herod, “It is not allowed for you to take the wife of your brother to be your own wife.” It is not allowed to you to kill persons or to justify [this], to open the legislation as if it was legal or legitimate. To kill the people is not a form of regulation of birth and so on, but it is absolutely immoral to kill other people.
And today all the Western world, Western leaders, the great majority of Western leaders also in Germany and France, as they made the right to kill their people, they lost their credibility. They cannot, on the one hand, protest against the killing of innocent people in Ukraine, while on the other hand allow the killing of their own children.
Reiterating the truth that God is “creator of every body and we humans are only the administrator of the good will of God,” Cardinal Müller observed that humanity was called to care for fellow men, since “we cannot distinguish or separate the love of God for us and our love for God, from the love of us to our neighbor and the love of our neighbor to us.”
Promoters of infanticide are excommunicated
Following Biden’ State of the Union address, LifeSite has launched a public action call for the U.S. bishops to excommunicate the pro-abortion president. Questioned directly by this reporter about the endeavor, Cardinal Müller stated that “the first step must be that we [must] have the unanimous U.S. bishops conference, probably together with other Christian religious, other religious leaders, [give] an absolute, clear, strong statement that this [abortion] is against all the standards and principles of humanity.”
Such a statement would be along these lines: “That they [would say] absolutely clearly that everybody in public responsibility who, as a Catholic, is promoting this infanticide, that they are excommunicated.”
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong, because it kills an innocent human being, thus violating the Church’s prohibition on murder. (CCC 2270-2272.) The CDF’s 2004 memo states that a politician “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” manifests “formal cooperation” with grave sin, and must be “denied” the Eucharist. Additionally, Canon 915 of the Catholic Code of Canon Law says that those who “obstinately” persevere “in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
The Code of Canon Law 915 also explicitly forbids those in mortal sin from receiving Communion: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
Expanding on the theme of a pro-abortion politician, Cardinal Müller further noted that even if there is no formal process of excommunication, a person is not to be excused from the gravity of his actions in supporting abortion.
Quote:So [even] in the case if one is not formally excommunicated, if these people receive Holy Communion, they don’t receive the Holy Communion only with their mouth, [as] they don’t receive the grace. They receive it, according to the words of Saint Paul, for their own condemnation, and Biden and all these people, they must know that in the ultimate judgment, when they appear after their death before the tribunal of God, that this is a mortal sin, what they are doing. Even if they are not personally doing it, but they are cooperators, direct cooperators of the murders of innocent people.
Biden says that he has had been in the Catholic schools, but I want to ask what did he learn there? For what is this religion?
It’s not only a certain feeling of belonging to, or a little sentimentality, or a little spirituality of inner good feeling, to read some poems or some books, and so you are feeling well, looking at nature and the apples… all nice. It’s not religion. Religion is a clear confession of all your person, of all your being, to give yourself as a sacrifice to God and for the others. That is our Christian religion.
Pro-abortion mindset is killing humanity
In addition to his comments on the intrinsically evil nature of abortion, Cardinal Müller further noted the “narrow-minded ideas” of the pro-abortion movement that is resulting in the destruction of humanity.
The pro-abortion mindset, he said, holds that “only my happiness is important, that it is an ultimate criteria of definition of happiness and pleasure, of my sense of my life.”
In contrast, Cardinal Müller noted that “we as individual humans, we have to understand ourselves in the context of our family, of our group of our friends, of our classmates, of our culture, of our nation, and of mankind.”
Pointing to the inter-generational nature of teaching the Catholic Faith, the German cardinal highlighted that the pro-abortion mindset of individual happiness is fundamentally against religion.
In closing, Cardinal Müller praised and supported the recently launched nine-month novena from Cardinal Raymond Burke, which is directed towards Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas and the unborn.
Cardinal Müller opined that such an endeavor would serve to also strengthen a Catholic “worldwide conscience and movement,” since the opponents of the Church “have all the power of the media” and “behind them are the international organizations,” like Big Tech and the financial world.
The full transcript of Part III of LifeSite’s interview with Cardinal Müller is found below:
Michael Haynes: Your Eminence, we mentioned Fiducia Supplicans, the Synodal Way, and the Synod on Synodality. I wanted to move briefly to America in terms of the discussion as, somewhat similar to the controversy caused by Fiducia supplicans, I think there’s a great pain felt, especially by American Catholics, with U.S. President Joe Biden, who’s nominally a Catholic but is very public in his promotion of abortion. He used his recent State of the Union address to once again very publicly call for abortion. It seems that there’s a silence amongst many bishops, some priests, also on these clear teachings that should be promoted, especially when there is such promotion of abortion. Why do you think there is such a silence on these issues?
Cardinal Gerhard Müller: The word “abortion” is too much a soft word. The reality is killing, murder of a living person. There’s no right to kill another person. It’s absolutely against the fifth commandment. The president, a politician, is calling himself Catholic – or [like] Putin, is calling himself an Orthodox Christian, [as he] spoke in the dialogue and the interview with Tucker Carlson, he spoke about the baptism of Russia as a point of reference for justifying what he’s doing now, killing innocent persons in Ukraine – for me it’s the same.
It’s absolutely unacceptable that you can say you are a Catholic and promote and justify killing of human persons, human beings [from] the beginning in the mother’s womb, until the last respiration [with] euthanasia…Killing of ill people, like in the Nazi times, is euthanasia.
He [Biden] could be nominally a Catholic but in reality he is a Nihilist. It’s cynicism and absolute cynicism.
And the representatives of the Catholic Church and all Catholics, and in America also [there are] a lot of Protestant Christians of other denominations, they are obedient to the Word of God and they know and accept as everybody also, the nonbelievers, with their own mere reasons, they can understand that it’s not possible that one human being has a right to kill another one. There would be no basis for any morals, [it would be] absolutely the domination of brutality. Like Hitler I [would] have the power, I can do whatever I want, I can kill everybody – it’s the same mentality and behavior.
This is a pagan understanding and we must reject openly against this absolutely murderous ideology. And not to make compromises saying “yes, he is a president and we cannot do anything against him.” In other times people like this would be excommunicated. In former times the Popes and the bishops had no fear to excommunicate, like St. Ambrose of Milan. He excommunicated the good Catholic Emperor Theodosius because he killed in Thessalonica, in certain circumstances in the theater, 7000 people, innocent people. He [Ambrose] denied that he [Theodosius] could receive Holy Communion.
On one side the Emperor has also military power today with a public meaning. On the other hand [there is] only a single person, the bishop without weapons, but only with a weapon of the truth and the Word of God.
He stood up and also we should stand up and without looking to the consequences for us we have to stand up and to open our mouth for the innocent people and to protect their life. St. John the Baptist said to Herod, “It is not allowed for you to take the wife of your brother to be your own wife. It is not allowed to you to kill persons or to justify [this], to open the legislation as if it was legal or legitimate. To kill the people is not a form of regulation of birth and so on, but it is absolutely immoral to kill other people.”
And today all the Western world, Western leaders, the great majority of Western leaders also in Germany and France, as they made the right to kill their people, they lost their credibility. They cannot, on the one hand, protest against the killing of innocent people in Ukraine, while on the other hand allow the killing of their own children.
There is no right of the mother to kill her own child, but the mission of a woman and a mother is to protect. Where is the child? It is not in the dog’s house. It is in your womb, in your body. It came in through the love of your husband, in the ideal case. But also in the other cases – the generation of the child outside of marriage – but the objective is given a reality by God. God is a creator of every body and we humans are only the administrator of the good will of God. We have to take care of the children, of the young people, of the elderly people because we cannot distinguish or separate the love of God for us and our love for God, from the love of us to our neighbor and the love of our neighbor to us.
Haynes: Your Eminence, you mentioned how previously such political leaders or public figures would have been excommunicated. I know now there is a petition going around amongst U.S. Catholics for the U.S. bishops to do that with regards to Joe Biden, to move to excommunicate him. Do you think that that is something which would be a good thing for the bishops to do?
Cdl. Müller: The first step must be that we [must] have the unanimous U.S. bishops conference, probably together with other Christian religious, other religious leaders, [give] an absolute, clear, strong statement that this is against all the standards and principles of humanity. That they [would say] absolutely clearly that everybody in public responsibility as a Catholic, who is promoting this infanticide, that they are excommunicated.
So [even] in the case if one is not formally excommunicated, if these people receive Holy Communion, they don’t receive the Holy Communion only with their mouth, [as] they don’t receive the grace. They receive it, according to the words of Saint Paul, for their own condemnation, and Biden and all these people, they must know that in the ultimate judgment, when they appear after their death before the tribunal of God, that this is a mortal sin, what they are doing. Even if they are not personally doing it, but they are cooperators, direct cooperators of the murders of innocent people.
And also there is an absolute great stupidity also under political dimensions. We in Europe, all politicians are saying we don’t have enough people for work, and now they are killing their whole future. The creation is shaped so far as a following of generations is belonging to the human constitution. People don’t drop from the air or come out from the earth. They come from the former generation, from the parents, grandparents, back to the beginning of the mankind, until to the last generation which we will see with our own eyes when Jesus is coming back.
They [pro-abortion individuals] have some narrow-minded ideas, [that] only my happiness is important, that it is an ultimate criteria of definition of happiness and pleasure, of my sense of my life. [They say] “surely we are individuals, that is clear, and the person is the ultimate reason of the creation, of the self-communication of God with us.”
But we as individual humans, we have to understand ourselves in the context of our family, of our group of our friends, of our classmates, of our culture, of our nation, and of mankind. Also we are belonging – as our immediate relation to God is not isolated – we are members of the body of the Church and nobody received their faith only by reading the Bible, but beginning with his parents was he was introduced, socialized, and personalized during the different phases of life development.
We didn’t come into the world as adults, but as small kids, depending on the parents of our life growing up, and the love of our parents, of our teachers, and so on, so past us. That is reality, the deepest solidarity between all human beings. And that is forgotten.
Biden says that he has had been in the Catholic schools, but I want to ask what did he learn there? For what is this religion? It’s not only a certain feeling of belonging to, or a little sentimentality, or a little spirituality of inner good feeling, to read some poems or some books, and so you are feeling well, looking at nature and the apples and the screens, all nice. It’s not religion. Religion is a clear confession of all your person, of all your being, to give yourself as a sacrifice to God and for the others. That is our Christian religion.
Haynes: It seems quite fitting then, especially now given the recent developments in France enshrining abortion into the constitution, it seems very fitting with Cardinal Burke’s Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, but patroness of the unborn as well. As a final, very brief question, would you have any comments or thoughts to add regarding that Novena of Cardinal Burke’s, the nine-month Novena, starting just on March the 12th?
Cdl. Müller: No, that seems a very good idea and realization. It’s a Novena to ask for the Holy Spirit, for the Christian Enlightenment and illumination of our minds and to change our thoughts and behavior, and to establish a worldwide conscience and movement because the others are living in an international network.
They have all the power of the media, behind them are the international organizations of Big Mac and Big Tech, the financial world, these businessmen, nothing against businessmen, but only with this experience one cannot rule the world. One cannot give the answer to the basic existential questions of our human existence. We need philosophers and theologians who give the ultimate orientation for mankind.
At least, and at the end, God is the only true and infallible teacher for everybody.
Haynes: Eminence, thank you once again for your time and all your insights. Would you just close us off with your blessing?
Cdl. Müller: We are oriented in Jesus Christ – the only Way, the Church, the Synodal path with Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life – and we ask for His blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on Easter Sunday - March 31, 2024 |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-01-2024, 05:43 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò
ADHUC TECUM SUM
Homily on Easter Sunday
Taken from here.
Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum.
I have Risen, and I am still with you. Psalm 138
Hæc dies, quam fecit dominus. This is the Day the Lord Has Made. These are the words that the Divine Liturgy will repeat throughout the Octave of Easter, to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, triumphant over death. However, allow me to take a step back, to Holy Saturday, that is, to the moment in which the Body of the Savior lies lifeless in the Sepulcher and His Soul descends into Hell to free from Limbo those who died under the Ancient Law waiting for the Promised Messiah.
A week ago, the Lord was acclaimed as King of Israel and entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. A few days later, as soon as the Jewish Passover was celebrated, the Temple guards arrested Him and with a show trial convinced the Imperial Roman authority to put Him to death for having proclaimed Himself God. We accompanied the Lord to the praetorium; we witnessed the flight of the Disciples, the inaction of the Apostles, the denial of Peter. We saw Him scourged and crowned with thorns. We saw Him exposed to insults and spitting from the crowd, incited by the Sanhedrin. We followed Him along the road that leads to Calvary. We contemplated His crucifixion, listened to His words on the Cross, heard the cry with which He died. We saw the sky darken, the earth tremble, the veil of the Temple torn. We mourned His Death and His Deposition from the Cross along with the Pious Women and Saint John. Finally, we observed the Stone closing His tomb and the garrison of temple guards ensuring that no one would approach to steal His body and claim that He had risen from the dead. Everything was already written, prophesied, and announced ahead of time.
The words of the Prophets were not enough, despite the fact that they announced both the Most Sorrowful Passion of the Savior as well as His glorious Resurrection. It seemed that it was all over, that everything was in vain: all the hopes of three years of public ministry, miracles, and healings seemed to dissolve in the face of the harsh reality of a terrible and infamous death, which definitively ended the life of the son of a carpenter from Galilee.
This is what we have before us in this crucial phase of the history of humanity: a world that for centuries has built a civilization – or rather Civilization itself – on the words of Christ, recognizing Him as King just as the people of Jerusalem did, and yet in the span of just a few generations now denies Him, tortures Him, kills Him with the most infamous of tortures, and wants to bury Him forever. And if we have not yet reached the end of this passio Ecclesiæ – that is, the completion of the Passion of Christ in his members, the Mystical Body – we know that this is in any case what will soon take place, because the servant is not superior to the master. The contemporary world has witnessed the maneuvers of the Sanhedrin, which in three centuries has accomplished against the Holy Church, what it once did in three days against its Founder; in that Sanhedrin we have been able to include not only kings and princes, but also priests and scribes, for whom the Redemption threatened a usurpation that would hurt a people deceived by their own leaders. In fact, he [Pilate] knew well that they had handed Him [Jesus] over to him out of envy (Mt 27:18).
We are watching all this in disbelief it can happen again, this time involving the entire ecclesial body and not just its divine Head. Some with the fear of seeing the failure of their political subversive program, others dismayed and unable to understand how the words of the Lord can come true, when everything leaves one fearing the worst. Some reveal themselves by the way they consider the Lord as an opportunity to gain personal advantage and are therefore ready to betray Him. Others continue to believe, apparently against all reason.
We see today’s high priests bowing to temporal power, prostrating themselves before the idols of globalism and Mother Earth – an infernal simulacrum of the New World Order – out of that same fear of having a usurped power taken away from them, of being discovered in their lies, in their deceptions. Betrayals, fornications, perversions, murders, and corruption expose an entire unworthy and treacherous political and religious class. And what the scandals bring to light is still nothing compared to what we will soon come to know: the horror of a submerged world, in which those who should exercise the authority of Christ the King in the civil sphere and of Christ the High Priest in the religious one are in reality worshippers and servants of the Enemy, no more and no less than the priests shown by the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel (Ez 8), hidden in the deepest recesses of the Temple and intent on worshipping Baal.
God’s wrath is unleashed upon them through the punitive action of their enemies: yesterday it was Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus Epiphanes, Diocletian or Julian the Apostate; today it is the hordes of invading Islam, Black Lives Matter, the followers of LGBTQ ideology, the tyrants of the New World Order, and the WHO. And just as the precursors of the Antichrist believed they could defeat Christ and died, so the servants of the Antichrist and the Antichrist himself will also die, exterminated by the right hand of God.
How much blood has been shed! How many innocent lives have been cut short, how many souls lost forever, how many Saints torn from Heaven! But how many silent martyrs there are, how many unknown conversions, how much heroism exists in so many nameless people. And among them we cannot fail to include the Doctors of the Church – that is, those Bishops who have remained faithful to the teaching of the Lord – and the teachers of the people, that is, those champions of Catholic Truth against the Antichrist. Yes, dear friends and brothers, because there will also be these: And the doctors of the people will enlighten many people, and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days (Dan 11:33). The Holy Spirit gives this title of doctor – which is a just reward for ingenuity combined with work – equally, and with infinite justice, to poor commoners who have been transformed into apostles by the greatness of their Faith. Intrepid apostles of Christian truths: they will make them resonate in offices, in shops, in the streets, in the countryside, on the internet. The Antichrist too will hate them, considering them as one of the greatest obstacles to the establishment of his tyrannical kingdom, and will persecute them ferociously; because just when he believes he has the pulpits and parliaments under control, it will also be thanks to them if the flame of Faith does not go out and if the fire of Charity lights up many hearts that were lukewarm until then. Let us look around us: the mounting fury of so many heinous crimes and so many lies is waking up many souls, shaking them from their torpor to make them heroic souls ready to fight for the Lord. And the more ferocious and ruthless the battle becomes in the final stages, the more determined and courageous will be the testimony of unknown and humble people.
During this great Good Friday of all humanity, which is now drawing to a close and is a prelude to the victory of the Resurrection, the obscene cries and vile cruelties of the crowd terrify us and make us think that everything is lost, especially in contemplating how many cries of “Hosanna” have turned into cries of “Crucify Him.” But everything is not lost, dear brothers and sisters! On the contrary: if we have reached Good Friday, we know that the silence of Holy Saturday is imminent, which will soon be pierced by the sound, no longer of festive bells, but of the trumpets of Judgment, the Triumphal Return of the glorious Lord.
To whom does the Risen Savior first reveal Himself? Not to Herod, nor to Caiaphas, nor to Pilate, to whom he too could have given a good lesson by appearing dazzling in his snow-white robe. He does not show himself to the Apostles, who have fled and are still hiding in the Cenacle. He does not show himself to Peter, who still bitterly mourns his denial. Instead, He shows himself to Magdalene, who initially believes he is a gardener: to a woman whom the mentality of the world at that time would have considered insignificant, but who, along with Most Holy Mary and the Pious Women, had accompanied the Lord to Calvary, and who was now concerned with washing and embalming the Sacred Body. May this thoughtfulness of the Redeemer towards Magdalene therefore be a promise for the Glorious Day of His return, when other nameless Catholics, who remained faithful in the hour of the Passion, will deserve to see, rising in the East, the Sun of Justice who will never set. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
March 31, 2024
Dominica Paschatis, in Resurrectione Domini
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| Archbishop Viganò: Meditation on Good Friday [2024] |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-31-2024, 01:59 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò
TENEBRÆ FACTÆ SUNT
Meditation on Good Friday
Taken from here.
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A sexta autem hora tenebræ factæ sunt super universam terram usque ad horam nonam.
From noon until three in the afternoon it was dark over the whole earth. Mt 27:45
Tenebræ factæ sunt. In the hour of Our Lord’s agony, the whole of nature, the cosmos itself, is clothed in the black clouds of mourning. Darkness. And along with the darkness, cold, biting air, and a silence pregnant with horror and emotion for the impending death of Christ. The sky is leaden and threatening, the earth ready to quiver and tremble with indignation. On the high ground of Golgotha, where sharp stones and thorny bushes dominate Jerusalem, the Cross has been raised, and on the Cross is nailed the Immaculate Lamb, Priest and Victim. We dare not raise our eyes to look, and we remain at the foot of that scaffold, together with the Virgin and Saint John.
This is your hour, it is the empire of darkness (Lk 22:53), the Lord said the night before, after going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with the Apostles, who were unable to keep vigil with Him. In that terrible hour, all the sins committed by every human being, from the beginning of the world to the last moment before the Last Judgment, flow before the Savior, striking Him in the soul with greater cruelty than the scourges that will tear His flesh the next day. The immense, unspeakable, unheard-of pain caused by this vision arouses in the Lord such anguish that it causes him to sweat blood. Ego autem sum vermis et non homo; opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis (Ps 22:7). And loneliness: feeling not only abandoned by His own, but seeing himself as if shunned by the Eternal Father, who sees in Him the scapegoat, the One who took upon Himself the sins of the world, who took them upon Himself, which for those sins committed against the Majesty of God requires the death of a God, and which in order to redeem sinful humanity requires the sacrifice of the firstborn. Cuius una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere, according to the words of Aquinas. A single drop of that most precious Blood would have saved the world, but it would not have manifested the infinite Charity of God – in the supreme act of the Sacrifice – ready to die for us, children of wrath, cursed and ungrateful, a thousand times sinners.
Oh, if only we could conceive of the horror the Lord experienced in making Himself an innocent Victim in place of us – we who are guilty of all the most horrifying sins of which man is capable! If we could only imagine the torment of the Virgin Mother when she saw her divine Son burdened with those repugnant sins, especially the sins against purity, so horrifying for the virginal soul of Mary Most Holy and even more so for the Incarnate Word! Sharp swords that pierce the Most Sacred Heart together with the Immaculate Heart and that pierce them, in a pain that man cannot know, except vaguely, in the perfect contrition that only the fire of Charity can move. That fire of divine Love which is inextricably linked to obedience to God’s will: Pater! Si non potest hic calix transire, nisi bibam illum, fiat voluntas tua (Mt 26:42). Silence responds to this cry of the tormented soul, as in the dark night of the mystics, because Heaven must remain mute in the face of that travail precisely in order to make it fruitful. It is in that offering that the priesthood of Christ the High Priest is fulfilled, it is in that holocaust that the Sacrifice of the Redeemer is consummated, and along with it the mystical passion of the Most Sorrowful Coredemptrix.
Only a mother knows what it means to feel what her child feels: for this reason, precisely in the supreme act of the Priesthood of the New and Eternal Covenant; precisely in the hour of the most mute and profound sorrow, Our Lord gives us the gift of that Divine Motherhood, entrusting us to her and entrusting her to us. Let us be aware, dear brothers and sisters: Our Lord makes us sinners, children of His Immaculate Mother and makes His Mother our Mother, at the same time that He makes Himself the divine Victim pro peccatis suæ gentis, representing sinful humanity before the Divine Majesty by virtue of the Hypostatic Union. This is not a merely dogmatic question – even if the Modernists go so far as to deny the Compassion and Co-redemption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to please heretics – but it is above all a mystical and spiritual reality, which must make us exclaim with St. Paul: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiæ, et scientiæ Dei: quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viæ ejus! O the depth of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge: how far beyond comprehension are His judgments, and beyond all knowledge are His ways! (Rom 11:33). And again: That you may be enabled to understand with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and to know this love which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:18-19). This love that surpasses all things, that impels God to take the form of a servant, and raises the servant to be not only a creature of God, but His son, and a joint heir, even a friend. We repeat it in these blessed days, with the wise pedagogy of Holy Mother Church, which progressively reveals the words of the responsory taken from Saint Paul:
Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen (Phil 2:8-9),
and the Apostle continues:
ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur cælestium, terrestrium, et infernorum: et omnis lingua confiteatur, quia Dominus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris (Phil 2:10-11).
For it is only by standing at the foot of the Cross – without even daring to lift our gaze to the One whom we have pierced (Jn 19:37) – that we are able to understand that the only possible, worthy, just, dutiful and salutary response for us men before the Incarnate Divine Charity, the Divine Victim, the Divine Priest and the Divine King is to prostrate ourselves on our knees and profess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.
Let us join our voice to this infinite chorus, in which every tongue sings the praises of God and proclaims Jesus Christ, Lord and Universal King. Yes, Christ is King. King of all: of those who submit to Him with trusting abandonment as well as of those who reject His Lordship; which was decreed and sanctioned once and for all on the wood of the Cross, arbor decora et fulgida, ornata Regis purpura, the Throne of the Lamb, Instrument of Salvation for those who believe, stumbling block for the Jews, foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Cor 1:23-24). For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25).
Let us impress upon our hearts the words of the Savior, when the gates of Hell seem to overwhelm and overpower us: Ego vici mundum – I have conquered the world (Jn 16:33). These words are not a wish, a mere pious desire, or a false illusion, like everything that comes from Satan: they are the unfailing promise of God.
And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
29 March 2024
Feria VI in Parasceve
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