"The office divinely committed to Us of feeding the Lord's flock has especially this duty assigned to it by Christ, namely, to guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith delivered to the saints, rejecting the profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. There has never been a time when this watchfulness of the supreme pastor was not necessary to the Catholic body; for, owing to the efforts of the enemy of the human race, there have never been lacking 'men speaking perverse things' (Acts xx. 30), 'vain talkers and seducers' (Tit. i. 10), 'erring and driving into error' (2 Tim. iii. 13). Still, it must be confessed that the number of the enemies of the cross of Christ has in these last days increased exceedingly, who are striving, by arts entirely new and full of subtlety, to destroy the vital energy of the Church, and, if they can, to overthrow utterly Christ's kingdom itself. Wherefore, We may no longer be silent, lest We should seem to fail in Our most sacred duty, and lest the kindness that, in the hope of wiser counsels, We have hitherto shown them, should be attributed to forgetfulness of Our office." —Pope St. Pius X, in his great encyclical condemning the errors of Modernism, Pascendi Dominici Gregis ("Of Feeding the Lord's Flock"), published on September 8, 1907 (112 years ago yesterday). These are the first lines of the document. A few days ago, on the feast day of Pope Pius X, Pope Francis unexpectedly came into St. Peter's Basilica and sat in the back row as a Mass was being celebrated at the tomb of St. Pius X
"With his new political and theological approach, Pope Francis is doing something truly revolutionary — he is reshaping the fundamental identity of Catholicism in the 21st century. From the beginning of its institutional history in the 4th century A.D., the Catholic Church has defined itself as the 'one true Church,' to the exclusion of all other paths to salvation... But the pope’s open-minded acceptance of the legitimacy of other roads to God represents more than grudging acceptance of an increasingly diverse and secular reality. It heralds a fundamental shift in the church’s aspirations. As he uses his bully pulpit to promote mutual understanding and acceptance, Francis is trading the aspirations to universality that have guided the church since its institutional beginnings for a looser agenda based on the 'care of creation.'” —Adam Littlestone-Luria, a PhD Candidate in ancient history at the University of California, Berkeley, September 24, 2017, in the Washington Post
I have to say straight out , as I having been saying for several years now. What this present Pope is doing is just not wrong. It is pure outright evil. I don't know, I am not a Theologian, I don't know how this fits into a theological understanding of the Papacy but I 'll tell you this. WHAT THIS POPE IS DOING IS SIMPLE ALL OUT EVIL. ...AND..... BY INFERENCE. THIS POPE IS SIMPLE ALL OUT EVIL
This graph is fundamentally wrong. There should be one straight line from 33AD to 2019AD, and it should be labeled "Catholicism". The "Early Christians" were Catholics - the Church did not morph into the Catholic Church we know today. The line could also be labeled "Christianity". "Catholicism" or "Catholic Christianity" are simply terms that we are forced to use to clarify the True Church from the false churches that were formed in the 11th c. (which are valid churches but no longer united with the ONE, Holy, CATHOLIC, and Apostolic Church) and from the Protestant communities that have arisen from the 16th c. onwards. In fact, the terms confuse many people (including most Catholics) into believing that Catholicism is a "branch" or denomination of wider "Christianity". It is not. It is Christianity. We are one because we are all under the Successor of Peter and because we share in the One True Faith. We are made one by the Holy Spirit and by our participation in the Sacraments. Catholicism = Christianity. Orthodoxy = schismatics (i.e. they broke from us). Protestants = heretical Christians.
Yes, also it does not show the break up of Protestantism. One estimate is that there are some 47.000 Protestant Sects; It would take quite a graph to show that. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/sbeale/just-how-many-protestant-denominations-are-there
For me, that's the only unresolved question and will probably be forever unresolved. Does the Pope have an evil will or not? Is he intending to harm the Church or is he doing the best he can (however mistakenly) to do what he thinks is for the good of the Church? I don't know. From what I have seen over the past six years, my GUESS is that I would agree with you Padraig. But the only ones who know for sure are Pope Francis and God plus any others who know from very, very private conversations they've had with the pope. In a sense, it doesn't matter at all. He's doing what he's doing, no matter his true intentions. God bless
We must read the Signs of the Times. Matthew 16:3 The Demand for a Sign …2But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’ 3and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times! 4A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.… Judge them by their fruits. .and beware the appearance of the Lawless one... 2 Thessalonians 2:9 The Man of Lawlessness …8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival. 9The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and FALSE wonder, 10and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.…
....and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival. The Majesty of His arrival is the Sign promised in Marian Apparitions to undo the the Huge wrong that is being done in the Church at moment by the Lawless one. In other words Jesus and Mary are coming to undo the wrongs in the Church. In other words, this present Pontificate. The Boat of Peter is sinking and Jesus and Mary are just about to unsink it. .as according to the Scriptural promise Matthew 16:18 Peter's Confession of Christ …17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”…
I don't think there's any doubt whatsoever ..at this stage... that to anyone who has being paying any prayerful attention whatsoever that this present Pontificate is totally evil. Of course there have been evil Popes before this. Many of them. ...but these Demons were out for themselves. Greedy and wicked. This Pontificate marks a new pure evil. ... a certain and most clear determination to destroy the Church herself.
The one thing that the Vatican cannot control is the will of Almighty God....no country, no money, no person can influence the will of the Lord. Our prayers are more powerful than any country, person or money! Praise God and His almighty will! No worries!
No question Padraig...we are now witnessing and living in historical evil times.... God has this...we have no worries...just pray, hope and don’t worry.... If we don’t pray for His will....we are complicit with the evil one....especially since we know better. Just like the consecrated priest, we will be held to a greater accountability before God if we do not pray...because we know what needs to be done...the uninformed and ignorant do not understand...but we do thus making us more accountable before the throne of God at our judgement.
Father Hardon used to say that the definition of evil is that which destroys good. In many ways our pope has and is doing just this. Look at the good the Pope John Paul Institue did to teach the truths of the faith and now Pope Francis has all but destroyed these great gifts from his predecessor. One could go on and on, but we all know that much of this papacy is not of Gods will. Yet I see it is all in God's plan to purify His Church and His world. We are so very close now to Gods punishments and we see signs of this already in the works. Our Lady's prophecies are now unfolding. Much purification is needed to clean up the evil seen and unseen in our church and in the world. Abortion of babies is enough for God to destroy humanity, but his love and mercy is unfathomable. Let us all continue to pray for our bad pope and bad cardinals, bishops and priests. Satan is very influential on them and we need to pray our rosaries for our clergy who are the prime targets of the devil.
Evil is destroying good. I suspect the ultimate goal is the utter destruction of 2,000 years of Christian tradition and the complete merger of the Church with the world, so that she will become unrecognizable in, say, twenty years. But this has to be done in a subtle, underhanded way so that most won't notice - until the plan has been fully implemented. So they sow confusion, mix truth and falsehood, good and evil. Of course God may have other plans.
DeGaulle, before I became Catholic, my mother took my brother and me to the Anglican Church and dropped us off on Sunday mornings. The pastor there was not thrilled with my decision to convert to Catholicism. I heard about it later.
Evil is having its day, but victory is our Lord's and our Mothers and ours and it is just around the corner as so many of Mary's prophecies and apparitions suggest. I don't believe we are 20 years from our Lady's Triumph, the Second Coming and the Era of Peace. I feel, we are maybe 7 years away max, but either way, we will have a bigger indicator once the Warning comes, which seems very close now. I also believe, as Cardinal Ratzinger prophcised, that the church will be recognizable, even though small, very holy. The transcription the 1969 radio broadcast in full is below: “The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith. It will not issue from those who accommodate themselves merely to the passing moment or from those who merely criticize others and assume that they themselves are infallible measuring rods; nor will it issue from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of faith, declaring false and obsolete, tyrannous and legalistic, all that makes demands upon men, that hurts them and compels them to sacrifice themselves. To put this more positively: The future of the Church, once again as always, will be reshaped by saints, by men, that is, whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day, who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality. Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone, a man’s eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and suffered. If today we are scarcely able any longer to become aware of God, that is because we find it so easy to evade ourselves, to flee from the depths of our being by means of the narcotic of some pleasure or other. Thus our own interior depths remain closed to us. If it is true that a man can see only with his heart, then how blind we are! How does all this affect the problem we are examining? It means that the big talk of those who prophesy a Church without God and without faith is all empty chatter. We have no need of a Church that celebrates the cult of action in political prayers. It is utterly superfluous. Therefore, it will destroy itself. What will remain is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church that believes in the God who has become man and promises us life beyond death. The kind of priest who is no more than a social worker can be replaced by the psychotherapist and other specialists; but the priest who is no specialist, who does not stand on the [sidelines], watching the game, giving official advice, but in the name of God places himself at the disposal of man, who is beside them in their sorrows, in their joys, in their hope and in their fear, such a priest will certainly be needed in the future. Let us go a step farther. From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. Undoubtedly it will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Along-side this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world. In faith and prayer she will again recognize the sacraments as the worship of God and not as a subject for liturgical scholarship. The Church will be a more spiritual Church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek. The process will be all the more arduous, for sectarian narrow-mindedness as well as pompous self-will will have to be shed. One may predict that all of this will take time. The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution — when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain — to the renewal of the nineteenth century. But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret. And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. It may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but it will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”
Getting back to the topic of this thread, what gave rise to the Pope's insulting faithful American Catholics was someone giving him a copy of a book which has been described as casting those American Catholics along with Bishops of the Church in the role of haters working to sabotage his papacy. In response, Pope Francis said that he knew about the book but hadn't read it. Despite not having read the book, the Pope insulted successors of the Apostles and a huge number of Catholics. There's nothing Christian about that. He should be ashamed of himself. Apparently, Archbishop Chaput is one of those Pope Francis enemies named in the book. Why? Where are the Archbishop's statements criticising Pope Francis? From what I have read, he has steered a steady, faithful Catholic path and avoided falling into the trap of political partisanship. So, why does he get the enemy treatment? The Archbishop did suggest working with the Evangelicals on matters we Catholics hold in common with them such as the belief that abortion is evil. Was that his crime? Pope Francis makes a big deal about reaching out to "our separated brethren" as well as people of non-Christian religions. Are not American Evangelical Christians also our separated brethren? Or does Pope Francis regard them as children of a lesser God, to be insulted and denounced at every opportunity? Has he pigeon-holed them into a category warranting a different kind of "dialogue" - the dialogue of isolation and marginalisation from the Gospel message of love? The people he chose to edit the official Catholic newspaper in Argentina appear to think so. And the Pope's response to the journalist confirms it. The self-proclaimed bridge builder needs to take a long, hard look at himself and try practising what he preaches.
Yes. But on the other hand if you put gold in the fire it becomes more pure more rich. Diamonds are made by by pressure. Those of us who withstand this Great Deception will become saints if we live to see the End of this Era. Those who are deceived by the Great Deception will let themselves be deceived because they want to be deceived. When the Son of Man comes will He indeed find Faith on the Earth?
