I simply cannot understand the attitude of “That’s above my pay grade” when obvious heresy and promotion of LGBT is happening right under our noses. No! This is NOT above any baptized and confirmed Catholic’s pay grade. Fellow Catholics MUST be warned not to follow the errors of this Vatican regime lest they fall into perdition.
No, no pay grade required, true. But does one avoid or just ignore until it's sorted out. Go to Mass, say your prayers, go to confession. No avoidance there at all. Just ignore what you can't control and when/if asked, explain that "this is outta my control, I trust the Good Lord will sort it out". And if it becomes impossible to ignore, eg the Mass is changed or whatever, deal with that at the time. In the meantime, pray for the grace of discernment ~ imho, very important now....
People have been warned ~ really we all have. Bloodpressure med sales must be thru the roof. (I'm close to an increase in dosage myself) In the end, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. So take care of yourself now, because you will be greatly needed after "The Warning", whenever that happens ~
Hi Lois. I agree with almost everything that you said. But I would add that under Canon 212 Catholic laity have the duty to manifest the Truth in the face of evil: Can. 212 §1. Conscious of their own responsibility, the Christian faithful are bound to follow with Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or establish as rulers of the Church. §2. The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires. §3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons. The Catholics in Germany who quietly accepted Hitler's policies stand in stark contrast to those heroic witnesses to the Truth, like St. Maximillian Kolbe. We must remember the lessons of these martyrs. May God bless you and strengthen you.
Even now, I’m still seeing a trickling of honest souls slowly wake up to reality. We’re even seeing non Catholics come to grasp reality. An LDS friend of my friend Paul’s oldest son just came to visit from California, and accompanied Paul’s family to the Traditional Latin Mass at the local SSPX and loved it! I expect to see him convert soon. One of Paul’s daughters is newly engaged to another member of the local SSPX chapel. Her fiancée is the oldest of ten children in the family of a Russian Orthodox priest, and came to orthodox Catholicism on his own, as a young adult. Conversions and reversions are happening, despite this Vatican regime and their obvious errors. So some of us are called to keep on speaking out, in addition to prayer, fasting and sacrifice. If we’re called to that, I don’t think God would look kindly on us retiring to our private spaces, shrugging our shoulders and saying, “That’s above my pay grade.”
Agree completely ~ And some may be called to follow in the path of St. Maximillian, but not all. This is why the grace of discernment is so important for each of us.
At one time, in my pride, I may have thought that was the case. I no longer do. But God’s Will be done.
Discernment ~ you're way ahead of me in that dept & obviously working right at your pay grade. I'm still working on mine ~~~~ We have no TLM or SSPX here. When my husband and I attended the TLM, he was blown away, wanted to know why "we got rid of that". That was a long conversation, but after everything we've been thru here, he stayed....hope springs eternal even in Cape Breton, lol
A few years ago I went to confession and unexpectedly found myself confessing to my bishop. I hadn't intended to say it but couldn't stop myself telling him that I didn't like Pope Francis, that I very much disliked him in fact. The bishop just nodded slowly and then thanked me. I could tell it left him thinking.
I think Pope Francis is starting to run out of road. There are so many scandals now that the truth is becoming more obvious daily. His latest appointment to Pontifical Academy for Life of an atheistic pro abortion woman is beyond comprehensive. His promotion of one world religion is unbelievable. I believe the faithful Cardinals see clearly now where all this is heading and they will move. We really need to pray for faithful Cardinals and Bishops that they will find the courage and opportunity to move against him. Maybe they will call a synod and deal with the heresies he is involved in. We do need to talk about this to our family and friends and pray pray pray. At this stage I have come to the conclusion that we are dealing with an anti Pope. I see he met with Elon Musk and his children lately at the Vatican. Now that is one scary combination. It's strange all the trips poor Cardinal Zen made to the Vatican to try and meet with Pope Francis to ask him to consider the Chinese Catholics in dealing with CCP. He never got to meet Pope Francis except in passing. Cardinal Zen at 90 years old is now in a Chinese prison and there is not a word from Pope Francis. Its utterly disgraceful and a total betrayel.
I think many are privately, quietly and sadly arriving at this conclusion. I don’t think it does any good anymore to try to silence or ban those expressing this thought, because it is more mainstream than any of us want or are willing to admit.
I’ve been saying for eight years now on the MOG forum that it’s ok to hold the mental reservation that this pope might be an antipope, in order to protect one’s own faith and sanity and not despair. I still believe that, but it’s more of a sad acceptance of fact than a mental reservation today.
Try to think of this as rising to the level of one's competence & staying there. A theory I remember from school was that people rise to their level of "incompetence". That one last promotion puts them over the edge of what they are capable of. These days, competence is a rare thing, because those running things have, for example, certificates in leadership, as opposed knowing how to run a carpentry business being an expert in carpentry. Heading off to Mass now, and will take all this with me~|
Years ago, one of the reasons I stopped writing for various Catholic periodicals is because I realized that in my pride I was reaching beyond my own competence. I haven’t written much since. I’m probably more informed to write on certain subjects now, but wise enough to know I still am not competent to do so. (Hopefully mouthing off here on the forum isn’t just another display of a lack of competence …)
Dr Moynihan was on the streets of Rome talking to a priest when they got news that Pope Benedict had resigned. He said he got a shiver and it was as though a shadow had crossed the sun and everything had gone a little darker. I suspect many got a similiar feeling. I know I did. Folks knew it was bad news and a portent of things far,far, far worse to come.
This didn’t help: https://www.accuweather.com/en/weat...-strike-vatican-after-popes-resignation/37237 Did Lightning Really Strike Vatican After Pope's Resignation? By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor News hit the Net yesterday afternoon that lightning had struck The Vatican twice, just hours after Pope after Pope Benedict XVI's sudden resignation. As a lightning photographer and weather photo hoax buster, I investigated to see if the photo was real. When the picture first started circulating on Facebook, Meteonetwork Puglia e Basilicata ONLUS (a division of Associazione MeteoNetwork Onlus) and commenting members of the Facebook page thought that the photo might be faked (loose internet translation here), because the strike didn't seem to reflect on the dome, because it didn't seem to make close contact with it, and because there was no reflection on the wet street below (see annotated image). Since many photos you see on Social Media are faked, or at least re-purposed, I was immediately suspicious as well. However, when it was announced later in the day that the photographer was an Italian professional photographer Filippo Monteforte, the photo was transmitted by AFP, and BBC ran a video of the lightning strike, this quelled most of the controversy. If you look closely in the video (embedded above), you can see something I've noticed dozens of times when filming lightning -- the initial stroke of lightning is often too bright and overexposes the photo. But lightning strikes through its channel rapidly, dozens of times, and the last few strokes (what we see as "fading") provide the opportunity to get a clear shot of the bolt, with minimal reflection on nearby surfaces. For this reason, I believe the photo is plausible, and since it was taken by a professional, with potential video to back it up, I'd say that the photo is legitimate. Archived lightning strike data is not easy to come by in foreign countries, but certainly multiple Facebook users viewing the photo confirmed that a thunderstorm was present in Rome Monday afternoon, on the edge of a powerful storm system that brought snow to much of the country. A request to the Worldwide Lightning Network didn't turn up any lightning data, but they don't measure 100% of lightning. CORRECTION 5 PM: An amended request did confirm lightning in the area. Most importantly, official weather observations from CIAMPINO Ciampino, Rome, do indicate that there was a thunderstorm for approximately 3 hours in Rome yesterday: It also may just be coincidence that lightning struck. The Empire State Building in New York City is hit by lightning 100 times per year. If the Basilica is properly grounded and an attractive source for lightning strikes, it's possible that it gets hit every time a thunderstorm moves through Rome. The only thing working against that is that it doesn't appear from a Google Image Search that a similar image has ever been captured before.
That lightning strike really was ominous, imho. People are waking up, there is no doubt about that, but keep in mind that how we handle ourselves in our families etc, or even here on the forum is important. I am very very guilty of having a big mouth. I've learned the hard way that no matter how right you may be in what you say, it's how you say it/express it that really gets people's attention. Bishop Schneider is a perfect example. We all listen to him, & he's no doubt as upset as any of us. But he says what needs to be said and he keeps his peace. (At least he appears to~~) One of the reasons I love this forum so much is that people can honestly ask questions, get good answers and then take it to prayer if need be. Imho, the only ones with the authority / competence to tackle the problem are in the upper hierarchy.....Most of them have ignored Our Lady now for decades, and we're all going to suffer for it. "Mouthing off" is a stress reliever, nothing to do with competence, lol Just do your best to keep your peace. You've been an inspiration to many, persevering these last years, as any one following along here knows. I know you have been for me at any rate... Take that for what it's worth ~~~
There are so many factors that can result in a soul being lost forever, or at least spending time in Purgatory. “ it is easier for a camel to Go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” Unrepentance, unforgiveness, not asking for forgiveness from those we have trespassed against Indeed, we should not be presenting ourselves for Holy Communion in those cases.
I think that talking about one’s pay grade doesn’t mean leaving one’s critical faculties at the door when talking of the Church. For me, it means admitting that something seems very very wrong and disturbing about this pontificate but realising that my job is to pray and discern the signs of the times. I’m a laywoman and a child of God and by his Grace a member of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church. I put the church and the pope into God’s hands. I don’t discuss this papacy with others around me as I am not sure it would serve any purpose. Many ‘pew’ Catholics have no clue about the things we discuss. I find it very freeing to be able to put it in all in God’s hands, asking the intercession of Mary and the saints. This seems to be what Pope Benedict does. I imagine it’s not above his pay grade or competence to comment on the scandal of this papacy but he is silent. I do miss him, his clarity and his deep faith. I miss dear John Paul II too. I remember the day Benedict resigned. My eldest daughter rang me in tears. She was literally sobbing. She asked if I’d heard the news about the pope. I thought he’d died. The resignation was so surprising but I didn’t question it because I had such love and trust for that wonderful man. Perhaps this was God’s will, to let out all the contagion. They say God writes straight with crooked lines. I was in Poland researching a book with a friend when the news came that we had a new pope. Like Lois I had an uneasy feeling when I saw him on the balcony as if something was a bit ‘off’ but put it down to my love of JPII and BXVI. Let us encourage and support each other. I’m not leaving the barque and nor are you.
