Cardinal Burke And Bishop Schneider On Resisting The Rot Within The Church

Courtesy of LifeSiteNews, we have videos of both prelates offering their wisdom on the need to resist errors from Church hierarchy.  A few weeks ago, Cardinal Burke gave a presentation at the Rome Life Forum in Rome, speaking on the need to resist those in the Church who expound false teaching on marriage, family and sacraments.  In the video we hear him declare "for example, today in the Church, there are those who refer to the objective reality of the grace of marriage as merely an ideal to which we more or less seek to conform ourselves."  Without specifically mentioning "amoralis lamentia", he was clearly contradicting the falsehoods stated throughout that thing that clearly utilized the language of marriage being merely an "ideal".  Here is a link to the full talk, with video, on the Voice of the Family site.  I urge all to read it.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider was also at the Rome Life Forum and was interviewed by LifeSiteNews.  One question that LSN asked him is whether or not faithful Catholics should remain silent in the face of the pope's controversial - and yes, erroneous - statements to prevent possible harm to the papacy.  Bishop Schneider replied in the negative, stating that the Church is not a dictatorship, where the subjects are afraid to contradict the dictator.  He also spoke at the conference, stating that "there can be no joy of love without first the joy of truth".  He used his play on the English translation of the flawed encyclical to point out its many flaws.

John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, also addressed the forum.  He enunciated the need for a Catholic resistance movement.  In his talk, he read aloud his letter to Pope Francis that asked the pope to immediately withdraw "amoralis lamentia" for the harm contained therein.

An another interview that he gave, Cardinal Burke spoke of the pressures that many priests will now face in the light of "amoris lamentia", to give Holy Communion to known adulterers.  He stated that these clergy will have the duty to "refuse and pay the consquences".  He went on to say that for them, "being unjustly punished by a superior is part of confessing the faith".  Those of the Archdiocese of Washington, particularly of St John Neumann Church in Gaithersburg MD will recall what happened over four years ago, when Father Marcel Guarnizo refused Holy Communion to a flagrant lesbian and was maltreated by the DC chancery.  Other priests have likewise been persecuted; their number is sure to mount.

In addition to prayer and maintaining our own fidelity to Our Lord, we must speak out when we see error, as Bishop Schneider reminded us.  Yesterday the pope gave us yet another occasion to do so, during his interview with La Croix.  In it, he equates the muslim doctrine of jihad with the Great Commission given by Our Lord to the Twelve to "make disciples of all nations".  To equate the murderous impulses of a barbarian cult to the command of Our Lord Himself is nothing short of blasphemy.  Let's call it what it is.  I now link to an extensive article found in the Remnant, discussing when and how a heretical pontiff could be deposed.  I pray to God it never comes to this.

Today Church Militant gave a great example of Catholic laity engaging in proper Catholic resistance.  Bishop Hanchon, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, presided at a confirmation at Assumption Grotto.  For reasons incomprehensible to decent, sane Catholics, the bishop decided to give a ukulele performance from the pulpit.  The resistance came from the organist, who played so as to drown him out.  Church Militant has video of the episode.  While it's sickening to see a bishop carry on like an adolescent, it was quite delightful to see that he didn't get away with it.

So how will we resist in our own locales?  Notice the question is "how", not "if".  If we haven't yet, let's start pondering these matters seriously.

Amoris Laetitia And Ordination Of Women: Attacks Against The Faith By Pope Francis

On May 7, One Peter Five published some remarks made by Archbishop Bruno Forte, Special Secretary for the synods on the family.  It seems the archbishop was quite cocky, but frank.  He revealed some motivations behind the pope's manipulation of the synods, namely, to insinuate the idea that unrepentant adulterers should be allowed to receive Holy Communion.  Read the piece carefully.  There are still some who, wearing rose-colored glasses, stubbornly cling to the fantasy that the pope is simply a lovable but naive little bumpkin who can't help his verbal gaffes and who is so good-natured that the mean bureaucrats in the Vatican and media can manipulate him to no end.  That is merely a carefully crafted facade, and we all need to remove our rose-colored glasses immediately.  The pope is anything but naive.  He knows what he's doing and he's playing some truly naive Catholics for fools.  These willingly naive Catholics are culpable for sins against prudence.

I put "amoris laetitia" correctly at the top so that this post would more readily be sought by search engines.  As I said earlier, the name is more aptly rendered "amoralis lamentia".  Others are of similar mind.  John Smeaton of Voice of the Family has asked Pope Francis to withdraw amoralis lamentia (using the official name) and suggests that we do the same.  Cardinal Muller and others are refuting the thing for the poison that it is.

But now it seems the pope has moved onto another arena in which to deconstruct the faith.  He has announced the creation of a commission to study the "possibility" of women deacons.  If this idea is continued, it will be in direct contradiction to Ordination Sacerdotalis, written by Saint John Paul II.  In it, Pope John Paul made quite clear that ordination is not for women, going so far as to declare it solemnly.  In light of that, there is no "possibility" of women deacons - at least not in the Roman Catholic Church.  So why, oh why, is the pope setting up this "commission" to "study the possibility"?  If one is obedient to the Magisterium they see that there is no possibility to study, no question to consider.  It just dawned on me that the very first attempt to "study the possibilities" in clear contradiction to God's word was when the serpent questioned God's word during his conversation with Eve, but I digress.

Recall that after the synod report was released after the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, the language regarding Holy Communion for adulterers was left in it despite being voted out by the synod fathers.  In retrospect, we can now see that this was clear preparation for Amoralis Lamentia.  In the same way, I suspect this commission is being established as a cover to slide in some "pastoral practices" that constitute de facto "ordination of women deacons".

I'll close this post with another thought that might tie this mess together.  Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand was interviewed regarding the Fatima message.  Sister Lucy Dos Santos, one of the visionaries, spoke a bit of Our Lady's words.  She said that "the final battle between Our Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family".  She also said that "the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top".  I think we are witnessing both these events.