Princes Of The Church

As we celebrate the feast and octave of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul this week, our attention turns to the Eternal City of Rome.  For it was here that the two apostles were martyred on the same day of June 29 in the year of our Lord 67.  At that time, the city of Rome was the capital of the pagan Roman Empire, which stretched from the lands of northern Britain to Palestine and beyond.  Almost the whole of Europe was occupied by the Roman armies who brought with them many benefits such as stable government, a common language, financial stability, and above all peace.  It was this Pax Romana that held together the far reaches of the Empire and assured the people of the occupied countries of a constant and lasting stability.  This unity may have been fragile in places, but it was enough to enable the eventual spread of Christianity far and wide throughout the Empire.

However, as we know, Rome was already very religious.  They worshipped many gods, most of them imported from ancient Greece.  And they worshipped them fervently, so fervently that they perceived any new religion, such as that of the Christians, as a threat to their society and whole way of life.  The Emperor Nero himself was worshipped as a god, and he took his role seriously, viciously torturing and putting to death any members of the Christian sect that he could lay his hands on.  When he came across two of Christ’s apostles, he wasted no time, having St. Paul beheaded, as befitted a Roman citizen, while crucifying St. Peter who was, racially, a Jew.

What had they done to deserve this?  Nothing other than to preach the Gospel, the Word of God, the true Catholic faith.  For this they were persecuted and put to death.  And this is how it has been through the ages, for while God does not change, neither does the Devil and his hatred of that same God.  We saw it during the Reformation when the Protestants tortured Catholics to death in England and elsewhere.  Today, Satan has relocated back to Rome, just as the Blessed Mother at La Salette predicted he would. “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”  His henchman in Rome no longer goes by the name of Nero, he has taken the name of Francis.  And he seeks out any and all forms of traditional Catholicism in order to persecute and destroy it.  Daily now, we see how he and his servants close down churches and religious institutions where the traditional Latin Mass is being offered, we see the replacement of the Holy Sacrifice with sacrilegious Pride Masses, we see the Vatican adorned not with statues of the Sacred Heart but of the earth goddess Pachamama.  And if anyone dare to complain or criticize Bergoglio’s agenda, he is immediately punished and even “cancelled.”  Archbishop Vigano is now accused of schism because he has had the courage to tell truth to power, denouncing the apostate Bergoglio and calling for him to be arrested and imprisoned according to the norms of Canon Law.

There are two churches in existence today.  The Bergoglian Church, with its adherents who bow to the apostate Francis as their lord and pope, and the Catholic Church, still very much alive in chapels like ours and determined to remain loyal to the true Faith and Mass.  Let us pray that our fidelity remains unswerving in the persecution that will surely come.