State Of The Union
If today were any other day than Sunday, we would be celebrating the Commemoration of St. Paul the Apostle. This great saint was martyred on June 29 in Rome along with St. Peter, and this week we will continue celebrating the octave of their feast. Saints Peter and Paul are, of course, the patron saints of Rome and thus of the Roman Catholic Church. It is therefore a suitable opportunity to take a look at the state of the Church and our own position within her.
The Church, we must remember, is the Mystical Body of Christ. She is the external appearance of the Body of Christ and we can easily recognize her as such by her four marks—she is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Her oneness comes from her unity of doctrine and worship, and for two thousand years, popes and bishops jealously guarded the continuity of that same doctrine and worship. It was always the chief task of their role as Pastors to ensure that continuity, that nothing would cause a rupture, no matter how small, to the unity of our beliefs and our liturgy. When our Lord chose St. Peter to be his Vicar, or representative, on earth, he commanded him to feed his sheep. He did so three times, to emphasize the Pope’s role of Vicar of the Good Shepherd. And the successors of Peter managed to maintain the Faith and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass intact until the Second Vatican Council.
Since then, things have gone awry on a massive scale. Holy Scripture prepared us for this apostasy. In the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians he said this: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed. As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let him be anathema.” It is so blatantly obvious that the Gospel of Bergoglio is not the same Gospel of Christ that was preached for two thousand years, that we must stand in bewilderment that so few people recognize the contradiction. Simply because Rome still calls itself Catholic and has a man in a white cassock masquerading as the head-Catholic, while they whine and whimper about what he does, they nevertheless still hang his picture for veneration in their churches, they still refer to him as the “Holy Father”, and they still sit back and do nothing about the fact that he and his bishops are feeding them poison. They just grit their teeth and swallow it.
This past week I made the trip to a church run by Exsurge Domine, the community founded by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. I arrived there on the very day on which the Archbishop was accused of schism and summoned to appear before a Vatican tribunal for the purpose of excommunicating him. Rome, it seems, has had enough of diplomacy, patience, charity and “dialogue” and has decided to bring things to a head. Lines are now drawn in the sand, and it is quite clear to any Catholic on which side of that line he should be standing. I mean, really! Should we be siding with the worship of Pachamama, the blessing of same-sex unions, “Pride Masses”, the abolition of the true Mass, the false ecumenism and freedom to join whatever religion you want—the list is endless? Or do we side with Archbishop Vigano, who has been so courageous in his defense of the true faith and moral laws of the Church established by Christ. Are we on the side of God or Satan, good or evil? The differences between the two camps could not be clearer.
The Society of St. Pius X made their choice very clear when they applauded Bergoglio’s accusation of Archbishop Vigano, agreeing with him that he is indeed in schism for having dared to criticize the “beloved Holy Father” and the Second Vatican Council. Good or evil. Apparently the Society of St. Pius X prefers to be in league with the enemy.
It is frustrating when we see so much cowardice in those who belong standing up for the faith, especially when they are the supposed followers of Archbishop Lefebvre. Back in 1986 it was he who told them in private, but in words that were transcribed and are now published: “He who is seated on the Throne of Peter participates in the worship of false gods. What conclusion should we draw… in the face of these repeated acts of communication with false cults? I don’t know. I wonder. But it is possible that we will find ourselves forced to believe that the Pope is not Pope. Because at first sight it seems to me—I do not yet want to say it in a solemn and public way—that it is impossible for someone who is a heretic to be publicly and formally Pope.” Archbishop Lefebvre waited. Maybe too long. But things back then were nothing like as bad as they are under the alleged papacy of Jorge Bergoglio. We can conclude with moral certitutude that today, Archbishop Lefebvre would be accusing not Archbishop Vigano of schism but rather his accuser, Jorge Maria Bergoglio.
Our prayers during this octave of Ss. Peter and Paul must be for the Church. There is only one Church and it is manifestly not the Church of Vatican II. As Archbishop Vigano says, theirs is a fake church, a counterfeit church, a schismatic church. And he has no problem whatsoever being excommunicated from a church with which he is already not in communion and which is not the true Church of Christ. We must leave it to the SSPX and others to continue smugly proclaiming (and during the canon of the Mass itself) that they are “one with” our Pope Francis. The lines are drawn, as I said. We can’t have any doubts as to where we stand, and we must believe our blessed Lord who told us that “he who is not with me is against me.” Our prayers for the Church must be for a renewed unity befitting the Mystical Body of Christ and that all men of good will finally stand up for the truth and put a stop to Bergoglio’s malicious schism that seeks to tear apart Christ’s Mystical Body.