Saint John the Baptist: Everything That Jorge Mario Bergoglio Is Not

As explained in the introduction to this article on the home page of this website, this brief commentary is a very brief follow-up to yesterday’s revised reflection. This very brief follow-up is based on prayers found in The Raccolta in honor of Saint John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament Prophets. Readers will see that these beautiful prayers explain the holy mission of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour’s Precursor and Cousin and explain everything that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Anti-Saint John the Baptist, if you will, is not.   

The prayers, which are found in the 1957 English translation of the May 30, 1951, editio typica of the Latin original of The Raccolta truly speak for themselves, showing Jorge Mario Bergoglio to have none of the holy zeal for penance and thus for the salvation of souls as did Saint John the Baptist:  

I. O glorious Saint John the Baptist, greatest prophet among those born of woman (Luke 7, 28), although thou wast sanctified in thy mother's womb and didst lead a most innocent life, nevertheless it was thy will to retire into the wilderness, there to devote thyself to the practice of austerity and penance; obtain for us of thy Lord the grace to be wholly detached, at least in our hearts, from earthly goods, and to practice Christian mortification with interior recollection and with the spirit of holy prayer.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc.

II. O most zealous Apostle, who, without working any miracle on others, but solely by the example of thy life of penance and the power of thy word, didst draw after thee the multitudes, in order to dispose them to receive the Messias worthily and to listen to His heavenly doctrine; grant that it may be given unto us, by means of the example of a holy life and the exercise of every good work, to bring many souls to God, but above all those souls that are enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance and are led astray by vice. (The Raccolta: A Manual of Indulgences, Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences, approved by Pope Pius XII, May 30, 1951, and published in English by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1957, pp. 345-347)

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc.

III. O Martyr invincible, who, for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, didst with firmness and constancy withstand the impiety of Herod even at the cost of thine own life, and didst rebuke him openly for his wicked and dissolute life; by thy prayers obtain for us a heart, brave and generous, in order that we may overcome all human respect and openly profess our faith in loyal obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ, our Divine Master.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc.

V. Pray for us, Saint John the Baptist,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.
O God, Who hast made this day to be honorable in our eyes by the Nativity (or commemoration) of blessed John, grant unto Thy people the grace of spiritual joy, and direct the minds of all Thy faithful into the way of everlasting salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Raccolta: A Manual of Indulgences, Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences, approved by Pope Pius XII, May 30, 1951, and published in English by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1957, pp. 345-347)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio has mocked mortification on numerous occasions in the past twenty-six months, twelve days (a period of time that seems like an eternity to me).

Here is one such example:

"In the history of the Church there have been some mistakes made on the path towards God. Some have believed that the Living God, the God of Christians can be found on the path of meditation, indeed that we can reach higher through meditation. That's dangerous! How many are lost on that path, never to return. Yes perhaps they arrive at knowledge of God, but not of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. They do not arrive at that. It is the path of the Gnostics, no? They are good, they work, but it is not the right path. It’s very complicated and does not lead to a safe harbor. " 

"Others - the Pope said - thought that to arrive at God we must mortify ourselves, we have to be austere and have chosen the path of penance: only penance and fasting. Not even these arrive at the Living God, Jesus Christ. They are the pelagians, who believe that they can arrive by their own efforts.”  (We encounter the Living God through His wounds.)

In other words, Saint John the Baptist did not arrive “at the Living God, Jesus Christ,” because he was a “pelagian” who believed that he could “arrive by” his own “efforts.”

Never mind the truth of the matter, namely, that Saint John the Baptist’s life of austere penance and mortification drew the multitudes to him, his preaching and his symbolic baptism of penance in order to prepare them for the Public Ministry of the One Whose sandals he was not worthy to loosen, Christ the King.

Saint John the Baptist is Holy Mother Church’s model of penance and mortification, which is one of the reasons that he is invoked in the Confiteor at Holy Mass. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has preached against penance and mortification and even meditation. How can anyone believe that this wretched little demon in human form is anything other than a perverse precursor of Antichrist himself?

Indeed, prayer, penance, fasting and mortification are essential to growth in the interior life. Time simply does not permit a full recitation of the examples of truly heroic sanctity practiced by canonized saints as they sought to die to self on a daily basis and to be completely mortified to the world, to human respect and to sense pleasures.

Suffice it for present purposes to draw upon the following reflection, written by Father John Croiset, S.J., on Mortification: 

Mortification is a necessary disposition for the true love of Jesus Christ; this was the first lesson that Jesus Christ Himself gave those who wished to be His disciples; without mortification no one can expect to be a true follower of Him. “If any man, ” says He, “will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). And again He says: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, his mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Accordingly, all the saints had this distinguishing mark of perfect mortification. When people praised the virtue of anyone in the presence of St. Ignatius, he would ask: “Is that person truly mortified?” By that he wished to intimate that true mortification is inseparable from true piety, not only because virtue cannot exist long without general and constant mortification, but also because without mortification there can be no true virtue.

There are two kinds of mortification: the one, exterior, which consists in bodily austerities; the other, interior, which consists in repressing all inordinate affections of the mind and heart. Both kinds are necessary to attain perfection, and one cannot continue to exist long without the other. Fasting, vigils, the use of the hairshirt and other such macerations of the body are powerful means to become truly spiritual and really perfect; when used with discretion, they help wonderfully to strengthen our human nature, which is cowardly when there is question of doing good, but very eager to do evil; they are of great assistance also to repel the attacks and avoid the snares of our common enemy, and to obtain from the Father of Mercies the helps necessary for the just, especially for beginners.

Sanctity, it is true, does not consist in exterior penances, and they are not incompatible with hypocrisy; it is not so with interior mortification. It is always a certain mark of true piety, and so is more necessary than exterior mortification, and no one can reasonably be dispensed from it. This is the violence which we must do to ourselves in order to possess the kingdom of Heaven. Not everyone can fast or wear a hairshirt, but there is no one who cannot be silent when passion prompts him to reply or vanity to speak; there is no one who cannot mortify his human nature, his desires, and his passions. That is what is understood by this interior mortification by which a person weakens and conquers his self-love, and by which he gets rid of his imperfections. It is idle to flatter ourselves that we love Jesus Christ if we are not mortified; all the fine sentiments of piety and the practices of devotion are suspect without perfect mortification. We are astonished to see ourselves so imperfect and to find, after so many exercises of piety and so many Holy Communions, that all our passions are still alive and continue to excite our hearts. Can we not see that want of mortification is the source of all these revolts? We must, then, if we wish to conquer this self-love by which all the passions are nourished, resolve to exercise generous and constant mortification.

It is not enough to mortify ourselves in some things, for some time; we must, as far as possible, mortify ourselves in everything and at all times, with prudence and discretion. A single unlawful gratification allowed to human nature will do more to make it proud and rebellious than a hundred victories gained over it. Truce with this sort of enemy is victory for him; “Brethren,” said Sr. Bernard, “what is cut will grow again, and what appears extinguished will light again, and what is asleep will awake again.”

To preserve the interior spirit of devotion, the soul must not be dissipated with exterior distractions, and as the prophet says, must be surrounded on all sides by a hedge of thorns. Now, if we omit to do that, it will be for us the cause of tepidity, back sliding, and want of devotion. When we mortify our disordered inclinations in one thing, we generally make up for it by some other satisfaction which we allow ourselves. During the time of retreat, we are recollected, but as soon as it is over, we open the gates of the senses to all kinds of distractions.

The exercise of this interior mortification, so common in the lives of the saints, is known by all who have a real desire to be perfect. In this matter we have only to listen to the Spirit of God. The love of Jesus Christ makes people so ingenious, that the courage and energy which they display and the means of mortifying themselves with which the Holy Spirit inspires even the most uncultured people, surpass the genius of the learned, and can be regarded as little miracles.

There is nothing which they do not make an occasion to contradict their natural inclinations; there is no time or place which does not appear proper to mortify themselves without ever going beyond the rules of good sense. It is enough that they have a great desire to see or to speak, to make them lower their eyes or keep silent; the desire to learn news, or to know what is going on, or what is being said, is for them a subject of continual mortification which is as meritorious as it is ordinary, and of which God alone is the Witness. The appropriate word, a witticism in conversation, can bring them honor, but they make it the matter of a sacrifice.

There is hardly a time of the day but gives opportunities for mortification; whether one is sitting or standing, one can find a place or an attitude that is uncomfortable without being remarked. If they are interrupted a hundred times in a serious employment, they will reply a hundred times with as much sweetness and civility as if they had not been occupied. The ill-humor of a person with whom we have to live, the imperfections of a servant, the ingratitude of a person under obligations to us, can give much exercise for the patience of a person solidly virtuous. Finally, the inconveniences of place, season or persons suffered in a manner to make people believe that we do not feel them are small occasions of mortification, it is true, but the mortification on these occasions is not small; it is of great merit.

It may be said that great graces and even sublime sanctity usually depend on the generosity with which we mortify ourselves constantly on these little occasions. Exact fulfillment of the duties of one’s state and conformity in all things to community life without regard to one’s inclinations, employment, or age involve that continual mortification which is not subject to vanity but which is in conformity with the spirit of Jesus Christ.

If occasions for exterior mortifications are wanting, those for interior mortification are ever at hand. Modesty, recollections, reserve require mortification; honesty, sweetness and civility may the the effects of education, but are more usually the result of constant mortification. Without this virtue it is difficult for a person to be always at peace, to be self-possessed, to do his actions perfectly, and be always content with what God wills. (Mortification.)

Father John Croiset was a Jesuit priest who was a faithful son of the Catholic Church.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is not very indulgent when it comes to such old-fashioned, outdated and Pharisaical penitential practices that Paragraph Fifteen in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal tells us "belong to another age of human history" even though the lives of so many saints, including the relatively few whose lives have been the subject of various articles, could be cited to bring forth evidence to refute the  falsity of his propagandizing.

Consider just one such example, that of the patron saint of parish priests himself, Saint John Mary Vianney: 

The explanation of this mysterious transformation of the village of Ars can only be grasped in the remarkable manner that this simple priest realized that a man must always begin with himself, and that even the rebirth of a community can only be achieved by its renewing itself. We must expect nothing of men which is not already embodied within them. On the basis of this perception St. John Vianney set to work, in the first place, upon himself, so that he could attain the ideal which he demanded of his parishioners in his own person. He took his own religious obligations with the greatest seriousness, and did not care whether the people noticed this or not. And finally the inhabitants of Ars said to each other: "Our priest always does what he says himself; he practices what he preaches. Never have we seen him allow himself any form of relaxation."

The priest of Ars subjected himself to a strict fast. In this way he sought to reduce the requirements of his life to minimum. One meal sufficed him for the whole day. He abstained from alcohol except wine at holy Mass and normally ate only a little black bread and one or two potatoes cooked in water: he would prepare sufficient of these to last him the whole week, keeping them in an earthenware pan, and often they were covered with a coating of mold. Frequently he fasted for a whole day until, overcome, he would collapse from physical weakness. In view of this mode of life he had no need, of course, of a housekeeper – apart from the fact that his house stood almost empty anyway. Since he considered that his self-mortification was all too inadequate, he had a special penitential garment made, which he wore next to his skin, and which, by reason of the constant friction against his body, was soon stained a reddish brown. For the most part he slept on a bare mattress when he was not sleeping on a bundle of wood down in the cellar.

St. John Vianney’s assiduity in the confessional and the hardships entailed thereby would, of themselves, have sufficed to raise him to high sanctity. However, he thirsted for mortifications as others thirst for pleasure, and he never had his fill of penance. He laid on himself the sacrifice never to enjoy the fragrance of a flower, never to taste fruit nor to drink, were it only a few drops of water, during the height of the summer heat. He would not brush away a fly that importuned him. When on his knees he would not rest his elbows on the kneeling bench. He had made a law unto himself never to show any dislike, and to hide all natural repugnances. He mortified the most legitimate curiosity: thus he never expressed so much as a wish to see the railway which passed by Ars at a distance of a few kilometers, and which daily brought him so many visitors. During the whole of his priestly life he never indulged in any light reading, not even that of a newspaper. The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith are the only periodical that he ever perused.

Regarding mortification, he once said, “My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food, drink and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently, nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh! How often have I experienced it! Whilst I was alone – and I was alone during eight or nine years, and therefore quite free to yield to my attraction – it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatsoever I asked of Almighty God.”

St. John Vianney read much and often the lives of the saints, and became so impressed by their holy lives that he wanted for himself and others to follow their wonderful examples. The ideal of holiness enchanted him. This was the theme which underlay his sermons. “We must practice mortification. For this is the path which all the Saints have followed,” he said from the pulpit. He placed himself in that great tradition which leads the way to holiness through personal sacrifice. “If we are not now saints, it is a great misfortune for us: therefore we must be so. As long as we have no love in our hearts, we shall never be Saints.” The Saint, to him, was not an exceptional man before whom we should marvel, but a possibility which was open to all Catholics. Unmistakably did he declare in his sermons that “to be a Christian and to live in sin is a monstrous contradiction. A Christian must be holy.” With his Christian simplicity he had clearly thought much on these things and understood them by divine inspiration, while they are usually denied to the understanding of educated men. (The Story of Saint John Vianney.)

According to Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis, Saint John Mary Vianney did not "know the living God," and neither did the likes of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Saint John of God, Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Rose of Lima, Padre Pio and even Saint Francis of Assisi himself, who lived a life of austere penance and mortification.

Secondly, Saint John the Baptist defended Heavenly doctrine. Jorge Mario Bergoglio rebels against it.

Moreover, Saint John the Baptist sought to bring back to God those poor souls who had been were enveloped by the “darkness of error and ignorance” and had been “led astray by vice.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio reaffirms the Orthodox, Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus, Protestants, and an endless array of those steeped in the darkness of error and ignorance. “Pope Francis” has also comforted those who had been “led astray by vice” while many of his “bishops” insist that what they think, erroneously, of course, is the Catholic Church, must find “elements of true love” in sinful relationships, up to and unspeakable acts of perversion in violation of the binding precepts of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments and of the very Natural Law itself.

Thirdly, Saint John the Baptist “withstood the impiety of Herod.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio has laugh-fests with those who are today’s Herods, that is, the vast number of pro-abortion, pro-perversity officials in public life, while back slapping them, kissing the women among them, or smiling broadly without any trace of rebuke for their support of vile evils under the cover of the civil law. Bergoglio plays to the crowd, thus losing favor with Christ the King.

The Argentine Apostate loves the applause of the world, and he goes to great lengths to caricature, belittle and denounce those within the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who wants to insist on a return to the “no church” of yesteryear. Bergoglio’s black heart is a darkened one that is all about being “loved” by unrepentant sinners who have absolutely no intention of reforming their lives by quitting their sins and then living a life of prayer and penance in the spirit of that practiced by Saint Mary Magdalene after her she quit her own sins at the behest of the Divine Master Himself.

We must follow the example of Saint John the Baptist, not that of a man who is at war with Christ the King and the Sacred Deposit of the Holy Faith that He has entrusted exclusively to His Catholic Church for Its eternal safekeeping and infallible explication.

We must live penentially by mortifying ourselves as the consercated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ throgh the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life perimts.

Vivat Christus Rex!  

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us. 

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint William the Abbot, pray for us.