Revised: Conciliarism's Patron Saint: Judas Iscariot

The conciliar fixation on the salvation of the traitorous Judas Iscariot despite his reprehensible betrayal of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ knows no bounds.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio made it clear that he believed Judas Iscariot, a model of greed, remorse and despair, might have been saved despite his self-annihilation by means of hanging himself:

The pope shared a meditation on the true meaning of shame. He did so by focusing on the fates of three Biblical people who are involved in Christ’s Passion: Peter, the apostle who denied Jesus three times, and who “cries bitterly” with shame; the good thief, who feels “ashamed for being crucified next to an innocent man”; and Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus.

The third case, “the one that moves me most, is Judas’ shame,” the pope said.

“Judas is a difficult character to understand; there have been so many interpretations of his personality. In the end, however, when he sees what he has done, he turns to the ‘righteous,’ to the priests: ‘I have sinned: I handed over an innocent man to be killed.’ They answer him: ‘What does that matter to us? That’s your affair.’ (Matthew 27:3-10) Then he goes away with that guilt that suffocates him.”

The Pontiff invites us to imagine a different fate for Judas: “Perhaps if he had met the Virgin Mary, things would have gone differently, but the poor man goes away, doesn’t find a way out of his situation, and he went to hang himself.”

“But, there’s one thing that makes me think that Judas’ story doesn’t end there … Perhaps someone might think, ‘this pope is a heretic…’ But, no! They should go see a particular medieval capital of a column in the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalen in Vézelay, Burgundy [in France],” he said.

The Successor of Peter describes how people in the Middle Ages taught the Gospel through sculptures and paintings. “On that capital, on one side there is Judas, hanged; but on the other is the Good Shepherd who is carrying him on his shoulders and is carrying him away.”

He revealed that he has a photograph of that two-part capital behind his desk, because it helps him meditate. “There is a smile on the lips of the Good Shepherd, which I wouldn’t say is ironic, but a little bit complicit,” he describes.

“There are many ways of reacting to shame; one is to despair, but we must try to help despairing people to find the true path of shame, so they don’t go down the path that put an end to Judas’ life.”

“These three personages in Jesus’ passion help me a lot. Shame is a grace,” the pope said. (Jorge Speculates About Judas Isacariot.)

The Argentine Apostate, who turns eighty-one years of age in sixteen days, is a consummate blasphemer. His tongue is but a vulgar instrument of verbal sewage.

To base one’s theological judgment about the salvation of Judas Iscariot on one’s own interpretation of the meaning of a depiction in a Medieval column of a basilica in Burgundy, France, shows how little regard Judas Bergoglio has for these plain words of Our Lord Himself in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew:

[21] And whilst they were eating, he said: Amen I say to you, that one of you is about to betray me. [22] And they being very much troubled, began every one to say: Is it I, Lord? [23] But he answering, said: He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me. [24] The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born. [25] And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: Is it I, Rabbi? He saith to him: Thou hast said it. (Matthew 26: 21-25.)

This is an unambiguous declaration of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man that it would have been better for Judas had he never been born, meaning that the crime of betrayal and blasphemy was so enormous that a man of so little faith in Him would be led naturally to despair and suicide, whereupon he would spend the rest of eternity in the lowest depths of hell.

Father George Leo Haydock’s commentary on the Gospel passage cited just above showed that Our Lord was not “smiling” upon Judas when He spoke at the Last Supper:

The motives for this great sorrow in the disciples: 1st, because they saw their innocent and dear Master was so soon to be taken from them, and delivered up to a most cruel and ignominious death; 2d, because each of them was afraid lest, through human frailty, he might fall into so great a crime; for they all were convinced, that what he said must necessarily come to pass: and lastly, that there could be found one among them so wretchedly perverse, as to deliver Jesus into the hands of his enemies. Hence afraid of themselves, and not daring to affix a suspicion on any individual, they began every one to say: Is it I, Lord, on whom so atrocious a crime is to fall? ... It is extremely probable that Christ made this prediction three times: 1st, at the commencement of supper; (Matthew xxvi. 21.) 2d, after washing the feet; (John xiii. 18.) 3d, after the institution of the blessed Eucharist. (Luke xxii. 21.) Thus Pope Benedict XIV. Sandinus, &c.

Ver. 23. He that dippeth. He that is associated to me, that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel against me, according to the prophecy of the psalmist, cited by St. John, xiii. 18. --- Jesus Christ does not here manifest the traitor; he only aggravates the enormity and malice of the crime.

Ver. 25. Is it I, Rabbi? After the other disciples had put their questions, and after our Saviour had finished speaking, Judas at length ventures to inquire of himself. With his usual hypocrisy, he wishes to cloke his wicked designs by asking a similar question with the rest. (Origen) --- It is remarkable that Judas did not ask, is it I, Lord? but, is it I, Rabbi? to which our Saviour replied, thou hast said it: which answer might have been spoken in so low a tone of voice, as not perfectly to be heard by all the company. (Rabanus) --- Hence it was that Peter beckoned to St. John, to learn more positively the person. Here St. Chrysostom justly remarks the patience and reserve of our Lord, who by his great meekness and self-possession, under the extremes of ingratitude, injustice, and blasphemy, shews how we ought to bear with the malice of others, and forget all personal injuries. (Haydock Commentary.)

Even more definitive proof of Judas’s damnation can be found these words of Our Lord spoken at the Last Supper and contained in the Gospel according to Saint John wherein the traitor is described as the son of perdition who is the only one of the Apostles who will be lost:

12 While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me, I have kept: and none of them hath perished, but the son of perdition, **that the Scripture may be fulfilled. (John 17:12)

Father Haydock’s commentary on this passage makes short work of Judas Bergoglio’s praise of a man who committed the sin of blasphemy against the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, by despairing of forgiveness and for expressing His sorrow to the Jews, not to Our Lord Himself:

Ver. 12. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name.[5] He still speaks, says St. Chrysostom, as man, and after a human manner, by mentioning the advantage they seemed to enjoy, as long as he conversed visibly with them on earth, not that his invisible presence should be less beneficial to them. --- And none of them hath perished, except the son of perdition, the wretched Judas, whose fall was foretold in the Scriptures. (Psalm cviii.) He hath perished, that is, now is about being lost, by his own fault, says St. Chrysostom on this place. And St. Augustine on Psalm cxxxviii. How did the devil enter into the heart of Judas? he could not have entered, had not he given him place. (Witham) --- That the Scripture may be fulfilled: this does not any ways shew, that it was the will of God that Judas should be lost; but only that what happened to Judas was conformable to the prophecies, and not occasioned by them. Who will doubt, says St. Augustine, (lib. de Unit. Eccl. chap. ix.) but that Judas might, if he pleased, have abstained from betraying Christ. But God foretold it, because he foresaw clearly the future perversity of his disposition. (Calmet) --- See above, (xiii. 18.) one of the principal passages of Scripture relative to the treachery of Judas, in which the traitor's crime had been predicted. (Haydock Commentary: Haydock Commentary.)

Yet it is that the “hope,” if not the certainty, of Judas’s salvation is near and dear to the heart of the conciliar revolutionaries, perhaps because he is their model of betraying Our Lord’s Sacred Deposit of Faith just as surely as Judas Iscariot betrayed Our Lord to the high priests for thirty pieces of silver. 

Indeed, “Monsignor” Francis X. Gaeta, the retired pastor of Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Deer Park, New York, wrote booklet of Lent reflections, What He Did For Love: A Companion for the Forty Days of Lent, that was published in 1998 that contained a meditation on “Saint Judas.” 

“Make no mistake about it,” Gaeta wrote, “Judas Iscariot is in Heaven.” He concluded his meditation with the following invocation: “Saint Judas, pray for us.”

Ah, there is a bit more to “Monsignor” Gaeta’s conviction that Judas is saint who has the power to intercede for us in Heaven than meets the eye when one considers the fact that he, like Bergoglio himself, has been pushing the sodomite agenda for decades.

Gaeta was the longtime pastor of the Church of Saint Brigid in Westbury, New York. It was under his pastorate in the 1990s the parish's bulletin had on its "mission statement" an open embrace of all people regardless of "sexual orientation.” This “embrace” was on open display during an especially egregious staging of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical service in Saint Brigid’s School in October of 1997.

A homosexual activist from the pervert-friendly parish of Saint Paul the Apostle Church in the City of New York got up to give a sermon after the distribution of Holy Communion to berate the Church for not embracing the lifestyles of those who express their "love" in ways that are not "approved" by church leaders. Gaeta, who officiated at the staging, smiled broadly and applauded vigorously after the man finished his sermon by saying that it was his job to “move” what they thought was the Catholic Church in the direction of “inclusiveness,” stating the Church must accept the sin of Sodom as an expression of “love” and “compassion.” (I covered the event for The Wanderer, for which a comprehensive report was written that is no longer in my possession.)

It is no wonder that “Monsignor” Frank Gaeta has such an affinity for his “Saint” Judas Iscariot, whose “hope” for salvation has been raised anew by none other than the homosexualist of Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, especially by means of Amoris Laetitia.

It is perhaps no accident that the mentor of the man who styles himself these days as “Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” the late Father Hans Urs von Balthasar (who had been ordained for the Society of Jesus but left in 1950 to work with his own secular institute that was founded to advance his New Theology even after it had been condemned by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950), believed that it was reasonable to hope for Judas Iscariot’s salvation. Von Balthasar even believed that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and satan would be “reconciled” in the end. Much like Bergoglio himself, who has said that God can never punish anyone forever, von Balthasar did not believe that anyone was in hell and even went so far as to far doubt the existence of hell itself.

These false beliefs were exploded by a sedeplentist priest, Father Regis Scanlon, in article in the March 2000 issue of The New Oxford Review:

Von Balthasar in Dare We Hope "That All Men Be Saved"? claimed there was no certainty that anyone is in Hell or ever will be in Hell. He stated that "the Church ... has never said anything about the damnation of any individual. Not even about that of Judas." Thus, he declared, every Christian has the "obligation" to hope that all men are saved, including Judas.

It seems compassionate to desire that all men be saved and to be horrified at the thought of anyone suffering eternal punishment -- even Judas. But this feeling must not cloud the intellect to the point of undermining the Gospel or the natural law and truth itself. The problem with Balthasar's "hope" is that it conceals an implicit doubt about the Church's philosophy of truth and her doctrine on Jesus Christ.

A hope is absurd unless there is the possibility that it will be realized in the future. But, if Balthasar's "hope" would come to fruition and everyone would in fact be saved, what would then be said about the fact that this situation contradicts statements in sacred Scriptures, Tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church? If these sources clearly teach that Judas or someone else is in Hell (or will be in Hell), then to hope that everyone will be saved is to hope either that these sources of revelation are in error or that the natural law with its principle of noncontradiction is in error. A hope like this really seems to be a doubt that the natural law and "unchangeable truth" exist and can be known by the Church. It seems to be a doubt about one's faith and the sources of revelation. And if Jesus Christ Himself taught that Judas or anyone else is in Hell (or will be in Hell), then to "hope" for universal salvation is to hope that Jesus made erroneous statements. The most disconcerting feature of Balthasar's hope for universal salvation is that its logic appears to require an assumption of Christ's ignorance and fallibility.

But the question is: Do Scriptures, Tradition, and the Magisterium clearly teach anything about the end of Judas and the possibility of universal salvation? Let's investigate.

The Gospel Of John 17:12

The certainty of Judas's damnation does not primarily rest on Matthew's statement: "It would be better for that man if he had never been born" (Mt. 26:24). Rather, as St. Augustine demonstrated in his Homilies on the Gospel of John, it is John 17:12 that indicates Judas's eternal punishment:

The Son therefore goes on to say: "Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but [i.e., except] the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled" (Jn. 17:12). The betrayer of Christ was called the son of perdition, as foreordained to perdition, according to the Scripture, where it is specially prophesied of him in the 109th psalm" [in some Bibles 108th Psalm] (Tractate cvii, No.7, ch. xvii. 9-13).

When Jesus stated, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled," He was referring to Psalm 109. St. Peter applied Psalm 109:8 to Judas, when he said: "It is written in the Book of Psalms, ... 'May another take his office"' (Acts 1:20). By applying Psalm 109:8 to Judas, Peter also pointed to Judas's damnation, because Psalm 109:6-7 says of the very same person mentioned there: "Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand. When he is judged, may he go out condemned and may his prayer be turned to sin." Verse 7, "May his prayer be turned to sin," or "May his plea be in vain," foretells Judas's (the betrayer's) final impenitence. So, John 17:12, Acts 1:20, and Psalm 109:7 together indicate the betrayer's eternal damnation.

St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, also maintained that Judas suffered eternal punishment because he died without final repentance and forgiveness. St. Ambrose in his Concerning Repentance said: "For I suppose that even Judas might through the exceeding mercy of God not have been shut out from forgiveness, if he had expressed his sorrow not before the Jews but before Christ." St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica stated: "Thus; as men are ordained to eternal life through the providence of God, it likewise is part of that providence to permit some to fall away from that end; this is called reprobation" (1a, q. 23, art. 3). And in De Veritate St. Thomas said: "Now, in the case of Judas, the abuse of grace was the reason for his reprobation, since he was made reprobate because he died without grace" (vol. 1, q. 6, art. 2). St. Thomas certainly judged that "Judas was reprobated." ("Reprobated" means rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation.)

Again, according to St Catherine of Siena, God the Father pointed out Judas's eternal punishment when He explained to Catherine the meaning of the sin against the Holy Spirit. God said:

This is that sin which is never forgiven, now or ever: the refusal, the scorning, of my mercy. For this offends me more than all the other sins they have committed. So the despair of Judas displeased me more and was a greater insult to my Son than his betrayal had been. Therefore, such as these are reproved for this false judgment of considering their sin to be greater than my mercy, and for this they are punished with the demons and tortured eternally with them (No. 37, emphasis added).

Thus, Judas perished not simply because of his part in Jesus' trial, but because of a final act of "despair" or "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" (Mk. 3:29) at the "moment of death," says St. Catherine.

Finally, other saints taught that Judas's perdition was certain. For example, the great scholar St. Thomas More in The Sadness of Christ said: "The place of Scripture which predicts that Judas would perish is in Psalm 109, where the psalmist prophesies in the form of a prayer: 'May his days be few, and may another take over his ministry."' More explained:

the fact that this prophetic utterance applies to Judas was suggested by Christ [Jn. 17:12], was made clear by Judas's suicide, was afterwards made quite explicit by Peter [Acts 1:20], and was fulfilled by all the apostles when Mathias was chosen by lot to take his place [Acts 1:26] and thus another took over his ministry.... He [Christ] has spoken: "Father, I have guarded those whom you gave to me, and none of them has perished except the son of perdition." I think it worthwhile to consider here for a moment how strongly Christ foretold in these words the contrast between the end of Judas and the end of the rest, the ruination of the traitor Judas and the success of the others. For He asserts each future outcome with such certainty that He announces them not as future happenings but as events that have already definitely taken place....

St Thomas More referred to Judas's act as one of "refusing to be saved." He also stated: "Infallibly certain about the fate of the traitor, Christ expresses his future ruin with such certainty that He asserts it as if it had already come to pass." (Father Regis Scanlon, The Inflated Reputation of Hans Urs von Balthasar.)

Father Scanlon’s article, of course, was a restatement of Catholic truth, which is held in contempt by the sentimentalist and relativist from Argentina.

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s reliance upon Hegelianism as the “method” to “search for truth” was founded in his rejection that anything about the Holy Faith could be known with certainty and that what little he believed was known was subject to different interpretations at different times.

Von Balthasar’s protégé, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, heaped praise upon his mentor as follows upon the occasion of the one hundred anniversary of his death in 2005:

“Hans Urs von Balthasar, the Pope writes, ‘was a theologian who put his work at the service of the Church,’ because he was convinced that theology is useful only within the context of Catholic practice. ‘I can testify that his life was an authentic search for truth," the Pope adds. Pope Benedict says that he hopes the 100th-anniversary observance will stimulate a revival of interest in the work of von Balthasar, recalling Henri de Lubac's claim that the Swiss theologian was "the most cultured man of our century.’ The Lateran University seminar is co-sponsored by Communio, the international theological journal that was founded by von Balthasar in cooperation with theologians such as Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) and Angelo Scola (now the Patriarch of Venice). Participants in the weekend's discussions include Cardinal Scola, Cardinal James Stafford, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet.” (Catholic World News.com, October 7, 2005.) 

There is frequently the need to search for the truth of various historical facts. There is no need to "search" for the truths of the Catholic Faith, truths that indeed were put into question by Father Hans Urs von Balthasar by his belief that the words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ contained "paradoxes" and "contradictions" that had to be re-examined in light of the "changing circumstances" in which "modern man" finds himself. Von Balthasar believed that "only love is credible," meaning that precise dogmatic formulations are secondary, if even at all necessary, to serving God as members of the Catholic Church. In other words, he was a more refined sort of heretic that the crass, vulgar enabler of sin named Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The conciliar fascination with Judas Iscariot is simply part of their refusal to believe that anyone, including those who deny Catholic doctrine as they do, can be condemned to hell forever.

Father Maurice Meschler’s The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Son of God, in Meditations explains the end of Judas in no uncertain terms:

The Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, – 3. Saying: “I have sinned, in betraying innocent blood.” But they said: “What is that to us? Look thou to it.” – 5. And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and went and hanged himself with an halter. – 6. but the chief priests having taken the pieces of silver, said: “It is not lawful to put them into the corbona; because it is the price of blood.”  – 7. And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter's field, to be a burying-place for strangers. – 8. for this cause that field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day. – 9. then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet saying: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the prices of him that was prized, whom they prized of the children children of Israel; – 10. And they gave them unto the potter's field, as the Lord appointed to me.” (Matthew 27:3)

How Judas Repents of His Deed

It was the condemnation of Jesus by the Great Council and His being led away to Pilate (Matt. Xxvii. 3) which brought Judas to repentance. He now saw with his own eyes the terrible consequences of his treachery, and began to repent of his deed.

As regards the nature of his contrition and penance, it seems to have been perfect in many respects – at all events exteriorly. He recognizes the infamy and horror of his crime, and repents of it. He openly confesses it before the chief priests and ancients, who had perhaps remained behind in the house of Caiphas to transact other business, or had gone into the Temple (Matt. Xxvii. 3). He testifies in their presence to the innocence of Jesus, as opposed to the verdict of “guilty” which they had pronounced upon Him, and acknowledges his own guilt, saying that he has betrayed innocent blood and thereby sinned (Matt. Xxvii. 4). Lastly, he tears himself away from his idol, the money that had seduced him to sin, and casts it down in the Temple (Matt. Xxvii. 5). What, then, was wanting to his contrition and penance? It was the important – nay, essential – virtues of hope, confidence, and love. He saw only the magnitude and dreadfulness of his offence, and not the possibility of pardon, and so he despaired, as Cain had once done (Gen. iv. 13). His sorrow was therefore not a sorrow unto life, but unto death (2 Cor. Vii. 9 seq.).

And how was this? Some are of opinion that Judas had thought our Saviour would certainly not be killed, but would contrive to escape from the hands of His enemies, as He had so often done before; but this expectation had not been fulfilled, and so he was the first to be guilty of the blood of our Lord. And therefore he despaired. – But even apart from this, the whole course of what passed in his soul is very natural. At first, blinded by passion and tempted by the devil, he had only seen in the deed the enticing prospect of fain, and now it was accomplished he saw only the horror of it. A complete reaction set in, and so now he could not even endure to keep the money that had had such an attraction for him before. Such is the natural interior course of every sin, and in this case his own fickle, unstable character together with the influence of the devil contributed to bring it all about.

How Judas Was Received By The Priests.

The way in which the priests received Judas is odious for two reasons.

The first of these is their callousness and heartlessness. They meet Judas' repentance and confession of guilt with the answer: “What is that to us? Look thou to it!” (Matt. Xxvii. 4.) they do not comfort him by saying that our Saviour is a blasphemer and false Messias. They throw all the responsibility on him, and leave him to despair. Thus do evil communications bring about their own punishment.

The second odious feature in the conduct of the priests is their hypocrisy. They do not accept the money, in order not to appear to repent of their deed and thus contradict themselves. As a matter of fact, they had not bought Jesus, but had only pain for the act of treachery. On the other hand they will not put the money into the Temple treasury, because it is blood-money and the price of sin (Deut. Xxiii. 18). They reckon this as sin, and take care not to commit it; but they do not hesitate to take upon themselves the actual blood-guiltiness and retain it (Matt. Xxvii. 6 25), although Judas' repentance was an impressive warning to them not to commit the crime. For he did not repent of his deed after the Resurrection, but at the time of the deepest humiliation of Jesus. So at length they hit upon the expedient of purchasing with the money a piece of land known as the “potter's field,” whether because it belong to a potter, or because potter's clay was to be found there. This field was to serve in future as a burying-place for strangers (Matt. Xxvii. 7 8). It was called the “field of blood” (Haceldama), and retains the name to the present day (Matt. Xxvii. 8. Acts I. 19). The place is still distinguishable by the many vaults there. Thus the Jews set up a perpetual memorial of their crime, and fulfilled the prediction of the prophets Jeremias and Zacharias. The latter foretold the price for which the Messias would be sold. (Zach. xi. 12), and the former indicated the field that was to be purchased with the money (Jer. Xviii. 1-3; xix. 1-2; xxxii. 8-14)/ St. Matthew combines both prophesies, because they now found their complete fulfillment (Matt. Xxvii. 9  10). (The words: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet” etc. appears to refer to the purchase of the field, of which Jeremias alone speaks.)

The End of Judas

After Judas had cast the pieces of silver into the Temple he fled, driven by despair and the Evil One, out of the city to the vale of Hinnom. What a terrified glance would he not cast at the Mount of Olives, at the foot of which the Garden of Gethsemani lies! Would he not think of those words of our Saviour's: “Friend, whereto art thou come?” and: “It were better for him, if that man had not been born!” Did he not think too of Absalom, who expired hanging on a tree? Did not the Evil One shout into his ears the terrible execrations and curses that the prophet (as it appears, with reference to him) had foretold: “They repaid Me evil for good, and hatred for My love . . . . May the devil stand at his right hand. When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin . . .  May there be none to help him . . . . He loved cursing, and it shall come unto him . . . It went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones . . . . May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him and like a girdle with which he is girded continually” (Ps. cviii. 4 seq.). Overpowered by remorse of conscience and despair, this unhappy wretch hanged himself. The body burst asunder in the midst and fell to the ground. (Acts i. 18).

What an example, and what a terrible lesson! An Apostle ends his days as a suicide – the impeacher and avenger of his own crime! What more is needed to teach us how fatal it is not to resist our evil passions? Is not every passion a very Satan, that can make us miserable for time and eternity? But still even passion and its bitter fruit, sin, could not have compassed his ruin if only he had not lost confidence and despaired. Peter had fallen, too. But he seized the saving Hand of Jesus by his love and trust. How very differently Judas would have been received by Peter, John, and Mary, if he had fled to them in his contrition and cast himself into their arms, instead of going to the chief priests! How great is the evil of losing confidence and falling into despair! (Father Maurice Meschler, S.J., The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Son of God, in Meditations, Volume II, Freiburg Im Breisgau 1928 Herder & Co., Publishers to the Holy Apostolic See, pp. 416-420.)

There is no “hope” for Judas to be found except in the minds of heretics who are likely to join the traitor in hell for all eternity.

Although Bergoglio “wondered” what might have happened if Judas had met Our Lady after he had betrayed her Divine Son, we do know that she did meet him after he had resolved to do so. Here is the account provided in Venerable Mary of Agreda’s The Mystical City of God:

423. The demons, in despair of ever being able to influence Judas, went to the Pharisees. By many suggestions and arguments they sought to dissuade them from persecuting Christ, our Lord and Savior. But the same happened with them as with Judas, and for the same reasons; they could not be diverted from their purpose, nor from the wicked deed which they had planned. Although some of the scribes, from motives of human prudence, were led to reconsider whether what they had resolved was advisable, yet since they were not assisted by divine grace they were soon again overcome by their hatred and envy of the Savior. Hence resulted the further efforts of Lucifer with the wife of Pilate and with Pilate himself. The former, as is recorded in the Gospels, they incited to womanly pity so she might urge Pilate to beware of condemning that just man (Mt. 27:19). By these suggestions and by others which they themselves made to Pilate they induced him to resort to so many different schemes in order to evade passing the sentence of death upon the innocent Savior; of these I shall speak in their proper place (597, 611, 635, 638). Since Lucifer and his satellites were entirely frustrated in their efforts they again changed their purpose, and in their fury now resolved to induce the Pharisees, executioners, and their helpers to heap the most atrocious cruelties upon the Lord, and by the excess of torment to overcome the invincible patience of the Redeemer. All these machinations of the devil the Lord permitted so the high ends of the Redemption would be attained; however, He did not allow the executioners to execute on the sacred Person of the Savior some of the more indecent atrocities to which they were incited by the demons (579).

 424. On the Wednesday following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem Christ our Lord remained in Bethany without going to Jerusalem, and on this day the Pharisees and scribes met at the house of Caiphas in order to plan the death of the Savior of the world (Mk. 14:1). The welcome which the Redeemer had met with among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and which had followed so shortly upon the resurrection of Lazarus and the many other miracles of those days, had excited their envy to the highest pitch; besides, they had already resolved to take away his life under the false pretext of the public good, as Caiphas had prophesied so contrary to his intention (Jn. 11:49). The demon, who saw them thus determined, suggested to some of them not to execute their design on the feast of the Pasch lest the people who venerated Christ as the Messiah or a great prophet cause a disturbance. Lucifer sought by this delay an opportunity to hinder the death of the Lord altogether. Yet since Judas was now entirely in the clutches of his avarice and hatred, and altogether deprived of any saving grace, he came to the meeting of the priests in great disturbance and terror of mind, and began to negotiate with them concerning the betrayal of his Master. He closed the deal by accepting thirty pieces of silver, contenting himself with such a price for Him who contained within Himself all the treasures of heaven. In order not to lose their opportunity the priests put up with the inconvenience of its being so near the Pasch. All this was so disposed by divine Providence directing these events.

 425. At the same time happened what our Savior is recorded as saying in St. Matthew (26:2): You know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be crucified. Judas was not present when these words were uttered by Christ, but in the fury of his treason he returned to the Apostles and perfidiously began to inquire of his companions, and even of the Lord and his Blessed Mother, where they intended to go from Bethany and what the Master was to do on the following few days. All this was merely a treacherous preparation of the perfidious disciple for the betrayal of his Master to the chief Pharisees. By these pretenses and concealments Judas, as a hypocrite, sought to palliate his premeditated treachery. But both the Savior and his most blessed Mother well understood the purpose of his feverish activity, for the holy Angels immediately reported to them his shameful contract to which he had bound himself for thirty pieces of silver. On that very day, when the traitor approached the great Lady to ask Her where the Lord proposed to partake of the Pasch, She answered him with ineffable meekness: “Who can penetrate, O Judas, the secret judgments of the Most High?” With that She ceased to warn him against committing the sin, but both She and the Lord tolerated his presence until he himself despaired of his remedy and eternal salvation. But this meekest Dove, now certain of the irreparable ruin of Judas and the delivery of her most holy Son into the hands of his enemies, broke out in most tender lamentations in the presence of the Angels, for they were the only ones with whom She could confer about her heartrending sorrow. In their presence She permitted the sea of her sorrow to overflow, and She gave expression of words of greatest wisdom and affection. She excited the wonder of these holy Angels, who saw such an exalted and new perfection practiced by a mere creature in the midst of most bitter sorrows and tribulations.

INSTRUCTION GIVEN ME

426. My daughter, all thou hast understood and written in this chapter contains great and instructive mysteries for mortals who shall meditate upon it. First, thou must ponder with discretion how my most holy Son came to undo the works of the demon (I Jn. 3:8) and vanquish him so he would not have such powers against men, and for this intention leaving him in the condition of his nature of an angel and the habitual knowledge corresponding to it, nevertheless concealed many things from him (as thou hast already recorded in other places [Inc. 501, 648; Tran. 356, 413]), so by not attaining such knowledge the Most High could restrain the malice of this dragon in the manner most appropriate for the sweet and strong providence of the Most High (Wis. 8:1). Thus the hypostatic union of the divine and human natures was concealed from him, and he drifted into such hallucination regarding this mystery that he confused himself, and was involved in varying discourses and fictitious determinations until in due time my most holy Son made him understand it, and that his divinized soul had been glorious from the instant of his conception. Likewise He permitted the demon to witness some of the miracles of his most holy life, yet concealed from him many others. And the same happens now with some souls, for my most holy Son does not permit the enemy to know all their works, though naturally he could know them; His Majesty hides them in order to attain his high ends for the benefit of souls. Afterwards He allows him to find them out for the greater confusion of the demon, as happened regarding the works of the Redemption, when for his torment and greater oppression the Lord permitted him to become aware of them. For this reason the infernal dragon, the serpent, is continually prowling around souls in order to search into their works, not only the interior ones but also the exterior ones.

427. Such is the love my most holy Son has for souls after He was born and died for them. This benefit would be more general and continuous with many if they did not make themselves unworthy by delivering themselves over to the enemy, listening to his false suggestions and counsels full of malice and error. As the just and chosen ones in sanctity become instruments in the hand of the Lord, who governs and controls them Himself and does not allow another to move them because they submit entirely to his divine disposition, so on the contrary many of the reprobate and those who are forgetful of their Creator and Redeemer, and who deliver themselves into the hands of the demon by repeated sins, are moved and drawn into all kinds of wickedness and are mere tools of his depraved malice. An example of this we have in the perfidious disciple and in the murderous Pharisees persecuting their Redeemer. No mortal has an excuse if they suffer this damage, for just as Judas and the priests by the use of their own free will refused to follow the good advice of the demon and desist from persecuting Christ our Savior, so they could much more easily have refused to join him in persecuting Christ when they were first tempted, for then they were assisted by grace if only they wished to use it, while afterwards they were assisted only by their own free choice and led by their bad habits. That they were in the second instance deprived of the grace and assistance of the Holy Ghost was only just, because they had given themselves up and subjected themselves to the demon in order to obey him in all malice and allow themselves to be governed only by his perverse will, without consideration of the goodness and power of their Creator.

428. Hence shalt thou understand that this infernal serpent can have no power to lead anyone toward the good, but very much toward leading those souls into sin who are neglectful in issuing from their evil state. Truly I say to thee, my daughter, that if mortals would thoroughly understand this danger they would be struck with great terror, for there is no created power which can prevent a soul who has once yielded to sin from casting himself from abyss to abyss. Since the sin of Adam the weight of human nature, burdened with the concupiscible and irascible passions, is drawn toward sin as the stone toward its center. Joined to this tendency are the bad habits and customs, the power of the demon over those who have sinned, and his unceasing tyranny. Who is there who is so much an enemy of his own welfare as to despise these dangers? The Almighty alone can free him, and to his right hand is reserved the remedy. In spite of all this mortals live as secure and forgetful of their ruin as if each one had it in his own power to prevent and repair it at his pleasure. Though many know and openly confess they cannot rise from their own ruin without the help of God, yet they allow this consciousness to become a mere habit and a vague sentiment, and instead of lovingly seeking his aid they offend and irritate God, expecting Him to wait upon them with his grace until they are tired of sinning or are unable to continue their abominable wickedness and ingratitude.

429. Do thou fear, my dearest, this formidable danger, and guard thyself against the first sin, for after the first sin thou shalt be less able to resist the second, and thy enemy acquires strength against thee. Remember thy treasure is most valuable, and the vase in which thou dost carry it most fragile; by one fall thou canst lose it all (II Cor. 4:7). Great is the cunning and sagacity which the serpent uses against thee, and thy insight is but small. Therefore thou must collect thy senses and close them to all outward things; thou must withdraw thy interior within the wall of protection and refuge raised for thee by the Almighty, from whence thou canst repel all the inhuman assaults of thy enemies. To excite this fear in thee it shall be sufficient to consider the punishment of Judas, which has been made clear to thy understanding. In regard to thy imitation of my behavior in other matters, how thou must act toward those who hate and persecute thee, love them and bear with them in charity and patience, and pray for them to the Lord with true zeal for their salvation as I did for the traitor Judas, in all this I have previously often exhorted thee. I desire thee to excel and distinguish thyself therein, and to instruct thy religious, and all those with whom thou hast communication, in this manner of acting, because in view of the patience and meekness of my most holy Son and my own example, the wicked and all mortals shall be covered with unutterable confusion because they have not pardoned each other with fraternal charity. The sins of hatred and vengeance shall be punished with greater severity than other sins on Judgment Day, and in this life these vices shall most quickly drive away the infinite mercy of God and cause eternal punishment of men unless they amend in sorrow. Those who are kind and sweet toward their enemies and persecutors, and who forget injuries, resemble on that account more particularly the incarnate Word, for Christ always went about seeking to pardon and load with blessings those who were in sin. By imitating the charity and meekness of the Lamb the soul disposes itself to receive and maintain that noble spirit of charity and love of God and neighbor which makes it fit for all the influences of divine grace and benevolence. (New English Edition of The Mystical City of God, The Transfixion: Book 6, Chapter VIII.)

Yes, we must pray to Our Lady the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, to help us never to despair of our own salvation as we seek to make reparation for our sins, especially by praying the Sorrowful Mysteries as we enter into the Paschal Triduum with the office of Tenebrae this evening. 

We must also pray constantly for the conversion of heretics such as those in the conciliar structures so that they will not join their beloved Judas in hell for all eternity, remembering as well to offer ready forgiveness for those who we believe have injured us in some way. Nothing anyone does or says to us or causes us to suffer is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and that caused those swords of sorrow to be plunged into the Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, 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 Balthazar, pray for us.

Appendix A

Dom Prosper Gueranger on Wednesday in Holy Week

The Chief Priests and the Ancients of the people are met today, in one of the rooms adjoining the Temple, for the purpose of deliberating on the best means of putting Jesus to death. Several plans are discussed. Would it be prudent to lay hands upon him at this season of the Feast of the Pasch, when the City is filled with strangers who have received a favorable impression of Jesus from the solemn ovation given to him three days back? Then, too, are there not a great number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who took part in that triumph, and whose enthusiastic admiration of Jesus might excite them to rise up in his defense? These considerations persuade them not to have recourse to any violent measure, at least for the present, as a sedition among the people might be the consequence, and its promoters, even were they to escape being ill-treated by the people, would be brought before the tribunal of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. They therefore come to the resolution of letting the Feast pass quietly over, before apprehending Jesus.

But these blood-thirsty men are making all these calculations as though they were the masters. They are, if they will, shrewd assassins, who put off their murder to a more convenient day, but the Divine decrees, which from all eternity, have prepared a Sacrifice for the world’s salvation, — have fixed this very year’s Pasch as the day of the Sacrifice, and, tomorrow evening, the holy City will re-echo with the trumpets, which proclaim the opening of the Feast. The figurative Lamb is now to make way for the true one; the Pasch of this year will substitute the reality for the type; and Jesus’ Blood, shed by the hands of wicked priests, is soon to flow simultaneously with that of victims, which have only been hitherto acceptable to God, because they prefigured the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Jewish priesthood is about to be its own executioner, by immolating Him, whose Blood is to abrogate the Ancient Alliance, and perpetuate the New one.

But how are Jesus’ enemies to get possession of their divine Victim, so as to avoid a disturbance in the City? There is only one plan that could succeed, and they have not thought of it: it is treachery. Just at the close of their deliberations, they are told that one of Jesus’ Disciples seeks admission. They admit him, and he says to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? They are delighted at this proposition: and yet, how is it that they, doctors of the law, forget that this infamous bargain between themselves and Judas has all been foretold by David in the 108th Psalm? They know the Scriptures from beginning to end—how comes it that they forget the words of the Prophet, who even mentions the sum of thirty pieces of silver. Judas asks them what they will give him; and they give him thirty pieces of silver! All is arranged: tomorrow, Jesus will be in Jerusalem, eating the Pasch with his Disciples. In the evening, he will go, as usual, to the Garden on Mount Olivet. But how shall they, who are sent to seize him, be able to distinguish him from his Disciples? Judas will lead the way; he will show them which is Jesus, by going up and kissing him!

How terrible is this our Defender, who tramples his enemies beneath his feet, as they that tread in the wine-press; so that their blood is sprinkled upon his garments! But is not this the fittest time for us to proclaim his power, now that he is being treated with ignominy, and sold to his enemies by one of his Disciples? These humiliations will soon pass away; he will rise in glory, and his might will be shown by the chastisements, wherewith he will crush them that now persecute him. Jerusalem will stone them that shall preach in his name; she will be a cruel step-mother to those true Israelites who, docile to the teaching of the Prophets, have recognized Jesus as the promised Messias. The Synagogue will seek to stifle the Church in her infancy; but no sooner shall the Church, shaking the dust from her feet, turn from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, than the vengeance of Christ will fall on the City, which bought, betrayed, and crucified him. Her citizens will have to pay dearly for these crimes. We learn from the Jewish historian Josephus (who was an eyewitness to the siege) that the fire which was raging in one of the streets, was quenched by the torrents of their blood. Thus were fulfilled the threats pronounced by our Lord against this faithless City, as he sat on Mount Olivet, the day after his triumphant Entry.

And yet the destruction of Jerusalem was but a faint image of the terrible destruction which is to befall the world at the last day. Jesus, who is now despised and insulted by sinners, will then appear on the clouds of heaven, and reparation will be made for all these outrages. Now he suffers himself to be betrayed, scoffed at, and spit upon; but when the day of vengeance is come, happy they that have served him and have compassionated with him in his humiliations and sufferings! Woe to them that have treated him with contempt! Woe to them who, not content with their own refusing to bear his yoke, have led others to rebel against him! For he is King; he came into this world that he might reign over it; and they that despise his Mercy, shall not escape his Justice.

Again it is Isaias that instructs us, not indeed upon the triumph which our Emmanuel is to win over his enemies, but upon the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. So explicit is his description of our Lord’s Passion that the holy Fathers have called him the fifth Evangelist. What could be more sublimely plaintive than the language here used by the son of Amos? And we, after hearing both the Old and New Testament upon the sufferings which Jesus went through for our sins—how shall we sufficiently love this dear Redeemer, who bore our infirmities and carried our Sorrows, so as to look as a leper, and as one struck by God, and afflicted?

We are healed by his bruises! O heavenly Physician, that takes upon himself the sufferings of them he comes to cure! But not only was he bruised for our sins; he was also slaughtered as a lamb: and this not merely as a Victim submitting to the inflexible justice of his Father who hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all, but (as the Prophet here assures us) because it was his own will. His love for us, as well as his submission to his Father, led him to the great Sacrifice. Observe too how he refuses to defend himself before Pilate, who could so easily deliver him from his enemies: He shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearers, and he shall not open his mouth. Let us love and adore this divine Silence, which works our Salvation. Let us not pass over an iota of the devotedness which Jesus shows us—a devotedness which never could have existed, save in the Heart of a God. Oh! how much he has loved us—his children, the purchase of his Blood, his Seed, as the Prophet here calls us. O Holy Church! thou long-lived Seed of Jesus, that laid down his life!—thou art dear to him, for he bought thee at a great price. Faithful Souls! give him love for love! sinners! be converted to this your Savior; his Blood will restore you to life, for if we have all gone astray like sheep, remember what is added: The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. There is no sinner, however great may be his crimes; there is no heretic, or infidel, who has not his share in this precious Blood, whose infinite merit is such that it could redeem a million worlds, more guilty even than our own. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Wednesday in Holy Week.)

Appendix B

Pope Saint Gregory the Great on Saint Hermenegild

King Hermenegild, son of Leovigild king of the Visigoths, was converted, from the Arian heresy, to the Catholic faith, by the preaching of the venerable Leander, Bishop of Seville, one of my oldest and dearest friends. His father, who continued in the Arian heresy, did his utmost, both by promises, and threats, to induce him to apostatize. But Hermenegild returned him ever the same answer, that he never could abandon the true faith, after having once known it. The father, in a fit of displeasure, deprived him not only of his right to the throne, but of everything he possessed. And when even this failed to break the energy of his soul, he had him put into close confinement with chains on his neck and hands. Hereupon the youthful king Hermenegild began to despise the earthly, and ardently to long for the heavenly, kingdom. Thus fettered, and wearing a hairshirt, he besought the Omnipotent God to support him. As to the glory of this fleeting world, he nobly looked on it with disdain, the more so as his captivity taught him the nothingness of that which could thus be taken from him.

It was the Feast of Easter. At an early hour of the night, when all was still, his wicked father sent an Arian Bishop to him, with this message, that if he would receive Communion from his hands (the Communion of a sacrilegious consecration!), he should be restored to favor. True to his Creator, the man of God gave a merited reproof to the Arian Bishop, and, with holy indignation, rejected his sinful offer; for though his body lay prostrate in chains, his soul stood on ground beyond the reach of tyranny. The Bishop therefore, returned whence he had come. The Arian father raged, and straightway send his lictors, bidding them repair to the prison of the unflinching Confessor of the Lord, and murder him on the spot. They obeyed; they entered the prison; they cleft his skull with a sword; they took away the life of the body, and slew what he, the slain one, had sworn to count as vile. Miracles soon followed, whereby heaven testified to the true glory of Hermenegild; for during the night, there was heard sweet music nigh to the body of the King and Martyr—King indeed, because he was a Martyr. It is said that lights were seen at the same time burning in the prison. The Faithful were led, by these signs, to revere the body, as being that of a martyr. As to the wicked father, he repented for having imbrued his hands in his son’s blood; but his repentance was not unto salvation, inasmuch as, whilst acknowledging the Catholic Faith to be the true one, he had not the courage to embrace it, for he feared the displeasure of his subjects. When in his last sickness, and at the point of death, he commended his son Reccared, a heretic, to the care of Leander the Bishop, whom he had hitherto persecuted, but from whom he now asked, that he would do for this son what he had, by his exhortations, done for Hermenegild. Having made this request, he died, and was succeeded, on the throne, by Reccared, who taking, not his wicked father, but his martyred brother, as his model, he abandoned the impious Arian heresy, and led the whole Visigoth nation to the true Faith. He would not allow any man to serve in his armies, who dared to continue the enemy of the God of hosts by heresy. Neither is it to be wondered at, that being the brother of a Martyr, he should have become a propagator of the true Faith, for it was by Hermenegild’s merits that he has succeeded in reconciling so many thousands to the great God of heaven. (Pope Saint Gregory the Great on Saint Hermenegild, as found in Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Heremenegild, April 13.)