Memorandum to Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV: Yes, God Avenges Sins and Sinners

To say that it is beyond wearying to see ever wishful “conservatives” and self-proclaimed “traditionalists” within the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism jump and down with infantile joy every time they think their “pope” has said or done something approximating Catholic truth.

All right, let me stipulate as I have so many scores upon times before, exhibited this same behavior as a “papal” idolater from Monday, October 18, 1978, the Feast Saint Luke the Evangelist, and the time in April of 1994 when the man I kept waiting to “restore” the Catholic Church, Karol Jozsef Wojtyla/John Paul II, approved the use of girl altar boys during the staging of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical abomination. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the “good pope” to remove “bad” bishops and appoint “good” bishops while I kept ignoring the things he said and did that I absolutely knew were contrary to Catholic truth because I had projected onto the Polish Phenomenologist my own fondest desires to undo the mess that I had, errantly, had been caused by the “bad pope,” Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria/Paul VI.

Ah, one must fall into the trap of false opposites and get lost in the trees when one does is not governed by right principles, which, simply stated in this case, is that the Catholic Church is the infallible mystical spouse of her Divine Founder, Invisible Head, and Mystical Bridegroom, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who can never be tainted by even a slight varnish of error and whose true popes always speak clearly without contradicting anything that has been taught from time immemorial and whose doctrine is clear, without ambiguity and thus without any need for “papal” apologists to interpret what “the ‘pope’ really meant to say.”

The most recent example of “papal” apologists jumping all up and down in ecstasy over the Modernist named Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV involves the latter’s stating that Judas Iscariot lost his soul by betraying Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the Pharisees on Spy Wednesday for thirty pieces of silver, thereby contradicting the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s endless apologias on behalf of the execrable traitor and the alleged “mercy” that the Argentine Apostate said that Our Lord had extended to the traitor whom he had described as it had better for him had he never been born.

I am going to quote from Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s Wednesday, August 13, 2025, general audience address, the subject of which was the fate of Judas Iscariot and then explain that the seventh in the current line of antipopes came to the correct conclusion by means of conciliarspeak as the conciliar “popes” are constitutionally incapable of referring to a God Who avenges and punishes sins and sinners:

Let us continue our journey in the school of the Gospel, following Jesus’ steps in the final days of his life. Today we will pause at an intimate, dramatic, yet also profoundly true scene: the moment at which, during the Passover supper, Jesus reveals that one of the Twelve is about to betray him: “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me” (Mk 14:18).

Strong words. Jesus does not utter them to condemn, but to show how love, when it is true, cannot do without the truth. The room on the upper floor, where shortly beforehand everything was carefully prepared, suddenly fills with a painful silence, made up of questions, suspicions, vulnerability. It is a pain we too know well, when the shadow of betrayal is cast over the closest relationships.

And yet, the way in which Jesus speaks about what is about to happen is surprising. He does not raise his voice, nor point his finger, nor utter the name of Judas. He speaks in such a way that each one can ask himself the question. And this is exactly what happens. Saint Mark tells us: “They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, ‘Surely it is not I?’” (Mk 14:19).

Dear friends, this question – “Surely it is not I?” – is perhaps among the sincerest that we can ask ourselves. It is not the question of the innocent, but of the disciple who discovers himself to be fragile. It is not the cry of the guilty, but the whisper of him who, while wanting to love, is aware of being able to do harm. It is in this awareness that the journey of salvation begins.

Jesus does not denounce in order to humiliate. He tells the truth because he wants to save. And in order to be saved, it is necessary to feel: to feel that one is involved, to feel that one is beloved despite everything, to feel that evil is real but that it does not have the last word. Only those who have known the truth of a deep love can also accept the wound of betrayal.

The disciples’ reaction is not anger, but sadness. They are not indignant, they are sorrowful. It is a pain that arises from the real possibility of being involved. And precisely this sorrow, if welcomed with sincerity, becomes a place for conversion. The Gospel does not teach us to deny evil, but to recognize it as a painful opportunity for rebirth.

Jesus then adds a phrase that troubles us and makes us think. “But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Mk 14:21). They are harsh words, certainly, but they must be understood well: it is not a curse, but rather a cry of pain. In Greek, that “woe” sounds like a lamentation, an “alas”, an exclamation of sincere and deep compassion.

We are used to judging. Instead, God accepts suffering. When he sees evil, he does not avenge it, but grieves. And that “better if he had never been born” is not a condemnation imposed a priori, but a truth that any of us can recognize: if we deny the love that has generated us, if by betraying we become unfaithful to ourselves, then we truly lose the meaning of our coming into the world, and we exclude ourselves from salvation.

And yet, precisely there, at the darkest point, the light is not extinguished. On the contrary, it starts to shine. Because if we recognize our limit, if we let ourselves be touched by the pain of Christ, then we can finally be born again. Faith does not spare us from the possibility of sin, but if always offers us a way out of it: that of mercy.

Jesus is not scandalized by our fragility. He knows well that no friendship is immune from the risk of betrayal. But Jesus continues to trust. He continues to sit at the table with his followers. He does not give up breaking bread, even for those who will betray him. This is the silent power of God: he never abandons the table of love, even when he knows he will be left alone.

Dear brothers and sisters, we too can ask ourselves today, with sincerity: “Surely it is not I?”. Not to feel accused, but to open a space for truth in our hearts. Salvation begins here: with the awareness that we may be the ones who break our trust in God, but that we can also be the ones who gather it, protect it and renew it.

Ultimately, this is hope: knowing that even if we fail, God will never fail us. Even if we betray him, he never stops loving us. And if we allow ourselves to be touched by this love – humble, wounded, but always faithful – then we can truly be reborn. And we can begin to live no longer as traitors, but as children who are always loved. (General Audience of 13 August 2025.)

There are certainly substantial elements of truth here, especially as regards the fact that God does not will evil but permits it to occur so that our properly formed consciences, filled with guilty for having betrayed Him to succumb to the devil’s tempting, may hasten our steps to be reconciled unto Him in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. Prevost/Leo does not say this in so many words as it would be too much to expect of a Modernist to speak so clearly. However, he is in general neighborhood of doing so as Our Lord is the hound of Heaven who is always seeking our daily conversion so that we can be sanctified and grow unto perfection with the graces He won for during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hand of His Most Blessed Mother, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

However, Judas Iscariot lost his immortal soul because of the Sin of Despair. He did not believe that His Divine Master would or perhaps even could forgive Him, and his death by suicide was a pridefully manifest statement of his disbelief in all that He had been taught as one of the Twelve Apostles over the course of Our Lord’s three years’ public ministry. Our Lord saw Judas’s wicked disposition and spoke of Him accordingly.

Conciliar “popes” do not speak with clarity, which is why it is quite useful to provide reader with a few reminders of how Catholic authors have spoken of the wretched Judas Iscariot and his dreadful plight.

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 the late 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, and states with clarity that which Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV spoke with a view to softening Judas Iscariot’s interior wickedness to make his example more “approachable” to those listening to him on August 13, 2025, the Feast of Our Lady Refuge of Sinners in some places and, universally, the Feast of Saints Hippolytus and Cassian:

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.)

As noted above, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had a very benign view of Judas Iscariot and once used a statue to speculate that the traitor might have been saved, something that the “conservatives” and self-proclaimed “traditionalists” within the conciliar structures have been pointing out in the past eight days since Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s general audience address of Wednesday, July 13, 2025. Here is what Senor Jorge said in 2017:

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 is eighty-six years, three months of age, 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.

There is no need to “speculate” about what Judas Iscariot would have done if he had met Our Lady as she herself provided us with the answer in The New English Edition of 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.)

Our Lady did everything imaginable to keep Judas Iscariot from betraying her Divine Son and thus perishing by his own hand and thence into the depths of hell.

What it is interesting in all this is that the very same “conservative” and self-proclaimed “traditionalists within the conciliar structures who are so overjoyed with Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s approximation Catholic truth eight days ago never said word one about how their beloved if entirely mythical “restorer of tradition” who made warfare upon the nature of dogmatic truth throughout the course of his seventy-one years of priestly apostasy, Joseph Alois Ratzinger, was himself sanguine about Judas Iscariot’s fate because his mentor, 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, the late Father Regis Scanlon O.F.M. Cap., 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, the late 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, who may have found “accompaniment” in the lower reaches of hell with Judas Iscariot when he died.

Father Maurice Meschler’s The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Son of God, in Meditations explained 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.)

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV is incapable of speaking so clearly and his two immediate predecessors, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, had no problem making one excuse after another for Judas Iscariot as birds of a traitorous feather do tend to flock together.

Finally, it is very important to explain how Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s general audience address of Wednesday, August 13, 2025, that approximated Catholic truth about Judas Iscariot also contained abject heresy about God not avenging sins.

Wrong.

Heretical.

Here are a few simple proofs, staring with the account found in the Gospel about Saint the Baptist’s preaching of penance near the Jordan River and his warning to the Jews of the wrath that was to come if they did not accept the preaching of the One Who was to come after Him, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:

And in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea.  2 And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  3 For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.  4 And the same John had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.  5 Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan: (Matthew 3: 1-5.)

Bishop Richard Challoner commented about the sort of penance that Saint John the Baptist preached:

[2] "Do penance": Paenitentiam agite. Which word, according to the use of the scriptures and the holy fathers, does not only signify repentance and amendment of life, but also punishing past sins by fasting, and such like penitential exercises.

Yes, every single sin must be punished even after it is absolved in the Sacred Tribunal Penance. We owe a debt for our sins that we can pay back by prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and by the patient and loving endurance of all the crosses that Our Lord sends into our lives to correct, chastise, and perfect us.

The account in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew about Saint John the Baptist’s preaching continues:

 6 And were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.  7 And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come  8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.  9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.  10 For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. (Matthew 3: 6-10.)

Here are just examples provided by Saint Paul the Apostle, first from his Epistle to the Romans and then from his Epistle to the Hebrews:

Being of one mind one towards another. Not minding high things, but consenting to the humble. Be not wise in your own conceits.  17 To no man rendering evil for evil. Providing good things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men.  18 If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men.  19 Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.

 21 Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good. (Romans 12: 12-21.)

And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us: Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification.

Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness: without which no man shall see God. Looking diligently, lest any man be wanting to the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up do hinder, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12: 1-15.)

God punished the inhabitants of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wretchedness of the sin of sodomy, and he punished everyone in the whole world except for Noah and his family because of He detested how His rational creatures had fallen into loathsome sins of impurity and other forms of wickedness that required them to be flood by the flood waters He let loose upon the world, something that Saint Alphonsus de Liguori noted in his sermon on the Vice of Impurity:

4. Moreover, sins of impurity, on account of their great number, are an immense evil. A blasphemer does not always blaspheme, but only when he is drunk or provoked to anger. The assassin, whose trade is to murder others, does not, at the most, commit more than eight or ten homicides. But the unchaste are guilty of an unceasing torrent of sins, by thoughts, by words, by looks, by complacencies, and by touches; so that, when they go to confession they find it impossible to tell the number of the sins they have committed against purity. Even in their sleep the devil represents to them obscene objects, that, on awakening, they may take delight in them; and because they are made the slaves of the enemy, they obey and consent to his suggestions; for it is easy to contract a habit of this sin. To other sins, such as blasphemy, detraction, and murder, men are not prone; but to this vice nature inclines them. Hence St. Thomas says, that there is no sinner so ready to offend God as the votary of lust is, on every occasion that occurs to him.” Nullus ad Dei contemptum promptior." The sin of impurity brings in its train the sins of defamation, of theft, hatred, and of boasting of its own filthy abominations. Besides, it ordinarily involves the malice of scandal. Other sins, such as blasphemy, perjury, and murder, excite horror in those who witness them; but this sin excites and draws others, who are flesh, to commit it, or, at least, to commit it with less horror. . . .

9. The votaries of lust say that God takes pity on this sin; but such is not the language of St. Thomas of Villanova. He says, that in the sacred Scriptures we do not read of any sin so severely chastised as the sin of impurity.” Luxuriæ facinus præ aliis punitum legimus." (Serm. iv., Dom. 1, Quadrag.) We find in the Scriptures, that in punishment of this sin, a deluge of fire descended from heaven on four cities, and, in an instant, consumed not only the inhabitants, but even the very stones." And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he destroyed these cities, and all things that spring from the earth." (Gen. xix. 24.) St. Peter Damian relates, that a man and a woman who had sinned against impurity, were found burnt and black as a cinder.

10. Salvian writes, that it was in punishment of the sin of impurity that God sent on the earth the universal deluge, which was caused by continued rain for forty days and forty nights. In this deluge the waters rose fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains; and only eight persons along with Noah were saved in the ark. The rest of the inhabitants of the earth, who were more numerous then than at present, were punished with death in chastisement of the vice of impurity. Mark the words of the Lord in speaking of this chastisement which he inflicted on that sin: “My spirit shall not remain in man for ever; because he is flesh." (Gen. vi. 3.) "That is," says Liranus, "too deeply involved in carnal sins." The Lord added: “For it repenteth me that I made man." (Gen. vi. 7.) The indignation of God is not like ours, which clouds the mind, and drives us into excesses: his wrath is a judgment perfectly just and tranquil, by which God punishes and repairs the disorders of sin. But to make us understand the intensity of his hatred for the sin of impurity, he represents himself as if sorry for having created man, who offended him so grievously by this vice. We, at the present day, see more severe temporal punishment inflicted on this than on any other sin. Go into the hospitals, and listen to the shrieks of so many young men, who, in punishment of their impurities, are obliged to submit to the severest treatment and to the most painful operations, and who, if they escape death, are, according to the divine threat, feeble, and subject to the most excruciating pain for the remainder of their lives. “Thou hast cast me off behind thy back; bear thou also thy wickedness and thy fornications." (Ezec. xxiii. 35.) (Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, “On Impurity”.)

The true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Holy Trinity, is indeed a loving and merciful God, but He is also the God of Justice Who, in his merciful designs to help us reject sin and chose always for Him as He has revealed Himself exclusively to us through His Church, sends us punishments and chastisements here below to save us from the eternal punishments and chastisements reserved for the reprobate:

For Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our account.

I say nothing of what has gone before, that you have outraged Him, Him that had done you no wrong, Him that had done you good, that He exacted not justice, that He is first to beseech, though first outraged; let none of these things be set down at present. Ought ye not in justice to be reconciled for this one thing only that He has done to you now?' And what has He done? Him that knew no sin He made to be sin, for you. For had He achieved nothing but done only this, think how great a thing it were to give His Son for those that had outraged Him. But now He has both well achieved mighty things, and besides, has suffered Him that did no wrong to be punished for those who had done wrong. But he did not say this: but mentioned that which is far greater than this. What then is this? Him that knew no sin, he says, Him that was righteousness itself , He made sin, that is suffered as a sinner to be condemned, as one cursed to die. For cursed is he that hangs on a tree. Galatians 3:13 For to die thus was far greater than to die; and this he also elsewhere implying, says, Becoming obedient unto death, yea the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8 For this thing carried with it not only punishment, but also disgrace. Reflect therefore how great things He bestowed on you. For a great thing indeed it were for even a sinner to die for any one whatever; but when He who undergoes this both is righteous and dies for sinners; and not dies only, but even as one cursed; and not as cursed [dies] only, but thereby freely bestows upon us those great goods which we never looked for; (for he says, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him;) what words, what thought shall be adequate to realize these things? 'For the righteous,' says he, 'He made asinner; that He might make the sinners righteous.'  Yea rather, he said not even so, but what was greater far; for the word he employed is not the habit, but the quality itself. For he said not made [Him] a sinner, but sin;not, 'Him that had not sinned' only, but that had not even known sin; that we also might become, he did not say 'righteous,' but, righteousness, and, the righteousness of God. For this is [the righteousness] of God when we are justified not by works, (in which case it were necessary that not a spot even should be found,) but by grace, in which case all sin is done away. And this at the same time that it suffers us not to be lifted up, (seeing the whole is the free gift of God,) teaches us also the greatness of that which is given. For that which was before was a righteousness of the Law and of works, but this is the righteousness of God.

6. Reflecting then on these things, let us fear these words more than hell; let us reverence the things [they express] more than the kingdom, and let us not deem it grievous to be punished, but to sin. For were He not to punish us, we ought to take vengeance on ourselves, who have been so ungrateful towards our Benefactor. Now he that has an object of affection, has often even slain himself, when unsuccessful in his love; and though successful, if he has been guilty of a fault towards her, counts it not fit that he should even live; and shall not we, when we outrage One so loving and gentle, cast ourselves into the fire of hell? Shall I say something strange, and marvellous, and to many perhaps incredible? To one who has understanding and loves the Lord as it behooves tolove Him, there will be greater comfort if punished after provoking One so loving, than if not punished. And this one may see by the common practice. For he that has wronged his dearest friend feels then the greatest relief, when he has wreaked vengeance on himself and suffered evil. And accordingly David said, I the shepherd have sinned, and I the shepherd have done amiss; and these the flock, what have they done? Let Your hand be upon me, and upon my father's house. 2 Samuel 24:17. Septuagint And when he lost Absalom he wreaked the extremest vengeance upon himself, although he was not the injurer but the injured; but nevertheless, because he loved the departed exceedingly, he racked himself with anguish, in this manner comforting himself. Let us therefore also, when we sin against Him Whom we ought not to sin against, take vengeance on ourselves. See you not those who have lost true-born children, that they therefore both beat themselves and tear their hair, because to punish themselves for the sake of those they loved carries comfort with it. But if, when we have caused no harm to those dearest to us, to suffer because of what has befallen them brings consolation; when we ourselves are the persons who have given provocation and wrong, will it not much rather be a relief to us to suffer the penalty and will not the being unpunished punish? Every one in a manner will see this. If any love Christ as it behooves to love Him, he knows what I say; how, even when He forgives, he will not endure to go unpunished; for you undergo the severest punishment in having provoked Him. And I know indeed that I am speaking what will not be believed by the many; but nevertheless it is so as I have said. If then we love Christ as it behooves to love Him, we shall punish ourselves when we sin. For to those who love any whomsover, not the suffering somewhat because they have provoked the beloved one is unpleasing; but above all, that they have provoked the person loved. And if this last when angered does not punish, he has tortured his lover more; but if he exacts satisfaction, he has comforted him rather. Let us therefore not fear hell, but offending God; for it is more grievous than that when He turns away in wrath: this is worse than all, this heavier than all. And that you may learn what a thing it is, consider this which I say. If one that was himself a king, beholding a robber and malefactor under punishment, gave his well-beloved son, his only-begotten and true, to be slain; and transferred the death and the guilt as well, from him to his son, (who was himself of no such character,) that he might both save the condemned man and clear him from his evil reputation ; and then if, having subsequently promoted him to great dignity, he had yet, after thus saving him and advancing him to that glory unspeakable, been outraged by the person that had received such treatment: would not that man, if he had any sense, have chosen ten thousand deaths rather than appear guilty of so great ingratitude? This then let us also now consider with ourselves, and groan bitterly for the provocations we have offered our Benefactor; nor let us therefore presume, because though outraged He bears it with long-suffering; but rather for this very reason be full of remorse. For among men too, when one that has been smitten on the right cheek offers the left also, he more avenges himself than if he gave ten thousand blows; and when one that has been reviled, not only reviles not again but even blesses, he has stricken [his adversary] more heavily, than if he rained upon him ten thousand reproaches. Now if in the case of men we feel ashamed when offering insults we meet with long-suffering; much rather, in respect to God, ought they to be afraid who go on continually sinning yet suffer no calamity. For, even for evil unto their own heads is the unspeakable punishment treasured up for them. These things then bearing in mind, let us above all things be afraid of sin; for this is punishment, this is hell, this is ten thousand ills. And let us not only be afraid of, but also flee from it, and strive to please God continually; for this is the kingdom, this is life, this is ten thousand goods. So shall we also even here obtain already the kingdom and the good things to come; whereunto may we all attain, through the grace and love towards men of our Lord Jesus Christ; with Whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and for ever, and world without end. Amen. (Commentary of Saint John Chrysostom on Saint Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians.)

Our Lord was a victim for sin, a sin-offering, and it is because He loves us that He punishes our sins here below so that we will repent of them in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance before we die and thus be the beneficiaries of His gratuitous mercy when we see Him face to face at the moment our Particular Judgment.

Our Lady explained to Sister Lucia does Santos on June 13, 1929, when she told her that the time had come for the Holy Father to request the collegial consecration of her Immaculate Heart as the Divine Justice is offended by the sins of men committee against her, the very Mother of God:

"The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops in the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray." (Our Lady's Words at Fatima.)

It was three centuries earlier that Our Lady had warned Pierre Port-Combet, a baptized Catholic in France who had become a Calvinist, that he would be sent to hell if he did not convert:

Then the Lady said, "Where does that heretic live who cut the willow tree? Does he not want to be converted?"

Pierre [Port-Combet, who had become a Calvinist] mumbled an answer. The Lady became more serious, "Do you think that I do not know that you are the heretic? Realize that your end is at hand. If you do not return to the True Faith, you will be cast into Hell! But if you change your beliefs, I shall protect you before God. Tell people to pray that they may gain the good graces which, God in His mercy has offered to them."

Pierre was filled with sorrow and shame and moved away from the Lady. Suddenly realizing that he was being rude, Pierre stepped closer to her, but she had moved away and was already near the little hill. He ran after her begging, "Please stop and listen to me. I want to apologize to you and I want you to help me!"

The Lady stopped and turned. By the time Pierre caught up to her, she was floating in the air and was already disappearing from sight. Suddenly, Pierre realized that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary had appeared to him! He fell to his knees and cried buckets of tears, "Jesus and Mary I promise you that I will change my life and become a good Catholic. I am sorry for what I have done and I beg you please, to help me change my life…"

On August 14, 1656, Pierre became very sick. An Augustinian priest came to hear his confession and accepted him back into the Catholic Church. Pierre received Holy Communion the next day on the Feast of the Assumption. After Pierre returned to the Catholic Faith, many others followed him. His son and five daughters came back to the Catholic Church as well as many Calvinists and Protestants. Five weeks later on September 8, 1656, Pierre died and was buried under the miraculous willow tree, just as he had asked. (Our Lady of the Willow Tree.) 

It was exactly over two hundred years later that Our Lady foretold of these our times when she appeared to Maximim Giraud and Melanie Calvat in LaSalette, France, on September 19, 1846:

"The earth will be struck with plagues of all kinds;" [Mélanie added here: "Besides pestilence and famine, which will be widespread"] "there will be wars up to the last war, which will then be waged by the ten kings of the Antichrist, kings who will all have a common design and will be the sole rulers of the world. Before this happens, there will be a sort of false peace in the world; people will think only of amusing themselves; the wicked will indulge in all kinds of sin; but the children of Holy Church, children of the true faith, my true imitators, will grow in the love of God and in the virtues dearest to me. Happy the humble souls lead by the Holy Ghost! I shall battle along with them until they reach the fullness of maturity.

"Nature begs vengeance on account of men, and she shudders with dread, awaiting what must happen to the crime-stained earth.

"Tremble, earth, and you who profess to serve Jesus Christ, while interiorly you adore yourselves, tremble; for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption; many convents are no longer houses of God, but pastures for Asmodeus and his own.

"It will be at this time that the Antichrist will be born of a Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will be in communication with the ancient serpent, master of impurity; his father will be a bishop (Ev.). [We spell out the word "bishop" here. In the French text appear only the first two letters of évèque, the French word for bishop, but there is little doubt that this is the word they stand for, because in Mélanie's first draft of the message the whole word is spelled out.]

"At birth he will vomit blasphemies, he will have teeth; in a word, this will be the devil incarnate; he will utter terrifying cries, he will work wonders, he will live only on impurities. He will have brothers who, although not incarnate devils like himself, will be children of evil; at the age of twelve, they will be noted for the valiant victories they will win; soon they will each be at the head of armies, assisted by legions from hell.

"The seasons will be changed, the earth will produce only bad fruits, the heavenly bodies will lose the regularity of their movements, the moon will reflect only a feeble reddish light; water and fire will lend convulsive motions to the earth's sphere, causing mountains , cities, etc., to be swallowed up.

"Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

"The demons of the air, together with the Antichrist, will work great wonders on the earth and in the air, and men will become ever more perverted. God will take care of His faithful servants and mend of good will; the Gospel will be preached everywhere, all peoples and all nations will have knowledge of the Truth.

"I address a pressing appeal to the earth: I call upon the true disciples of the God living and reigning in the heavens; I call upon the true imitators of Christ made man, the one true Savior of men; I call upon my children, my true devotees, those who have given themselves o me so that I may lead them to my Divine Son, those whom I bear as it were in my arms, those who have lived in my spirit; finally, I call upon the Apostles of the Latter Times, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in contempt of the world and of themselves, in poverty and humility, in contempt and silence, in prayer and mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering, and unknown to the world. It is time for them to emerge and come enlighten the earth. Go, show yourselves to be my dear children; I am with you and in you, provided your faith is the light enlightening you in these evil times. May your zeal make your famished for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Do battle, children of light, you, the few who see thereby; fir the time of times, the end of ends, is at hand.

"The Church will be eclipsed, the world will be in consternation. But there are Enoch and Elias, they will preach with the power of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted; they will make great progress by virtue of the Holy Ghost and will condemn the diabolical errors of the Antichrist.

"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth. There will be bloody wars, and famines; plagues and contagious diseases; there will be frightful showers of animals; thunders which will demolish cities; earthquakes which will engulf countries; voices will be heard in the air; men will beat their heads against the walls; they will call on death, yet death will constitute their torment; blood will flow on all sides. Who could overcome, if God doesn't shorten the time of trial? At the blood, tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent; Enoch and Elias will be put to death; pagan Rome will disappear; the fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities; the whole universe will be struck with terror, and many will allow themselves to be seduced because they didn't adore the true Christ living in their midst. It is time; the sun is darkening; Faith alone will survive.

"The time is at hand; the abyss is opening. Here is the king of the kings of darkness. Here is the beast with its subjects, calling itself the savior of the world. In pride he will rise skyward to go up to Heaven; he will be stifled by the breath of St. Michael the Archangel. He will fall and the earth -which for three days will be in constant change- will open its fiery bosom; he will be plunged forever with all his followers into hell's eternal chasms. Then water and fire will purify the earth and consume all the works of men's pride, and everything will be renewed; God will be served and glorified." (The Message of Our Lady of La Salette.)

Although some in fully traditional circles discourage Catholics from reading the message of Our Lady of La Salette as the Holy See had prohibited its publication a century ago, the Holy See did not proclaim on the authenticity of the message itself, which had been approved for publication by Bishop Salvatore Luigi Zola, who served as the Bishop of Lecce, Italy, from June 22, 1877, to April 27, 1898. There can be no doubt, at least in this writer's mind, that the message of Our Lady of La Salette, who appeared to Maximim Giraud and Melanie Calvat on September 19, 1846, prophetically describes the situation facing the Church Militant on earth during this time of unbelievable apostasy and betrayal, 

Moreover, a prayer to Our Lady of LaSalette in The Raccolta specifically begs her to shield us from the Justice of God:

Remember, our Lady of LaSalette, true Mother of sorrows, the tears which thou didst shed for me on Calvary; be mindful of the uncasing care which thou dost exercise to shield me from the justice of God; and consider whether thou canst now abandon thy child, for whom thou hast done so much. Inspired by his consoling thought, I come to cast myself at thy feet in spite of my infidelity and ingratitude. Reject not my payer, O Virgin of reconciliation, convert me, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ above all things and to console thee too by living a holy life, in order that one day I may be able to see thee in heaven. Amen (An indulgence of 300 days. S.P. Ap., November 7, 1927, and December 7, 1933. 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. 332-334.)

Our Lady does not seek to shield us from the Justice of God, Jorge?

You are a lying blasphemer and a heretic, a man who could never bring yourself to utter the following prayer in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary that is found in The Raccolta:

O August Queen of victories, O Virgin-ruler of paradise at whose powerful name the heavens rejoice and hell trembles for fear, O glorious Queen of the most holy Rosary, all of us, thy highly favored children whom they goodness hath chosen to raise a temple to thee in Pompeii in this our day, here humbly kneeling at thy feet, on this most solemn day of the Feast of thy triumph on earth over false gods and devils, pour forth with tears the deepest affection of or hearts, and with the confidence of sons were show our miseries to thee.

Ah, from that throne of mercy where thou art seated in queenly state, turn thy pitying gaze upon us, O Mary, and upon our families, upon Italy, upon Europe and upon the universal Church; do thou have compassion upon us by reason of the miseries whereby we are encompassed, and the tribulations that make life bitter for us. See, dear Mother, how many perils to body and soul surround us, what calamities and afflictions oppress us! O Mother, stay the arm of thine unheeded Son’s justice and win the hearts of sinners by thy mercy; for they are our brethren and thy children, for whom the Precious Blood of Jesus was pierced by the sword of sorrow. Show unto all men this day that thou art indeed the Queen of Peace and forgiveness. (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. 290-291. This is one of three prayers to be prayed on May 8 and on the first Sunday of October each year.)

The prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary signifies that Our Lady has won victories over false gods and devils, yes, just as surely as she will bring victory over false gods and devils today, including through inhabiting the counterfeit church of conciliarism, through her Immaculate Heart as she promised us at Fatima would happen.

So much for the “danger” of the Message of Our Lady LaSalette.

No avenging God, Leo?

Consider these words, written by Pope Pius XI in Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930, to describe the fate of those in public life you yourself indemnify even though they support the chemical and surgical assassination of the innocent preborn in their mothers’ wombs under cover of the civil law:

Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 30, 1930.)

Let us be clear: Robert Francis Prevost blasphemed God when he said eight days ago that God does not avenge sins as He most certainly does. Prevost, as was the case with Bergoglio before him, believes in a Protestant conception of salvation without sinners being punished in this life as it is just enough to “love” and to be “sorry.” No, even a soul who dies in a state of Sanctifying Grace who has not paid back the debt He owes to God for his sins by means of prayer, penance, and the grateful acceptance of suffering must be punished in Purgatory. This is Catholic teaching and anyone who denies this is a heretic.

The chastisement of the moment is being sent to us in large part to help us find our way out of the straitjacket that is the Judeo-Masonic lie of naturalism with which the lords of conciliarism have made their reconciliation. I know that I have no hope of saving my immortal soul, stained with so many sins over the course of my lifetime, absent the rod of correction which God uses to beat me down into dust and to humiliate me for my stubborn refusal to give my whole heart and soul to Him at all times.

We should be grateful for being permitted to live in these challenging times so that the chastisements of the moment may help us to make reparation for our sins as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary so that we will be better able to think, to speak and to act as Catholics at all times as we seek to discharge the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy and we reject the counterfeit church of conciliarism as antithetical to our Holy Catholic Church.

Our Lady's Immaculate Heart will triumph. We simply need to be faithful we accept hardship as the price of our sanctification and salvation:

For which cause I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but labour with the gospel, according to the power of God. (2 Tim. 1: 6-8.) 

With our Rosaries prayed well, let us take refuge in the simple fact that millions upon millions who have gone before us marked with the Sign of Faith, that is, the Sign of the Cross, have been willing to embrace that Cross with love, joy and gratitude.

Why can't we in the midst of our own difficulties?

Why can't we?

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

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.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.

Appendix

From the Divine Office for the Feast of Saint Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal

Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal was born at Dijon in Burgundy, of noble parents, and from her childhood gave clear signs of her future great sanctity. It was said that when only five years of age, she put to silence a Calvinist nobleman by substantial arguments, far beyond her age, and when he offered her a little present she immediately threw it into the fire, saying: "This is how heretics will burn in hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks." When she lost her mother, she put herself under the care of the Virgin Mother of God, and dismissed a maid servant who was enticing her to love of the world. There was nothing childish in her manners; she shrank from worldly pleasures, and thirsting for martyrdom, she devoted herself entirely to religion and piety. She was given in marriage by her father to the Baron de Chantal, and in this new state of life she strove to cultivate every virtue, and busied herself in instructing in faith and morals her children, her servants and all under her authority. Her liberality in relieving the necessities of the poor was very great, and more than once God miraculously multiplied her stores of provisions; on this account she promised never to refuse any one who begged an alms in Christ's name.

Her husband having been killed while hunting, she determined to embrace a more perfect life and bound herself by a vow of chastity. She not only bore her husband's death resignedly, but overcame herself so far as to stand godmother to the child of the man who had killed him, in order to give a public proof that she pardoned him. She contented herself with a few servants and with plain food and dress, devoting her costly garments to pious usages. Whatever time remained from her domestic cares she employed in prayer, pious reading, and work. She could never be induced to accept offers of second marriage, even though honourable and advantageous. In order not to be shaken in her resolution of observing chastity, she renewed her vow, and imprinted the most holy name of Jesus Christ upon her breast with a red-hot iron. Her love grew more ardent day by day. She had the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and those who were afflicted with the most terrible diseases brought to her, and not only sheltered, and comforted, and nursed them, but washed and mended their filthy garments, and did not shrink from putting her lips to their running sores.

Having learnt the will of God from St. Francis de Sales her director, she founded the Institute of the Visitation of our Lady. For this purpose she quitted, with unfaltering courage, her father, her father-in-law, and even her son, over whose body she had to step in order to leave her home, so violently did he oppose her vocation. She observed her Rule with the utmost fidelity, and so great was her love of poverty, that she rejoiced to be in want of even the necessaries of life. She was a perfect model of Christian humility, obedience, and all other virtues. Wishing for still higher ascensions in her heart, she bound herself by a most difficult vow, always to do what she thought most perfect. At length when the Order of the visitation had spread far and wide, chiefly through her endeavours, after encouraging her sisters to piety and charity by words and example, and also by writings full of divine wisdom: laden with merits, she passed to the Lord at Moulins, having duly received the Sacraments of the Church. She died on the 13th December, in the year 1641. St. Vincent de Paul, who was at a great distance, saw her soul being carried to heaven, and St. Francis de Sales coming to meet her. Her body was afterwards translated to Annecy. Miracles having made her illustrious both before and after her death, Benedict XIV. placed her among the Blessed, and Pope Clement XIII. among the Saints. Pope Clement XIV. commanded her feast to be celebrated by the universal Church on the 12th of the Calends of September. (Matins, Divine Office, Feast of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, August 21.)

Prayer in The Liturgical Year not, it would appear, composed by Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. as a hagiography typical of his summaries of feast days is not found in the book

The office of Martha seemed at first to be destined for thee, O great Saint! Thy father, Francis de Sales, forestalling St.Vincent de Paul, thought of making thy companions the first daughters of Charity. Thus was given to thy work the blessed name of Visitation, which was to place under Mary's protection thy visits to the sick and neglected poor. But the progressive deterioration of strength in modern times had laid open a more pressing want in the institutions of holy Church. Many souls called to share Mary's part, were prevented from doing so by their inability to endure the austere life of the great contemplative Orders. The Spouse, who deigns to adapt his goodness to all times, made choice of thee, O Jane, to second the love of his Sacred Heart, and come to the rescue of the physical and moral miseries of an old, worn-out, and decrepit world.

Renew us, then, in the love of Him Whose charity consumed thee first; in its ardour, thou didst traverse the most various paths of life, and never didst thou fail of that admirable strength of soul, which the Church presents before God to-day in order to obtain through thee the assistance necessary to our weakness. May the insidious and poisonous spirit of Jansenism never return to freeze our hearts; but at the same time, as we learn from thee, love is only then real, when, with or without austerities, it lives by faith, generosity, and self-renunciation, in humility, simplicity, and gentleness. It is the spirit of thy holy institute, the spirit which became, through thy angelic Father, so amiable and so strong: may it ever reign amidst thy daughters, keeping up among their houses the sweet union which has never ceased to rejoice heaven; may the world be refreshed by the perfumes which ever exhale from the silent retreats of the Visitation of holy Mary! (As found in The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, August 21.)