Francis The Insidious Little Pest
by Thomas A. Droleskey
"Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!"
Thus spoke the Mother of God herself to Bernadette Soubirous at the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, on February 24, 1858, the eighth time that she had appeared there to Bernadette Soubirous, the first being on this very date one hundred fifty-two years ago.
What does Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis think of admonitions to do penance and to practice mortification in order to stamp out disordered self-love as a means of being purified to love God with one's whole heart, mind, body and soul and to make reparation for one's sins and those of the whole world?
Not very much. See for yourselves:
(Vatican Radio) To meet the living God we must tenderly kiss the wounds of Jesus in our hungry, poor, sick, imprisoned brothers and sisters. Study, meditation and mortification are not enough to bring us to encounter the living Christ. Like St. Thomas, our life will only be changed when we touch Christ’s wounds present in the poor, sick and needy. This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta Wednesday as he marked the Feast of St. Thomas Apostle.
Jesus after the Resurrection, appears to the apostles, but Thomas is not there: "He wanted him to wait a week - said Pope Francis - The Lord knows why he does such things. And he gives the time he believes best for each of us. He gave Thomas a week. " Jesus reveals himself with his wounds: "His whole body was clean, beautiful, full of light - said the Pope - but the wounds were and are still there" and when the Lord comes at the end of the world, "we will see His wounds". In order to believe Thomas wanted to put his fingers in the wounds.
"He was stubborn. But the Lord wanted exactly that, a stubborn person to make us understand something greater. Thomas saw the Lord, was invited to put his finger into the wounds left by the nails; to put his hand in His side and he did not say, 'It's true: the Lord is risen'. No! He went further. He said: 'God'. The first of the disciples who makes the confession of the divinity of Christ after the Resurrection. And he worshiped Him”.
"And so - continued the Pope - we understand what the Lord’s intention was when he made him wait: he wanted to guide his disbelief, not to an affirmation of the Resurrection, but an affirmation of His Divinity." The "path to our encounter with Jesus-God - he said - are his wounds. There is no other”.
"In the history of the Church there have been some mistakes made on the path towards God. Some have believed that the Living God, the God of Christians can be found on the path of meditation, indeed that we can reach higher through meditation. That's dangerous! How many are lost on that path, never to return. Yes perhaps they arrive at knowledge of God, but not of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. They do not arrive at that. It is the path of the Gnostics, no? They are good, they work, but it is not the right path. It’s very complicated and does not lead to a safe harbor. "
"Others - the Pope said - thought that to arrive at God we must mortify ourselves, we have to be austere and have chosen the path of penance: only penance and fasting. Not even these arrive at the Living God, Jesus Christ. They are the pelagians, who believe that they can arrive by their own efforts. " But Jesus tells us that the path to encountering Him is to find His wounds:
"We find Jesus’ wounds in carrying out works of mercy, giving to our body – the body – the soul too, but – I stress - the body of your wounded brother, because he is hungry, because he is thirsty, because he is naked because it is humiliated, because he is a slave, because he's in jail because he is in the hospital. Those are the wounds of Jesus today. And Jesus asks us to take a leap of faith, towards Him, but through these His wounds. 'Oh, great! Let's set up a foundation to help everyone and do so many good things to help '. That's important, but if we remain on this level, we will only be philanthropic. We need to touch the wounds of Jesus, we must caress the wounds of Jesus, we need to bind the wounds of Jesus with tenderness, we have to kiss the wounds of Jesus, and this literally. Just think of what happened to St. Francis, when he embraced the leper? The same thing that happened to Thomas: his life changed. "
Pope Francis concluded that we do not need to go on a “refresher course” to touch the living God, but to enter into the wounds of Jesus, and for this "all we have to do is go out onto the street. Let us ask St. Thomas for the grace to have the courage to enter into the wounds of Jesus with tenderness and thus we will certainly have the grace to worship the living God. " (We encounter the Living God through His wounds.)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is an insidious little pest. He is a heretic and a blasphemer. This Argentine layman posing as the "Petrine Minister" of the counterfeit church of conciliarism remains absolutely obsessed with propagating every 1970s Jesuit revolutionary cliche imaginable, including posing an absolutely false, "straw man" distinction between meditation and the Corporal Works of Mercy while at the same time disparaging penance and mortification altogether.
Before explaining these points, if ever so briefly, it is necessary to point out that Francis the Insidious Little Pest made a very bold misrepresentation of why Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ permitted Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose feast day in the Catholic Church, by the way, is December 21, not July 3, to touch the nail prints in his hands to put his hand inside of His wounded side that had been pierced by the lance of Saint Longinus.
Father George Haydock explained that it was precisely to prove the fact of His Resurrection to Saint Thomas the Apostle that He instructed him to act as Chapter Twenty in the Gospel according to Saint John records for us:
Ver. 25. I
will not believe. St. Cyril thinks, that
the grief and trouble St. Thomas was under, might partly excuse his want
of belief:
however, we may take notice with St. Gregory,
the his backwardness in believing, was permitted for the good of
Christians
in general, that thereby they might be more
convinced of Christ's resurrection. (Witham) --- The doubts of St.
Thomas are
of greater advantage to the strengthening of
our faith, than the ready belief of the rest of the apostles. For when
he proceeded
to touch, to assure his faith, our minds,
laying aside every, even the least doubt, are firmly established in
faith. (St.
Gregory the Great)
Ver. 27. Put
in thy finger hither. Christ, to shew he
knew all things, made use of the very same words in which St. Thomas had
expressed
his incredulous dispositions. Our blessed
Redeemer would have the mark of the spear, and the prints of the nails
to remain
in his glorified body, to convince them it
was the same body: and that they might be for ever marks of his victory
and triumph
over sin and the devil. The evangelist does
not say, that St. Thomas went and touched Christ's body, though it is
very probable
he did as he was ordered. But how could a
body that entered in, when the doors were shut, be felt, or be palpable? St. Chrysostom[2] answers, that Christ at
that time permitted his body to be palpable, and to resist another body,
to induce
St. Thomas to believe the resurrection; and
that when he pleased, his body could not be felt. In like manner, his
body was
either visible or invisible, as he had a will
it should be. In fine, he could eat in their sight, though he stood not
in need
of any nourishment. See St. Augustine. (Hack Commentary: ST. JOHN - Chapter 20.)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is an insidious little pest. He is a heretic and a blasphemer.
Pope Saint Pius X wrote about men such as Francis the Insidious Little Pest:
It remains for Us now to say a few words about the Modernist as reformer. From
all that has preceded, it is abundantly clear how great and how eager
is the passion of such men for innovation. In all Catholicism there is
absolutely nothing on which it does not fasten. They wish philosophy to
be reformed, especially in the ecclesiastical seminaries. They
wish the scholastic philosophy to be relegated to the history of
philosophy and to be classed among absolute systems, and the young men
to be taught modern philosophy which alone is true and suited to the
times in which we live. They desire the reform of theology:
rational theology is to have modern philosophy for its foundation, and
positive theology is to be founded on the history of dogma. As for
history, it must be written and taught only according to their methods
and modern principles. Dogmas and their evolution, they affirm, are to
be harmonized with science and history. In the Catechism no dogmas are
to be inserted except those that have been reformed and are within the
capacity of the people. Regarding worship, they say, the number of
external devotions is to be reduced, and steps must be taken to prevent
their further increase, though, indeed, some of the admirers of
symbolism are disposed to be more indulgent on this head. (Pope Saint Pius X, Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907.)
Pope Pius XII had a word or two to say about those who invent novel interpretations of Scripture as a result of abandoning the Scholasticism of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the teachings of Holy Mother Church's Fathers and Doctors:
In theology some want to reduce to a minimum
the meaning of dogmas; and to free dogma itself from terminology long
established in the Church and from philosophical concepts held by
Catholic teachers, to bring about a return in the explanation of
Catholic doctrine to the way of speaking used in Holy Scripture and by
the Fathers of the Church. They cherish the hope that when dogma is
stripped of the elements which they hold to be extrinsic to divine
revelation, it will compare advantageously with the dogmatic opinions of
those who are separated from the unity of the Church and that in this
way they will gradually arrive at a mutual assimilation of Catholic
dogma with the tenets of the dissidents.
Moreover they assert that when Catholic doctrine
has been reduced to this condition, a way will be found to satisfy
modern needs, that will permit of dogma being expressed also by the
concepts of modern philosophy, whether of immanentism or idealism or
existentialism or any other system. Some more audacious affirm
that this can and must be done, because they hold that the mysteries of
faith are never expressed by truly adequate concepts but only by
approximate and ever changeable notions, in which the truth is to some
extent expressed, but is necessarily distorted. Wherefore they do not
consider it absurd, but altogether necessary, that theology should
substitute new concepts in place of the old ones in keeping with the
various philosophies which in the course of time it uses as its
instruments, so that it should give human expression to divine truths in
various ways which are even somewhat opposed, but still equivalent, as
they say. They add that the history of dogmas consists in the reporting
of the various forms in which revealed truth has been clothed, forms
that have succeeded one another in accordance with the different
teachings and opinions that have arisen over the course of the
centuries.
It is evident from what We have already said, that
such tentatives not only lead to what they call dogmatic relativism,
but that they actually contain it. The contempt of doctrine commonly
taught and of the terms in which it is expressed strongly favor it.
Everyone is aware that the terminology employed in the schools and even
that used by the Teaching Authority of the Church itself is capable of
being perfected and polished; and we know also that the Church itself
has not always used the same terms in the same way. It is also manifest
that the Church cannot be bound to every system of philosophy that has
existed for a short space of time. Nevertheless, the things that
have been composed through common effort by Catholic teachers over the
course of the centuries to bring about some understanding of dogma are
certainly not based on any such weak foundation. These things are based
on principles and notions deduced from a true knowledge of created
things. In the process of deducing, this knowledge, like a star, gave
enlightenment to the human mind through the Church. Hence it is not
astonishing that some of these notions have not only been used by the
Oecumenical Councils, but even sanctioned by them, so that it is wrong
to depart from them.
Unfortunately these advocates of novelty easily
pass from despising scholastic theology to the neglect of and even
contempt for the Teaching Authority of the Church itself, which gives
such authoritative approval to scholastic theology. This Teaching
Authority is represented by them as a hindrance to progress and an
obstacle in the way of science. Some non Catholics consider it as an
unjust restraint preventing some more qualified theologians from
reforming their subject. And although this sacred Office of Teacher in
matters of faith and morals must be the proximate and universal
criterion of truth for all theologians, since to it has been entrusted
by Christ Our Lord the whole deposit of faith -- Sacred Scripture and
divine Tradition -- to be preserved, guarded and interpreted, still the
duty that is incumbent on the faithful to flee also those errors which
more or less approach heresy, and accordingly "to keep also the
constitutions and decrees by which such evil opinions are proscribed and
forbidden by the Holy See," is sometimes as little known as if it did
not exist. What is expounded in the Encyclical Letters of the
Roman Pontiffs concerning the nature and constitution of the Church, is
deliberately and habitually neglected by some with the idea of giving
force to a certain vague notion which they profess to have found in the
ancient Fathers, especially the Greeks. The Popes, they assert,
do not wish to pass judgment on what is a matter of dispute among
theologians, so recourse must be had to the early sources, and the
recent constitutions and decrees of the Teaching Church must be
explained from the writings of the ancients.
Although these things seem well said, still they are
not free from error. It is true that Popes generally leave theologians
free in those matters which are disputed in various ways by men of very
high authority in this field; but history teaches that many matters that
formerly were open to discussion, no longer now admit of discussion.
Nor must it be thought that what is
expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since
in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of
their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary
teaching authority, of which it is true to say: "He who heareth you,
heareth me"; and generally what is expounded and inculcated in
Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic
doctrine. But if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents
purposely pass judgment on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is
obvious that that matter, according to the mind and will of the same
Pontiffs, cannot be any longer considered a question open to discussion
among theologians. (Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, August 12, 1950.)
To misrepresent the words and actions of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shows oneself to be filled with pride and disordered self-love, which is why Francis the Insidious Little Pest's disparagement of prayer, penance and mortification is all the more damnable.
Indeed, prayer, penance, fasting and mortification are essential to growth in the interior life. Time simply does not permit a full recitation of the examples of truly heroic sanctity practiced by canonized saints as they sought to die to self on a daily basis and to be completely mortified to the world, to human respect and to sense pleasures.
Suffice it for present purposes to draw upon the following reflection, written by Father John Croiset, S.J., on Mortification:
Mortification is a necessary disposition for the true love of Jesus Christ; this was the first lesson that Jesus Christ Himself gave those who wished to be His disciples; without mortification no one can expect to be a true follower of Him. “If any man, ” says He, “will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). And again He says: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, his mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Accordingly, all the saints had this distinguishing mark of perfect mortification. When people praised the virtue of anyone in the presence of St. Ignatius, he would ask: “Is that person truly mortified?” By that he wished to intimate that true mortification is inseparable from true piety, not only because virtue cannot exist long without general and constant mortification, but also because without mortification there can be no true virtue.
There are two kinds of mortification: the one, exterior, which consists
in bodily austerities; the other, interior, which consists in repressing
all inordinate affections of the mind and heart. Both kinds are
necessary to attain perfection, and one cannot continue to exist long
without the other. Fasting,
vigils, the use of the hairshirt and other such macerations of the body
are powerful means to become truly spiritual and really perfect; when
used with discretion, they help wonderfully to strengthen our human
nature, which is cowardly when there is question of
doing good, but very eager to do evil; they are of great assistance also
to repel the attacks and avoid the snares of our common enemy, and to
obtain from the Father of Mercies the helps necessary for the just,
especially for beginners.
Sanctity, it is true, does not consist in
exterior penances, and they are not incompatible with hypocrisy; it is
not so with interior mortification. It is always a certain mark
of true piety, and so is more necessary than exterior mortification, and
no one can reasonably be dispensed from it. This is the violence which
we must do to ourselves in order to possess the kingdom of Heaven. Not
everyone can fast or wear a hairshirt, but there is no one who cannot be
silent when passion prompts him to reply or vanity to speak; there is
no one who cannot mortify his human nature, his desires, and his
passions. That is what is understood by this interior mortification by
which a person weakens and conquers his self-love, and by which he gets
rid of his imperfections. It is idle to flatter ourselves that we love
Jesus Christ if we are not mortified; all the fine sentiments of piety
and the practices of devotion are suspect without perfect mortification.
We are astonished to see ourselves so imperfect and to find, after so
many exercises of piety and so many Holy Communions, that all our
passions are still alive and continue to excite our hearts. Can we not
see that want of mortification is the source of all these revolts? We
must, then, if we wish to conquer this self-love by which all the
passions are nourished, resolve to exercise generous and constant
mortification.
It is not enough to mortify ourselves in some things, for some time;
we must, as far as possible, mortify ourselves in everything and at all
times, with prudence and discretion. A single unlawful gratification
allowed to human nature will do more to make it proud and rebellious
than a hundred victories gained over it. Truce with this sort of enemy
is victory for him; “Brethren,” said Sr. Bernard, “what is cut will grow
again, and what appears extinguished will light again, and what is
asleep will awake again.”
To preserve the interior spirit of devotion, the soul must not be
dissipated with exterior distractions, and as the prophet says, must be
surrounded on all sides by a hedge of thorns. Now, if we omit to do
that, it will be for us the cause of tepidity, back sliding, and want of
devotion. When we mortify our disordered inclinations in one thing, we
generally make up for it by some other satisfaction which we allow
ourselves. During the time of retreat, we are recollected, but as soon
as it is over, we open the gates of the senses to all kinds of
distractions.
The exercise of this interior
mortification, so common in the lives of the saints, is known by all who
have a real desire to be perfect. In this matter we have only to listen
to the Spirit of God. The love of Jesus Christ makes people so
ingenious, that the courage and energy which they display and the means
of mortifying themselves with which the Holy Spirit inspires even the
most uncultured people, surpass the genius of the learned, and can be
regarded as little miracles.
There is
nothing which they do not make an occasion to contradict their natural
inclinations; there is no time or place which does not appear proper to
mortify themselves without ever going beyond the rules of good sense. It
is enough that they have a great desire to see or to speak, to make
them lower their eyes or keep silent; the desire to learn news, or to
know what is going on, or what is being said, is for them a subject of
continual mortification which is as meritorious as it is ordinary, and
of which God alone is the Witness. The appropriate word, a witticism in
conversation, can bring them honor, but they make it the matter of a
sacrifice.
There is hardly a time of the day but gives opportunities for
mortification; whether one is sitting or standing, one can find a place
or an attitude that is uncomfortable without being remarked. If they are
interrupted a hundred times in a serious employment, they will reply a
hundred times with as much sweetness and civility as if they had not
been occupied. The ill-humor of a person with whom we have to live, the
imperfections of a servant, the ingratitude of a person under
obligations to us, can give much exercise for the patience of a person
solidly virtuous. Finally, the inconveniences of place, season or
persons suffered in a manner to make people believe that we do not feel
them are small occasions of mortification, it is true, but the
mortification on these occasions is not small; it is of great merit.
It may be said that great graces and even sublime sanctity usually
depend on the generosity with which we mortify ourselves constantly on
these little occasions. Exact
fulfillment of the duties of one’s state and conformity in all things to
community life without regard to one’s inclinations, employment, or age
involve that continual mortification which is not subject to vanity but
which is in conformity with the spirit of Jesus Christ.
If occasions for exterior mortifications are wanting, those for
interior mortification are ever at hand. Modesty, recollections, reserve
require mortification; honesty, sweetness and civility may the the
effects of education, but are more usually the result of constant
mortification. Without this virtue it is difficult for a person to be
always at peace, to be self-possessed, to do his actions perfectly, and
be always content with what God wills. (Mortification.)
Father John Croiset was a Jesuit priest who was a faithful son of the Catholic Church.
Francis the Insidious Little Pest is a Jesuit layman who is but a heretic and blasphemer.
Indeed, the lives of so many saints, including the relatively few whose lives have been the subject of various articles, could be cited to bring forth evidence to refute the falsity of Francis the Insidious Little Pest's exercise in propagandizing yesterday morning at the Casa Santa Marta. Consider just one such example, that of the patron saint of parish priests himself, Saint John Mary Vianney:
The explanation of this mysterious transformation of the village of Ars can only be grasped in the remarkable manner that this simple priest realized that a man must always begin with himself, and that even the rebirth of a community can only be achieved by its renewing itself. We must expect nothing of men which is not already embodied within them. On the basis of this perception St. John Vianney set to work, in the first place, upon himself, so that he could attain the ideal which he demanded of his parishioners in his own person. He took his own religious obligations with the greatest seriousness, and did not care whether the people noticed this or not. And finally the inhabitants of Ars said to each other: "Our priest always does what he says himself; he practices what he preaches. Never have we seen him allow himself any form of relaxation."
The priest of Ars subjected himself to a strict fast. In this way he sought to reduce the requirements of his life to minimum. One meal sufficed him for the whole day. He abstained from alcohol except wine at holy Mass and normally ate only a little black bread and one or two potatoes cooked in water: he would prepare sufficient of these to last him the whole week, keeping them in an earthenware pan, and often they were covered with a coating of mold. Frequently he fasted for a whole day until, overcome, he would collapse from physical weakness. In view of this mode of life he had no need, of course, of a housekeeper – apart from the fact that his house stood almost empty anyway. Since he considered that his self-mortification was all too inadequate, he had a special penitential garment made, which he wore next to his skin, and which, by reason of the constant friction against his body, was soon stained a reddish brown. For the most part he slept on a bare mattress when he was not sleeping on a bundle of wood down in the cellar.
St. John Vianney’s assiduity in the confessional and the hardships entailed thereby would, of themselves, have sufficed to raise him to high sanctity. However, he thirsted for mortifications as others thirst for pleasure, and he never had his fill of penance. He laid on himself the sacrifice never to enjoy the fragrance of a flower, never to taste fruit nor to drink, were it only a few drops of water, during the height of the summer heat. He would not brush away a fly that importuned him. When on his knees he would not rest his elbows on the kneeling bench. He had made a law unto himself never to show any dislike, and to hide all natural repugnances. He mortified the most legitimate curiosity: thus he never expressed so much as a wish to see the railway which passed by Ars at a distance of a few kilometers, and which daily brought him so many visitors. During the whole of his priestly life he never indulged in any light reading, not even that of a newspaper. The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith are the only periodical that he ever perused.
Regarding mortification, he once said, “My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food, drink and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently, nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh! How often have I experienced it! Whilst I was alone – and I was alone during eight or nine years, and therefore quite free to yield to my attraction – it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatsoever I asked of Almighty God.”
St. John Vianney read much and often the lives of the saints, and became so impressed by their holy lives that he wanted for himself and others to follow their wonderful examples. The ideal of holiness enchanted him. This was the theme which underlay his sermons. “We must practice mortification. For this is the path which all the Saints have followed,” he said from the pulpit. He placed himself in that great tradition which leads the way to holiness through personal sacrifice. “If we are not now saints, it is a great misfortune for us: therefore we must be so. As long as we have no love in our hearts, we shall never be Saints.” The Saint, to him, was not an exceptional man before whom we should marvel, but a possibility which was open to all Catholics. Unmistakably did he declare in his sermons that “to be a Christian and to live in sin is a monstrous contradiction. A Christian must be holy.” With his Christian simplicity he had clearly thought much on these things and understood them by divine inspiration, while they are usually denied to the understanding of educated men. (The Story of Saint John Vianney.)
Saint John Mary Vianney did not "know the living God," Francis, you insidious little pest?
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori did not "know the living God," Francis, you insidious, arrogant, proud little pest?
Saint John of God did not "know the living God," Francis, you smug little friend of the devil?
Saint Mary Magdalene did not "know the living God," Francis, you ignorant little agent of sacrilege, blasphemy, heresy and apostasy?
Saint Catherine of Siena did not "know the living God," Francis, you insidious little stink bug of heresy?
Saint Rose of Lima did not "know the living God," Francis, you self-serving sanctimonious fraud posing as a cleric?
Padre Pio did not "know the living God," Francis, you mocker of true sanctity?
It is important to remember that a rejection of outward signs of penance and of mandatory periods of fasting imposed by ecclesiastical law in order to discipline the senses and correct disorderly inclinations is at the essence of the entire false religion that is conciliarism:
The same awareness of the present state of the world also influenced the
use of texts from very ancient tradition. It seemed that this cherished
treasure would not be harmed if some phrases were changed so that the
style of language would be more in accord with the language of modern
theology and would faithfully reflect the actual state of the Church's
discipline. Thus there have been changes of some expressions bearing on
the evaluation and use of the good things of the earth and of allusions
to a particular form of outward penance belonging to another age in the
history of the Church. (Paragraph Fifteen, General Instruction to the Roman Missal, 1997.)
Who says that "outward penance" belongs to another "age in the history
of the Church?"
Not anyone who is conscious of and most sorrowful for
the horror of his own sins (I am raising my own hand at present, thank
you) and who wants to make reparation for those sins before he dies,
understanding that our puny, finite, self-absorbed minds cannot possibly
comprehend how much pain and suffering the least one of our venial sins
imposed upon the Sacred Humanity of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, during His Passion and Death. Only those
who take sin lightly or who, along with Martin Luther, believe it
impossible or unnecessary to reform one's life, either because one is a
dung heap and is saved by making a profession of faith the Name of the
Lord Jesus (Luther) or because of a belief in the heresy of Hans Urs von
Balthasar's "universal salvation, do not want a Mass that "bothers"
them and singes what is left of their badly damaged and distorted
consciences.
As I have recounted on other
occasions, the secular Talmudic psychologist who screened candidates
for the Diocese of Rockville Centre for many years, Dr. Leonard
Krinsky, came to some interesting conclusions following about me in May
of 1979 following a psychological evaluation of me. Dr. Krinsky, now
deceased, wrote that my concept of the priesthood as the sacerdos was preconciliar and
that my desire to live a priestly life of prayer, penance, self-denial
and mortification were "possible signs of masochism. Dr. Krinsky’s report
concluded by saying that while I was “free from any psychopathology, was intelligent, creative, and
had the capacity for rich, interpersonal relationships,” I “lacked
the sufficient flexibility needed to adapt to the changing circumstances
of a postconciliar vocation.”'
A rejection of penance and mortification is at the very root of the false conciliar religion. Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is simply being faithful to his false religion, which posits, of course, the tired old false dichotomy between "prayer and action" that remains part of the disease known as Americanism. Pope Leo XIII dissected this false dichotomy in simple terms as he demolished it in no uncertain terms:
This overesteem of natural virtue finds a method of expression in assuming to
divide all virtues in active and passive, and it is alleged that whereas passive
virtues found better place in past times, our age is to be characterized by the
active. That such a division and distinction cannot be maintained is patent-for
there is not, nor can there be, merely passive virtue. "Virtue," says St. Thomas
Aquinas, "designates the perfection of some faculty, but end of such faculty is
an act, and an act of virtue is naught else than the good use of free will,"
acting, that is to say, under the grace of God if the act be one of supernatural
virtue.
He alone could wish that some Christian virtues be adapted to certain times
and different ones for other times who is unmindful of the apostle's words:
"That those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be made conformable to the image
of His Son."- Romans viii, 29. Christ is the teacher and the exemplar of all
sanctity, and to His standard must all those conform who wish for eternal life.
Nor does Christ know any change as the ages pass, "for He is yesterday and
to-day and the same forever."-Hebrews xiii, 8. To the men of all ages was the
precept given: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart."-Matt. xi,
29.
To every age has He been made manifest to us as obedient even unto death; in
every age the apostle's dictum has its force: "Those who are Christ's have
crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences." Would to God that more
nowadays practiced these virtues in the degree of the saints of past times, who
in humility, obedience and self-restraint were powerful "in word and in deed"
-to the great advantage not only of religion, but of the state and the public
welfare.
From this disregard of the - angelical virtues, erroneously styled passive,
the step was a short one to a contempt of the religious life which has in some
degree taken hold of minds. That such a value is generally held by the upholders
of new views, we infer from certain statements concerning the vows which
religious orders take. They say vows are alien to the spirit of our times, in
that they limit the bounds of human liberty; that they are more suitable to weak
than ›o strong minds; that so far from making for human perfection and the good
of human organization, they are hurtful to both; but that this is as false as
possible from the practice and the doctrine of the Church is clear, since she
has always given the very highest approval to the religious method of life; nor
without good cause, for those who under the divine call have freely embraced
that state of life did not content themselves with the observance of precepts, but, going forward to the evangelical counsels, showed themselves ready and
valiant soldiers of Christ. Shall we judge this to be a characteristic of weak
minds, or shall we say that it is useless or hurtful to a more perfect state of
life?
Those who so bind themselves by the vows of religion, far from having
suffered a loss of liberty, enjoy that fuller and freer kind, that liberty,
namely, by which Christ hath made us free. And this further view of theirs,
namely, that the religious life is either entirely useless or of little service
to the Church, besides being injurious to the religious orders cannot be the
opinion of anyone who has read the annals of the Church. Did not your country,
the United States, derive the beginnings both of faith and of culture from the
children of these religious families? to one of whom but very lately, a thing
greatly to your praise, you have decreed that a statue be publicly erected. And
even at the present time wherever the religious families are found, how speedy
and yet how fruitful a harvest of good works do they not bring forth! How very
many leave home and seek strange lands to impart the truth of the gospel and to
widen the bounds of civilization; and this they do with the greatest
cheerfulness amid manifold dangers! Out of their number not less, indeed, than
from the rest of the clergy, the Christian world finds the preachers of God's
word, the directors of conscience, the teachers of youth and the Church itself
the examples of all sanctity.
Nor should any difference of praise be made between those who follow the
active state of life and those others who, charmed with solitude, give
themselves to prayer and bodily mortification. And how much, indeed, of good
report these have merited, and do merit, is known surely to all who do not
forget that the "continual prayer of the just man" avails to placate and to
bring down the blessings of heaven when to such prayers bodily mortification is
added.
But if there be those who prefer to form one body without the obligation of
the vows let them pursue such a course. It is not new in the Church, nor in any
wise censurable. Let them be careful, however, not to set forth such a state
above that of religious orders. But rather, since mankind are more disposed at
the present time to indulge themselves in pleasures, let those be held in
greater esteem "who having left all things have followed Christ." (Pope Leo XIII, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, January 22, 1899.)
Yes, Francis, you insidious little pest, your false religion that is redolent of every shopworn cliche that I head mouthed by your fellow Jesuit revolutionaries when I was exploring the possibility of a priestly vocation in the 1970s while completing my doctorate and during the early years of my college teaching career thereafter.
Speaking for myself, good readers, reading the daily diatribes of Francis the Insidious Little Pest at his Ding Dong School Of Apostasy is though I have returned to those not so thrilling days of the 1970s and the idiocy being spouted by Jesuit directors of vocation and novice masters in various locations. This is all quite truly remarkable to behold.
Moreover, Jorge Mario Bergoglio's disparagement of prayer, penance and mortification makes blasphemes the very saint whose name he so dishonors by means of his constant attacks on Catholic doctrine, liturgy and piety, namely, Saint Francis of Assisi.
Pope Pius XI explained the great Saint of Assisi's love of austerity of penance in Rite Epiatos, April 13, 1926:
40. Especially in our days franciscana have been studied more profoundly by
the learned and a great number of works printed in various languages have seen
the light of day. The talents, too, of artists who have made works of great
artistic value have succeeded in arousing an almost limitless admiration for St.
Francis among our contemporaries despite the fact that sometimes this admiration
is not based on a true understanding of the Saint. Some admired in him the
character of the poet by which he so wonderfully expressed the sentiments of his
soul, and his famous Canticle became the delight of learned men who recognized
in it one of the first great poems of the early Italian language. Others were
taken by his love of nature, for he not only seemed fascinated by the majesty of
inanimate nature, by the splendor of the stars, by the beauty of his Umbrian
mountains and valleys, but, like Adam before his fall in the Garden of Eden,
Francis even spoke to the animals themselves. He appears to have been joined to
them in a kind of brotherhood and they were obedient to his every wish. Others
praised his love of country because in him Our Italy, which boasts the great
honor of having given him birth, found a more fruitful source of blessings than
any other country. Others, finally, honor him for that truly singular and
catholic love with which he embraced all men. All of this is quite admirable but
it is the least that is to be praised in our Saint, and it all must be
understood in a correct sense. If we stop at these aspects of his life and look
upon them as the most important, or change their import so as to justify either
our own morbid ideas or excuse our false opinions, or to uphold thereby some of
our prejudices, it is certain that we would not possess a genuine picture of the
real Francis. As a matter of fact, by his practice of all the virtues in a
heroic manner, by the austerity of his life and his preaching of penance, by his
manifold and restless activity for the reformation of society, the figure of
Francis stands forth in all its completeness, proposed to us not so much for the
admiration as for the imitation of Christian peoples. As the Herald of the Great
King, his purposes were directed to persuading men to conform their lives to the
dictates of evangelical sanctity and to the love of the Cross, not that they
should become mere friends or lovers of flowers, birds, lambs, fishes or hares.
He seemed filled with a great and tender affection for animals, and "no matter
how small they were" he called them all "by the name of brother and sister"-a
love which if it is kept within bounds is assuredly not prohibited by any law.
This love of animals was due to no other cause than his own love of God, which
moved him to love these creatures because he knew that they had the same origin
as he (St. Bonaventure, Legenda Maior, Chap VIII, No. 6) and in them all
he perceived the goodness of God. St. Francis, too, "saw the image of the
Beloved imprinted on all things, and made of these things a ladder whereby to
reach His throne." (Thomas of Celano, Legenda, Chap. II, No. 165) (Pope Pius XI, Rite Epiatos, April 13, 1926.)
Francis the Insidious Little Pest is far, far from the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Indeed, Francis the Insidious Little Pest is merely mouthing contemporaneously the words that the devil himself spoke to Saint Francis of Assisi to keep him from his life of prayer, penance, fasting and mortification:
While Francis was at prayer, the devil called him three times by name.
The saint responded, and the devil added: "In the whole world there is
not a single sinner to whom the Lord will not grant pardon if he
repents; but if someone kills himself with excessive penances, he will
not obtain mercy forever." By a revelation, the saint instantly
recognized the lie and the liar, and saw how the demon was trying to
cool his ardor to lukewarmness. The ancient enemy, seeing that his
effort was of no avail, aroused in Francis a violent temptation of the
flesh, but the man of God, feeling this, took off his habit and scourged
himself with a coarse rope, saying to his body. "See here, brother
[donkey]! Either behave yourself or take a beating!" But the temptation
persisted, so the saint went out and threw himself naked into the deep
snow. Then he made seven snowballs, which he set in front of him, and
spoke again to his body: "Look here," he said, "the biggest ball is your
wife, the next four are two sons and two daughters, and the last two
are a manservant and a maidservant. Hurry up and clothe them, they dying
of cold! Or if it bothers you to give them so much attention, then
serve the Lord with care!" Thereupon the devil went away in confusion,
and the man of God returned to his cell glorifying God. (Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., The Golden Legend.)
We, ladies and gentlemen, must recognize the voice of the devil in Francis the Insidious Little Pest, fleeing from him and his false church with its false doctrines and false, sacramentally barren liturgical rites no matter what it may cost us in human terms to do so.
Perhaps what is most damning about Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis the Insidious Little Pest's disparagement of prayer, penance, fasting and mortification is the fact that Our Lady herself has called for such penances, doing so at Lourdes and, of course, in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, thus making this horrific, blaspheming apostate's alleged devotion to Our Lady of Fatima to be nothing other than an insult to her honor and the truth of her Fatima Message.
Prayer, penance, mortification, fasting and sacrifices are at the very heart and soul of Our Lady's Fatima Message, a message that was presaged by the second appearance of Saint Michael the Archangel to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos a little less than a year before Our Lady's first apparition on May 13, 1917:
Make of
everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for
the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of
sinners. In this way, you will draw peace upon your country. I am its Guardian
Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the
sufferings which the Lord will send you." (Circumstances and Dialogue of the 1916 Apparitions.)
Our Lady stressed this repeatedly throughout her own apparitions to the three shepherd children of Fatima:
"Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners?"
"Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort." (May 13, 1917.)
"Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world." (July 13, 1917.)
"Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them." (August 19, 1917.)
"Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Dolours and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on, but only to wear it during the daytime." (September 13, 1917.)
The Five First Saturdays of reparation were requested on December 10, 1925, in the following manner:
Have compassion on the heart of your most holy
Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every
moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation.
Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which
ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and
ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to
assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation,
all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall
confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and
keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen
mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
Have compassion on the heart of your most holy
Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every
moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation.
Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which
ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and
ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to
assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation,
all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall
confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and
keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen
mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
There are
five specific offenses against the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of
Mary for which the Five First Saturdays devotion was instituted,
explained by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself to Sister
Lucia on Ascension Thursday, May 29, 1930:
-
Attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception
-
Attacks against her Perpetual Virginity
-
Attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
-
For those who try to publicly implant
in children's hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this
Immaculate Mother
-
For those who insult her directly in her sacred images.
Some of these,
obviously, apply to how the counterfeit church of conciliarism has
permitted, if not actually endorsed, as in the case of The Nativity Story in 2006 and by means of various attacks on Our Lady's Perpetual Virginity and Divine Maternity by the likes of the now retired Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the the current head of the conciliar Congregation for the Destruction, Deformation and Deconstruction of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Muller.
Indeed, to attack the very notion of penance, prayer, fasting and mortification as being hindrance to "knowing the living God," Francis the Insidious Little Pest shows himself to be an enemy of the Immaculata for whose offenses we must redouble our efforts to live more penitentially with each passing day.
In addition to performing penances for our sins and those of the whole world and for the likes of Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis the Insidious Little Pest as the consecrated slaves of Christ the King through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, we must pray and work, my friends, to help others honor Our Lady, especially by means of praying with great fervor her Most Holy Rosary each and every day without fail.
We must pray for the day when Catholics, especially those who have access to the media, will not be ashamed to speak of Our Lady and her Most Holy Rosary and of the compassion she has shown us at Lourdes and Fatima, of the tremendous gifts she has given us in the Miraculous Medal and the Green Scapular. Nations must not only recognize Christ the King. They must also recognize Mary our Immaculate Queen. We must be instruments in helping to bring this about, planting a few seeds for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of our Mother and our Queen, of a new Christendom where every community has Marian shrines and every country organizes local and national processions in honor of its Queen.
We are called to do penance, now and always.
We are called to live as citizens of Heaven as we fulfill our duties each day as citizens of a particular nation. We are called to invoke Our Lady's maternal intercession and protection with every beat of our hearts, consecrated as they must be to her own Immaculate Heart and to the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son. We are called to live as the children Mary our Immaculate Queen in the service of Christ the King.
We must trust in Our Lady as we undertake our daily battles with the forces of the world, the flesh and the devil, remembering that one glance from her causes the devil and his minions, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, to flee instantaneously:
On the way back to the Petits-Fosses [after the fourth apparition, February 19, 1858], Bernadette revealed how at a certain moment the Apparition seemed different from before. Suddenly loud yells, belched from the Gave, had rent the sacred silent of Massabielle. The 'challenged, crossed, collided with one another, like the clamour of a brawling crowd'. One voice, more furious than the rest, dominated them all and roared out: 'Get out of here! . . . Get out of here!' Bernadette guessed rightly that the threatening curse was by no means addressed merely to her humble self, but was an attack directed beyond her to the Vision of Light standing above the eglantine.
The Vision merely glanced in the direction of the rushing stream. This single look, one of sovereign authority, reduced the invisible mob to silence: the enemy of all good would not drive her from the grotto where she gave her audiences. 'He is in a rage. So much the better!' the saintly Cure d'Ars used to say of the grappin. 'He lets me know himself when big sinners are coming!'
At Massabielle, the future was to prove that the Spirit of evil, in this burst o fury, had admitted his defeat; he was not to extinguish the great radiance that would issue from this dark, peaceful nook, where so many sinners would renounce sin! (Abbe Francois Trochu, Saint Bernadette Soubirous: 1844-1879, p. 64.)
Our voluntary embracing of our own daily penances--and our absolute fidelity to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary as we keep ourselves and our children unspotted by the world--now and up to the hour of our deaths is the path by which which we can be greeted by the Lady of Lourdes and then crowned with a halo of sanctity for all eternity in the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Our Lady of Fatima, 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.
All the Holy Roman Pontiffs, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints