Is the Pope Catholic?

[31] Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. [32] And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [33] They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free? [34] Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. [35] Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.

[36] If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. [37] I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. [38] I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father. [39] They answered, and said to him: Abraham is our father. Jesus saith to them: If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. [40] But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not.
 -- John 8:31-40

It seems like a long time ago that I wrote an article on cognitive dissonance.

"Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing them. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology."

Lately, I've been getting that "uncomfortable feeling" when confronted by unorthodox images of Francis. Not to mention unorthodox statements and unorthodox actions.

And I don't think I'm the only one.

I have observed the attempts by orthodox Catholics to "reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing them".

When two conflicting "truths" are presented to us, we are forced to make a choice. They can't both be true simultaneously.

When the Catholic Pope engages in un-Catholic actions and issues un-Catholic statements does that somehow transform his actions into Catholic actions?

If I were to walk into my local Catholic parish and place a beach ball on the altar would that be acceptable to my fellow Catholics?

So when the Pope does something similar, why should that be acceptable?

Or perhaps we should just look the other way and pretend that it never happened. That seems to be the most popular option for now.

I am not a conservative Catholic; I am not a traditional Catholic. I am simply a Catholic who loves the Truth. That is the reason that I became a Catholic and will always remain a Catholic.

Ratzinger's post-papal novelties

Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women have ruled over them. O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps. The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and its princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your house. Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord the God of hosts.
 -- Isaiah 3:11-15

As Pope, Ratzinger invited us to study the 2nd Vatican Council. Would that he would not have.

The more one studies Vatican II, the more one realizes that the post-conciliar Church does not hold the same beliefs as the Catholic Church held for all time since its foundation by our Messiah.

Ratzinger's false doctrine which he calls the "hermeneutic of continuity" attempts to hide the fact that Vatican II can only be defined as a DIS-continuity from the traditions and beliefs of Catholic Church.

Through the means of this alchemy Ratzinger has attempted to convert the lead of Vatican II into gold, by the use of the magic words "hermeneutic of continuity".

For some strange reason, Ratzinger wanted the world to know that he was one of the principle architects of the many novelties of Vatican II. He viewed this as a sort of social experiment which he could perform on the Church. And whenever the results of the experiment would start to veer off of the course that he had charted, he was always in a position to set it back on the "proper course" that he had planned.

For him, only one interpretation of Vatican II was permissible -- the Ratzingerian interpretation. All other interpretations were false. And there was plenty of room for interpretation in the conciliar documents. They were deliberately written in vague and ambiguous language to allow the inventors of this grand social experiment to intervene at crucial points by saying "no that is not what we really meant". At one point saying one thing and at another point something different -- pushing and pulling the Church along a path of their choosing.

Even now Ratzinger continues to "innovate"by introducing new novelties.

First there was the resignation itself which signaled the end of the Pope as the Supreme Pontiff. Paul VI may have symbolically given up the tiara, but Ratzinger gave up being Pope entirely. In so doing he intends to destroy the Church as a divine institution. For him it is important that the Church be an ordinary corporation with a CEO and a board of directors. Why? So that the Church will not view itself of be viewed by others as anything extraordinary. Why? In order to achieve his end goal of ecumenism the Catholic Church must just be one church among many churches.

Along the same lines he has given himself the title of "pope emeritus" and he has had himself publicly photographed with Francis. As if to say, "See there is nothing special about being a Pope. It's just like being the head of any religious organization." Or even a non-religious organization.

He has semi-officially created a retirement age for the Pope of 85. He clearly intends to set a precedent for future Popes.

He has deliberately published his "posthumous" encyclical under the name of Francis. This is clearly designed to create confusion and doubt in the minds of Catholics regarding the true nature of the Papacy and to cause further destruction of their faith -- like sending in the Air Force to bomb the cities in preparation for the final invasion.

Francis tells us that he consults regularly with Ratzinger. What happened to his statement that he would go off and lead a quiet life of prayer? Why didn't he describe the type of retirement he had in mind in his resignation letter?

The reason is simple. Ratzinger is a master manipulator. He knows exactly how slow or fast to turn up the heat so that the frogs won't jump out of the kettle.

Francis responds to Ricca "gay lobby" scandal

Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. For certain men are secretly entered in, (who were written of long ago unto this judgment,) ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness, and denying the only sovereign Ruler, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore admonish you, though ye once knew all things, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, did afterwards destroy them that believed not.
 -- St. Jude 1:3-5

The accusations made against IOR prelate, Ricca

“In the case of Mgr. Ricca (the IOR prelate who straight after being nominated, was accused of reckless conduct for certain acts committed 13 years ago during his time at the Nunciature in Paraguay, Ed.) I have acted in accordance with Canon Law and ordered an investigation. None of the accusations against him have proved to be true. We haven’t found anything! It is often the case in the Church that people try to dig up sins committed during a person’s youth and then publish them. We are not talking about crimes or offences such as child abuse which is a whole different matter, we are talking about sins. If a lay person, a priest or a nun commits a sin and then repents of it and confesses, the Lord forgives and forgets. And we have no right not to forget, because then we risk the Lord not forgetting our own sins. I often think of St. Peter who committed the biggest sin of all, he denied Jesus. And yet he was appointed Pope. But I repeat, we have found no evidence against Mgr. Ricca.”

The gay lobby

“There is so much being written about the gay lobby. I haven’t met anyone in the Vatican yet who has “gay” written on their identity cards. There is a distinction between being gay, being this way inclined and lobbying. Lobbies are not good. If a gay person is in eager search of God, who am I to judge them? The Catholic Church teaches that gay people should not be discriminated against; they should be made to feel welcome. Being gay is not the problem, lobbying is the problem and this goes for any type of lobby, business lobbies, political lobbies and Masonic lobbies.”

Francis gives Our Lady a beach ball and t-shirt from Brazil WYD

Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
 -- Matthew 23:36-39

July 29, 2013. (Romereports.com)  Pope Francis is back in Rome.  After leading World Youth Day 2013 in Rio Brazil, with nearly 3 million pilgrims, Pope Francis is now at the Vatican.

The Pope's flight left from Rio's airport and took 11,30 hours. During his trip, the Pope flew over Brazil, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria and finally Italy, where he landed at Rome's Ciampino airport.

Upon arrival, the Pope went to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, to pray before Our Lady. As a gift, he left a green sports jersey and a beach ball, at her feet, both items directly brought from Rio,  Brazil.

“I am not He, but He made me!”

I asked the earth, 

and it answered me, 

“I am not He.”

I asked the sea and the deeps

and they answered, 

“We are not Thy God, 

seek above us.”

I asked the moving air; 

and the whole air with his inhabitants answered, 

“I am not God.”

I asked the heavens, 

sun, moon, stars, 

and they said,

“Nor are we the God you seek.”

And I replied unto all the things which encompass my senses: 

“You have told me of my God, 

that you are not He ...

tell me something of Him.”

And they cried out with a loud voice

“He made us!”

...

My questioning them, was my thoughts on them: 

and their form of beauty gave the answer. 

...

And I turned myself unto myself, 

and said to myself, 

“Who art thou?” 

And I answered, 

“A man.”

And behold, 

in me there present themselves to me 

soul

and

body

one without,

the other within...

By which of these ought I to seek my God?

...

I had sought Him in the body 

from 

earth 

to 

heaven

so far as I could send messengers, 

the beams of mine eyes.

...

But 

the better is the inner...

for to it 

were reported the answers of 

heaven 

and 

earth

and all things therein, 

who said, 

“We are not God, 

but He made us.”

...

These things did my inner man know 

by the ministry of the outer

I the inner

knew them

I the mind

through the senses of my body

....

I asked the whole of the world about my God

and it answered me...

“I am not He, 

but 

He made me!”

"He made us"

I asked the earth, and it answered me, “I am not He;” and whatsoever are in it confessed the same. I asked the sea and the deeps, and the living creeping things, and they answered, “We are not Thy God, seek above us.” I asked the moving air; and the whole air with his inhabitants answered, “Anaximenes was deceived, I am not God.” I asked the heavens, sun, moon, stars, “Nor (say they) are we the God whom thou seekest.” And I replied unto all the things which encompass the door of my flesh: “Ye have told me of my God, that ye are not He; tell me something of Him.” And they cried out with a loud voice, “He made us.” My questioning them, was my thoughts on them: and their form of beauty gave the answer. And I turned myself unto myself, and said to myself, “Who art thou?” And I answered, “A man.” And behold, in me there present themselves to me soul, and body, one without, the other within. By which of these ought I to seek my God? I had sought Him in the body from earth to heaven, so far as I could send messengers, the beams of mine eyes. But the better is the inner, for to it as presiding and judging, all the bodily messengers reported the answers of heaven and earth, and all things therein, who said, “We are not God, but He made us.” These things did my inner man know by the ministry of the outer: I the inner knew them; I, the mind, through the senses of my body. I asked the whole frame of the world about my God; and it answered me, “I am not He, but He made me.”

 -- from the 10th book of St. Augustine's Confessions 

The invisible Gay Mafia in the Vatican

And behold two blind men sitting by the way side, heard that Jesus passed by, and they cried out, saying: O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And the multitude rebuked them that they should hold their peace. But they cried out the more, saying: O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And Jesus stood, and called them, and said: What will ye that I do to you? They say to him: Lord, that our eyes be opened. And Jesus having compassion on them, touched their eyes. And immediately they saw, and followed him.
 -- Mathew 20:30-34

There is something very strange going on with the revelation that Monsignor Battista Ricca has a scandalous homosexual past. None of the "mainstream" media in the United States has reported on this story. The New York Times, the Washington Post and Time magazine have not devoted one line to this story. Even the Huffington Post is absolutely silent....

Needless to say that these news organizations and their "religion" editors hardly let a day go by without reminding us of the decades old sexual scandals in the Church regarding "pedophile" priests. I put the word pedophile in quotes because for the most part the scandals involved homosexual relationships with adolescent young men rather than children.

The mainstream Catholic news organizations have also mostly ignored the story. The one exception is an article at the Catholic News Agency website which surprisingly has not been removed.

Even among Catholic bloggers, the story has not received much coverage. The exception seems to be the websites of more traditional Catholics.

The general lack of coverage seems to be due to the recognition that this scandal has the potential to entangle Pope Francis himself. It could hardly be because of the credibility of the story. The journalist that has revealed this is Sandro Magister who is probably the most respected person covering the Vatican.

The strategy on the part of US news organizations seems to be to ignore it and wait for the story to die. Already there have been reports that Ricca has quietly resigned. But before that there was a denial by a Vatican spokesman who was also alleged to have said that Pope Francis was insisting on keeping Ricca in his position at the Vatican Bank. (For more information  I recommend visiting the Rorate Caeli website.)

If Ricca resigns now while the Pope is attending World Youth Day in Brazil that would probably not get much media attention.

Still, one can be sure that the US mainstream media has the story of the Ricca scandal in their files. And the first time that Pope Francis does something to disturb their secular humanist agenda they will quickly pull it out and throw it in his face. This is journalistic blackmail of course.

For now the liberal/humanist/atheist mainstream media seems to be happy with Pope Francis. As long as he focuses on "social justice" issues they will be his ally. Time magazine even put him on the cover as "The People's Pope".

If you didn't see Pope Francis on the Time cover, that's probably because you live in the United States.

Pope Francis and the Vatican "gay lobby"

And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.
 -- Matthew 12:25

Sandro Magister reveals that "the man whom Francis, unaware, delegated to represent him at the IOR" is part of the Vatican Gay Lobby. He says Pope Francis was kept in the dark about the scandalous gay exploits of Monsignor Battista Ricca until it was too late.

Magister says "Francis intended to place a trusted person in a key role" with the task of "cleaning house" at the Vatican Bank. It seems almost impossible that no one would have informed the Pope of how disastrous of an appointment this would turn out to be....

Making things worse is the fact that Ricca was gaining his infamous reputation in the Church in Montevideo, Uruguay at the same time that Francis was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. You see the two cities are directly across the Rio Plata from each other. Argentinians regularly go to Uruguay for to spend the weekend in their second homes there....

When Ricca arrived in Monte Video in 1999 he brought along his Swiss boyfriend Patrick Haari. Magister tells us that "the relations between Ricca and Haari was so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests, and laity of that little South American country".

Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and yet he apparently knew nothing about the scandal going on in Montevideo at the time. One would think that he would have many close personal contacts among the "bishops, priests, and laity" of Montevideo. One would think that one or more of those contacts would have told him the truth about Monsignor Ricca....

Ricca's "reckless" conduct in Montevideo included going "as on other occasions to a meeting place for homosexuals" where "he was beaten and had to call some priests to take him back to the nunciature, with his face swollen."

On another occasion "the elevator of the nunciature got stuck and in the early morning the firemen had to come. They found trapped in the car, together with Monsignor Ricca, a young man"....

After repeated complaints to the Vatican by Nuncio Bolonek regarding the “ménage” Ricca was reassigned to Trinidad and Tobago. His boyfriend Haari -- who had been living in the nunciature and also receiving a salary -- left behind a piece of luggage which contained among other things a pistol and "an enormous quantity of condoms and pornographic material".

Magister says that these facts had been covered up by "a blanket of public silence". He emphasizes that "at the Vatican there are some who actively promoted this cover-up operation. By blocking the investigations from the time of the events until today".

The cover up allowed Ricca to rise again through the ranks in the Vatican. Eventually he was assigned to supervise the spending of the nunciatures -- presumably world wide....

Even more strangely, Ricca "was entrusted with the direction first of one, then of two, and finally of three residences for cardinals, bishops, and priests visiting Rome, including that of Saint Martha". The residence of Saint Martha is where Francis has been residing since becoming Pope....

Magister had reported earlier on the scandal involving Ricca, but had withheld the details. But now he reveals all and warns of "a parallel power that lives and thrives at the Vatican, which plots against the Pope."

 + + +



Homosexual Infiltration of the Catholic Church
 -- an interview with Catholic author and researcher Randy Engel

See also the review of Randy Engel's book "The Rite of Sodomy" here:
http://www.culturewars.com/2007/Engel.html

WARNING: The book and the review contain explicit sexual material. Even more disturbing are some of the conclusions that Engel has reached regarding the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church  which go all the way to the top.

 + + +

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

In the beginning...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form..."
 -- Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning a human being starts off life at conception. The mother's egg and the father's sperm come together following an act of love and God infuses that child of theirs with a soul in a new act of creation. The child is physically without human form. It is a single cell -- a round globe.

St. Augustine was the inspiration for this post. In his "Confessions" he speaks of the original act of God's creation and says:

Have You not taught me, O Lord, that before You formed and separate this formless matter, there was nothing, neither colour, nor figure, nor body, nor spirit? Yet not altogether nothing; there was a certain formlessness without any shape.

In the creation of a new human life there seems to be a slight echo of the original creation. We begin life "without form". And from that formlessness God creates -- through the miracle of life -- a new human being.

What other proof of God's existence do we need?

Did man create himself? Did man create the heavens and the earth out of nothingness?

No matter how much we learn about God's creation, there is still an infinite mystery which remains unexplained.

And in the face of the impenetrable mystery of God, the fool says "there is no God".

Strange that these scientists -- these "seekers of the truth" -- begin their search by denying Truth.

And when Truth is denied, people die. In this case it is the innocent unborn that are slaughtered by the millions.

 -- Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

 -- Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. Now and at the hour of our death.

Does the Catholic Church exist?

These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you; because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
 -- John 16:1-4

There was an atheist that used to go on stage and say something like "God, if you exist strike me dead." And then he would look at his watch and wait for a minute. And after a minute he would look up and say, "You see. God does not exist."

In Ireland the government consisting of presumably mostly Catholic politicians has just passed a bill allowing abortion on demand for the first time. (Yes, I realize that expectant mother must declare that she is suicidal, but this is a legal loophole which is relatively easily satisfied by signing a document.) And now we wait to see if the Church will strike back in some way at those Catholics responsible for the passage of this bill. We look at our watches (or calendars) and wait....

In the meantime, politicians that have expressed opposition to this abortion bill have already been expelled from their political party. And there will likely be more political repercussions for those who voted against the party line which seeks to legalize the killing of an innocent child in the womb.

The clock is done ticking and there is no response from the Church. This inaction would have been inconceivable in the Church's long history up until very recently.

What can we say about a Church that remains silent in the face of such injustice towards innocent human beings?