Francis Doubles Down – but Has He Apostatized?

 

 Fr. Brian Harrison, SThD

September 20, 2024

On Friday, September 13th Pope Francis delivered a speech to the youthful students at Singapore’s Catholic Junior College, a group which included many non-Christians. In it he fired a shot that has been heard round the world. Putting aside his prepared script, His Holiness began speaking spontaneously, with words that now, more than ever, we can presume to have come straight from his heart. With soft, grandfatherly tones and intently earnest body language, he led his young audience gently and persuasively down a very different path from the straight and narrow one marked out by his predecessors in the chair of Peter. 

Those previous popes had repeatedly censured and warned against religious relativism or indifferentism– the tendency to gloss over and deny the importance of the differences between Christ’s Gospel and other religions. After all, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me”. To the apostles he sends out as missionaries he says, “He who hears you, hears me; whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Lk 10: 16). Again, “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn. 17: 3). Countless other New Testament texts could be cited to the same effect. 

But a very different message was sent to those Singapore school students by none other than the earthly leader of Christ’s Church. Eliciting their smiles and applause, he led them down a wide and shining path whose smooth surface seemed to iron out all those troublesome, contentious differences between rival creeds. Comparing the world’s mutually contradictory religions to its different “languages” – none of which, of course, is ‘truer’ or morally better than any other – Francis affirmed bluntly, “Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio“. This was immediately rendered accurately by the translator at his side, who said loudly and clearly, “All religions are a pathway to arrive at God”. No hint of any nuance or qualification there.

Magisterial as well as biblical pronouncements against this kind of levelling of religious differences could also be cited in abundance; but two examples, one from two centuries ago and the other from Vatican Council II, will suffice here…

Read the rest: https://onepeterfive.com/francis-doubles-down-but-has-he-apostatized/

Trump Honors St. Michael the Archangel on Feast Day by Sharing Powerful Prayer for Protection

By Jim Hᴏft Sep. 29, 2024 1:20 pm

On this sacred day of Michaelmas, former President Donald Trump invoked the heavenly power of St. Michael the Archangel, sharing a powerful prayer for protection across America.

Michaelmas, celebrated on September 29th, marks the Feast of Michael and All Angels, an ancient Christian tradition honoring St. Michael, the Archangel who led heaven’s armies in the defeat of Lucifer, the fallen angel.

Trump took to social media to remind the nation of the spiritual battle being waged in today’s society. In his message, he highlighted the importance of turning to divine strength in a time when many feel that the forces of darkness are encroaching on the freedoms and morality of America.

What is Michaelmas?

Michaelmas, or The Feast of Michael and All Angels, signifies the end of the harvest, the start of autumn and the beginning of the shorter days. An annual feast day, and ‘quarter day’ in the calendar, of the Western Christian Church, Michaelmas is celebrated on September 29th. It takes its name from the Archangel Michael, the leader of heaven’s armies and the angel who defeated Lucifer.

How is Michaelmas celebrated?

St Michael is known as one of the principal angelic heroes and a protector against the dark of the winter nights. Traditionally Lucifer’s forces were believed to be stronger in the days of winter darkness, hence all the customs and rites associated with this time of year.

On this sacred feast day, Trump shared a powerful prayer, calling upon St. Michael to defend the United States against the growing influence of evil forces within the nation.

Screenshot: Donald Trump/Truth Social

Why Catholics Must Vote Trump to Save Themselves and America: The Catholic Case for Trump

 By Paul Ingrassia Sep. 22, 2024 7:45 am242 Comments

By Paul Ingrassia and Ed Martin

Over the past four years, Catholic Americans have been targeted by name: by the FBI in the Richmond memo is the most famous.  And Catholic Americans have been hunted by the DOJ.  They have been targeted by the fake news media hitting them with quotes by the Pope.  More than ever, a national election will decide the fate of Catholic Americans.  Catholic Americans must choose to save themselves and our nation.

The Catholic vote has long been a desirable if somewhat enigmatic constituency for presidential candidates given their bellwether tendencies, in which they more often than not — like moderates or Independents — choose the winning candidate.  In 2016, for example, Donald Trump won the Catholic vote 52% to 45%.  In 2020, some pollsters claimed Biden won back this demographic, 52% to 47%, although these results, of course, are far less reliable — and the more accurate breakdown is that President Trump won 50% to 49% — given the widespread fraud that impacted that race.

Nevertheless, for all sorts of reasons, over the past eighty years Catholic voters have proven to be a crucial voting demographic. In the Trump era, they have outsized importance, considering their large concentrations in a handful of key battleground states distributed throughout the rustbelt and sunbelt.  According to a 2014 Pew study detailing religious identification, Catholics comprised 24% of Pennsylvania’s overall population, almost four points above the national average.  Broken down by party affiliation, 43% of Pennsylvania Catholics are registered Republicans, compared with 46%, who are registered Democrats.

Read the rest: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/publish-tomorrow-why-catholics-must-vote-trump-save/

Pope Francis: “one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Does he hear himself?

From Crux:

Pope faces abuse scandals, lays out template for Catholicism in a secular milieu

By Crux Staff

Sep 28, 2024

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Pope Francis is currently on a Sept. 26-29 trip to Luxembourg and Belgium. (Credit: Vatican Media.)

ROME – In a country still reeling from a deep clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis on Saturday bitterly acknowledged that such abuse “generates atrocious suffering and wounds,” vowing that the path of reform includes learning from survivors.

The realities of abuse, the pontiff said, can even “undermine the path of faith.”

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy, to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims, so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” the pope said.

“We must learn from them … to be a Church at the service of all without belittling anyone,” Francis said. “Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others.”

Sexual sins are not the only form of violence or abuse. Telling Catholics they can’t worship as Catholics in their own Catholic church building as he did in TC is violence and abuse of power which threatens salvation of souls. No violence or abuse is worse.

Hoist on his own hypocritical petard, Pope Francis is condemned by his own words.

 I think we’re being mocked…

Lepanto Redux or The Idolatry of Devout Ideas?

Artist unknown. The Battle of Lepanto (17 C.)

The final flourish:

“Last October I wrote that our shepherds should read more military history to gain appreciation of the necessity of armaments. This year, the need for arms remains the same. But in this instance—our presidential election—the nature of the weaponry has changed. It means putting aside, for now, disappointment in a flawed Donald Trump in order to repudiate full square the hellscape the Harris/Walz duo lusts to usher in.

“NOTE: Just after finishing this last night, I caught the news of a second attempt at murdering Donald Trump. The left wants him dead. It would exult to see most of us on the killing field as well. Bear that in mind if your conscience is too exquisite to be bruised by voting for the man in the crosshairs of your enemies.”

The entire essay is worth the few minutes it takes to read it. Find it here:

https://studiomatters.com/lepanto-redux-or-the-idolatry-of-devout-ideas

Bishops, Pope cannot use authority to command things contrary to Sacred Tradition

 

Bishop Strickland: There is clearly a 'militant effort to destroy the Church'

 

The Bishop Strickland Show

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On Part 2 of this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland explains the real point of the Beatitudes and how so many miss the point of them, comments on recent church burnings in the West, and more.

Download the all-new LSNTV App now, available on iPhone and Android!

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Ryan Anderson: The pro-life movement needs to shift to promoting chastity and marriage

Credit: Fabio Sola Penna via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

By Tyler Arnold

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 08:51 am

For the pro-life movement to achieve its goal of eliminating abortion, it must first help bring about a dramatic change in societal sexual ethics, according to a new essay by Ryan T. Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“So long as nonmarital sex is expected, large numbers of Americans will view abortion as necessary emergency contraception,” Anderson concludes in his essay, titled “The Way Forward After Dobbs,” published in the Catholic-led ecumenical journal First Things.  

“So long as marriage rates are declining and marriage age is delayed — but the human sex drive persists — abortion rates will remain high,” Anderson writes.

Read the rest: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259249/ryan-anderson-the-pro-life-movement-needs-to-shift-to-promoting-chastity-and-marriage

Muller: “there is ‘no sin against a form of synodality that is used as a brainwashing tool’ to advance ‘progressive ideologies.’”

Cardinal Müller said the list of alleged sins to be confessed at the vigil ‘reads like a checklist of woke and gender ideology’ and stressed that there is ‘no sin against a form of synodality that is used as a brainwashing tool’ to advance ‘progressive ideologies.’

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Peter Martin

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Mon Sep 23, 2024 - 3:47 pm EDT

(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller criticized the Synod on Synodality and Church leaders promoting “un-Catholic ideologies” amid the collapse of Catholic institutions in the West and suggested that the synod is implicitly aligned with Martin Luther by “relativizing” the Church’s hierarchical structure.

In a new article on Saturday, the former prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office particularly slammed an upcoming “penitential vigil” at the Vatican before the synod next month that will include the “confession” of alleged sins against “synodality,” “creation,” and “migrants,” as well as the so-called “sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled.”

Michael Haynes 

@MLJHaynes

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NEW #Vatican Synod event Oct 1, is a mass Confession style gathering where people will confess sins “in name of all the baptized.” Sins to confess include: “using doctrine as stones to be hurled...sins against synodality / lack of listening, communion, & participation of all” 

Read the rest: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-muller-slams-vatican-penitential-vigil-confessing-alleged-sins-against-synodality-and-creation/