New York Archdiocese prepares for Francis’ Passing

 

The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of New York, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, sent an instruction to priests on 22 February - ahead of time - on how to proceed as "Jorge Mario Bergoglio nears the end of his earthly journey".

He asked for prayers as Francis suffers from a respiratory illness. The archdiocese "will observe the passing of his life in many prayerful ways". Here are some of the ways suggested in the archdiocesan directive (posted by Rich Raho on X.com):

• Upon hearing of the Pope's death, church bells may be rung 88 times, the number of years the Pope lived.

• The intention of the Pope would be included in regularly scheduled Masses.

• There are three formulas for Eucharists for a deceased Pope which may be used during the nine-day period of mourning.

• A memorial space could be established in an area of the church that does not compete with the significance of the altar, ambo, and tabernacle. It may include the lighted paschal candle, a picture of the Pope, a kneeler, candles to be lighted as part of prayer, and a book in which people may write prayer intentions.

• A spray of flowers or a drape of cloth may be used to decorate the exterior of churches.

• Requiem Masses may be celebrated in each parish or within a deanery. Before His Eminence departs to join the other Cardinals in Rome, he will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

#newsKanumnbzye

Gloria.tv

Breaking news: Pope Francis suffers bronchial crisis, a potentially serious setback

 New York Times: "Pope Francis Suffers a Setback, Inhaling Vomit"

"Francis had a bronchial spasm, the Vatican said, and is now using a mask to help him breathe. He has been hospitalized for the past two weeks for pneumonia."

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/world/europe/pope-francis-health-setback-bronchial-spasm.html

N.B. They’re trying to sound hopeful but given the train of events up to now this is likely a precursor of things to come, sooner rather than later.

They’re telling his sister and the cardinals things they’re not telling us, hence the incoming flurry of visitors. 

To wit:

"Pope Francis' sister has arrived in Rome

"I think this is the first time she has visited her brother since he became pope

"She hasn't wanted to travel because of her own poor health, so things must be very serious regarding Pope Francis' prognosis. 

" 'Sources at Fiumicino airport report that in recent days, Pope Francis' sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio, arrived in Rome. On the very day of Maria Elena's arrival, a great many cardinals arrived in no particular order, along with diplomats and Swiss guards who had already begun arriving in Rome the previous week, when the first rumors about Bergoglio’s serious health conditions emerged. Everything seems ready. The stage is already being set up.' "

(Source: @ProtecttheFaith on Twitter/X.)

@CesareSacchetti

@CesareSacchetti

·

Feb 27

Fonti dell'aeroporto di Fiumicino riferiscono che nei giorni scorsi è giunta a Roma la sorella di papa Francesco, Maria Elena Bergoglio. Il giorno stesso dell'arrivo di Maria Elena sono arrivati tantissimi cardinali in ordine sparso, diplomatici, e guardie svizzere che avevano

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Let us pray,

for the Pope
O God, the shepherd and ruler of all the faithful, graciously look upon thy servant Francis, who thou hast willed to be chief pastor of thy Church; grant him we beseech thee, by word and example to profit those over whom he rules, that together with the flock entrusted to him, he may attain to life everlasting.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
℟. Amen.

US ‘spied on Vatican in run-up to conclave’

US spy agency allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before March conclave to elect new pope, Italian magazine claims.

America's European allies are furious after it emerged phones of many heads of states were bugged [AFP]

Published On 30 Oct 2013

Published On 30 Oct 201330 Oct 2013

The US National Security Agency allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama claimed on Wednesday.

“The National Security Agency wire-tapped the pope,” the magazine said, accusing the United States of listening in to telephone calls to and from the Vatican, including cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected Pope Francis.

More: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/10/30/us-spied-on-vatican-in-run-up-to-conclave

Will the coming conclave elect another pope that seems less Catholic than Trump?

 

The Coming Trumpian Pope

As we pray for the Holy Father in his final agony, we wonder who the next pope will be and pray he will be a Trumpian pope, a bull in the china shop who will “make a mess.” 

• 
  Austin Ruse

  A meme is making the rounds: a bull in a china shop has destroyed every plate, saucer, and cup. We are asked, “Is this what you voted for?” As a matter of fact, it is.  

  It is also what I voted for in 2016. The problem in 2016 was that politicized Democrat Deep Staters in the FBI, DOJ, military, CIA, federal judiciary, and Congress were in that china shop and illegally prevented the bull from doing his work. And they were cheered on by a thoroughly corrupted gutter press.  

  This time around, however, the bull has neutered and/or taken over all those agencies, including the media, and hired a lot of lesser bulls, but bulls who know precisely what to do. These bulls have a plan, and they are moving fast and breaking things, and, in the words of Pope Francis, making a mess. 

  More: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-coming-trumpian-pope

  NB We can always pray that the cardinals may decide it would be a weird look to have a pope that seems less Catholic than the twice-divorced, thrice-married, bad Protestant President of a Protestant anti-Catholic nation. 

Aldo Maria Valli Interview with Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

 

Excerpts:

“We need to understand Bergoglio’s fraudulent operation: he wants to take the conflict between the immigrationist-woke deep church and the Trump Administration to the next level, “dogmatizing” the duty to welcome illegal immigrants and thus forcing American Catholics to see Trump as an enemy of the Catholic Church. In short, he is trying, according to his characteristic modus operandi, to turn President Trump into an adversary in order to undermine his support from Catholic voters. This dishonest operation also serves to put back at the center of the American political and social debate an Episcopate that has been widely discredited due to the sexual and financial scandals that have so far seen it totally subservient to the establishment of the Democratic Party. The real clash is between Trump’s political conservatism – MAGA – with which the majority of Americans, including Catholics, identify, and the ultra-progressivism of the Bergoglian deep church.

“American Catholics, however, have seen through the fraud! While Bergoglio, in obedience to his globalist masters, hurls anathemas against those who “build walls,” President Trump has announced – among other measures that we welcome with deep satisfaction – the return of the United States to the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which defends the right to life for all, reaffirms the importance of the family, and affirms that there is no international “right” to abortion.

On certain issues, Francis Bergoglio does not seem as sensitive as he is on welcoming…

It is shocking how Bergoglio’s appeals on the “infinite dignity of all” stubbornly exclude defenseless children massacred by abortion, victims of organ harvesting and mutilation for so-called gender transitioning, mothers used as merchandise for surrogate motherhood, young people corrupted by woke perversions, and the masses of minors who fuel the prostitution racket or end up in a Beverly Hills villa to satisfy the execrable depravities of the pedophile elite.

Today we are discovering that the entire global media system has been funded by USAID and other government agencies.

What has been emerging in the United States since President Trump’s inauguration is only the tip of the iceberg of a vast subversive system that involves all Western states. These are not isolated cases of corruption, but a planned occupation that the globalist Left considers indispensable in order to gain power and, once it has appropriated that power, use it for the establishment of a totalitarian regime. And what is paradoxical and at the same time unprecedented is that the deep state even goes so far as to make its victims – that is, all of us – pay the costs of this infernal project, using taxpayers’ money to confine us in our homes, deprive us of our freedom, and exterminate us with wars, famines, pandemics, and vaccines. In the same way, the deep church uses the offerings of the faithful to spread heresies, normalize vice and perversion, Islamize Christian nations, desecrate our churches and altars, and persecute dissenting voices with suspensions and excommunications.

Speaking of jeremiads: the words of condemnation uttered by the ultra-progressive American Episcopate and all their supporters are impossible to number.

The words of American cardinals and bishops speaking against the cut in donations to the so-called welfare agencies of the Catholic Church are steeped in hypocrisy and falsehood. They come from characters who have not wasted one word – nay, not even one syllable – against the policies promoting abortion, gender ideology, surrogate parenthood, euthanasia, and homosexuality of previous Administrations in the hands of the Democrats, while they wake up from their vile torpor only when a brake is put on illegal immigration, for which the deep church receives billions from the treasury.

More: https://www.aldomariavalli.it/2025/02/16/interview-with-archbishop-carlo-maria-vigano/

Bishops Burning Bridges

 As much as the American public is shocked by the ongoing DOGE revelations of our abuse by the Federal government, betrayal by spiritual leaders is infinitely worse. 

• 
  Sheryl Collmer

  When I was in Catholic graduate studies, our instructors would alert us to incoming papal encyclicals. Excitement would build, delectatory anticipation of what Pope John Paul might say. When it was finally promulgated, it would be all the buzz during class breaks, as we sieved out insights about suffering, women, the elderly, and always, always Jesus Christ.  

  Now I look back on that innocent spiritual intoxication the way I remember long-ago family Christmas celebrations when the parents and grandparents were still alive: a time of confident happiness because the elders were trustworthy and strong.  

  You know where I’m going: that confidence is blasted all to smithereens. I still watch for new pronouncements from the Vatican, but now I do so with a sense of dread and sorrow. At best, you can sift through documents and find one or two things to keep, allowing the rest to mercifully blur. There is no joy and little insight. 

  What a sad and unnecessary devolution, for people to have developed a hard shell to protect themselves from the pope and those bishops who run his playbook. Remember in 2018 when the USCCB decided to take no action on McCarrick because the pope encouraged them to wait, and then nothing ever came of it? The uproar receded, McCarrick was safely tucked away in a remote country refuge, and no one ever took action, confirming the impression that the bishops protect predators in their ranks, no matter how nightmarish.  

  As much as the American public is shocked by the ongoing DOGE revelations of our abuse by the Federal government, betrayal by spiritual leaders is infinitely worse. We are forced to defend ourselves against the very ones entrusted with our spiritual care. 

  We aren’t born with natural defenses against our parents; we are divinely designed to love and honor them. No more are we equipped to defend ourselves against priests, bishops, and the pope in the spiritual realm. We are not meant to fear them; we are meant to trust them. As prelates have abused our trust, repeatedly, they have themselves created the suspicion with which we now regard them. 

  More: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/bishops-burning-bridges

Paula White’s Adoption of Hebrew Rituals and the Book of Hebrews’ Warning Against Returning to Shadows

Paula White has increasingly incorporated Hebrew rituals and Jewish practices into her ministry, emphasizing Jewish feasts, fasting on Yom Kippur, lighting Shabbat candles, and even engaging in Torah study with Orthodox rabbis. She presents these practices as a means for Christians to deepen their faith by connecting with the Jewish roots of Christianity. While acknowledging the historical foundation of Christianity in Judaism is important, White’s approach presents serious theological concerns, especially in light of the New Testament’s teachings—particularly the warnings given in the Book of Hebrews about returning to the "shadows" of the Old Covenant.

PAULA WHITE’S USE OF HEBREW RITUALS

Paula White has integrated various Hebrew practices into her ministry, including:

1. Observing Jewish Feasts (Passover, Yom Kippur, etc.) – White encourages Christians to observe Old Testament feast days, claiming that these are "holy times" where God releases special blessings.
2. Lighting Shabbat Candles – She has called on Christian women to light Shabbat candles as an act of faith and solidarity with Israel.
3. Fasting on Yom Kippur – She has engaged in Jewish fasting traditions, presenting them as spiritually beneficial for Christians.
4. Studying the Torah with Orthodox Jewish Rabbis – White has expressed the importance of understanding Jewish teachings, even from non-Christian Jewish sources.

While White’s stated intent may be to highlight the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, the problem is that she treats these Old Covenant rituals as though they remain binding or spiritually necessary for Christians today. This contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, which declares that these observances were only "shadows" of the reality fulfilled in Christ.

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS: THE SHADOWS VS. THE SUBSTANCE

The Book of Hebrews strongly warns against returning to Jewish ceremonial laws and rituals, teaching that they were temporary types and shadows pointing to Christ. The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes that Christ has fulfilled the Old Covenant, making its ceremonies obsolete.

1. The Old Covenant Was Temporary and Inferior

   • Hebrews 8:13 – "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."
   • The writer of Hebrews declares that the Old Covenant, including its feasts, sacrifices, and rituals, is obsolete because Christ has fulfilled it.

2. The Jewish Feasts and Rituals Were Shadows of Christ

   • Hebrews 10:1 – "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near."
   • The sacrificial system, the festivals, and the priesthood were shadows pointing to Christ. Now that Christ has come, clinging to these shadows is both unnecessary and a form of spiritual regression.

3. Jesus Is the Fulfillment of the Feasts and the True Sabbath

   • Colossians 2:16-17 – "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."
   • Paul explicitly warns against treating Jewish feast days, dietary laws, and Sabbaths as if they were still spiritually binding. They were symbols pointing to Christ, and to continue observing them in a religious manner denies the sufficiency of His finished work.

4. Fasting on Yom Kippur Ignores Christ’s Completed Atonement

   • Hebrews 9:12 – "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."
   • Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) was a foreshadowing of Christ's perfect atonement. To continue observing it as though it were still spiritually necessary is to diminish the sufficiency of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice.

WHY PAULA WHITE’S APPROACH IS SPIRITUALLY DANGEROUS

1. It Diminishes the Supremacy of Christ – When a believer turns back to Old Testament rituals as spiritually necessary or beneficial, it implies that Christ’s work is not enough, contradicting Hebrews 10:14: "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

   More: https://www.monergism.com/paula-white%E2%80%99s-adoption-hebrew-rituals-and-book-hebrews%E2%80%99-warning-against-returning-shadows