Questions from the Mind of a Lawyer

Words mean things. 
Hair-splitting words mean things.
The law has certain requirements, and certain effects.

Conviction of heart-- is it conscience, or rationalization? 
(cf. Luke 10:18)

Pondering these things...

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Part II of the Liber of Accusation...

...against Francis by the Remnant and CFN can be read here.

It is absolutely devastating. It's undeniable.

The consequences... of the many horrible aspects of the Bergoglio pontificate, and of the heroic temerity of pointing them out... I wonder where we are headed. And faster and faster at that.

Bishop Schneider to Visit Northeast U.S.

A long-time reader asked me to post information on the upcoming visit of Bishop Athanasius Schneider to the United States October 18-27, and I am very happy to do so.  Information in full can be found here, and really, some of the cities can be driven to in one day from St. Louis.

"My Dad was a small business!": Shrill-Shrieking Harpy Finally Loses It

If this person's agenda were something different than to destroy Western Civilizaton generally, and the United States of America specifically, I would feel worse about posting this. As it is, there can't be a single voter in this country who would be more likely to vote for her after seeing this video, so why not share it far and wide?

She crazy.

Ship without a Helm, Two Years down the Stream

"Many have expressed their concerns to me. At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a helm, whatever the reason for this may be; now, it is more important than ever to examine our faith, have a healthy spiritual leader and give powerful witness to the faith."

-- Raymond Cardinal Burke, October 31, 2014

The Difference between Sadness and Depression

"There are things in the world that deserve the dignity of grief because there are terrible things in the world and they should be allotted a certain amount of grief and sadness because that's only right and proper."

--Aimee Mann, 1993

"Of course we are nothing in the scheme of things, and yet...": The Remnant and Catholic Family News Level Public Accusation against Francis

This is a three-parter, with issue one here, by two of the most well-known and longstanding traditional Catholic news outlets. I can well believe there are three issues' worth of accusations; no serious Catholic can fail to have been scandalized, outraged, chagrined, embarrassed, discouraged or otherwise negatively-affected by some few or many things Francis has done. 

Part one doesn't even tackle the worst of it.  Still, it is heady business to have to feel compelled to publicly call out the putatively-reigning Supreme Pontiff for manifest acts of harm to the Catholic faith and faithful he is charged to safeguard. With few and only measured exceptions, the silence of the Bishops and Cardinals has been deafening.  I understand the prudence of some in the past, but the publication of Francis' letter to the Argentine bishops confirming the admission of unrepentant public adulterers to Holy Communion has begged for rebuke by someone in the hierarchy. Instead, as is frankly and astutely said by the authors, it is left to those who "are nothing in the scheme of things" to do so.

They cite no less than the Angelic Doctor as justification for this unusual statement.  To wit:

It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter’s subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, “Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.” [Summa Theologiae, II-II, Q. 33, Art 4]

Let us pray that the bishops and priests of the world, including the Holy Father himself, will take it upon themselves to defend Christ and His Church from heresy, apostasy and destruction.

God save us.

Just in Case: a Note for the Fatima File

Lost in the well-deserved angst over Pope Benedict XVI's bizarre commentary on the questions surrounding his putative abdication and his assurances of approval of the evil wrought by his putative successor, is a third possibility as to its cause.  I just want to note it in case it comes to pass, and in the hope that he can square his actions with the notion that he is a holy man who accomplished a great good in his pontificate, especially via Summorum Pontificum.

We know of the Fatima prophecy of the Bishop in White. We see there are two such-clothed persons walking the earth at the moment, one of whom is the pope. The other?

Anyway, in charity to Pope Benedict I just want to note for the record the bare possibility that he is acting on the express instructions of Our Lady, as a part of her impending triumph. That for whatever reasons of heaven, he is to be eclipsed, reviled, and the Church laid bare to her enemies. That in some way it will serve the plans of God and that Our Lady's triumph will be the greater.

There, that's it. How likely the possibility is, you may answer for yourself. But if it were true, and he is so doing, think of the gall he suffers in seeing the Church attacked, not being able to do anything about it, and being slandered and abused in the process. Everything being destroyed around him, without any means of defending himself or us.  IF that were true, I would want him to know that at least one person holds it as a possibility and that I continue to pray for him.

Because every other possibility, all of which are to visible eyes more likely to be true by a factor of a hundred, makes his abdication, attempted or real, a disaster for which he appears quite culpable.

And of course, we couldn't prove this alternative theory until the triumph of the Immaculate Heart comes to pass, a triumph of which we are assured.  Who knows where we will be then? Here? Heaven or hell?

Back to your normal concerns.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

On Record

Schism is the inevitable result of this policy. It is likely the goal of this policy. But remember that those who side with Christ and His words, Christ and His Church-- the constant teaching whereof is immutable on the questions of matrimony and the reception of Holy Communion-- these are not the schismatics.

We can only pray that God will show mercy on us, a mercy that in any objective measure none of us deserve, and bring clarity.  Is Francis Pope or not? If he is not, this all becomes easier on the spiritual and intellectual level. Who cares how hard it will be on the natural level, if the persecution we will inevitably suffer and hopefully endure, as long as we know we are on the side of Christ? But on the other hand, it will be an added cross indeed to suffer and hopefully endure, not knowing if we backed the wrong horse. This is the type of confusion that could easily discourage the faithful under persecution, though of course, if borne with out of love for God's will, that will make the crown more glorious. I just know that I don't trust my strength to endure, let alone to endure with the added burden of doubt as to cause.

We are now officially-- as if we didn't know it before, some from the time he stepped on the balcony and surveyed the sheep to be slaughtered-- on notice.  The time for choosing. Are we going to stand for Christ or not? Will we sit there and allow Him to be desecrated in His Eucharistic Body and Blood as a matter of policy? 

What are you prepared to do? Pray for the Church and the Pope! And choose. Priests, will you defile Him? Seminarians, will you go along? Lay faithful, will stand idly by? We must choose.

With Christ, or against Him.

Are you willing to risk something, anything, to be with Him? Or will we go along to avoid trouble? Ready to leave your parish and go elsewhere while you can? Ready to be sacked by the Bishop or appointed chaplain of the out-state hospital? Ready to be kicked out of seminary? Ready to choose with your actions?

The alarm is sounded. Are you ready? The man who sits on the Chair of Peter has written that unrepentant public adulterers are to be allowed to commit sacrilege. Do you care?

And then, of course, His Holiness gives us this little dig to ensure we know that he knows that we know that he knows.

So Much to Learn and See (Observations from a Busy Weekend at Hil[l]ary's)

Good Monday morning, everyone.  I may go a little free-flow today because I have so much to write about after this weekend.  I'm not just referring to the "Weekend at Hillary's" episode with the Clinton campaign having been caught in their one billionth lie (with the press forced to actually almost cover it). But also the import and consequence from a much more important event is finally sinking in--and I am forced to actually almost cover it.

1.  First, on the lesser stage, Hillary Clinton is finally proven to be clearly unwell. Her bizarre ticks, robotic reactions to stimuli, unsteady speech and gait, and rap-sampling coughing fits are the result of a cold allergies thinking about Trump too much allergy medicine overheating pneumonia, right? Right. No one but the enrolled Hillary disciples believes this. No one probably ever would have had the so-called free press not run interference for her for years. But now, whether it is pneumonia (wink, wink) or the much more likely debilitating, serious health issue, Clinton has been caught in a lie for all the world to see, one that she can't cover up. Well, she can kill about 80 million Americans and then cover it up, but she's not president yet.

"Overheating. Allergies. Oh wait, the doctor confirms it was pneumonia all along. We did lie.  We lied."

Ask yourself this question: your elderly mom shows up on your doorstep after fainting (wink, wink) due to a stated, serious case of pneumonia. What do you do?

a) give her a glass of water and put her back on the street;
b) take her to a hospital and tie her to the bed if necessary to get her proper medical treatment.

What would Chelsea do? Pneumonia my Aunt Fanny.

2.  My concern now (recalling always my standard disclaimer on political matters that I'm just assuming any of it matters) is that the powers that be will finally pull the plug on Hillary's political life and insert Crazy Joe Biden or Beta-male Kaine at the top of the ticket.  Everyone hates Hillary, but Biden is too dense to really hate. And no one knows Kaine yet. If I were Trump I'd issue a statement of concern for Hillary, send her flowers, and tell everyone you look forward to the debate after she recovers from her minor health issue.

3.  And I'm not forgetting that the great Leader is on the lookout for any reason to simply stay put and put off the transition of power awhile. Oh yeah, is 2017 getting closer?

4.  Onward and upward, I have to beg, urge, bribe, implore and anything else I can do to please make you read the last several posts by a better Hilary, Hilary White, at her Francischurch blog. Why?

Because she has done a very good job in citing, synthesizing, and analyzing recent events out of the Vatican, along with several bloggers commentary on them, about 1) the increasing accumulation of evidence to cast doubt on Benedict's abdication, and 2) Francis' letter to Argentine bishops that endorses sacrilegious communions as the correct interpretation of the awful Amoris Laetitia.  If you are a glutton for punishment, I would say you can check all of the following links: three from Hilary here (taking on a post from Frank Walker), here (taking on a post from the great Antonio Socci) and here (where she takes on the Francis decoder ring and the inevitable schism that will result from A.L.). The last two posts are particularly in-depth and worth a careful and prayerful read.

Added to these, I would refer you to some practical reality from Steve Skojec here.

5. My own thoughts I've posted before, but they are mostly in line with these posts.  In a nutshell: 

a. I think there is plenty of reason to doubt that Benedict effectively resigned, which of course would make him, not Francis, the real pope. 

b. There is no way I (or you) can know a.) for sure, and in the absence of someone competent ( a pope or a council at least) to say so, we must assume the abdication was effective, which means Francis, not Benedict, is the real pope.

c. Francis is a bad pope or antipope, and for our purposes it doesn't matter. Why? Because it is not for us to judge him-- far from it. It is our duty to submit to the pontiff, and if we choose wrongly but in good faith that is not on us. We must submit to him in all things but sin.

d. Which leads to this: whoever the Pope is, we must remain Catholic. If he commands sacrilegious communions, we must resist. If he commands mortal sin, we must resist. To the death if necessary. At some future date, pope or antipope aside, Amoris Laetitia will be repudiated by a real pope.

e. So, pray, endure, submit where possible and resist where submission is impossible. Receive the sacraments while you have them. Be Catholic.

6. More concerning than any political intrigue, as potentially important as that may be, is the collapse of the teaching authority of the visible Church and the papacy in particular. The secular governments of the West have long ceded the field of the promotion of virtue. Now Rome stands by, mute or complicit.  Get ready for trouble.

For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying: That all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity. 

But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit, and faith of the truth: Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.

2 Thessalonians 2:7-15