VIDEO: Hold the line! We ARE winning!

Many years ago, when I was eking out my tuition by playing piano in a [Shame on you if you thought  "brothel". In fact it was a Baptist church! Ed.] I learned a gospel song which began like this:

Ho, my comrades, see the signal, flashing through the sky,

Reinforcements now appearing, victory is nigh!

Hold the fort, for I am coming... etc

These lyrics flashed through my mind as I watched the latest episode of The Remnant Underground featuring Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper. Mr Matt talks about:

* the sacking of Raymond Cardinal Burke by Francis, the "Pope of Mercy", which has parked outrage from news networks all over the world. 

* Jewish economist, Jeffrey Sachs' about-face on Dr Fauci's Covid lies, denunciation of the Democrat Party, and allegations that Israel is committing war crimes. 

* The travails of Team Francis. Apparently the minions who arranged the Pope’s Abu Dhabi dialogue with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar didn't know the latter is an enthusiastic supporter of... wait for it... Hamas!

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more!

Late night comedians are openly mocking Greta Thunberg

Elon Musk says George Soros fundamentally hates humanity, and 

Klaus Schwab says he’s going to turn the freeways of the world into parks!

Mr Matt says all this is part of Globalism's mad dash to LaLa Land. Listen and marvel.

To return to my opening paragraph, Mr Matt says (and yr obdt servant agrees!) that all this is good news, for thes latest acts in the comedy of errors and nonsense portends the demise of the New World Order and New World Religion (the "Church of Francis") being promoted by Messrs Soros, Schwab and Bergoglio. 

These are the last acts of desperate (and desperately misguided) men, facing the decline and fall of their Brave New World. They've overstayed their welcome and overplayed their hand. All that is needed to consign them to the ash-heap of history is for us -- lovers of tradition, freedom, and Christian civilzation -- keep resisting the secular humanist overlords to their faces. 

As Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, says: Hold the line! As Michael Matt says: Don't lose hope; we are winning! Victory is nigh!  

Crisis in the Catholic Church coming to a head... as in Head (= Pope)

I am no prophet [We leave that to Poor Len Canayen. Ed.] but, dear Catholic readers, it looks to me as if we may be mere months, or even weeks away, from a revolution in the Roman Catholic Church -- a revolt of the faithful against the leadership into perdition of Pope Francis. By "the faithful", I mean not just traditional Catholics like Michael Matt, but all those who cling to what's left of the True Faith after what Mr Matt rightly calls "universal dumpster fire" that was Vatican II.

The Unholy Father calls those of us who cling to the Faith of Our Fathers, "orthodox Catholics". I'm just as proud to be an "orthodox Catholic" as I am to be a "deplorable". The appellation reminds me of a school cheer I learned in my university daze.

We are the salt of the earth, so give ear to us

No new ideas shall ever come near to us

Orthodox, Catholic, crammed with divinity

Damn the dissenters, hurrah for the Trinity.

But I digress... The news... the sad news... is that, according to a transcript published in the National Catholic Register September 11th, Francis told a plane-full of international reporters on a flight from Madagascar to Rome that if you're an "orthodox" Catholic, he doesn't want you in his church! The Pope (if such he is) is obviously smarting from criticisms from many quarters that he is a heretic and a schismatic, even that is not a valid pope. These denunciations have come from his own Cardinals and bishops, the Curia, the religious press, and devout Catholic laymen like Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara, not to mention lesser-known traditional Catholics like Yr Obdt Servant.

Francis called such attacks "the criticism of arsenic pills...throwing the stone but hiding the hand." Then he rambled on, denouncing his critics -- he mentioned the late Archbishop Lefebvre by name -- as being "schismatics". Yet it is Francis himself who is not only a heretic, but the true schismatic. The great Jesuit theologian Francisco Suarez wrote (translated): ...the pope could be schismatic, if he were unwilling to be in union and association with the whole body of the Church, as would occur if he attempted to excommunicate the whole Church, or, as both [Cardinal-Theologians] Cajetan and Torquemada observe, if he wished to overturn the rites of the Church established in Apostolic Tradition. (De Charitate, Disputatio XII de Schismate, sectio 1)

Yet that is exactly what Francis has done, in rejecting (along with every pope since Vatican II) the traditional Latin Mass and substituting for it an invalid and heretical Protestant service. Francis is the man who has destroyed the Catholic liturgy, Catholic doctrine, and Catholic morality! The "orthodox" Catholics, those who preach and practise correct doctrine (that's what "orthodox" means -- "correct doctrine") are the true Catholics. Those who don't, like the Unholy Father and his followers, are the true schismatics.

Two of the prelates who Pope Francis would judge to be "orthodox" are Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, both mentioned on WWW before. The National Catholic Register reports their call for a Crusade of Prayer and Fasting, from September 17th to October 26th, for the welfare of the Church. Their plea cites the dangers of "implicit pantheism" in the working document for the upcoming Amazon Synod, and argues against tailoring Catholic ordained ministries to the ancestral customs of the aboriginal people."

Faithful Cardinals, Bishops, priests and laypeople -- 1000s of them -- are righteously indignant over the direction in which Pope Francis is leading Holy Mother Church. He is not the good shepherd, but a false prophet leading us to the edge of the cliff at the bottom of which lies heresy, apostasy and the punishment of eternal separation from a just God.

How much longer can Francis' perversion of the Faith and destruction of the Church continue? It is not easy to "impeach" a pope, but it is possible. The opposition of the "orthodox" seems about to reach the tipping point. God bless those who stand up for the True Faith, and confound the enemies of Holy Mother Church, both without and within... even those at the very top!

Further reading: "Pope Francis: 'Need some more nails?'", WWW 1/7/19.
Further viewing: "Vatican II a "'universal dumpster fire'", video with Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, WWW 7/9/19.

VIDEO: Vatican II a "universal dumpster fire": Michael Matt

C'mon, Michael. Don't sugar-coat it! Tell it like it is!



"The Shamazon synod", LOL. The clips from the ultra-modern "masses" are horrifying, simply horrifying. What is wrong with these people (especially the priests) that they think there's anything Catholic about what they're doing?

VIDEO: Cardinal Burke: The smoke of Satan has entered the Church

In "Vatican attempts to silence tradition-minded Catholic prelates" (WWW 7/11/18) Walt reported on recent attempts by the Vatican Secretariat of State (Peter the Roman, Prop.) to silence Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Raymond Burke for daring to speak out against those responsible for today's crisis in the roman Catholic Church. (Hello, Pope Francis!)

Limitations of space prevented me from giving more than a suggestion of what these two prelates had done to deserve (which they didn't!) the Vatican's not-so-subtle warning that they'd better shut up about the apostasy, homosexuality, and heresy rampant today in the highest echelons of Holy Mother Church. What they did was call attention to the poisoned fruits of Vatican II, about which the Blessed Virgin Mary warned us in the Third Secret of Fatima, which was entrusted to Sister Lucia and has yet to be revealed in its entirety by the Vatican, for reasons which are now apparent.

Today Walt is pleased to share an address given by Cardinal Burke on 19 May 2017 at the fourth annual Rome Life Forum, organized by Voice of the Family, and originally posted on LifeSite News. In this talk, the prelate explains what Pope Paul VI meant when, near the end of his papacy, he said, publicly, that "through some fissue, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". Running time, 32 minutes.



Today, the smoke of Satan is still there, denser and more choking than ever. Two of those who are being choked are Bishop Schneider and Cardinal Burke. Good Catholics, pay attention to what these two prelates are saying, before they are silenced forever. It is up to us, the remnant who cling to the Traditional Faith handed down to us by the Apostles and doctors of the Church from Our Lord Jesus Christ, to do all we can, through prayer and action, to bring about the victory of grace and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.

Vatican attempts to silence tradition-minded Catholic prelates

Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have been mentioned before on WWW. Both are on Pope Francis' fecal roster for speaking truth to power -- speaking publicly about the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church and promoting a return to traditional Catholicism. See, for example, "'How can we keep the Faith?'" in which Michael Matt introduces Bishop Schneider, one of the principal speakers at last year's Catholic Identity Conference.

Earlier in 2017, Cardinal Burke offered a traditional Pontifical Mass at the Chartres cathedral. And this summer he really crossed the line, offending the "lavender mafia" in the Vatican by giving an interview to Catholic Action in which he decried the "gay culture" in the Church.

The Holy [sic] Father would prefer that the prelates stopped airing the Church's dirty linens in public, so has instructed the Vatican Secretariat of State to take steps to silence them. In his blog Stilum Curiae, Italian journalist Marco Tosatti reports that American bishops have been "advised" by the Secretary of State ("Peter the Roman") not to invite Cardinal Burke to speak in their dioceses.

Bishop Schneider, a star speaker at traditional Catholic gatherings in the USA and elsewhere, has been told not to leave his own country, Kazakhstan -- he is the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana -- without first notifying the Vatican. One doesn't have to think hard to imagine what the Vatican would say upon receiving such notice.

Sgr Tosatti's article is written in Italian. The directives from the Secretariat of State may have been in Latin but more likely were in Italian. My grasp of Italian is pretty tenuous [Si? Ed.] but I can make an educated guess as to what the Vatican is sayingto Bishop Schneider and Cardinal Burke, to wit: "Eh, shadappa you face!"

After PA revelations, Cardinal Burke decries "gay culture" in Church

In the aftermath of the release of the names of the hundreds of Roman Catholic clergy guilty of the sexual abuse of minors, and the Vatican's delayed and limp-wristed "shame and sorrow" response -- things have got to the point where someone in authority needs to come clean about the Church's dirty hyuge secret. American Cardinal Raymond Burke has done so in an interview with Catholic Action, published yesterday.

The fundamental problem, said the prelate, is not so much pedophilia as homosexuality within the ranks of the clergy, right up to the very highest levels. The existence of the Gay Mafia in the Vatican has been an open secret for years. See, for example, "Second sex scandal in Rome! Pope asks forgiveness... from whom?", WWW 14/10/15. After this week's revelations of sexual abuse, the Cardinal called for "open recognition" of the Church's homosexual culture. "I believe that there needs to be an open recognition that we have a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the Church," he said, "especially among the clergy and the hierarchy, that needs to be addressed honestly and efficaciously."

A prominent canon lawyer, Cardinal Burke is often perceived as a voice of traditionalism and orthodoxy among prelates of the Catholic Church. In recent years, he has clashed publicly with Pope Francis, vigorously opposing attempts by Francis and other bishops to relax Church attitudes towards gays and people who have divorced and remarried outside the Church, and has spoken of the need to "formally correct" the Pope in relation to Amoris laetitia.

In this week's interview, Cardinal Burke said it was already "clear after the studies following the 2002 sexual abuse crisis that most of the acts of abuse were in fact homosexual acts committed with adolescent young men. There was a studied attempt to either overlook or to deny this," he said, referring to the lamestream media cover-up of the homosexual nature of the abuse as well as such denial within the church itself. "Now it seems clear in light of these recent terrible scandals that indeed there is a homosexual culture, not only among the clergy but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root."

What do you think are the chances of the clergy and hierarchy being purified? Walt sez: somewhere between slim and none. Lifetime pct .992.

Further reading: "Cardinal Burke: U.S. Catholic Church in 'possibly the worst crisis that it's ever experienced'", by Claire Chretien, LifeSite News, 16/8/18.

VIDEO: Michael Matt on the Filial Correction sent to Pope Francis

Following up on "Traditional Catholics formally accuse Pope Francis of spreading heresy" (WWW 24/9/17), Walt is pleased to share the commentary of The Remnant's Michael Matt on the Filial Correction of/to Pope Francis, which has now been signed by some 70 scholars, priests and theologians from all around the world.

Mr Matt also discusses the ramifications of Bishop Bernard Fellay's signature on this correction, Cardinal Burke's forthcoming formal correction, and the centenary of the founding of St. Maximilian Kolbe's Militia Immaculatae in Rome. Running time: 23:46.



Further reading: "Why I Signed the Correctio Filialis": interview with Bishop Fellay, from FSSPX News, 26/9/17.

VIDEO: Cardinal Burke offers traditional Pontifical Mass at Chartres

Who said traditional Catholicism is dead?! Last Sunday -- Pentecost Sunday -- 17,000 pilgrims from all over the world converged on the cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres, having completed a 70-mile pilgrimage, for a Pontifical Mass celebrated by Raymond Cardinal Burke. In this video you will see awesome photos and video footage shot by Remnant TV's pilgrim photographer, as Michael Matt chats with Father Gregory Pendergraft about the worldwide youth movement towards Catholic Tradition. Running time 15:14 with the interview taking up the first 10 minutes or so. Cameo appearance by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, niece of Walt's favourite French political leader.



Further viewing: Click here to see and hear the entire Pontifical Mass, offered by Cardinal Burke... in Latin, of course! Running time 2:49:39 but lovely to hear the the Mass in the form and language which was made official and universal -- not to be changed -- by Pope St. Pius V in the Bull "Quo primum" in 1570.

"Depose the Pope!" conference in Paris this week

L'Université de Paris (the University of Paris), for long known as the Sorbonne, has been around for well over 900 years. It was already 800 years old when Walt studied there (briefly) in the summer of 1863. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris, it was officially chartered in 1200 by King Philip II of France and recognized by Pope Innocent III in 1215.

The university is the historical location where the eminent Doctors of the Church, the Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan St. Bonaventure, held their great theological debates. In the 1300s, a series of meetings at the University explored the question of what could be done with the possibly heretical Pope John XXII, who denied the doctrine that the souls of the just are admitted to the Beatific Vision after death, a position he retracted only on his deathbed. The Paris scholars decided that John was not to be considered a heretic because the doctrine he had contradicted had not been formally defined by the Church.

Now, over seven centuries later, the question of what can be done with (or to) a heretical pope arises again, because of the refusal of Pope Francis to answer the Dubia -- questions posed in a letter by four cardinals requesting clarification of the meaning of certain statements and propositions included in Pope Francis' exhortation Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love").

The question of how to depose a heretical pope will be considered at the University this coming Thursday and Friday, by a group of eminent canon lawyers, theologians, and scholars. Called "Deposing the Pope: Theological Premises, Canonical Models, Constitutional Challenge", the conference seeks to explore the mechanisms that are built into the Catholic Church for dealing with a pope who openly teaches falsehood and even heresy.

Speaking at the conference will be University of Paris Professor Laurent Fonbaustier, who last year published a 1200-page book on the topic, titled The Deposition of the Heretical Pope. Also featured are Professors Nicolas Warembourg and Cyrille Dounot, two of the 45 Catholic academics who last June submitted an appeal to the Dean of the College of Cardinals in Rome requesting a repudiation of the erroneous propositions they found in Amoris Laetitia. They said Pope Francis' exhortation "contains a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals."

In November 2016, Vaticanista Giuseppe Nardi reported that a 1975 theological study by the learned Brazilian layman Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira was making the rounds in the Vatican. In The Theological Hypothesis of a Heretical Pope, Senhor da Silveira considered whether it is possible for a pope to be or become a heretic, and if so, what consequences would follow from this. Signor Nardi commented that "three and a half years after the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis is reaching his limits. The impression, given by means of gestures and words, of a latent intention to change the doctrine of the Church must at some point either take on definite form or else it must collapse."

"Francis," he continues, "finds himself cornered by means of the very atmosphere he himself is responsible for creating. It's no longer about a spontaneous utterance on this or that, which remains improvised and non-binding. His pastoral work and his leadership skills, which demand a sense of responsibility and an exemplary character, are reaching their limits. This could cause [Francis' pontificate] to fail."

Last December, Raymond Cardinal Burke gave an interview in which he explained that if a pope were to "formally profess heresy he would cease, by that act, to be the Pope." He explained that there is a process within the Church for dealing with such a situation, adding his hope that "we won't be witnessing that at any time soon."

Also in December, American canon lawyer Dr Edward Peters addressed the question of what could be done if a pope were found to be heretical. The crucial question, he wrote, from a canonist's perspective, is "who would determine whether a given pope has fallen into heresy" since Canon 1404 states that the "First See is judged by no one." However, Dr Peters found in canonical tradition the position that if a general council determined that a pope had committed heresy, by that very fact he will have effectually cut himself off from the true vine, thereby forfeiting his office. "However remote is the possibility of a pope actually falling into heresy and however difficult it might be to determine whether a pope has so fallen, such a catastrophe, Deus vetet [God forbid], would result in the loss of papal office."

Faithful Catholics, please pray to St Michael the Archangel for the success of the conference and for the deliverance of Holy Mother Church from the thrall of all who would destroy Her.

Further reading: "Is the Catholic Church about to disintegrate?", WWW 31/10/17.

Pontifical High Mass (Tridentine) at La Crosse WI, December 10th

Our friends at The Remnant have sent along an invitation received from Una Voce La Crosse, as follows:

Our founder, His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, will offer the 1st ever Pontifical High Mass (Tridentine) at the Shrine he founded in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Saturday December 10th. We are hoping to get the word out to have a great group for him and the Sacred Tradition.This will be the first Pontifical High Mass His Eminence has offered at the Shrine he founded in 2008. There will be priests from the FSSP, Institute, and Diocese of La Crosse assisting as familiari. All are warmly welcome.

Opportunities to hear Holy Mass as it should be celebrated are few and far between in the USA these days, and a Pontifical High Mass is a rarity indeed. Good Catholics are urged to make every effort to attend, for the greater honour and glory of God first and foremost, but also as a way of showing support and appreciation for the strong stand in defence of Holy Mother Church that Cardinal Burke is making at this very moment.

Synod on the Family: the question no-one wanted to answer

Last week, in "2014 Vatican Synod's 'Welcome gays!' moment was rigged!", Walt recommended the new e-book by Edward Pentin which explains how certain prelates of the Roman Catholic Church arranged for the insertion of their pro-LGBT agenda into the "Interim Report" of the 2014 Synod on the Family.

Here's the last paragraph of that post:
Mr. Pentin points the finger at Cardinal Baldisseri, but Walt (and many others) would like to know who appointed the prelate to be secretary-general of the Synod? Whose agenda was the Cardinal pushing... or following? And who's in charge of this year's Synod? Oh... wait... According to the Vatican website, it's none other than... wait for it... Lorenzo Cardinal Baldisseri!

Traditional Catholics have been waiting with bated breath [not "baited" Ed. -- "bated breath" means breath which is being held] to see what tricks the Church's Gay Mafia and other modernists have up their sleeves this time. The "Instrumentum Laboris" (working paper) for the Synod was released in June and has been scrutinized and found ponderous, if not incomprehensible.

This, at any rate, is the opinion of John Vennari, well-known Catholic activist and editor of Catholic Family News. Last week, Agent 10 recorded Mr. Vennari asking a tough question to the panel at a lecture on the 2015 Synod given at the Franciscan University of Steubenville OH by Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The panel consisted of 8 or 10 [Did Agent 10 lose count? Ed.] theologians and philosophers, including Cardinal Burke, at the far right in the picture. You can hear one of them, a lady, laughing after Mr. Vennari posed his question. After that comes a very awkward silence, broken finally by Dr. Michael Sirilla, who came up with the only possible answer, thus saving the moment.



If you're a Catholic, concerned with the direction in which Holy Mother Church is being led ["misled", surely! Ed.], you should attend Catholic Identity Conference, 2015, to be held September 25th-27th at the Holiday Inn in Weirton WV.

The theme of the conference is "The Three Rs of Modernism: Recognize it, Refute it, and Return to Tradition". Speakers include Pat Archbold, Christopher Ferrara, Michael Matt, Dr. John Rao, Fr. Michael Rodríguez, Louie Verrecchio, Dr. James Vogel, and... wait for it... John Vennari and Dr. Michael Sirilla!

For more information or to register, click here. Tell `em Walt sent you!

VIDEO: "Scary Catholic right-winger" gives Pope Francis a FAIL

John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News, has been identified by RawStory as one of "5 scary ultra-right wing Catholics who are outraged by the cool Pope".

Seems like Mr. Vennari doesn't agree with the Party Pope's off-the-cuff "pronouncements" which have delighted liberal Catholics, secular humanists and "progressive thinkers" in the world at large. In Catholic Family News, Mr. Vennari has written "[Pope Francis] seems to have a good heart and some good Catholic instincts, but theologically he is a train wreck -- remarkably sloppy." [Walt's emphasis] He goes on to say, "Though this might shock some readers, I must say that I would never allow Pope Francis to teach religion to my children."

John told us, in a recent e-mail, that he's pleased to find himself in good company! The other four "scary Catholic right-wingers" named in the RawStory article are Raymond Cardinal Burke (now in exile in Malta), American pundit Pat Buchanan, Father Dwight Longenecker, and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.

Good company indeed! To make his views more accessible, in this age where people would rather watch a video than read, John Vennari recently launched "CFN Media", a series of short videos (10 minutes or so) in which he comments on recent developments in the Catholic Church and what passes for Catholic theology.

Here's the second in the series, published late in January, in which Mr. Vennari contrasts Pope St. Pius X's understanding of Papal duty as opposed to that of Pope Francis. What should Catholics understand from the words and actions of Pope Bergoglio? What should they do? How should they respond? Watch and learn.

Is the Catholic Church about to disintegrate?

The handwriting may not yet be on the walls of the Vatican, but it's surely all over the media. Not just the Catholic or other religious media, but the secular lamestream media. They're having a field day predicting a massive schism which (they say) will divide the mainstream Roman Catholic Church into liberal and "conservative" factions.

"Conservative", in the context of the Church in the 21st century, should not be taken to mean "Traditionalist". The traditionalists have already left, gone to the Society of St. Pius X and beyond. Even the conservative and traditionalist Catholics who have remained within the "new and improved" Church of Pope Francis have become more and more disillusioned with him.

Now commentators on both sides of the Atlantic are talking of the possibility of a schism. That such a thing should even be mooted is by itself evidence of the discord sown by the policies and pronouncements [doubtless well-meaning! Ed.] of the most liberal pope of modern times. Here's a sampling of what's being said.

Andrew Brown writes in The Guardian (30/10) A Catholic church schism under Pope Francis isn’t out of the question. Walt takes responsibility for the emphasis in these excerpts.

Until this weekend, I had largely believed in the liberal narrative which holds that Pope Francis’s reforms of the Catholic church are unstoppable. But the conservative backlash has been so fierce and so far-reaching that for the first time a split looks a real, if distant, possibility.

One leading conservative, the Australian Cardinal George Pell, published over the weekend a homily he had prepared for the traditional Latin mass at which he started ruminating on papal authority. Pope Francis, he said, was the 266th pope, "and history has seen 37 false or antipopes".

Why mention them, except to raise the possibility that Francis might turn out to be the 38th false pope, rather than the 266th real one?

This is a fascinating nudge in the direction of an established strain of conservative...belief: that liberalising popes are not in fact real popes, but imposters, sent by the devil. ...if the pope is always right, as traditionalists would like to believe, and if this particular pope is clearly wrong, as traditionalists also believe, then obviously this pope is not the real pope.

I don’t think that’s what Pell meant, but it was odd and threatening to bring the subject up at all.

Less than a week previously, Ross Douthet penned (or typed) The Pope and the Precipice for the op-ed page of the New York Times. He suggests that:

If [Pope Francis] seems to be choosing the more dangerous path — if he moves to reassign potential critics in the hierarchy, if he seems to be stacking the next synod’s ranks with supporters of a sweeping change — then conservative Catholics will need a clear-eyed understanding of the situation.

They can certainly persist in the belief that God protects the church from self-contradiction. But they might want to consider the possibility that they have a role to play, and that this pope may be preserved from error only if the church itself resists him.

Hmmm... "potential critics in the hierarchy"... like whom? Like Cardinal Raymond Burke, who, as Walt told you on October 16th, is being demoted from head of the Apostolic Signatura to the largely ceremonial role as head of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Cardinal Burke refuses to go quietly into that good exile. According to “There is a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a helm”, the prelate told the Spanish publication Vida Nueva that "Many Catholics today have 'a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a helm'." The report continues:

The American cardinal, who has become a focal point for the concerns of conservative Catholics, told Vida Nueva that many people have spoken to him about their fears for the direction of the Church. "They are feeling a bit seasick because they feel the Church’s ship has lost its bearings," he said.

Cardinal Burke stressed that "I do not wish it to seem like I am speaking out against the Pope." Rather, he said, he wanted to express a concern that many people now feel. The cardinal observed that Pope Francis has roused enthusiasm with his call for Catholics to go out to the peripheries to preach the faith. "But we cannot go to the peripheries empty-handed," he said.

"Faith cannot adapt to culture, but must call it to convert,” Cardinal Burke said. “We are a countercultural movement, not a popular one."

Finally (for the moment) we have commentary from Candida Moss [Really. A professor in the Theology department at Notre Dame. Ed.] who, in A Coming American Schism Over Pope Francis? compared "Bergoglio fever" to the worship of idols.

There have already been murmurings of discontent from US Catholic leaders. Bishop Thomas Tobin stated that he was slightly “disappointed” that the pope had yet to speak out about the abortion. And Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia acknowledged that some more conservative Catholics “generally have not been really happy” with Francis and that the pope will have to find a way “to care for them too.”

For a church that moves at a glacial pace, the murmurings of Bishops like Tobin are lightning fast and boldly subversive. The pro-hierarchy Catholics who criticized American nuns for not supporting the Vatican line are now attacking the hierarchy they once championed. Remarkable stuff, considering that Francis has not changed the Church’s teaching, only its emphasis and tone.

So far, those who feel disaffected by Francis’s papacy have responded by reassuring themselves that nothing has changed. But real divisions start with grumbling and there’s a subtly schismatic quality to those who have called Francis a "questionable example"....

For traditionalists..., "Is the Pope Catholic?" is a real question.

Indeed. What Walt finds significant about Prof. Moss's piece is not her credentials -- I'm not sure she's even Catholic -- but the dissenting voices she quotes. Neither Archbishop Chaput nor Bishop Tobin has ever been accused of being anything other than "mainstream". If their "murmurings" represent the sentiments of more than a few members of the Church hierarchy, a major upheaval could be imminent.

The bishops and priests who the Vatican today calls "schismatic" and those who it calls "popes" may well exchange positions, when God makes the Final Judgement.

Even a liberal Cardinal calls pro-LGBT Synod report "worthless"

Something got lost in the translation! Believe it or not, that, according to the Catholic News Agency's Vatican observer, Andrea Gagliarducci, is the Vatican's excuse for how the controversial Interim Report of the Synod on the Family came to be "misunderstood".

The document was written in Italian, which Pope Francis directed to be used as the official language of the synod. He did this because, as New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan admitted not long ago, few of the prelates can read or understand Latin any more. That the language of the Church has at last become "dead" is yet another of the poisoned fruits of Vatican II. Too bad, because Latin has always been esteemed by lawyers and theologians for its precision and lack of ambiguity.

The hoo-hah about the Church's sudden admiration for the LGBT community, as reported here on Tuesday, arises (they tell us now) from a mistranslation of paragraph 50 of the relatio [report]. The Italian original, after praising the "gifts and talents" homosexuals may [my emphasis] give to the Christian community, asked: "le nostre comunità sono in grado di esserlo accettando e valutando il loro orientamento sessuale, senza compromettere la dottrina cattolica su famiglia e matrimonio?"

In the English translation provided by the Vatican, this is rendered as: "Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?"

The key word "valutando" would be better translated as "evaluating," and, in this context, "weighing" or "considering". The English translation, however, suggests that the homosexual orientation should be "valued", a notion that old fuddie-duddies who are faithful to the traditional teaching of the Church find confusing, to say the least. Any suggestion that the use of "valuing" by the Vatican Press Office reveals a pro-LGBT bias are of course groundless!

Meanwhile... Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- aka the Holy Office in the old days when the name was appropriate -- has denounced the report as "worthless". Speaking in one of the Synod’s small working groups after the release of the relatio post disceptationem, the prelate said the document was "completely wrong" in its portrayal of the Synod fathers’ discussion. He added that it was "shameful" that the report had suppressed some points of view while promoting, errr, certain others.

More pushback came from South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, who told journalists the document had been misunderstood and that’s why it had caused "such an upset" -- the more so because the relatio is only an "interim report", and the Synod has not yet ended. "We couldn't possibly have agreed on it," he said, yet "The message has gone out, it is not what we are saying at all.... [But] there’s no way of retrieving it. It is not a true position. Whatever goes out after looks like damage control."

In a full page interview published in the Italian daily Il Foglio, American Cardinal Raymond Burke said, "It seems to me that information is being manipulated in a way that gives comment to only one theory instead of faithfully reporting the various positions expressed.... This worries me very much because a significant number of bishops do not accept the ideas of an opening, but few [people] know that."

Curiously, "Bully" Burke did not name those whom he held responsible for pushing the pro-queer agenda. He could only have meant the Vatican Press Office, which, as noted above, supplied the translation. Walt would have thought the Cardinal would have felt a little more freedom to name names, since he's being demoted from head of the Apostolic Signatura (the Vatican "Supreme Court") to exile in the largely ceremonial role as head of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. See "Pope Plans on Exiling Conservative Catholic Hero Cardinal Raymond Burke" on Breitbart.

Also on Tuesday, Cardinal Burke told Catholic World Report that the bishops "cannot accept" any changes that are not based in Scripture or Church teaching. He also said that a statement on the issue from Pope Francis is "long overdue". According to Marco Tosatti, writing in La Stampa, the Pope doesn't say anything during the Synod sessions, but contents himself with scribbling little notes which he passes to the Synod’s secretary-general, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri.

Further reading: Sinodo, il cardinale Mueller all'attacco: "Relazione vergognosa". Right... it's in Italian. But you can use Google Translator.

UPDATED: Catholic bishops say "interim report" asking Church to welcome homosexuals grossly misrepresented by pro-LGBT media

Much backing and filling at the Vatican Tuesday night over jubilant lamestream press reports that the Synod of Bishops now in progress (if such a word can be used) has recommended that the Church welcome homosexuals and all the "gifts and qualities" they can bring to Her. Before we get to the update, please read Walt's initial reaction, posted here earlier today.

Walt is struck dumb [He means "speechless". Ed.] by this weekend's news from the Vatican. In a preliminary report halfway through their Synod on family life, Catholic bishops in conference assembled are recommending "accepting and valuing" LGBT [He means "queer"... Well, that's what they call themselves! Ed.] faithful and all the "gifts and qualities" they can bring to the Church. I will resist the temptation to make any snide or sarcastic comments, reminding myself that the true teaching of Holy Mother Church is to hate the sin -- see St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 1:24-29 -- but love the sinner.

Having said that, if homosexuality is to be regarded by the "new, improved Catholic Church" as something better than "disordered", and if homosexuals are to be made welcome in our communities, what about same-sex "marriages"? The bishops' report reaffirms the Church's teaching that marriage is for a man and woman only, but at the same time says the church must recognize the "positive" aspects of civil unions, with the aim of bringing Catholics who live together without benefit of clergy to a lifelong commitment in a church wedding. Would that be regardless of the gender of the partners? Walt awaits a clear answer.

While waiting, Walt remembers the words of Joseph Priestley -- no pun intended -- an English theologian, who said in 1761 that "in all controversies, it is better to await the decisions of time, which are slow and sure, than to take those of synods, which are often hasty and injudicious."

Footnote: Economists and marketers will tell you that the LGBT crowd is one of the most affluent "market segments" of North American society. Not having children -- well, most of them, anyway -- on whom to squander their incomes, they have oodles of money to splash around on nice clothes, entertainment, and so on. I'll leave the "so on" to your imagination. Of course the queers' affluence has nothing whatever to do with the bishops' willingness to embrace them.

And now the "correction", as reported in "Pushback on Synod document" on the Catholic Culture website. As their analysis is a bit lengthy for this space, I'll just copy the key paragrahs.

Controversy sharpened at the Synod of Bishops, as many prelates have complained that an interim report released on October 13 did not accurately represent the thoughts of the Synod fathers, and the Vatican press office hastened to announce that “a value has been attributed to the document that does not correspond to its nature.

The relatio post disceptationem, which was intended to summarize the discussion during the first week of the October synod, "is a working document," the Vatican observed in an unusual statement released on the day after the document appeared. The press office emphasized that the relatio was designed not to be an authoritative statement, but to be the basis for discussion during the second week of Synod deliberations.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has been consistently outspoken in his defense of Church teaching regarding marriage, charged that the relatio did not accurately reflect the Synod discussions but "in fact, advances positions which many Synod Fathers do not accept and, I would say, as faithful shepherds of the flock cannot accept." The American cardinal reported that "a great number of the Synod fathers found it objectionable."

Many prelates observed that the early release of the relatio had triggered an enormous volume of media coverage, much of it inaccurate, conveying the impression that the Church would change her teachings. (BBC provided a vivid example of this sort of analysis, announcing that Pope Francis had "scored a first quiet victory" in the document and saying that the Pontiff had "convinced many Catholic Church leaders to moderate their formerly strongly critical language about gay unions.")

"We’re now working from a position that’s virtually irredeemable," said South African Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, referring to the media coverage. "The message has gone out that this is what synod is saying, that this is what the Catholic Church is saying," he said. "Whatever we say hereafter will seem like we’re doing damage control." [Indeed! Walt]

With a week still remaining before this session of the Synod concludes, it seems clear that critics of the relatio will organize a strong campaign to ensure that the Synod’s final document is very different from the interim report.

That was a close one, wasn't it... But if the bishops think they've dodged a rainbow-coloured bullet, Walt would advise them not to underestimate the power of the LGBT lobby, both in the lamestream media and within the Vatican itself!

Further reading: "The Secret Synod Does What We Expected: Evil", by Christopher A. Ferrara, posted on Monday on The Remnant website.