Correction re capital punishment + FREE offer for Catholic readers

In "Arizona to use chemical invented by a Jew to execute criminals", WWW 3/6/21, I wrote: "Much in all as there are 1000s of miscreants whose removal from society would be a public good, Walt remains opposed to the death penalty. Exodus 20:13." 

That sentiment is in line with the teaching of the "new and improved" Roman Catholic Church, which says, in its "new and improved" Catechism, that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." 

Our old friend Christopher A. Ferrara, whose words have been quoted here many times, says that statement is wrong, contrary to 2000 years of Church teaching based on Divine Revelation. He quotes from Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image."

As regards the Fifth Commandment, to which I referred, Mr Ferrara points out that the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that capital punishment of murderers defends human dignity. "The use of the civil sword, when wielded by the hand of justice, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this commandment which prohibits murder."

Since the Council of Trent, unlike Vatican II, was a dogmatic council, its interpretation must be understood to be the true teaching of the One True Church. I therefore stand corrected.

FREE offer to Catholic Readers

Mr Ferrara's thoughts on capital punishment are taken from a newly published article (in the Fatima Crusader, Summer 2021) headed "3000 Days to Flatten the Curve"

The reference is to the almost 3000 days which have passed since Jorge Bergoglio began his reign of error as Pope Francis, and to the almost 3000 days remaining until the 100th anniversary of the instruction of Our Lady of Fatima to Sister Lucia during the apparition at Tuy, Spain, on 13 June 1929.

The moment has come [Our Lady said] when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.

So numerous are the souls that the justice of God condemns for sins committed against Me, that I come to ask for reparation. Sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray. 

Mr Ferrara argues that today, as the failure of a line of Popes to heed Our Lady's request nears that 100th anniversary, why Sister Lucia said that the Third Secret of Fatima should be revealed not later than 1960 -- just before the commencement of the Second Vatican Council -- because it would be "more clear" then.

The Second Vatican Council caused a revolution in the Church, more terrible in its consequences than the French Revolution or the Communist Revolution in Russia. In "3000 Days to Flatten the Curve", Christopher Ferrara give examples of the poisoned fruits of Vatican II, under these headings:

- Chaos in the aftermath of the Council

- Francis' papacy abandons Catholic tradition

- The prophecy of Fatima is ever more urgent

The article is too long for us to repost, or even excerpt here. But we will gladly send you a .pdf file if you will send an e-mail to Ed. requesting it. There is no charge. It's FREE. And we promise not to use your e-mail address for any purpose whatsoever, not even to send you notices of other articles of interest. We're just not set up to do anything that sophisticated.

As our old friend Michael Matt pointed out in a recent video, even if you're not Catholic, you should be concerned about the very real crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. The Third Secret of Fatima contains a vision of a world destroyed by war with a "bishop in white" being murdered by alien enemies. 

If the Church falls, Western civilization will fall with it, just as our enemies intend. Read the article to find out what you can do, in the next 3000 days, to keep this from happening!

More evidence of massive fraud in Pennsylvania election count

Today's post is going to be longer than usual, because it's necessary to provide some detailed examples to refute the claims of the Dumbocrats and the sycophantic controlled media that Still-President's Trump's allegations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 elections are baseless.

The lamestream media have been protesting (too much!) that Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell et al. have not given any examples of "major irregularities" in the counting of ballots in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and other closely contested states. In his speech this week, POTUS gave many examples, but even as he spoke, still more evidence of massive fraud was coming to light.

At a news conference on Tuesday, the Amistad Project (1) released bombshell new evidence of voter fraud, including an eyewitness report that up to 280,000 ballots "disappeared" from a trailer in Pennsylvania. 

Accounts from USPS workers and others, they said, reveal multi-state illegal efforts to influence the election in at least three of six swing states. "Evidence from these whistleblowers in the form of affidavits and video interviews are being used in litigation by the Amistad Project to ensure election integrity and to uphold election laws in key battleground states."

Details include potentially hundreds of thousands of completed absentee ballots being transported across three state lines, and a trailer filled with ballots disappearing in Pennsylvania. "Experts retained by the Amistad Project in sworn declarations state that over 300,000 ballots are at issue in Arizona (2), 548,000 in Michigan, 204,000 in Georgia, and over 121,000 in Pennsylvania."

Among the reports cited by the Amistad Project was the eyewitness account of Jesse Morgan, a driver for a USPS subcontractor, whose route runs through the Pennsylvanian cities of Lancaster and Harrisburg. On October 21st, Mr Morgan said, he was instructed to deliver 24 bulk mail containers holding approximately 144,000-288,000 ballots from New York to Pennsylvania. He observed written addresses and at least one postmark on some of the ballots, indicating that they already had been filled out by voters. 

When Mr Morgan reached Harrisburg, "a self- identified 'transportation supervisor'" told him "to drive the whole load to Lancaster without unloading the portion intended for Harrisburg." When he arrived at Lancaster, he parked his truck in the normal place, only to find the next morning that the truck and the ballot containers had disappeared!

The Amistad Project stated that the ballots had traveled across three state lines. "Mr. Morgan experienced several odd behaviors by a select group of USPS personnel which postal experts in sworn statements indicate grossly deviate from normal procedure and behavior." 

Mr Morgan's account isn't the first example of mass ballot "loss" in Pennsylvania. Days before the election, officials in Butler County announced that 1000s of mail-in ballots from the predominately Republican county simply disappeared in the mail. As of October 29th, nearly 75% of the 40,000 mail-in ballots requested by voters in the county remained unreturned. The county blamed USPS, which has denied responsibility.

Sweeps of USPS facilities after the election led to the apparent discovery of 1700 supposedly "lost" ballots from Pennsylvania.  More than 30,000 ballots from that state either have no return dates or ones earlier than their send dates. An independent analysis of ballot return dates found that USPS may have "mismanaged" at least 100,000 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots altogether.

The Amistad Project revealed additional reports by "postal workers in Pennsylvania who were instructed to place Trump mail – including campaign literature – in undeliverable bins while making sure that Biden mail was delivered in a timely fashion."

Pennsylvania was not the only state where the in-person vote count favouring Still-President Trump, was overturned by mail-in ballots, absentee ballots and provisional ballots. According to Amistad, USPS whistleblowers in Michigan and Wisconsin swore to first-hand knowledge of systematic ballot backdating. 

Their news conference featured the testimony of Gregory Stenstrom, a forensic computer expert and Delaware County poll watcher, who, in an affidavit alleging widespread fraud, said he "witnessed unsupervised access by a vendor representing Dominion during which the vendor apparently violated election system certification protocols and inserted jump drives to download and update the aggregation machines counting the vote."

Mr Stenstrom detailed these charges at the voter fraud hearing held by the Pennsylvania State Senate last Friday. He said it is "impossible to verify the validity of about 100,000 to 120,000 votes" from Delaware County. "I personally observed USB cards being uploaded to voting machines by the voting machine warehouse supervisor on multiple occasions."

The supervisor, who was "not being observed" and was "not part of the process," inserted unidentified USBs into voting machines two dozen times, according to Mr Strenstrom's affidavit. "We have multiple other witnesses who saw it, including Democrat poll watchers," 

Voting machines from Toronto-based Dominion Voting Systems have been linked to a rash of election day glitches that affected over 80,000 ballots in Georgia alone. Several Pennsylvania counties reported Dominion machine breakdowns and other issues, like voters losing their votes after failing to handle Dominion ballot printouts properly. The Trump campaign says they have testimony of several Dominion workers "admitting that they were trained how to dispose of Trump votes and add to Biden votes." 

Gregory Stenstrom also attested that he and a fellow poll watcher observed between 60,000-70,000 ballots kept in a back room and never counted. "We have a picture in here of a large number of boxes that I took that were filled with what appeared to be ballots sitting by the BlueCrest machine," his affidavit says. "They were there for about three hours and then they disappeared." 

Mr Stenstrom added that "we just learned two days ago that virtually all chain of custody logs, records, yellow sheets, everything, from Delaware County are gone. So we have a situation in where we have 100,000 to 120,000 ballots, both mail-in and USB, that are in question."

On November 17th, Steven J. Miller, a mathematics professor at Williams College, submitted yet another affidavit putting into question 90,000-100,000 absentee ballots from Pennsylvania. 

Dr Miller analyzed data from surveys and phone interviews with registered Republicans conducted by Voter Integrity Project, a group retained by Amistad. According to his affidavit, of the 1706 Republicans who said they did not request a ballot, 556 nevertheless had ballots requested in their name. 

463 of 1150 who said they had requested a ballot and sent it back said that their ballots had not been counted. Based on these ratios, Dr Miller wrote, "I estimate that the number of ballots that were either requested by someone other than the registered Republican or requested and returned but not counted range from 89,397 to 98,801." 

"Almost surely, the number of ballots requested by someone other than the registered Republican is between 37,001 and 58,914," the professor stated. "Almost surely the number of ballots requested by registered Republicans and returned but not counted is in the range from 38,910 to 56,483." 

Federal Election Commission Chairman James Trainor noted that Dr Miller "would be qualified in almost any court in the country" and said that his analysis "adds to the conclusions that some level of voter fraud took place in this year's election. The rush to certify results that are this suspicious from places with known election violations would nullify millions of votes that were legally cast by individual voters."

Footnotes:

(1) Curiously, you'll have difficulty finding any reference to "Amistad Project" on Google. The Amistad Project is an initiative of the Thomas More Society , a not-for-profit, national public interest law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. Walt's sometime colleague Christopher Ferrara is a Special Counsel to the Society.

(2) For details of the Arizona fraud, see "Amistad Project Files Election Litigation Challenging 300,000+ Ballots in Arizona", Prescottenews.com, 4/12/20.

(3) This post is adapted from an article by Raymond Wolfe in Lifesite News, 4/12/20.

Ven. Fulton J.Sheen asks: Who will save the Catholic Church?

Worth reading: "Bishop Strickland to Fellow Bishops: Wake Up and Smell the Apostasy", by Chris Ferrara, on the Fatima Center website, 25/7/19.

Centenary of the Miracle of the Sun, + VIDEO: Does the Filial Correction = rejection of Vatican II?

Today, 13 October 2017, is the 100th anniversary of the final Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal. This sixth appearance by Our Lady of Fatima was witnessed by a crowd of some 70,000, including members of the media and many non-believers and sceptics who had come to scoff. They were blessed to be present at one of the most stupendous events of the 20th century -- the Miracle of the Sun.

Here (above) is a real, unretouched photo of some of the witnesses. What they saw is described in an eyewitness account by José Maria de Almeida Garrett, a professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Coimbra, Portugal. The sun danced in the sky, the colour of the whole landscape changed successively, and the sun seemed to come down towards the people, so that many thought it was the end of the world. It was also seen at a distance by various people, undercutting the idea that it was simply a collective hallucination. Something else that suggests that the miracle was genuine is that the people at the Cova felt the heat of the sun as it approached them. Their clothes and the ground – which had been soaked by the torrential rain – were dry at the end of the miracle.

Traditional Catholics see the Miracle of the Sun as a foreshadowing of what will actually happen at the end of the world, and also as an indication that we are living in a time of crisis, of judgment, when we are called to stand up for the Church and for the truth. That is the theme of this dialogue between The Remnant's Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara, one of the signatories to the Filial Correction. See the earlier video, "Michael Matt on the Filial Correction sent to Pope Francis", WWW 26/9/17.

In this video, Messrs Matt and Ferrara have an unscripted conversation about the latest scandal out of the Francis pontificate, the Filial Correction and what it really means to "reject" the Second Vatican Council. Running time: 34:04, worth every second.

VIDEO: Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara visit Fatima

Assiduous readers of WWW will know that Walt is a believer in the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Our Lady of Fatima, known also as Our Lady of the Rosary came to warn us of the Great Chastisement which will befall the world unless we repent of our sins and turn back to the Gospel and the True Faith handed down to us through the Church by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lady of Fatima also requested the Consecration of Russia, by name, to Her Immaculate Heart, by which means that nation will be converted and the world will have a period of peace. This is the essence of the Message of Fatima which Father Nicholas Gruner and other like-minded Catholics worked so hard to make known.

In this video, Michael Matt (editor of The Remnant) and Christopher Ferrara, noted Catholic author and speaker, visit the Fatima shrine and comment on the 100th anniversary of Our Lady's most public and important Apparition. In 2006, Walt had the pleasure and blessing of visiting Fatima along with Father Gruner, Mr Ferrara and our late friend, John Vennari. 11 years later, as Messrs Matt and Ferrara explain, the Consecration of Russia has still not been done, and the crisis in the Church is graver than ever in modern times. Yet the Catholic Faith the love for the Mother of God live on.

VIDEO: Keep the demon in human form out of the White House! (Michael Matt & Christopher Ferrara)

Walt just received, and must share with you, the latest edition of The Remnant Forum, a dialogue between Michael Matt and Christopher A. Ferrara, Esq. I've stripped out their scathing criticism of Flakey Francis' visit to Sweden to commune with the Lutheran heretics, leaving Chris's incredibly emotional appeal to American voters to keep "this demon in human form" (and her perverse husband) from getting back into the White House. Running time is about 12 minutes. I guarantee you won't fall asleep.

VIDEOS: Blatant rigging could give election for Clinton

Here's Walt's sometime buddy, Christopher A. Ferrara, Esquire, questioning the feigned outrage of the lamestream media over Donald Trump's claims that American elections are already rigged in favour of the Democrats. A shorty (under five minutes) from Remnant TV.



Chris isn't the only one who thinks Trump is right. Here, speaking to the same point, is Ezra Levant.



Noli illegitimi te carborundum! Get out and vote!

VIDEO: Podesta e-mails show Clinton campaign secretly trying to start revolution in Catholic Church

There are all kinds of bombshells in the e-mail messages emanating from the Clinton campaign leaked by Wikileaks. Too bad everyone is so hung up on Donald Trump's "locker room banter" to pay any attention to the serious stuff -- Hellery's failure to see anything wrong with having private and public policies; her characterization of blacks and Muslims as "never-do-wells"; and her uncritical support of Saudi Arabia and Iran. But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more!

Today we learn that top officials of Mrs Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign are working to plant the "seeds of revolution" within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States! Source: "Catholic group demands top Clinton aide resign over leaked emails", Hill Times, 12/10/16.

And they're doing it in secret! It's a covert operation! The e-mails reveal that liberal Democrats were involved in setting up at least two organizations that have lobbied for change in the unalterable Church doctrine. And these so-called "progressive Catholic" groups have defended politicians -- including some who call themselves "Catholics" -- who have supported abortion and gay marriage, in defiance of the leaders of the Church.

Don't believe it? What if I tell you that, in answer to the suggestion that the "seeds of revolution" should be planted within the Church, to "demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship," John Podesta replied, "We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. Likewise Catholics United." Both groups have consistently taken public stands that match the stated objectives of the Clinton campaign, of which Mr Podesta is Chairman.

The e-mail exchanges made public by Wikileaks also show the scorn of members of Shrillery's campaign staff. Jennifer Palmieri, the campaign’s communications director, suggested that prominent Catholics who are associated with conservative political causes choose to be Catholic only because "they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion.... Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became Evangelicals."

It just so happens that the Remnant has just today posted a new video featuring two prominent traditional Catholics -- Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara -- explaining why real Catholics (as opposed to people like Mr Podesta and Ms Palmieri) have no choice but to support Donald Trump, regardless of what one may think of his personal life. Watch "NEVER HILLARY", right here.



Catholic groups not associated with the Clinton campaign denounced the attitudes betrayed by the leaked emails, and called upon La Clinton to renounce them. As if! The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights issued a statement saying that the leaked email messages "make one wonder what else Clinton’s chiefs and others associated with the campaign are saying about Catholics and Catholicism."

The President of Catholic Vote, Brian Burch, said, "Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups, she would be dismissed. Catholics will be watching Hillary Clinton to see whether she thinks our religious faith should be respected, or whether it’s fair game to mock us."

Further reading: "Clinton campaign chief helped start Catholic organisations to create 'revolution' in the Church", Catholic Herald, 12/10/16.

UPDATED: Something must be done about Pope Francis!

People are beginning to wake up! The Roman Catholic Church is in crisis, more so than at any time since the days of Pope Pius XII. Pope Francis keeps making statements -- some planned (like Amoris Laetitia) and some apparently off-the-cuff (in-flight interviews) -- that are contrary to Catholic Faith and morals. His failure to watch his mouth -- indeed his whole pontificate -- is nothing less than a scandal.

Catholics and non-Catholics alike are confused by the Pope's reckless pronouncements on marriage, homosexuality, the sacraments... so many things! We have never seen anything like this in the living memory of the Church. You know something is really going wrong in the Vatican when two powerful Catholic voices -- The World Over and The Remnant Forum -- are in agreement that something must be done! Listen to what these faithful Catholic priests and laymen have to say.



Further reading (posted 24/7/16): "A Pope Like None Before. Somewhat Protestant", by Sandro Magister, on Chiesa.

6 ways Pope Francis promotes political liberalism

The following is excerpted from "The Undertaker Pope: A Brief Study of an Infallibly Politically Correct Pontificate", an article by Christopher A. Ferrara, featured in The Remnant Newspaper.

In the fourth year of his pontificate, Pope Francis continues to deliver regular payloads of explosive off-the-cuff remarks that delight the media and shock the Catholic faithful....

For Francis, "magisterium" and "what I think" are one and the same thing. What Francis thinks -- and speaks incessantly -- generally serves the ends of political liberalism and state power while confirming the Church’s post-Vatican II demotion to a mere religious constituency under the secular sovereign. Witness, for example:

· Francis’s warm relations with socialist dictators;

· his lauding of pro-abortion and pro-“gay” politicians;

· his abuse of the papal office as a platform for globalist environmentalism (thus advantaging the same transnational corporations he professes to deplore);

· his refusal to intervene in opposition to the legalization of “gay marriage” because “the Pope belongs to everybody, he cannot enter the concrete, domestic politics of a country. This is not the Pope's role”;

· his demand -- flatly contradicting his professed abstention from domestic politics -- for universal abolition of the death penalty (while declining to demand the abolition of abortion), open borders in Europe and America, and policies of environmental regulation and wealth redistribution;

· his conspicuous failure to identify government policy, particularly in socialist countries, as a primary cause of the poverty he attributes entirely to the greed of the wealthy.

Not even during a post-conciliar epoch marked by the generalized surrender of churchmen to the zeitgeist have we seen a Pope willing to serve as the veritable pontifical undertaker at the funeral of the Church Militant, glibly reciting a few last words at the graveside in superficial remarks to reporters that he insists are "magisterium".... How is it possible that a conclave could have placed such a spectacularly unsuitable man on the Chair of Peter?...

I propose no answer to the question. Only history will provide the answer. Meanwhile, however, one can only wonder whether the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the elevation of Cardinal Bergoglio to the papacy are in some mysterious way related to the unexampled recklessness of his reign, so pleasing to the world that sings his praises.

What does Walt read?

Ed. here. It's been a while since we dipped into the virtual mailbox to answer readers' questions. Chris P. Bacon, of Wynot NE poses a rather obvious question -- so obvious that no-one ever asked before. What blogs [Chris asks] does Walt read? Here's a half-dozen.

It should be rather obvious to regular readers of WWW that Walt follows internationally published author, free speech advocate and general curmudgeon Mark Steyn. Mr. Steyn's blog is called Steyn Online: The One-Man Global Content Provider. His writings have been the subject of numerous ill-founded complaints to various "human rights" tribunals, and have been quoted with approval right here on WWW. Steyn Online often has links to the author's radio interviews, worth listening to. And he's a fan of hockey and Frank Sinatra. What more recommendation do you need?

Another free speech advocate Walt admires is Ezra Levant, a Canadian lawyer, journalist political activist. (Not all activists are of the left!) As publisher of the now-defunct Western Standard magazine, he was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. Click here to check out his blog TheRebel.media. Lots of video here, including The Ezra Levant Show, featuring... well, DUH!

Another blog which features terrific video rants is The Remnant Newspaper, which actually began in 1967 as a newspaper for traditional Catholics appalled by the "reforms" of Vatican II. Under the editorship of Michael Matt, it has evolved into a fine online blog for faithful Catholics and others concerned about the demise of the Church and Christian values generally. The Remnant often features "The Mike and Chris Show", in which Mr. Matt and Catholic lawyer and author Christopher Ferrara dissect the latest follies of Pope Francis and other "religious leaders". Walt gave you a sample just last week: "Luther's Revenge: The Surrender of Pope Francis".

Speaking of Christian values, Walt recommends Blazing Cat Fur, which is not just about the Catholic Church, but about the interface between Christian values and geopolitics. The current landing page features articles on British Columbia First Nations (read: Indians), Muslim terrorism in Belgium, and a woman's warning to Missoula MT residents about the “civil unrest” they might be facing should the Obama administration’s plans to plant foreign migrants in the town go through. Warning: lots of advertising on this blog; use your pop-up blocker.

And speaking of fur... take a gander at Five Feet of Fury (geddit?), written by Kathy Shaidle. Ms Shaidle shares Walt's tendency to retweet good stuff from other sources, and repost interesting videos. Her blog covers much the same mix as WWW, without the religion. On February 4th she featured "What Mark Steyn said about Muslim migrants — months before Paris, Cologne".

Finally, and still speaking of fur, we have Small Dead Animals: the Roadkill Diaries, the very creative work of Catherine McMillan, a sometime photographer and artist from (it says here) Delisle, Saskatchewan. Lots of politics here with a nice admixture of arts, culture and criticism of the meeja, as in the following quote from "Captain Capitalism":

Perhaps I've been inoculated against political news coverage.
Perhaps I've just gotten older and, thus, wiser and can ID BS when I see it.
Or maybe my most recent book made me even more disdainful of what the commoners consume.
But as I watched Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer cover the recent kerfuffle between Trump and Cruz, Hillary and Bernie, not to mention their representative mouth pieces, my mouth dropped not because of what they were saying, but because all of them:
The politicians
The spokespersons
The interviewees and
The CNN staff
treat you people like genuine f*cking idiots.

If you're tired of reading the same old liberal bullshit, written by the same old liberal elites and published in the same old liberal lamestream media -- if you're tired of being treated like a genuine f*cking idiot -- read some or all of these blogs. And keep reading WWW too!

VIDEO: Pope Francis turns 80: many hope this will be his last year

Walt failed to wish Pope Francis a happy birthday, and many more, on the 17th. It wasn't forgetfulness. I just can't bring myself to write something which I manifestly don't mean. Like many traditionalist and conservative Catholics -- yes, there is a difference -- I hope the Pontiff's 80th year will be his last, at least in the Petrine office.

It must be said that Pope Bergoglio remains enormously popular among most rank-and-file, jump-through-the-hoop-yes-Father Catholics (Hello, Jeff Mirus!), the number of those who hold to the Faith of Our Fathers, who disapprove of the Pope's radical agenda, grows every day, especially now that his priorities are out in the open for all to see. (Except for those who will not see, that is. Hello again, Jeff Mirus!)

When you look at the recent Synod on the Family, the Pope's environmental alarmism, and his statement last week that Jews don't have to convert to Christianity to be saved, there's plenty to criticize. Here's some calm and well-reasoned crticism from Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant, and Christopher Ferrara.



A few days ago, The Remnant published an open letter arguing that Francis's papacy is causing grave harm to the Church, and begging him to resign. If you sign the petition at the end of the letter, your name and e-mail address will NOT be published. Walt hopes you will join him in doing so.

Returning to the point about many Catholics hoping this will be the Pope's last year... In an interview with La Stampa, Francesca Chaouqui, appointed by Francis himself as a Vatican PR person, said "Many people in the Vatican want Francis dead."

Ms Chaoqui explained that the Pontiff's in-house reforms and nominations have emboldened his enemies, many of whom were in the Vatican when Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires and had a less-than-pleasant relationship with Rome. Some of these Cardinals and bishops are openly resisting his reforms, she said, while others inside and out of the Vatican are simply waiting out his pontificate under the argument that popes come and go but the Curia remains.

Tomorrow we will see just how far the Pope is willing to push the envelope when he gathers the Curia for his traditional Christmas greeting. A year ago, Francis threw a very wet blanket over the usually jovial affair by issuing a blistering public dressing-down of the Cardinals and bishops, accusing them of using their careers to grab power and wealth, of living "hypocritical double lives" and of forgetting, due to "spiritual Alzheimer's" that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God. The Pope's remarks were not well received.

Sandro Magister, a senior Vaticanista often quoted in WWW, wrote: "Since then, the murmuring of criticism of Jorge Mario Bergoglio has grown, always though anonymously given the the pope's reaction to anyone who criticizes or irritates him. Many are wondering what he’ll say this time."

In fact, many wonder what the Pope says a great deal of the time! Canon lawyer Edward Condon, one of Francis's supporters, writes in the Catholic Herald that the Pope’s casual and free way of speaking has nevertheless led to confusion among the faithful about where he stands on certain key issues.

"[Pope Francis's] interventions, when they come," Mr. Condon writes, "seem to have an almost impatient tone at the inability of the rest of us to get with the programme, whatever it might be. So, if the Pope isn’t trying to leave himself open to constant contradictory interpretations, what is going on? The most obvious answer seems to be that he is simply unaware of the turmoil carrying on outside the Vatican walls."

Speaking of the Vatican walls, consider what transpired there on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The feast day (and Holy Day of Obligation) also marked the beginning of Pope Francis's Holy Year of Mercy. To mark the occasion, St. Peter's Archbasilica was pimped out -- there's no more apt term -- with a light-show promoting "climate change". Politically-slanted images of overcrowded city centres, depictions of pollution, and negative portrayals of industry, were projected onto the facade of St. Peter's, one of the holiest shrines in Catholicism.

The profane, even sacrilegious show had nothing to do with religion or mercy, but was a shameless copy of Barack Hussein Obama's rainbow projection onto the White House after the Supreme Court approved "gay marriage". Even the Pope's own followers denounced him for turning "this most sacred space into a backdrop" for political propaganda. You can see some of the horrors of the light-show in the video.

Bad enough that he should do so at any time, but truly sacrilegious in that he ordered it done on one of the most important Marian feastdays, the Immaculate Conception, when Catholics celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary being conceived in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, without the stain of original sin.

Criticism among conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic was swift and severe. Catholic leaders from around the world said they were flabbergasted that Pope Bergoglio would allow St. Peter's Archbasilica to be used as a backdrop for promoting the political "climate change" agenda. On his Facebook page, noted Catholic author Antonio Socci wrote, "The sense that St. Peter’s Basilica has been profaned is strong. The holy place par excellence, the heart of Christianity transformed on a maxi-screen for the show of the ‘New World Power Ideology’ -- and the Nativity crib was left in darkness."

Dear Catholic reader, if you're confused about Pope Francis's beliefs and intentions, think about the implications of the sacrilege of December 8th, and be confused no longer. As Chris Ferrara says in the video, you couldn't have a more perfect representation of what has gone wrong in the Church since Vatican II. Please click on the link above to sign the petition!

Paris attacks: the exhausted reply of an exhausted Church

I just saw an insightful analysis by Christopher Ferrara on the tepid and politically correct response of Pope Francis to the Islamic terrorists' attacks in Paris. "Confronted with the mass murder and mayhem conducted by agents of the Islamic State in the very heart of the very nation known as 'the eldest daughter of the Church'", he writes "Pope Francis professed perplexity as his initial reaction: 'I am moved and I am saddened. I do not understand, these things [sic] hard to understand.'"

Mr. Ferrara goes on to ask why it should be hard to understand "that this false religion, the perpetual enemy of Christ and His Church, has spawned modern Muslim warriors who vow to conquer Europe and ultimately Rome itself even if they have to blow themselves up to further their cause?

"Islam is a religion invented by a man of violence, whose influence has expanded exclusively by violence. To this day Islam is maintained by violence even in 'moderate' Islamic states, where the penalty for conversion to Christianity is death."

Click here to read the entire article, including very trenchant quotes from Hilaire Belloc, on the Fatima Perspectives webpage.

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.

UPDATED 23/10: Do you have to accept Vatican II to be Catholic?

Walt apologizes to non-Catholic (and even anti-Catholic) readers for posting so many items about Pope Francis, the dire state the Roman Catholic Church, and the traditional Catholic opposition to Vatican II and the mainstream Church. But, dear readers, the Church is in crisis -- more so now than ever before -- and if the Church falls, the Western world will fall, and the rest of the world with it.

That is what Our Lady of Fatima meant when She warned that if Heaven's requests are not obeyed, the consequences will be the enslavement of millions and the annihilation of nations. So please bear with me. This is important.

My post yesterday about the rather Damascene conversion of Bishop Fellay, leader of the Society of St. Pius X, echoed strong comments both for and against the bishop, from within the SSPX and from people who consider themselves good Catholics, in communion with Rome and obedient to the Magisterium of the Church and the "teachings" of Vatican II.

One such is Jeff Mirus, of Trinity Communications, publishers of Catholic World News. In an e-mail to Agent 3, he wrote "the Traditionalists (by which I mean those who reject the authority of the Church in favor of their own private reading of tradition) seem more and more sure to spin away now from any pretense of Catholicity, as Bishop Fellay has already done.... Bishop Fellay has...rejected the Church of Christ. It is impossible to reject an ecumenical Council and condemn the Church’s liturgy without rejecting the Church...."

Like Pope Francis, Jeff Mirus is in error. Traditional Catholics stand for the traditional Catholic Faith as defined by numerous truly ecumenical councils, papal bulls and encyclicals, and the infallible and unchangeable dogma of the Church. "Private reading" as nothing to do with it!

Mr Mirus is in error also when he calls Vatican II an "ecumenical" council. It was not and did not hold itself out to be, which is one of the reasons why the teachings of the Council were never defined anywhere its documents as dogma.

UPDATE, 23/10/13 - Before you go on to the talk by Father Gregory Hesse (below), take a look at "On Pope Francis’ Consecration of the World: A Reply to Jeff Mirus" by Christopher Ferrara, which appeared October 18th in Fatima Perspectives.

Agent 3 has referred Mr Mirus to a talk given some years ago, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, by Father Gregory Hesse. Fr Hesse held doctorates in both Thomistic theology and Canon Law. From 1986-88 he served at the Vatican as Secretary to Alfons Cardinal Stickler, one of the periti on the Liturgy Commission of the Council, and one of those who spoke out -- too late -- against the Council and the New Mass.

Father Hesse spoke extensively on the true and false understanding of Papal infallibility and the modern errors in the understanding of sacred tradition, religious liberty and ecumenism brought about by the errors or obscurity and lack of definition in the documents of Vatican II.

His talk "Vatican 2 gave us a New Religion" contrasts what the Council documents (and the first encyclical of John Paul II) teach with established Church teaching derived from previous councils and Papal encyclicals. I'm sorry this "video" is really an "audio". It runs for almost 50 minutes and is well worth listening to in its entirety.

UPDATED 23/10: Pope Francis consecrates "the world" to the Immaculate Heart. Nothing happens!

Back in April, Walt speculated on whether Pope Francis would be the one to finally obey the request of Our Lady of Fatima, and consecrate Russia by name to Her Immaculate Heart. She asked that this be done solemnly and publicly, in union with all the world's bishops. So far, no pope, from Pius XI through Benedict XVI, has been willing to go that far, although Pius XII and John Paul attempted consecrations of "the world".

So, when the Vatican announced in the summer that on October 13th -- the 96th anniversary of the Blessed Virgin's final apparition at Fatima -- Pope Francis would again consecrate "the world", Catholic believers in the Fatima prophecies began to hope that he would take at least one more step, and mention "Russia" by name. Hopes grew when it was further announced that the original statue of Our Lady would be brought from Fatima to Rome for the occasion.

At the "Path to Peace" conference held in Niagara Falls in September, Father Nicholas Gruner -- head of the the world's leading Fatima apostolate -- urged the Holy Father to do the Consecration as Our Lady asked. He was joined by a score of other speakers, clergy and laypeople alike.

Just today Walt saw "The Consecration of Russia: Even the Huffington Post Gets It!", by Christopher A. Ferrara referring to an article by Noel Irwin Hentschel, a Catholic mother of seven, head of the world’s largest privately-owned travel agency, and holder of a master’s degree in theology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mr Ferrara says Ms Irwin Hentschel's background suggests that she is no "Fatimite", but a Catholic of decidedly non-traditionalist leanings who nonetheless understands what is at stake in the fulfillment of Our Lady of Fatima’s long-unheeded request. Her article on the HuffPost religion page is headed "Pope and Putin: Seize Opportunity, Heed Directive for World Peace and Good, 'Consecrate Russia!'"

Ms Irwin Hentschel makes a connection which never occurred to me before, linking the philosophy of Laozi (aka Lao-Tse or Lao Tzu) with the heavenly directive of the Blessed Virgin. "All under Heaven," wrote the Chinese sage, "have a common Beginning. This Beginning is 'The Mother of the World'. Having known the Mother, we may proceed to know her children. Having known the children, we should go back and hold onto the Mother..."

Ms Irwin Hentschel sees in this proverb a prophetic indication of the need "to take heed and obey the Holy Mother to spawn virtue and harmony for good, confronting the evils of corruption and violence."

Later she asks the same questions posed by Father Gruner and all the others (including Walt) who have begged the Holy Father to do as Our Lady of Fatima asks. "Will the pope and President Putin respect the explicit directive 'Consecrate Russia', which began in 1917 from Our Lady of Fatima, the holy woman they both hold as 'Mother of the World'? Will Pope Francis unequivocally 'consecrate Russia' to Her Immaculate Heart so the maternal promise of world peace and ultimate good may come to fruition?"

Walt has been surfing the Web assiduously for reports of yesterday's ceremonies. So far all I've been able to come up with is the official news from the Vatican's own website: "Pope consecrates world to immaculate heart of Mary". That's exactly what the Holy Father said he would do -- no less and, sadly, no more.

You can read the full text of the Pope's homily in the Vatican News report. In one of the first paragraphs, Pope Francis repeated the Old Testament story of King Naaman.

The story of Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, is remarkable. In order to be healed of leprosy, he turns to the prophet of God, Elisha, who does not perform magic or demand anything unusual of him, but asks him simply to trust in God and to wash in the waters of the river. Not, however, in one of the great rivers of Damascus, but in the little stream of the Jordan. Naaman is left surprised, even taken aback. What kind of God is this who asks for something so simple? He wants to turn back, but then he goes ahead, he immerses himself in the Jordan and is immediately healed (cf. 2 Kg 5:1-4). There it is: God surprises us. It is precisely in poverty, in weakness and in humility that he reveals himself and grants us his love, which saves us, heals us and gives us strength. He asks us only to obey his word and to trust in him.

Anyone who has heard Father Gruner preach knows the story of King Naaman is a favourite of "the Fatima priest". He has said time and again that all the pope has to do to obey Our Lady's request is to humble himself to say a simple, five-minute prayer, and use his power to command all the world's bishops to say the same prayer at the same time.

It appears that Pope Francis has worked up the courage to take himself to the bank of the river, and even to stick his toe in (so to speak), but is not yet quite ready to take the plunge. The world and Our Lady are still waiting.

UPDATE, 23/10/13 - Don't miss "On Pope Francis’ Consecration of the World: A Reply to Jeff Mirus" by Christopher Ferrara, which appeared October 18th in Fatima Perspectives.

Pope Francis: a traditional Catholic's view

Christopher A. Ferrara, Esquire -- that's the way he likes his name to appear -- has written several books and numeours articles on the struggle to uphold the traditional Catholic Faith against the onslught of secular humanism, modernism and syncretism within the Church itself. Walt has received in the overnight e-mail Mr. Ferrara's reaction to the election of Pope Francis.

What are we to make of the new Pope? In the journalistic arena from which this is being dispatched, one feels the pressure to say something definite almost immediately or risk dying the death of being ignored amidst a welter of “first impressions.” But this writer is going to let the story evolve.

It is said that as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Bergoglio was hostile to the traditional Latin Mass, but it is far too soon to make any prognostications in that regard. And now that he is pastor of the universal Church, in which the Latin Mass is returning to use on every continent, it is difficult to see him implementing any such merely parochial prejudice contrary to the letter and spirit of Summorum Pontificum and the liturgical restoration it has already launched. Indeed, as we learned today at the Vatican press conference, the first papal Mass, this evening in the Sistine Chapel, will be in Latin, even if it will not follow the 1962 Missal.

As further revealed at the Vatican press conference, after he prayed before the famous icon of Mary under the title Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People) at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major early this morning, Pope Francis made it a point to pray as well before the tomb of Saint Pius V, who canonized the traditional Mass in perpetuity with his Bull Quo Primum. As one Italian traditionalist blog site observed of this gesture:

The conciliatory gesture escaped no one, seeing the terror that was wrongly spread among traditionalists and that some of their expressions of opinion have emphasized. Of Ratzinger it was said that he was a Rottweiler of the Catholic Faith, but instead he was a very sweet German pastor. Of Bergoglio they now say he is a South American revolutionary, and instead is seen a Pope in the line of his predecessors, who salutes the Pontiff of the Missal rehabilitated by Benedict XVI.

This much we know with surety from what we have seen thus far: that the new Pope is a humble man with evident Marian devotion. His first devotional act as Pope was to brush aside all concerns about security in order to pay a visit to the largest Marian church in Rome, bringing Our Lady a bouquet of flowers and leaving it before the icon of Mary as Protectress of the Roman People.

The most important question now before us respecting the new Pope is this: Will he perform the Consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart? For this we must pray, wait, and hope with renewed determination.

Bertone: "It's the Pope, not me!"

Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone is unable to keep his own counsel any longer! Having been named by La Repubblica [not to mention WWW! Ed.] as either the attacker or the attackee in the ongoing Vatileaks saga, the Man Who Would Be Pope has given an interview to RAI-TV on the leaks of confidential Vatican documents.

According to the "Prime Minister of the Vatican" the leaks are an attack on Pope Benedict XVI. Recalling an earlier day when Pope Paul VI was under attack from within the Vatican, the cardinal said that in this case "the attacks are more carefully aimed, and sometimes also ferocious, destructive, and organized". Click here to read the full text of the interview, as translated by the National Catholic Reporter.

Surely Walt is not the only one experiencing a certain cognitive dissonance here. In other words... say what?! Odd that the cardinal should point the finger at the Pope, since he -- not the Pope -- is the one who appears in an unfavourable light in the documents that have been released so far. None of the leaked documents has been embarrassing to the Holy Father.

Cardinal Bertone's use of the word "organized" to describe the leaks suggests that he shares the general belief in Rome that the leaks have been orchestrated by a group of people. But who is the organizer? Is there some kind of collective mind at work, or could it be just one jealous and disgruntled individual?

One more innocent question. Should we believe Cardinal Bertone? Or is this another instance of his going on the air to present misinformation and disinformation to a lapdog interviewer?

Something similar happened just over five years ago, on the popular RAI talk show Porta a Porta. On 31 May 2007 the cardinal got Bruno Vespa -- Italy's answer to Phil Donahue -- to toss him a couple of fungos on the subject of the Third Secret of Fatima, which Bertone insisted had been disclosed at last, in its entirety, on 26 June 2000.

Unfortunately for His Eminence, the interview turned into a huge "own goal", as Bertone showed the world, on live TV, that there were at least two envelopes whose contents (Sister Lucia wrote) were only to be opened in 1960. Until that interview, the cardinal had maintained that there was only one envelope, and that Lucia had never received an order from Our Lady referring to 1960.

For an excellent account of Cardinal Bertone's deception and his personal campaign to conceal the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Third Secret of Fatima, read The Secret Still Hidden by Christopher Ferrara (Good Counsel Publications, 2008).

In the old Soviet Union, it was said that you couldn't believe anything until it was officially denied. Walt thinks the same could be said of the Vatican Secretariat of State. Stay tuned.

Breaking news! We didn't have to stay tuned too long. None other than Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, has conceded that the multiple leaks of confidential documents have damaged the credibility of the Vatican. "Clearly to restore a climate of serenity and trust is a process," said Father Lombardi. (Walt's emphasis.) "It is not something that can be solved in a few days." Indeed? Indeed.

Further reading: "Benedict XVI admits Church's problems come 'from within'" posted here 11 May 2010.