Battle between modernism and tradition heats up as Pope fires 3IC

Full in the panting heart of Rome (as went the old hymn) there is a civil war going on. Make that a religious war. The Roman Catholic Church, which we used to think of as universal (which is what "catholic" means) and monolithic, is divided as it has not been since the Great Schism of the Middle Ages. The conflict is not between Catholic Tradition and modernism, or conservatives and liberals, but between the liberals who slavishly follow the false teachings of Vatican II and the ultra-liberals who want to finish what Martin Luther started and lead the Church into heresies from which She can never recover.

The champion of the "progressive" faction, the modernizing deniers of Catholic dogma, is none other than Pope Francis himself. In the opposite corner, so to speak, is Gerhard Cardinal Müller, who was named head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, precisely to halt the descent into syncretism, relativism and other heresies which had thrown the Church into a crisis of faith.

On Saturday, while Canadians (or some of them) were celebrating their country's 150th anniversary, the Pope ordered Cardinal Müller (also third in command at the Vatican after the Pope and the Secretary of State) into retirement. Thus, Francis neutralized one of the few princes of the church whose job it was to call out the pope for his seemingly endless appetite for doctrinal change.

The prelate represented the conservative -- read "less liberal" -- wing of the Church that has looked askance at the pontiff’s disregard for centuries-old tradition and restrictions. Ever since Francis assumed the Throne of Peter in 2013, he and the cardinal seemed to be on a collision course. Cardinal Müller was not at all pleased when Francis, answering a question about his feelings toward gay Catholics, shrugged and said, "Who am I to judge?". When Francis announced that he wanted to create a commission to discuss allowing women to become deacons, the prelate effectively quashed the idea.

The excrement really interfaced with the air-conditioning device when Francis ignored Cardinal Müller's suggested alterations to his "apostolic exhortation", Amoris Laetitia. The prelate opposed Pope Bergoglio's attempt to allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion -- an act of rejecting Christ's teaching that traditionally carries with it the penalty of excommunication. The anti-Catholic teachings of Amoris Laetitia have been openly resisted by many, including four cardinals who, last September, published their dubia (an expression of confusion or doubt), which the Poope has yet to answer.

By refusing to extend Cardinal Müller's tenure as head of the CDF, Francis has effectively fired the prelate, and scored a huge win in his battle to impose his ultra-liberal, anti-Catholic views on Holy Mother Church. To make matters even worse, His Humbleness replaced Cardinal Müller with Archbishop Luis Ladaria -- a liberal Jesuit like the Pope -- thus virtually eliminating any chance of opposition from the one office in the Church with the duty to interpret Catholic magisterium –- that is, spreading doctrinal teaching to the Church's billion plus adherents.

When Pope Ratzinger appointed Archbishop Ladaria Secretary of the CDF in 2008, his appointment was openly criticized because of the prelate's heterodox (read: heretical) teachings on Original Sin and Grace. Cardinal Müller was bad enough, but Abp Ladaria promises to be worse. There is no truly Catholic prelate left in the Roman Catholic Church. No, not one.

Dear Catholic readers, let us pray to Saint Michael the Archangel and to the sainted Popes Pius V and Pius X to defend us as the battle to preserve the Faith of our fathers nears its climax, and to confound and defeat those within the highest echelons of the Church who would lead us into heresy and damnation. Amen.

Judgment Day - 19 September 2016 ???

3 portents of the coming Armageddon, published here a week ago, is drawing considerable interest. And why not? End-of-the-world questions and prophecies have been on people's minds and lips since about 90 seconds after Our Lord's Resurrection.

When is Jesus going to return in glory? How much longer will God tolerate the wickedness and perversity of His people? When will be the awful day of judgment? How long do we have to get ready?

These questions were perhaps even more real, more urgent to the people of the mid-14th century than they are to us, six-and-a-half centuries later. The 14th century was a time of terrible turmoil, with people from kings to commoners suffering from the Black Death and constant wars and pillage. The Church was even more corrupt and dissolute than it is today, held captive in "Babylon" (Avignon, France), then torn in the latter part of the century by the Great Schism.

In her monumental work A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century (Ballantine, 1978), historian Barbara Tuchman tells us that the people of that time were fascinated and entertained by liturgical plays (such as the Passion Play, which survived in parts of Europe until the end of the 20th century) and "miracle plays and mysteries", whose subject matter was religious, but scripts and presentation more like secular drama.

She goes on to describe "The Day of Judgment" and "The Harrowing of Hell", which may have been performed at the historic entertainment in Paris of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, by Charles V, King of France. Read carefully her synopsis of these plays of prophecy.

"Apocalypse...was enacted in the Day of Judgment and the Harrowing of Hell, when Christ goes down to lead Adam and the prophets out to Paradise. Anti-Christ appears at his appointed time, traditionally fixed at three and half years before the Last Judgment. Born of Satan's seduction of a woman of Babylon, and instructed in all the demonic arts, he gains such power that kinds and cardinals pay him homage until he is overthrown at Armageddon in the triumph of good over evil. The saved are separated from the damned, and angels empty the vials of wrath." [My emphasis. Walt]

Now let us suppose, just for the sake of the argument, that Pope Francis is the Antichrist, the devil wrapped in a cloak of gentleness and humility. Francis was "inaugurated" -- the Church doesn't "consecrate", "crown" or "enthrone" popes any more -- on 19 March 2013. Add the "traditional" three years and six months and you get 19 September 2016. That's the date. Don't say Walt didn't warn you!

I'll give you that it's hard to see in Pope Francis the "Peter the Roman" named in the prophecy of St. Malachy as the last pope. But hold on. Francis has been rumored for some time to be in poor health. Since being "installed", he has cancelled several audiences and appearances, and the Vatican has press office has denied he is sick, which means he probably is. Suppose he dies? Then all bets are off and we will look for some "Petrine connection" in his successor.

What about "the woman of Babylon"? Ask any evangelical Protestant preacher and he'll tell you the Church of Rome is the "whore of Babylon" spoken of in the 17th and 18th chapters of the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine (or Revelation).
"I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters (17:1)... on her forehead a name was written: A mystery; Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth. (17:5)"

The mystery plays speak of "Satan's seduction of a woman of Babylon". Has the devil seduced and perverted the Church of Rome, founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ when He walked among us? Don't take Walt's word for it. Heed the words of Pope Paul VI, who, following Vatican II and towards the end of reign, said publicly that "the smoke of Satan has entered the Church". He knew it full well, having been the pope who held open the window.

So there you have it. 19 September 2016. Walt isn't about to paint a placard saying "The end of the world is nigh" and go stand in front of the cathedral. Not just yet. But neither would I recommend turning a blind eye to the signs and portents.

What I do recommend, if this talk of Judgment Day is making you a bit nervous, is that you read Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, by Father Nicholas Gruner, reviewed here last month.