Walt's forecast on Leo XIV's papacy: no change expected

Since May, Walt has said nothing much about Pope Leo XIV, whom many traditional Catholics had hoped (and prayed) would slow down, if not stop the descent of the Roman Catholic Church into wokeness, heresy and irrelevancy. "Give him time," said our old friend Michael Matt. Well, we did, and are saddened to report that the passage of nearly three months has revealed the new pope to be very little different from his predecessor, Francis the Talking Pope.

Pope Prevost's appointments to the Roman Curia, announced very quietly on Friday, have been mostly modernists, and protégés of Francis. 

Nor has he stopped the crackdown on the Traditional Latin Mass, ordered by some bishops "in accordance with the wishes of Pope Francis", even though Francis had gone to his reward.

And today, we have news of a meeting between Pope Leo and Father James Martin, to whom we devoted an entire post just last week. 

Father Martin is as gay as 18 balloons, and found favour in the eyes of Francis as one of the most prominent advocates for "gay marriage" and "greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church". Father Martin told the meeja that Leo "encouraged his ministry", just days before a planned Holy Year pilgrimage of LGBTQ+ Catholics to the Vatican, in a sign of "continued welcome in this new pontificate."

He said also that Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Church. "I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people," the objectively heretical priest told AP after the audience. "It was wonderful. It was very consoling and very encouraging and frankly a lot of fun."

The meeting, which lasted about half an hour, was officially announced by the Vatican in a sign that the new pope wanted it made public, to signal continuity with Francis, who more than any of Leo’s predecessors worked to make the Catholic Church more queer-friendly. 

From his 2013 quip, "Who am I to judge?" about a purportedly gay priest, to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, Francis distinguished himself with his message of welcome. During his 12-year papacy, Francis met on several occasions with Fr Martin and named him an advisor in the Vatican's communications department and a member of his "Synod on synodality", a big multi-year meeting on the future of the Church.

Still, Francis never changed church teaching saying homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered". Whether Leo will attempt to change dogma is something of a question. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which Father Robert Prevost, as he then was, criticized the "homosexual lifestyle" and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine. 

When he became a cardinal in 2023, Catholic News Service asked Prevost if his views had changed. He acknowledged Francis' call for a more inclusive church, saying Francis "made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever." The doctrine of the Church had not changed, Cardinal Prevost said, "but we are looking to be more welcoming and more open and to say all people are welcome in the church." 

So where does the new Pope Prevost stand today? Fr Martin, who knew him from their time working together in the aforementioned synod, told AP he wasn't worried about Leo's views, and had always found him to be "a very open, welcoming, inclusive person.... But it's wonderful to hear this continuation."

Walt's reading of the signs and portents? See headline.

Worth viewing! "Bishop Renounces The Idea Of Sin And Says EVERYONE Deserves The Eucharist", by Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition, 1/9/25.

What about that "Father James Martin"? - BONUS VIDEO ADDED

Some readers have expressed puzzlement over Walt's reference in "What made her/him do it?!", WWW 27/8/25, to "evil priests of the Father Hames Martin type". "Who he?", we hear them ask. That's him  on the right in the picture, giving his priestly blessing to a gay couple.

Father Martin is an American Jesuit priest and pro-queer activist. He was a great friend of the late Jorge Bergoglio (a Jesuit known by some as Pope Francis), and is now in the very good graces of Pope Leo XIV and members of the Mauve Mafia in the Vatican.

Father Martin is objectively a heretic in that he not only denies but openly advocates one of the mortal sins that deprive the soul of grace. They are serious transgressions of God's law, done freely and deliberately with a clear understanding of what they are. Their result is to deny a soul entrance to heaven. 

There are particular mortal sins that are so evil that they cry to heaven for vengeance. They are (with Biblical references for our readers who insist that only what's in the Bible counts): murder (Genesis 4:10), sodomy (Genesis 18:20-21), oppression of the poor (Exodus 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (St. James 5:4).

Sodomy and other "choices" of the liberal/libertine lifestyle are still regarded by Holy Mother Church as grave sins, even though modernists priests and bishops don't say the silent part out loud since the days of Pope Benedict XVI. Just one day before his election, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger delivered a homily in which he denounced modern trends he said were undermining Catholicism and Western civilization. "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism," he said, "which does not recognize anything for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

As enforcer of Catholic dogma, Cardinal Ratzinger chastised dissident theologians, said no to female priests, no to married priests and no to gay marriage. He described homosexuality as an "objective disorder and an intrinsic moral evil."

One of the pontiff's most successful and most emotional trips was to the United States in 2008, where he tackled the most painful issue for the Catholic Church in America — clerical sex abuse — saying he was deeply ashamed. "It is in the context of this hope born of God's love and fidelity that I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors," he said. "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse ... nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the Church." 

Readers should now understand my wondering, yesterday, if Robin (formerly Robert) Westman might have been "influenced" by "evil priests of the Father James Martin type." If, indeed, the Minneapolis shooter was "influenced" by an evil priest, that does not excuse her/him. But it condemns the one who led the little one astray.

He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. (St. Matthew 18:6)  

Worth watching! "Nightmare in Minneapolis" Where did the Catholic Church go wrong?", with Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper.

"Modern society is revolting..."

Modern society is revolting against God and his created order. In some ways, there's nothing new: "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto his own, and his own received Him not." (St. John 1:10-11 DRV) 

In another way, the revolt seems to have arrived at its theoretical conclusion: we are the gods of our own creation. 

Society accepts that humans can become animals; which was preceded by the idea animals are persons too; which was preceded by a rejection of human dignity (physician assisted suicide); Preceded by the rejection of sexual differences of male and female (gender ideology); preceded by the rejection of the nature of marriage (homosexual "marriage"); preceded by the rejection of heterosexual normalcy (gay rights); 

Preceded by the rejection of the sanctity of human life (abortion); preceded by the rejection of the dignity of motherhood (feminism); preceded by the rejection of differentiated roles (women in the workforce); which was preceded by the rejection of the sanctity of marriage (legalized divorce); which was preceded by a rejection of the family as the unit of society (women's suffrage). 

The descent has not been slow -- all these things (except perhaps women's suffrage) happened within living memory -- but it has been sure. 

It only remains for the revolutionaries to eliminate the dissenters. Let them come. What can separate us from the love of God? 

Based on a message from Father Robert Novokowsky, FSSP, the Parish Priest of Saint Aloysius Parish in the Diocese of Saint Catharines, Canada. Click here to visit TLM in Thorold South, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter's YouTube channel.

Hyuge Vatican flip-flop: "Pope" Francis okays blessing of "gay unions"

As Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, predicted in "For God's Sake" earlier this month, Jorge Bergoglio, the man who calls himself "Pope" Francis, has finally confirmed that homosexuality is not, per se, sinful. Therefore, the Vatican has now reversed its position banning the blessing of homosexual couples, asserting that a blessing can now be "offered to all without requiring anything" (such as repentance and a vow to turn away from a disordered lifestyle).

In a text released today with the express approval of the "Pope", the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the "Congregation" and, before that, the "Holy Office", in the days when that meant something) stated, that blessings require both “the right intention of those who participate” and “that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation.” 

It seems the "Church of Accompaniment" has come along way since March of 2021, when CDF issued a statement declaring that the Church has no authority to bless homosexual unions, noting that God Himself  "does not and cannot bless sin. For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage, as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex."

What should we faithful Christians believe, Here's what the Bible has to say.

Isaias 5:20–21 (DRV): 

Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 

Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.

Wonder if Francis has ever read that. Here's another one.

Malachias 3:16-18 (DRV): Then they that feared the Lord spoke every one with his neighbour: and the Lord gave ear, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written before him  for them that fear the Lord, and think on his name.  

And they shall be my special possessions, saith the Lord of hosts, in the say that I do judgment: and I will spare them, as a man spareth his son that serveth him.  

And you shall return, and shall see the difference between the just and the wicked: and between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.

Who, let us ask, does Francis serve?

Further reading: "Homosexuality condemned in the Word of God", WWW 9/7/09 (one of Walt's very first posts). 

Pray this is a joke!

Pope Francis Excommunicates Apostle Paul Over Outdated Views On Women, Marriage 

If you think that's unlikely, consider this latest video from Remnant TV. Michael Matt says that the Church may finally have reached the point of self-destruction by declaring that there is no more sin. If the Church no longer believes in hell, that renders the Incarnation and Resurrection pointless, and the existence of the Church irrelevant. 

Let us pray. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Mass shooting in Canada's capital raises disturbing questions

It's a long weekend in the Great No-longer-white North, just as it is in the Excited States of America. The difference is that the Canucks spell the holiday "Labour Day" instead of "Labor Day". Normally nothing happens in Canada on a Labour Day weekend, but not this year.

The Ottawa police -- the heroes of the Freedom Convoy -- and the lickspittle media are trying out the best way to spin the news of a shooting at a wedding reception last night, which left two "Toronto men" (as Arnie would say) dead and injured six others. 

A spokesthingy for the cops police responded to reports of gunfire at about 2221 ["about"? Ed.] in Ottawa's s south end, near the airport outside a club where a wedding reception was being held. Initially the police would provide no information about the victims or suspects, except to say that there were no threats to public safety.

This afternoon, however, to quell certain rumors being spread about the gender preferences of the happy couple, they identified the deceased.

They are... or were... 26-year-old Said Mohamed Ali and 29-year-old Abdishakur Abdi-Dahir, both from Toronto. For some reason, nothing further was said about the ethnicity of the deceased, although we can pretty well figure that out. Same with their Religion of Peace. 

But what about their "gender identity"? Or their status in Canada? Were they, by any chance, homosexuals who were being united in a "gay marriage"? Perhaps they were "refugees" from Syria or Afghanistan or some other Islamic shithole, where homosexuality and the Sin of Fr James Martin are officially unacceptable or downright illegal. Just sayin'....

And the biggest question of all. What if the shooter turns out to be, not some rabid white supremacist, but a devout Muslim, one who is devoutly anti-gay? What would that do to the liberal narrative?

UPDATE ADDED 4/9/23: The Groan & Wail version of this story says the "Somali community" was involved. Lately there have been several "mostly peaceful" clashes between "refugees" from Somalia and Eritrea, and between two factions of the Eritrean community -- those who are opposed to the dictatorship and those who support the evil regime.

ANOTHER great day for America! SCOTUS rules freedom of speech trumps LGBTetc "rights"

Today is a great day for America! This morning, the Supreme Court released its judgment in the case of Lori Smith, an Evangelical Christian web designer in Colorado who refused to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings, contrary to her religious beliefs. The basis for the ruling is that to force her to affirm the queer lifestyle would violate her rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The case, 300 Creative LLC v. Elenis et al., was decided by 6-3 majority, with all of the Court's male, Republican appointees siding with the website designer. All three of the female Democratic appointees dissented.

Ms Smith wanted to expand her web design business, 303 Creative,  to create wedding websites to express "God's design for marriage as a union between one man and one woman." She also wanted to post a message on her website saying same-sex marriage is "a story about marriage that contradicts God’s true story of marriage." 

For some reason (!) Ms Smith feared that message would run afoul of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, so she filed for a declaratory judgment. She lost in the lower and federal appeals courts, but then appealed to SCOTUS, which held that "The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees."

The majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who issued the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores decision as an appellate judge, and often writes for the court in religious liberty cases.

The dissent was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who, as Walt told you yesterday, admits to being an affirmative action appointee.

The case picks up the argument over the First Amendment and same-sex "marriage" where SCOTUS left off in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a 2018 decision in which the Court sided with a Christian baker who did not want to prepare a cake for a same-sex "wedding". As that decision was largely on procedural grounds, the Court did not decide the question of whether the baker could be compelled to join in the celebration of "gay marriage".

The issue in 300 Creative is slightly different, because it involves the actual expression of words. Ms Smith said she would have been happy to work for same-sex couples, but not to create messages that conflicted with her own Christian faith.

Justice Gorsuch reviewed the history of the Court’s jurisprudence on freedom of expression and association. He then gave reasons for the Court's ruling, summarized here. [Citations of previous cases are omitted. Click here to read the full text of the ruling.]

[T]he First Amendment protects an individual’s right to speak his mind regardless of whether the government considers his speech sensible and well intentioned or deeply “misguided,” … and likely to cause “anguish” or “incalculable grief.” … Equally, the First Amendment protects acts of expressive association. …

Generally, too, the government may not compel a person to speak its own preferred messages. …Nor does it matter whether the government seeks to compel a person to speak its message when he would prefer to remain silent or to force an individual to include other ideas with his own speech that he would prefer not to include. … All that offends the First Amendment just the same. … 

Consider what a contrary approach would mean. Under Colorado's logic, the government may compel anyone who speaks for pay on a given topic to accept all commissions on that same topic — no matter the underlying message — if the topic somehow implicates a customer’s statutorily protected trait.

Taken seriously, that principle would allow the government to force all manner of artists, speechwriters, and others whose services involve speech to speak what they do not believe on pain of penalty. The government could require "an unwilling Muslim movie director to make a film with a Zionist message," or "an atheist muralist to accept a commission celebrating Evangelical zeal," so long as they would make films or murals for other members of the public with different messages. … Equally, the government could force a male website designer married to another man to design websites for an organization that advocates against same-sex marriage. … 

Of course, abiding the Constitution’s commitment to the freedom of speech means all of us will encounter ideas we consider "unattractive," … "misguided, or even hurtful." …. But tolerance, not coercion, is our Nation’s answer. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. 

While laws against discrimination in places of public accommodation were important, Justice Gorsuch wrote, they did not violate fundamental civil liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights. 

Hooray for the judge, and long live free speech! Try to make me write pro-queer propaganda for WWW! I dare ya. I double-dare ya!

VIDEO: Leading cardinal warns Vatican insiders out to destroy Church

For years now, most Roman Catholic bishops, priests and laypeople have been saying -- "hoping" would be a better word -- that their is no crisis in the Church, that everyone is onboard with the unoly crusade of the man who calls himself Pope Francis to merge the True Faith with all the other faiths into a One World Church, the religion of the New World Order.

That's a lie! Pope Bergoglio is opposed by millions of traditional Catholics who cling for dear life -- eternal life -- to the True Faith. This week, one of the most powerful princes of the Church, Gerhard Cardinal Müller, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared war on those inside the Vatican who are "occupying the Catholic Church" and, according to the Cardinal, engaging in a "hostile takeover."

In the latest edition of the Remnant Underground, Michael Matt presents and comments on portions of Raymond Arroyo's recent interview with the Cardinal Müller on the topic of Francis' "Church of Accompaniment". Listen as the prelate warns that if we don't resist, they will "destroy the Catholic Church!"

Note from Ed.: This is an edited version of the original Remnant Underground video. We wanted to focus solely on Raymond Arroyo's interview with Cardinal Müller, and Michael Matt's comments. In the first 15 minutes of so of the full-length video, Mr Matt talks about the election of Giorgina Meloni as Prime Minister of Italy, and the controversy over over which side we should take in the war in the Ukraine. Click here to see the video in its entirety on Remnant TV.

VIDEO: Father Edward Meeks talks about the plague of "wokeness"

In addition to being the Glorious Fourth of July, yesterday was a Sunday. Hope some of you went to church before enjoying the July 4th cookout promised by Sleepy Joe. The promise that 70% of American would be vaccinated against the kung flu by July 4th didn't quite eventuate -- actual number 63% -- but never mind, there are other plagues to think about.

In yesterday's homily, Father Edward Meeks, a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, and the founding pastor of Christ the King Church in Towson MD, talked about one of those "other plagues" now sweeping the Excited States of America -- that of political correctness, or not giving offence, in an age when so many seem so easily offended.

   

Lesson 1: If you're a Christian and offended by the "wokeness" of today's America, don't be afraid to stand up and say so. The godlessness of the popular cultural is real. As Fr Meeks says, those infected by it need to "wake up from their wokeness" before it's too late -- for them and for the country. It's up to us to issue the wakeup call! 

Lesson 2: Even more important, acknowledging that we who believe in the Lord are a small and too-often-silent minority in a world of unbelievers, a world hell-bent (word chosen carefully) on self-destruction, we must keep our Faith, for the sake of own souls, lest we follow the majority to eterenal damnation.

VIDEO: Hard to believe the Catholic Church has come to this

Dr Taylor Marshall posted this short video yesterday. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, vomit... or all three.

   

This appears to have come from somewhere in Germany. Such a beautiful church building. Such irreverence and sacrilege. Such a shame and I mean that in the most literal sense. But that's the new, cool Catholic Church -- spawned by Vatican II, and approved by Jorge Bergoglio, the man who calls himself Pope Francis. 

Elsewhere in Germany: Priests in over 100 "Catholic" churches, with the blessing and encouragement of their bishops, this week offered "blessings" to "homosexual unions" -- they stopped short of calling them "marriages" -- in defiance of a recent pronouncement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God "cannot bless sin."

The "blessings" are the latest escalation in tensions between "progressive" and traditional Catholics that have sparked alarm that part of the Church might be heading into schism. Where all this modernist nonsense will end, only God knows... and I mean that literally, too.

The SPLC hates Judge Roy Moore... because he's RIGHT!

You might not think it from their altruistic-sounding name, but the Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group! What they hate with consuming passion is intolerance. Make that religious intolerance. More accurately, they hate Christian intolerance, since they rarely inveigh against Islamic fanatacism or (Gott in Himmel!) Zionism.

Can you be more specific (I hear you ask) about who the SPLC hates? Why sure. According to Wikipedia, the SPLC recently counted 784 American societies, churches and organizations that it describes as "active hate groups". These included:
72 separate Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups with 52 websites
142 neo-Nazi groups with 89 websites
115 white nationalist groups with 190 websites
119 white power skinhead groups with 25 websites
21 Christian Identity groups with 37 websites
37 neo-Confederate groups with 25 websites
113 black separatist groups with 40 websites
165 general hate groups (subdivided into anti-gay, Holocaust denial, racist music, radical traditionalist Catholic and others)with 172 hate websites.

So let's see... If the SPLC is against groups which are anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, etc., then they must be for queers, immigrants, Muslims, etc... right? And if they're against "Christian Identity" groups, who are they for? That would be a good question to ask their CEO, Richard Cohen.

The "Christian Identity groups" most often targeted by the SPLC are evangelical Protestants and "radical traditional Catholic" groups. High on their fecal roster are Catholic Family News/Catholic Family Ministries, The Fatima Crusader/International Fatima Rosary Crusade, and The Remnant/The Remnant Press, all of which Walt endorses whole-heartedly. [WWW didn't make the list though. Maybe Walt isn't as widely read as we like to think. Ed.]

The SPLC doesn't restrict its hate to groups. They routinely indulge in ad hominem attacks against named individuals including Michael Matt (see "Further viewing" below), John Vennari, Rush Limbaugh and the late Father Nicholas Gruner+. Since these individuals have all expressed disappointment (to put it mildly) with Pope Francis, you might think the SPLC is pro-Pope, but you would be wrong.

The SPLC doesn't restrict its scurrilous attacks to Catholics. Evangelic Protestants are pilloried for their fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and particularly their insistence that the United States of America was created as, and should remain a Christian nation -- "one nation under God".

Their primary target at the moment is the Hon. Roy Moore, Chief Justice of Alabama. Judge Moore, who has the temerity to wear Christian symbols on his lapel and signet ring, won fame (or notoriety) for three actions he took while serving as a circuit judge.

He posted a hand-carved wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments in his court room, opened court sessions with prayers led by a local clergyman, and later installed a granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building. For those acts, and for telling supporters at a rally in Tennessee that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that Christians should "take back our land", Judge Moore was removed from the bench in 2003. He was reinstated in 2012.

Now, from his position as Alabama's chief justice, Judge Moore is leading the fight against gay "marriage". On January 6th he instructed the state's probate judges not to grant marriage licences to same-sex couples. He argues that a prohibition of the Alabama Supreme Court last year remains in effect, despite a recent ruling of the United States Supreme Court, because the USSC ruling involved four states other than Alabama.

Judge Moore has described homosexuality as "an inherent evil". Gay "marriage", he says, means "the destruction of the foundation of our country."

Richard Cohen, CEO of the SPLC, replies by calling the jurist "the Ayatollah of Alabama" and says his reasoning is "completely deceptive and legally bogus". Judge Moore's comment? "When you stand up for the truth these days, you are going to be attacked."

This week's Economist quotes Judge Moore as saying America was founded on "the God of the Holy Scriptures", and that those whose beliefs are contrary to God's laws live and worship in the USA on sufferance. He invokes Thomas Jefferson in holding that the religious freedom of Christians is granted by God, not by government. Thus, he says, social change, such as recognition of gay "marriage", "is not to be dictated by a court."

Millions of Americans agree with Judge Moore that their country's precepts have been forsake, and its greatness lost. That is why Donald Trump's slogan -- "Make America great again!" -- is resonating so strongly in Iowa, New Hampshire and America's heartland. And that's why the SPLC hates Judge Roy Moore.

Further VIEWING (Yes, it's a video!): "Michael Matt talks about the worldwide persecution of Christians, Vatican II and the victory of relativism", WWW 15/9/13.