Great Post: Remaining Faithful in the Age of Francis [Catholic Caucus]

Blog for Dallas Area Cahtolics ^ | June 1, 2017 | Tantumblogo / Mundabore

[ebb tide]

Thanks to reader T for sending me this link.  I have so little time to read many blogs like I used to.  But below I excerpt (too much) what I believe to be a very helpful and insightful post from Mundabor on how to remain faithful in an age of extreme rebellion and sabotage against the Faith, even by those given great influential offices and responsibilities in the Church.  Mundabor says to share this info, so I copy the most relevant parts, but please click on the link so he knows it is being widely read.

And away we go (my emphasis and comments):

Francis is about to appoint more Cardinals. It is a slow process of erosion, from Cardinals who do not believe in God but feel obliged to fake their faith to Cardinals who do not believe in God and feel obliged to demolish the faith.

At this point it is fair to say that even if Francis were to die tomorrow, the probability of getting a Tagle would be very high. Or a Schoenborn. Or some other CINO. Bar a Divine intervention, the demolition of the Church is going to continue……..[I’m afraid I must concur.  I don’t think it will significantly improve in my lifetime, and will probably become even worse.]

What is, therefore, a poor Catholic to do? I suggest the following:

1. Realise that God is punishing us for the madness and rebellion of Vatican II. He is making us swallow the entire bottle of the poison we wanted to drink. This will teach us a lesson all right. [It may be argued by some that the rebellion is somehow separate from the actual product of Vatican II, the several documents that came out of the Council, but this is a general statement.  There has been a mass rebellion against the perennial belief and practice of the Faith since Vatican II.  It actually was well underway before, but exploded into realization during and after the Council.]

2. Resolve to live and die in your faith no matter the scale of the destruction. [Dang right.  Don’t let them drag you down. Keep the Faith.  Use the tools in previous posts. The revolutionaries can wreak all kinds of destruction.  They can lead souls into error or confirm them there.  They can cause millions to fall away. But you have a special grace, at least some attachment to the constant belief and practice of the Faith (I presume, if you are reading this blog and this post.) Even if they take the TLM away somehow, do not give up the Faith.  Keep going, doing the best you can, whether that means an “illicit” TLM somewhere or muddling through in the Novus Ordo.  No I don’t think God is going to damn any souls who assist at illicit TLMs under severe duress.]

3. Realise that your individual salvation is not decided by Tagle or Schoenborn or Bergoglio. It is decided by God, who expects you to collaborate with His grace towards it.

4. Understand that God’s ways are such that no one, whom God has decreed worthy of Salvation, will be lost because of Francis. [or his predecessors or successors] God does not allow Francis to decide for Him concerning the eternal fate of anyone. Therefore, an age of unbelief and clown Popes is simply an age in which many are Reprobates. But they always were. They were Reprobates from all eternity. God has decreed already that they will refuse, out of their own volition, to collaborate with His grace. Not one of them will be lost because of Francis; rather, they were born in the Age of Francis because God has decreed that they will be lost. [I will admit detailed understanding of the Catholic view of predestination is not my strong suit, but I did not think it Catholic belief that He decrees in advance that souls will be damned?  That sounds kind of Calvinist to me? Yes God knows who will be lost and saved, but I did not think it was a positive decree from God, as that would impede free will. At any rate, I would rather say, God has allowed Francis to become pope because of the sinfulness of fallen men (the electors principally, but the entire Church in its weakness of faith), and as a special challenge and source of Grace for the faithful.  Every time has its own challenges, however, as Mundabor notes below, we live in a time of material plenty, but of spiritual and moral depravity.  Others lived in times of moral rectitude and spiritual fruitfulness but great material want.  Which is more difficult is not easy to discern.]

5. Fight your battle with determination and perseverance, but do not expect to see any improvement during your lifetime. We don’t know how long this punishment will go on. We can do no other but endure it in faith and fight our little battle for as long as we breathe.

6. Realise that this determination will cause you to collaborate with Grace and “merit” (as far as your part is concerned) Purgatory one day. [and even ascending to the Beatific Vision if we are particularly faithful, yes?] Paraphrasing the famous statement, blessed are those who carry on for decades believing what their forefathers have believed in the face of generalised treason from the clergy. Inasmuch as we can gain merit for ourselves, there must be more merit for carrying on for an entire lifetime in an age of sabotage.

7. Use the possibilities modern technology and the wealthy, peaceful conditions of the West give you. You are not living under bombardments, or in time of famine, or pestilence. Nurture your Catholicism on the endless sources you find on the Internet, buy good Catholic books, deepen the faith in its many aspects. React to Francis by becoming more Catholic. [I generally agree, but if you find reading numerous blogs and websites about the atrocities ongoing in the Church gets you down, as strange as it might seem for a blogger to say, STOP!  I have seen people twist themselves off into outright apostasy over the travesties they see occurring in the Church in these days. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU!!]

8. Ask the Blessed Virgin to intercede with the Lord so that your faith may be strengthened no matter what. Resolve to let your faith grow, not falter, at every papal assault. Pray your favourite Saint every day that he may also intercede for you. [Or Saints. I particularly counsel devotion to St. Joseph, who is such an amazingly powerful intercessor]

9. Reflect that even if you have a very long life, it will be but an instant compared to the eternity afterwards. Whatever pain FrancisChurch gives you, resistance to it is an investment with huge rewards.[!!]

10. Think of this every day: nil inultum remanebit, nothing will remain unpunished. All those popes, Bishops and cardinals who betray the faith and die unrepentant will pay the most atrocious price for their rebellion. When their antics enrage you, reflect that God will not leave anything unpunished.

While, I think, praying for their conversion. I actually look upon my prayers for Francis’ conversion or replacement as a work of mercy, so he will stop piling up offenses against God.  No matter how much destruction they wreak, no matter how much they hurt and offend us, we cannot hope for eternal punishment for any soul.  It is unjust and uncharitable to do so. All have sinned.  We may be afflicted with particularly wicked and unworthy men as leaders in the Church right now (and for the past several decades), but I do not wish hell or upon any of them.  Even their time in Purgatory, should they be so fortunate, are terrible to consider.  As is my own.

In total, a few quibbles aside, great advice from Mundabor.  I thank him for this post.  I pray you find it useful, too, and please make your own suggestions, for the benefit of all, how to survive and even thrive in this dark time. Everyone needs encouragement from time to time.

[Scooter100]

Romano Amerio wrote the best anti-Vatican II book on the pre-Council, the Council, and post-Council I’ve ever read. It’s called “Iota Unum - A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the XXth Century”. I learned more about the theology of Christianity, and the church’s position on every topic facing humanity, from that book than I ever did from the Catechism, or even the Bible itself. IMHO, Vatican II was the point in history when the Church went over the cliff and into the progressive abyss.

[Scooter100]

Iota Unum, aut unus apex, non praeteribit. (Matt 5:18)

[RitaOK]

I await a solution. There are a minuscule number of TLM parishes in the USA. Traditional Catholics have no where to turn without long drives, round trips that make you long for a hotel room to make the trip.

I had thought of foregoing the local version of Novus Ordo entirely, and making a monthly trek to a TLM, but was advised against it for several good reasons. But for Holy Communion on the Lord’s Day, I would do so.

[steve86]

“I had thought of foregoing the local version of Novus Ordo entirely, and making a monthly trek to a TLM, but was advised against it”

You got bad advice.

[RitaOK]

You think? I didn’t like the advice, for sure, but it was compelling. My problem is I have not a TLM priest to ask for advice, or who probably would dare encourage such a thing.

There are obligations to bloom where you’re planted, in case for an illness or for your funeral and missing our Lord in Holy Communion on His Holy Day. But, yes, it is a grave suffering to assist in a Novus Ordo, locally. Repellant, really. Anger, tears, often improper disposition to receive.

A true suffering. We are suing for a TLM and have commissioned a Canon lawyer. It may take years, but our bishop is repulsed with us and the TLM.