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Death or Incapacitation of Pope Francis: Soon
Arise! Let us be going! ^ | November 16, 2015 | Father George David Byers

Posted on 11/17/2015 8:44:25 AM PST by ebb tide

AN OPEN LETTER TO POPE FRANCIS

Most Holy Father, Bishop of Rome, Francis:

I note your overture to a Lutheran woman at the Lutheran church on Via Sicilia in Rome on 15 November 2015, the one who asked about intercommunion (starting minute 21.00 on the Vatican YouTube video).

I had to wonder before if your recent interview with Eugenio Scalfari was correctly reported. I now have no doubt.

With due respect to your person and your office, I ask you not to make this kind of thing part of what you want to publish about the Synod with the authority of the infallible ordinary magisterium, which you inferred you would most certainly do in your speech of October 17, 2015.

If you do this, going against the doctrine of the Church, grave matters of faith and morals, on so very many points on so very many levels (HERE), and precisely as the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, and this not just to a journalist, or a single woman, but to the universal Church, deciding what is now a matter of extreme controversy, well, you won’t be able to do it. You will either die or be incapacitated, much as Pope Sixtus V dropped dead before he could accomplish his own will on a matter also touching on marriage and divorce, which I wrote about for your own benefit, HERE.

You say that you won’t decide on such matters, as you absolutely don’t have the capacity to do this, since, instead, as you have it, that competency for such a decision lies with the individual conscience of an individual person, or at the most in consultation with a priest, such as myself, named now by the Holy See to be one of your very own Missionaries of Mercy.

However, Holy Father, as you know from your experience in Argentina, method is also doctrine. To say, for instance, that a priest-confessor in the internal forum can come up with solutions by which he can enable adulterers to go to Communion, then, this is a doctrine that would then be proclaimed. But the Bishop of Rome has no right to change the truth before the Living God, who is Himself Living Truth. You will not get the chance to do this, as you will surely die of natural causes, or because you are martyred, or because you are otherwise incapacitated.

As your loyal son and a loyal son of the Church, must I not also say, in all humility, that to shake your fist at the Church so as to impose your own will on the Church against the Church is a sin? I ask you this, Holy Father, as one of your own Missionaries of Mercy. I am guessing that you are also subject to Mercy, are you not? It is a great mercy also to be reprimanded by someone who wishes everything good for you, is it not? I ask you not to take revenge on me for trying to have mercy on you.

Please, Holy Father, grant me your paternal blessing, and be not angry with this your servant:

Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir.

— Father George David Byers // 16 November 2015 // Andrews, NC, USA

UPDATE: The following email immediately came in upon the publishing of this post from a long time friend who spent years in the Roman Curia. He is rather anxious for my well being:

“Take the last post down. It could be interpreted as a threat to the Pontiff: ‘you will surely die or be incapacitated’. Besides getting you in trouble, which i know you bravely don’t care about, it could get you investigated by the police or worse. Please, Father. Take it down. I am equally distraught by what the Pope has said.”

In other words, yes, I’m correct, but I should worry about myself first. No. As a loyal son of the Bishop of Rome I cannot just ignore that he is effectively about to commit suicide. Should I stand by and merely watch? There is no one else to warn him where his actions are taking him. Infallibility is just that. He cannot fail to speak that which is true when pronouncing on a matter of faith and morals to the universal Church as the Bishop of Rome, especially in deciding a controverted matter.

If the Holy Father is in danger, it is not from me. Instead, I would lay down my life for him, and in putting up this post, I am sure that I am doing myself no favor whatsoever. This time I may well be silenced permanently. I tried my best to have mercy. That’s all I know how to do.

As for being interrogated by the police or worse, I have to let you know this:

Regarding the police: I support them: https://twitter.com/officerdownmd Regarding “or worse”: The best of the best among the FBI have my 6:00 Regarding “or worse”: Cardinal Müller has his own comments about a purification of the Church taking place. At any rate, I also spoke with another trusted priest, who said that taking a bullet on behalf of the truth, the truth which cannot but be in service of the Church, is sometimes necessary. Jesus is not just the way and the life, but also the Truth, because He is the Word, the Word of Truth.

If the Holy Father is in danger, it is either because of ISIS or the Holy Angels or his own health. Actually, I am surprised that ISIS did France before the Vatican.

Just now I was able to offer Holy Mass for Pope Francis. You have to know, I love him to pieces and have all the respect in the world for him and I think that he is personally very holy. Pope Sixtus V dropped dead, but I surely did not hold it against him. I made countless pilgrimages to the Sistine Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore to pray for him and ask for his intercession, since I worked for years on the same difficult problem afflicting the Church upon which he was working.

UPDATE: Obviously, no one is getting the point.

The Holy Father is speaking to Lutherans. Private conscience and private faith is a big deal for them. When Pope Francis says that it is not his competence to give permission to a public sinner or non-Catholic to go to Communion, and then says that it is up to the conscience of the person involved, he is saying that the Pope has no role to play in the formation of the conscience of an individual, because it is all up to the individual before the Lord. But that is a doctrinal statement if there ever was one. And Francis intends to pronounce solemnly on much of the controverted aspects of the Synod on the family. If he tries to teach this as a doctrine, as I say, he will not be able to do so.

UPDATE: COMMENT FROM FATHER GORDON J MACRAE

In coming months, Father George David Byers, who has been commissioned by the Holy See to be a Missionary of Mercy for the Year of Mercy, will be summoned to Rome to receive his special faculties. Today, he published this post that is very controversial. It seems that his first missionary activity is to the Holy Father himself. For those who have disagreed in alarm with some of the statements and interpretations of Pope Francis, this Missionary of Mercy is showing us how it’s done: with love and mercy, with loyalty as our armament and fidelity as our shield. There is no smarmy finger-pointing or undercurrent of taunting here. Please, share this important rebuttal to a very important pastoral discernment in the Church.

UPDATE: Remember, this is done in the wake of the Eugenio Scalfari interview, in which Francis is reported to have said that everyone who asks will be able to receive Communion, whether the time of the process is long or short, but Confessors will be able to deal with any problem. Remember, this was about the divorced and remarried without the previous marriage being declared null and void from the beginning going to Communion in all of their sin with apparent impunity. Francis is crystal clear in this new statement that it is all up to the individual conscience before the Lord, even with no Church formation of conscience whatsoever.

UPDATE: I want to thank you all for sharing this post far and wide, right into the Holy See, for which, taking a peek at the Stats, this post became rather popular, as it has right across the city of Rome. Keep it up. Someone might just slip it in with the Holy Father’s perusal of La Repubblica! Hey, Holy Father! I want the next interview! Give a nod to your secretary!

Having said that, I am amazed that the sedevacantists and the sedeprivationists, and whatever else they call themselves, glommed onto this post, hoping I would become one of them. See some of the comments. No! Never! I have the most profound reverence for the Office and person of the Holy Father. I am loyal to the end, obviously not a “Yes!”-man, but just trying to be helpful.

Also, this needs to be said: While it is true that some are beating the drum for doctrine and may be doing so out of their own insecurity, and are thus Pharisees par excellence, it seems to me that most people by far simply see the absolute beauty of Marriage, of the Most Blessed Sacrament, of the Priesthood, of Confession. We just want to share the greatest love of our lives. This isn’t proselytism. It’s about love. And the truth is love.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: francis; heresy; mercy

1 posted on 11/17/2015 8:44:25 AM PST by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide

“When Pope Francis says that it is not his competence to give permission to a public sinner or non-Catholic to go to Communion, and then says that it is up to the conscience of the person involved, he is saying that the Pope has no role to play in the formation of the conscience of an individual, because it is all up to the individual before the Lord.”

“...because it is all up to the individual before the Lord.”
Yes, it is. Christ is the intercessor to God for us - not a Priest. I am Catholic.


2 posted on 11/17/2015 9:14:21 AM PST by Marcella (CRUZ (Prepping can save your life today.))
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To: ebb tide

THANK GOD!


3 posted on 11/17/2015 9:20:51 AM PST by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: Marcella

Do you go to Confession?


4 posted on 11/17/2015 9:24:04 AM PST by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: Marcella

You are confessing to Christ in the Sacrament of Penance, don’t get hung up on the priest.

As human beings, we also have a human need to hear that we are forgiven. Christ’s representative, the priest, fulfills this need.

I don’t mean to offend, but I think the rationalizing of the skipping of Confession largely has to do with embarrassment over things a penitent must confess. Pride and a lack of humility. But you can go to any priest and sit or kneel behind a screen or a grille.

I don’t want to start a Scripture interpretation war, but how much clearer can it be in the upper room of John 20 that we must confess our sins audibly to one who will say whether they are forgiven or retained?


5 posted on 11/17/2015 9:39:56 AM PST by MDLION (J"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: ebb tide

What will Fr Byers do IF Pope Francis does make an ex cathedra pronouncement on this issue and he doesn’t drop dead, get murdered or incapacitated?


6 posted on 11/17/2015 9:48:21 AM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: Marcella

You’re a poorly educated Catholic.


7 posted on 11/17/2015 10:13:37 AM PST by LT Brass Bancroft
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To: Marcella; All
"“...because it is all up to the individual before the Lord.”

Yes, it is. Christ is the intercessor to God for us - not a Priest. I am Catholic."

I am looking at 1 Corinthians 11:28-29 and I am inclined agree with you.

8 posted on 11/17/2015 10:31:27 AM PST by Amendment10
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To: Marcella

you don’t need defending, dear sister in Christ, but i can’t help but encourge you to stay strong and keep glorifying Jesus. remember the blind beggar who heard Jesus was passing by and kept yelling out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”


9 posted on 11/17/2015 10:36:19 AM PST by dadfly
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To: Amendment10; dadfly; Marcella
You conveniently left out 1 Corinthians 11:27:

Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.

Did you do that on purpose?

10 posted on 11/17/2015 10:50:41 AM PST by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: ebb tide

Amen.


11 posted on 11/17/2015 11:05:18 AM PST by dadfly
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To: ebb tide; All
"Did you do that on purpose?"

No

1 Corinthians 11:27 is a great verse. But regardless of the warning of that verse, I do not see from the Holy Bible where any Christian has the authority to decide that someone else should not eat the bread or drink the chalice of the Lord.

12 posted on 11/17/2015 11:26:25 AM PST by Amendment10
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To: ebb tide

Oh really?

At times past when pointing out the same & similar, if memory serves, I've been accused of failing to make "proper distinctions" or some such, in the end that appeal to "distinction" effectively resulting in disavowal of pattern & practice being evidence of underlying mindset & theology, which mindset itself was being sought to be either protected --hidden from too harsh of light of public scrutiny, or else in other ways justified--- even while appeal to distinctions & difference were being made at the same time, people here essentially telling me to not believe my own lying eyes (and ears), but believe instead all the specialized pleadings for what should be simple, instead.

This thread touches upon one of those very issues.

Humans. Complicated critters, ain't we?

Does the man fancy himself to be a prophet? If so, then who's prophet is he, really?

This next tune goes out to the sedevacantists & semi-sedevacantists here at FR and elsewhere, that within themselves are cauldrons of simmering, unresolved inner conflict.


13 posted on 11/17/2015 12:20:21 PM PST by BlueDragon (Mr. T has pity a-plenty)
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To: boatbums
What will Fr Byers do IF Pope Francis does make an ex cathedra pronouncement on this issue and he doesn’t drop dead, get murdered or incapacitated?

Personally, I would love to see him provide the Catholic teaching that states that this is what would happen.

14 posted on 11/17/2015 1:34:12 PM PST by piusv (The Spirit of Christ hasn't refrained from using separated churches as means of salvation:VII heresy)
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To: Amendment10

St. Paul was a Christian and he said just what you are denying.


15 posted on 11/17/2015 2:35:34 PM PST by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: ebb tide

I find it slightly difficult to pray for this pope but I do, praying for him to get “straightened out”. My prayers are full of colloquial expressions.


16 posted on 11/17/2015 2:40:25 PM PST by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O�Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: ebb tide; All
"St. Paul was a Christian and he said just what you are denying."

Will you please be more specific about what you perceive me to be denying?

17 posted on 11/17/2015 3:14:44 PM PST by Amendment10
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