(Complete Article) 

The only true Catholic attitude to ecumenism is that set out by Pope Pius XI in his encyclicalMortalium Animos: “Let these separated children return to the Apostolic See established in this city which the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, consecrated with their blood, to this See, ‘the root and matrix of the Catholic Church,’ not indeed with the idea or hope that the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth will abandon the integrity of the Faith and bear their errors, but to subject themselves to its teaching authority and rule.”

Address by Michael Davies The Remnant Forum
Tarrytown, N.Y., Nov. 1979

We hear a great deal about the ecumenical movement. Today I am going to speak to you about the ecumenical heresy. The theme of this forum is “Fidelity to the Catholic Tradition”. Catholic tradition has been challenged in many ways since the Second Vatican Council but no challenge has been more blatant, more widespread, and more dangerous than that of those who wish the Church to deny Her very nature in the interests of spurious ecumenism.

The anti-traditionalists are back in the saddle again, and the neo-Catholic nomenklatura have resumed with renewed vigor their role as compliant Mensheviks alongside the still passionate, however elderly, Bolsheviks of the conciliar revolution.

A Blessed Respite

During the seven-year Benedictine Respite, the post-conciliar revolution in the Church seemed to have lost its momentum, even if it was far from being in retreat. Traditional Catholics rejoiced to see a series of papal acts favorable to Tradition: the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum (2007), bringing an end at last to the insane suppression of the traditional Roman Rite; the lifting of the increasingly ridiculous excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)—the only four clerics in the world still deemed schismatic; and the long-overdue correction of the errant, doctrinally defective translations of the Latin typical edition of the Novus Ordo Missal, which the neo-Catholic establishment had been doggedly defending for forty years.

Editor’s Note: Back in 1971, the Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, commented in his archdiocesan newspaper on what was already happening to the New Mass, even at that early date--something Pope Benedict XVI himself would confirm many years later on February 14, 2013, when he noted in his address to the Roman clergy that the New Mass had been "trivialized" throughout the whole world. We quote the late Archbishop Robert J. Dwyer (who attended every session of Vatican II) with a sense of loss and even longing in our hearts for the days when Catholic bishops were still vigilant defenders of the Catholic Faith. Please, God, send us holy priests and bishops once again. …Michael J. Matt

When whole segments of the contemporary Church are set on a downward course of vulgarization, of anti-intellectualism, of revolt, and rebellion against all standards and authority, it is exceedingly difficult to put a stop to the trend, holding back the enormous weight, and then attempting to turn these segments back the other way, to begin all over again the slow, laborious climb to the high and distant peaks.

It is just such a catastrophe which overwhelms us today.  We recall the dream of St. Francis and Pope Innocent III where the little Poor Man was holding up with his feeble hands the collapsing fabric of the Lateran…

Introduction by Scott Montgomery

In the unfolding of Salvation History, it has pleased our Heavenly Father to make use of created beings to reveal His most Holy Will to mankind.  Following the proto evangelium thundered against Satan by God in the Garden of Eden, a long line of holy patriarchs and prophets paved the way for the arrival of the Messiah through inspired teaching and foreshadowing of what was to come.  In doing so, they lifted and consoled the hearts of those living under the Old Law who longed to see the Christ, and they revealed in veiled ways – for those who had eyes to see – the signs that would signify His arrival.

Along with the prophecies and types pointing to our Divine King, there were other prophecies and types that pointed to two humble creatures who would play extremely important roles in our deliverance from sin and death:  A fair young maiden who would give Jesus His flesh and human nature; and a lowly carpenter who would serve as her chaste spouse and the protector of this Holy Family. 

Obervations of a Recent Convert from Lutheranism

"As traditionalists, our primary complaint, and our reason for our curmudgeonry, is that the prayers of the new mass have been gutted of Catholic-specific content. That’s the reason for our ire, and that’s the reason we fight the good fight." ...Nate Metzger

One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes features Jerry’s dentist, who has decided to convert to Judaism. Jerry suspects that his dentist has only converted so that he can use self-deprecating Jewish humor without being offensive. Concerned, Jerry visits a priest (a fact in the storyline that is ironically incidental for my purposes) and tells him what’s going on. “Hmm,” replies the priest after hearing about the offensive dentist. “And this offends you as a Jewish person?” “NO!” replies Jerry. “It offends me as a comedian!”

Press Release – March 16, 2014

Bishop Joseph FAN ZhongLiang, S.J., the underground Bishop of Shanghai appointed by Blessed Pope John Paul II, died today at 5:58 pm Shanghai surrounded by some of his faithful parishioners. He was 97 year old. The Cardinal Kung Foundation has learned that Bishop Fan suffered from a high fever several days before he died. He died at his home still under house arrest, a sentence that entailed strict surveillance by the government for most of the last two decades. The funeral arrangements for Bishop Fan has not been finalized, but will be limited for only two days as dictated by the government.

“We can see how many Euro-Atlantic countries are rejecting their roots, the Christian values that form the basis of Western civilization. They are reneging on moral principles and their traditional identity: national, cultural, religious and even sexual.”

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

Even if Putin is puttin’ us on, would that be all bad? What the world rather desperately needs just now is a reminder of how God-fearing leaders used to talk, not long before our 'global village' decided to embrace universal Christophobia and raise moral depravity to the level of virtue.

Even if Putin is using pro-God, pro-morality sentiment merely as a rhetorical tool to put distance between his country and her rivals, there’s obviously good reason for it. He would not be doing this if it did not facilitate the advancement of Russia’s political agenda, whatever that might include.

And it is in this incontrovertible fact that God-fearing Christians at home and abroad can perhaps allow themselves some modicum of hope in an otherwise hopeless world, because what it means is that Mother Russia sees millions growing tired of the global Dictatorship of Relativism, millions hungering for a return to sanity, millions fed up with our Godless new world order in the making. What it means is that Putin is responding to a fatigue factor (with the agenda of the globalists) that has political firepower behind it.

"While Pope Francis has not altered any Catholic doctrines in his interviews and disquisitions, he is sowing seeds of confusion among the faithful, a high price to pay, even for “skyrocketing” poll numbers".…Patrick J. Buchanan

Conclusion

(Read Part I, Part II, Part III) 

Yet Another Explosive Newspaper Interview

The Pope continues to give free-ranging, explosive interviews to Italian newspapers. The latest edition of this “magisterium” by newspaper is an interview with the editor of Corriere della Sera on March 5. As with all the other interviews, this one contains bombshells whose detonations the world media duly note while the diving bell constituency covers its ears. I will address six key statements from the interview:

First, confirming exactly what Antonio Socci was widely ridiculed for suggesting, Francis explicitly declares that the Church now has two Popes—a reigning Pope and a retired Pope: “The Pope emeritus is not a statue in a museum. It is an institution. We weren’t used to it. 60 or 70 years ago, ‘bishop emeritus’ didn’t exist. It came after the (Second Vatican) Council. Today, it is an institution. The same thing must happen for the Pope emeritus. Benedict is the first and perhaps there will be others.”

"I find that [the Latin Mass] is rather a kind of fashion. And if it is a fashion, therefore it is a matter that does not need that much attention."...Pope Francis

Part III 
(Continued from Yesterday) 
Read Part I,  Read Part II

Still More Insults for Traditionalists

Pope Francis has publicly insulted faithful traditional Catholics so many times that one wag at CNN has compiled what he calls “The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults.” The insults keep coming.

On February 14, during an audience with Bishops of the Czech Republic, the Pope was informed of the growing numbers of young people who are attracted to the traditional Latin Mass. Instead of expressing approval of this development as a sign of true renewal in the Church, Francis dismissed the development, stating that “he cannot understand the younger generation wishing to return to it [the Latin Mass].” With amazing condescension he added: “When I search more thoroughly, I find that it is rather a kind of fashion. And if it is a fashion, therefore it is a matter that does not need that much attention. It is just necessary to show some patience and kindness to people who are addicted to a certain fashion. But I consider greatly important to go deep into things, because if we do not go deep, no liturgical form, this or that one, can save us.”

It must be said that Francis appears to be guilty of the very fault of which he publicly accuses others: liturgical superficiality, and this to an astonishing degree. In all candor, it is Francis who has not “gone deep” at all but rather rendered the shallowest of judgments on a matter that could not be more profound. How is it possible for a Roman Pontiff to dismiss as “a kind of fashion” the Church’s received and approved rite of divine worship down through the centuries, going back at least to the time of Pope Damasus (r. 366-384), if not to the Apostles themselves, a work of the Holy Ghost that is nothing less than the liturgical foundation of Christian civilization?

“Let us make no mistake: Satan is right now shaking the Church to her very foundations over this divorce issue…” 

Father Brian Harrison, O.S.

Part II, Continued from Yesterday 
(Read Part I)

A Warning Come True

Immediately after Cardinal Jose Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope, the Rorate Caeli blog site presented a dire report by an Argentinian journalist, who wrote that as Archbishop of Buenos Aires the Cardinal was a “sworn enemy of the traditional Mass,” that he was “[f]amous for his inconsistency (at times, for the unintelligibility of his addresses and homilies),” that he was “accustomed to the use of coarse, demagogical, and ambiguous expressions,” that he was “loose in doctrine and liturgy,” and that “he has not fought against abortion and only very weakly against homosexual ‘marriage’(approved with practically no opposition from the episcopate)…”

Honesty compels one to admit that every element of this grim assessment has been borne out by the brutal dismantling of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate on the Pope’s direct order, and by his astonishing plenitude of disturbing statements and actions during the scant year he has been in office. These include the phrase that will be emblematic of his entire pontificate, which is now appearing on "Who am I to judge?" tee shirts marketed to gay-rights activists and assorted other radical liberals in order to taunt the Church.

Alarming Adulation by a Hostile World

In the case of Pope Francis the fallibility of Popes in matters not involving doctrinal definitions is remarkably evident. It does no good to deny this when the entire world is heaping praise upon him for his unheard-of pastoral novelties (e.g. the jailhouse foot-washing ceremony, including a Muslim woman), his numerous statements suggesting a revolutionary relaxation of Church discipline in the name of a false “mercy,” and his repeated public insults of traditional Catholics and the traditional liturgy, which he has cavalierly belittled as “just a kind of fashion” to which certain members of the faithful are “addicted.” As if to reward his behavior, Francis has been lauded as “Person of the Year” by the world’s most prominent left-liberal news magazine (Time), the world’s leading “gay” magazine (The Advocate), the world’s leading “rock culture” magazine (Rolling Stone) and the world’s leading “rock culture” video outlet (MTV). Even the trashy libertine quarterly GQ Magazine joined the adulation by naming Francis “Best Dressed Man of the Year,” using the occasion to mock the overdressed Pope Benedict. All of these tributes, and innumerable others of like kind, have been bestowed explicitly at the expense of Francis’s predecessor and the Church’s teaching on faith and morals. Any Catholic who still retains the sensus catholicus must view with alarm this unprecedented torrent of praise from the realm of Belial. Something is seriously amiss.

The Complete Series:  All four parts of Christopher Ferrara's weeklong series, "The Francis Effect", appear in the following post. Those who commented on other sections of this aricle are encouraged to respost their comments on this final version of the article. This article will also appear in its entirety in the next print edition of The Remnant.  MJM

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. 

Our Lady of Akita, October 13, 1973

Introduction

On March 9, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, America’s foremost Catholic prelate, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and commented as follows on the “coming out” of a “gay” college football star:

Good for him… I would have no sense of judgment on him…. God bless ya. I don’t think, look, the same Bible that tells us, that teaches us well about the virtues of chastity and the virtue of fidelity and marriage also tells us not to judge people. So I would say, “Bravo.”

“No sense of judgment…. Bravo.” That is how a Prince of Church in the Year of Our Lord 2014 reacts to a celebrity’s announcement that he engages in unspeakable acts—“men with men, working that which is filthy (Romans 1:26)”—acts that cry out to heaven for vengeance, as Churchmen used to teach before the “opening to the world” at Vatican II. Here we see the vast ripple effect of the “who am I to judge?” mantra that Pope Francis launched into the collective consciousness of humanity by going out of his way to speak to reporters about homosexuals in the hierarchy at “a surprise news conference” they had not even requested. The “Francis effect” is disarming prelates and priests alike. It threatens to disarm us as well, unless we take a stand against what is happening.