Indeed, the closest resemblance to Francis’s Good Samaritan we can find in Jesus’s parable is to the robbers who leave their victim half dead:
“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence and gave to the host and said: take care of him and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee.” (Luke 10:30-35)
According to Jesus’s parable, the Good Samaritan has to see that the man is in need, have compassion on him, and heal his actual wounds. Whether we take Jesus’s version of the parable or Francis’s, most people can agree that our world and its inhabitants are in dire straights. We disagree on the diagnosis of the wounds and the means to heal them, but we sense that the world’s fate depends on the choice of physicians and remedies.
So many members of the Church hierarchy have become the foulest enemies to ever assault the Mystical Body of Christ.
As Catholics, we know that sin is the greatest wound we face today. St. Alphonsus Liguori’s sermon for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost offers a timeless diagnoses:
“In this day's Gospel we read, that a certain man fell into the hands of robbers, who, after having taken his money, wounded him, and left him half dead. A Samaritan who passed by, saw him, and taking pity on him, bound up his wounds, brought him to an inn, and left him in the care of the host, saying: Take care of him. These words I this day address to those, if there be any such among you, who, though their souls are wounded by sin, instead of attending to the care of them, continually aggravate the wounds by new sins, and thus abuse the mercy of God, who preserves their lives, that they may repent, and not be lost for ever. . . . Your souls are sick, and—what is worse—they are near the eternal death of Hell; for, he who abuses to excess the divine mercy, is on the point of being abandoned by the mercy of God.”
Sin leads to damnation for individuals but also to the grave situations we see within the Church and the world. Of course there are many maladies one can identify in 2021, but some of the most painful and lethal ones were actually identified over one hundred years ago by Our Lady of Fatima: offenses against God; souls going to hell; the loss of the Faith; and the delayed consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For each of these four categories of maladies, we can consider how well we and Francis imitate the Good Samaritan in applying the proper remedies.
Offenses Against God. Our Lady of Fatima delivered an ominous message on October 13, 1917: “I have come to ask men to repent of their sins, to change their lives, to stop offending Our Lord who is already offended so much, and to recite the Holy Rosary.”
God is offended by sin, especially the sins of those to whom He has given the most graces. As sinful as the world was in 1917, no serious person can doubt that the world in general has become tremendously more sinful in our times. Worse, so many members of the Church hierarchy have become the foulest enemies to ever assault the Mystical Body of Christ. Men like Francis continually push the boundaries of offenses they can commit against God.
We can reasonably argue that the single worst thing to happen during the pandemic — and perhaps since 1917 — has been Francis’s worship of the blasphemous Pachamama idol in St. Peter’s.
During the course of the current pandemic of fear and hysteria, we have seen many horrible things. Doubtless we will see more. But we can reasonably argue that the single worst thing to happen during the pandemic — and perhaps since 1917 — has been Francis’s worship of the blasphemous Pachamama idol in St. Peter’s. Astonishingly, it seems likely that Francis plans to commit even worse offenses against God and His Church.
So Francis does not do especially well in this category. But how do we do? Our Lady of Fatima told us to “stop offending Our Lord who is already offended so much,” and it is reasonable to interpret that as a call for us to give up attachments not only to mortal sin but to venial sin as well. Do we really love God enough to detest the thought of offending Him, even slightly?
If pleasing God by abandoning sin could mean the difference between ending this great crisis in the Church and world, or seeing it reach its horrifying destination, why would we hesitate to follow Our Lady’s good counsel to stop offending Our Lord? Is there a good reason why we would not want to do that anyway, even if the world was in a state of peace? If we turn to God with the desire to accept all the graces He gives us and yet still do not end this crisis, surely earning a high place in Heaven is a worthy consolation.
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Souls Going To Hell. Our Lady of Fatima showed the children the vision of hell and told them they must pray and make sacrifices for sinners: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”
Because Francis and his collaborators teach that God would not send anyone to hell, they disgracefully mock Our Lady’s plea for us to pray and sacrifice for sinners. Even if we thought eternal damnation is too horrible for even the worst malefactors, it still seems like a fitting reward for men who pretend to be Catholic leaders so that they can deceive souls into thinking there is no reason to fear hell.
So Francis does not do well in this category either. But how do we do? God willing, we at least try to avoid going to hell ourselves. But how much do we pray and sacrifice for sinners on their way to hell? Certainly we pray for our friends and family members, but God also wants us to pray for those, like Francis, who seem least deserving of our prayers.
We have the well-known story of how St. Therese of Lisieux prayed for an “undeserving sinner” from her The Story of a Soul:
“The cry of Jesus as He died, ‘I thirst,’ echoed every moment in my soul, inflaming my heart with a burning love. I longed to satisfy His thirst for souls; I was consumed myself with this same thirst, and yearned to save them from the everlasting fires of Hell, no matter what the cost. Then Jesus stirred up my love even more by letting me see how pleased He was with these longings of mine. I had been hearing people talk about a notorious criminal called Pranzini, who had been condemned to death for several brutal murders, and as he was unrepentant, it was thought he was going to lose his soul. I longed to save him from this final tragedy, but though I did use every spiritual means in my power, I knew that by myself there was nothing I could do to ransom him; and so I offered for him Our Lord’s infinite merits and all the treasures of the Church. Needless to say, deep down in my heart I was sure that he would be reprieved, but I wanted some encouragement to go on in my search for souls, so I said very simply: ‘My God, I am sure You are going to forgive this wretched Pranzini, and I have so much confidence in Your mercy that I shall go on being sure, even though he does not go to Confession or show any sign at all of being sorry; but because he is my first sinner, please give me just one sign to let me know.’ . . . He had gone to the scaffold without Confession or absolution and was being led to the block by the executioner when he suddenly turned around. The priest had been holding out a crucifix to him, and as if moved by some inspiration, he had seized it and kissed the Sacred Wounds three times. This was my sign, and it touched me very much, since it had been the sight of the Blood flowing from one of these very Wounds that had given me my thirst for souls.”
Francis’s conversion — however unlikely it is — is worthy of our prayers, for he could transform from one of the worst malefactors in the history of the Church to one of its most glorious martyrs if he simply opened his eyes and spoke the truth. What a glorious thing it would be for Francis to die trying to restore the Faith he has worked so hard to destroy!
In light of Francis’s diabolically anti-Catholic synod, God has made it unmistakably clear that we need to defend the Faith with renewed vigor.
Loss of the Faith. Our Lady of Fatima said "in Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved . . . .” Although the complete Third Secret of Fatima has not been released, we understand something of its content from this implication that the dogma of the Faith will be lost elsewhere.
In his May 16, 2021 homily, Francis gave us yet another indication that he detests Catholic dogma and would like to see it vanish from the face of the earth:
“Keeping the truth does not mean defending ideas, becoming guardians of a system of doctrines and dogmas, but remaining bound to Christ and being devoted to his Gospel.”
So, obviously Francis does poorly in this category as well. But how do we do? Is it enough that we strive to be orthodox and would never question a teaching of the Catholic Church?
This article appears in the November 15th Remnant Newspaper.
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In light of Francis’s diabolically anti-Catholic synod, God has made it unmistakably clear that we need to defend the Faith with renewed vigor. Every Catholic has a duty to promote and protect the Faith insofar as God gives us the grace to do so, but those with positions of authority and responsibility are specially obligated to fight for the true Faith. Even though Vatican II is an essential component of the evils we now see, priests and bishops can still fight its errors even if they cannot bring themselves to question the Council or the pope.
If every faithful priest and bishop could manfully defend the Faith, and encourage the faithful to do the same, we could end this crisis in the Church and world. The defense of the Faith does not need to be tedious or complicated, but it must clearly refute the errors Francis and his collaborators seek to promulgate in the name of Catholicism. Borrowing from The Remnant’s recent Declaration of Catholic Faith Against Francis’s Synod, one can repudiate the entire Francis agenda with relatively few truths:
* The Catholic Faith was established by Jesus Christ and can never change.
- All Catholics must believe every dogma of the Catholic Church.
- Membership in the Church is necessary for all men for salvation. Although God, in His infinite mercy, may save those who are non-Catholic, such men are saved in spite of their religion rather than by it.
- All men will be judged upon their death and those who die in a state of sanctifying grace will go to Heaven (even if they spend time in Purgatory) and those who die in a state of mortal sin will go to Hell.
- Sexual relations outside of marriage (which is always between a man and woman) are always offensive to God and mortally sinful.
- Reception of Holy Communion by those who are in a state of mortal sin is always offensive to God and itself mortally sinful.
- As set forth by Pope St. Pius V in Quo Primum, the Tridentine Mass can never be abrogated and anyone pretending to do so should, in the words of that great saint, “know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Every Catholic priest and bishop should be willing and able to publicly affirm a similar set of basic Catholic truths. If not, why not? If not now, when?
Delayed Consecration of Russia. Sister Lucia reported that Our Lady of Fatima appeared to her on June 13, 1929 with specific conditions for the consecration of Russia:
“This is the moment when God asks: the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart. He promises to save it by that means. So many are the souls which the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me that I come to ask for reparation. Sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.”
Of course Francis has not complied with this request; but in his defense, neither did his predecessors.
We only have compassion on our wounded Church and world to the extent that we heed Our Lady of Fatima’s words about what we must do to stop offending God and save souls.
Do we have any role in this? As Our Lady told Sister Lucia, we must pray and sacrifice for the intention. And writing of the eventual triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Christopher Ferrara wrote:
“Of course, this glorious fulfillment, although inevitable, cannot happen without the participation of the faithful. God deigns to use human instruments to achieve the ends of His Church, and He will not impose His graces without the cooperation of the freely acting human subject. As Frere Michel explained in 1985, it is probable that the Consecration of Russia will not take place until reparation is made for the insult to Christ and His Blessed Mother committed by those who have buried the prophecy of the Third Secret.”
It is entirely reasonable to believe that those who know the Faith must be the ones to pray, sacrifice, and fight for it. Why would we think it is someone else’s responsibility to do what we know needs to be done? Our Lord told Sister Lucia that “it is never too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary,” but why would we delay doing all we can to help expedite the consecration of Russia and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
We are tempted to grade ourselves on the curve, and we look like exceptionally Good Samaritans compared to Francis and his collaborators. But we would do better to grade ourselves against what Our Lady of Fatima told us; and by that standard we have more work to do. We only have compassion on our wounded Church and world to the extent that we heed Our Lady of Fatima’s words about what we must do to stop offending God and save souls. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of All Saints, help us to be the Good Samaritans so badly needed in the Church and world today! Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!
