Remnant Articles
The Holy Father has often stressed the message that some in the church need to show more mercy and this message is almost always directed towards faithful Catholics. A recent homily delivered on the second day of the Synod on the Family reiterates this message, saying:
Jesus as well lived this drama with the Doctors of the Law, who did not understand why He did not let them stone the adulterous woman, why He went to dine with publicans and sinners: they did not understand…They did not understand mercy.
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors…
Macbeth, Act V, Scene V.
Could it possibly be that the Synod on the Family will ultimately be unveiled as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? The answer is: yes and no. The reason behind the “Yes” is that the Faithful themselves have not been slow or hushed in expressing their discontent over the last two years, and the bishops may have gotten and heeded the message, for one reason or another.
"The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law." -Benedict XVI
Updated Version: This article was updated today, 10/12/15, in order to reflect additions that were made for the print edition of The Remnant. The two versions are now exactly the same. MJM
Editor’s Note: The following article is quite lengthy. But like Chris Ferrara’s other more lengthy contributions to this journal, it “reads short” while providing a clear and comprehensive overview of a complex situation. Francis’s Blitzkrieg “reform” of the annulment process is a turning point in Church and world history that deserves the thorough treatment it receives here.
Vandals in Rome: Will They Sack Christian Marriage? Featured
By: Christopher A. Ferrara
An Urgent Appeal from Chris Ferrara
Mike Matt did not want me to write this letter. He hates this kind of thing. But I insisted upon it. The people who know and love The Remnant need to come its aid now, because The Remnant is fighting for its life.
I have proudly served as The Remnant’s lead columnist for some thirteen years. It has been an honor and a privilege to contribute to the legacy of a venerable Catholic journal that has been telling its readers the truth about the crisis in the Church from the moment the crisis began almost fifty years ago.
The Internet is Killing The Remnant (We Need Help) Featured
By: Christopher A. Ferrara
A recap from the Underground.
Pope Francis' visit to the New World-- What was gained?
What was lost?
What was the point?
New from Remnant TV... The Pope's US Visit: A LGBT Victory? Featured
By: Michael J. Matt | Editor
Given the moral certitude that Pope Francis intends to change the church’s practice on Holy Communion towards adulterers, the Holy Father is essentially telling the bishops to listen to the Holy Spirit, whom he asserts is telling them to give the Eucharist to adulterers who do not have a firm purpose of amendment.
Is the Holy Spirit Behind the Kasper Proposal? Featured
By: Magister Athanasius
A few weeks back, I happened upon an article from Catholic Answer’s own Karl Keating in which he speculated upon the possibility that Pope Francis might resign in a year or so in acceptance of his own limitations and suitability to the role. While that is certainly an interesting topic, it was not that part of the article that greatly interested me.
After making fair and respectful critique of Pope Francis’ communication style and general suitability to the role of Vicar of Christ, Mr. Keating makes the following remarks:
This evening, First Saturday, October 3, 2015 at 10:15 PM, a great lady and a champion of the old Faith passed away. She was 95 years of age.
Since the 1980s The Remnant has been proud to publish the powerful insights and commentary of the incomparable Solange Hertz. A close friend of Remnant founder Walter L. Matt (RIP) for many years, she was with the Remnant almost from the beginning. In her own right, Mrs. Hertz came to be regarded as the matriarch of traditional Catholicism in the English-speaking world (although her writings appeared not infrequently in French, as well).
She was so far ahead of the curve in exposing the fundamental errors afflicting the modern Church and State that newcomers to the traditionalist movement sometimes fail to realize that it was Mrs. Hertz who pioneered the early and in-depth exposés of feminism, democracy gone awry, Americanism, Natural Family Planning, and the myriad attacks on Sacred Scripture by the forces of scientism. (In fact, if you’re interested in the questions of biblical inerrancy, for example, or the Galileo case, evolution and geocentrism, if is largely because Mrs. Hertz was tackling such 900-pound gorillas long before it became fashionable to do so.)
"The absurdity of the Synod organisers, including the pope, simply writing final documents for a Synod weeks in advance of the bishops even arriving in Rome, seems to be the final message. They no longer feel any need to hide their intentions..."
The “good bishops” are not going to help us at the Synod. This is something we have to get used to right now, the weekend before the show starts. Every day I see in commboxes around the internet hopeful exclamations like, “Oh, but Archbishop Whosits is going to stand up to them.” Or, “Cardinal Youknowwho,” or “that guy from Africa” won’t stand for that stuff again. Well folks, I hate to tell you, but they stood for it just fine last year.
There have been no demands that the pope guarantee a transparent proceeding, no open objections to the scandalous contents of the working documents, and, most significantly, no demand for the removal of the ringleaders of the affair, the Synod General Secretary, Cardinal Baldisseri, Cardinal Kasper, Archbishop Bruno Forte, the author of the outrageous mid-term relatio… et al. All the same characters of last year’s vaudeville act are back, and no word of objection has come from our “good bishops.”
The Synod on the Family: Can the “Good Bishops” Save Us? (Don't Hold Your Breath) Featured
Written by Hilary White
What if things are not always as they seem?
What if the enormously popular Pope Francis is popular precisely because he is less Catholic than his two immediate predecessors? What if his theory of his stewardship of Catholicism is to broaden the base of the Church by weakening her doctrine so as to attract more people by making it temporally easier to be Catholic?
Something you just don't see every day. As the situation in the Church goes from really bad to much worse, it is hardly difficult to predict a gradual coming together of traditional Catholics the world over in the days to come.
At the Catholic Identity Conference in Weirton, WV, this weekend priests from all the major traditional Catholic fraternities and priestly societies came together to encourage the faithful to keep the old Faith and be not discouraged. Here we have two diocesan priests (who offer the old Mass only), one priest of the Fraternity of St Peter, one priest of the Society of St Pius X, and one priest of the Institute of Christ the King.