In his 1984 lectures in Belfast and Dublin, the great Michael Davies began with an image to help his audience understand the manner in which the innovators had spread the novelties of Vatican II within the Church:

“I understand that there is a most effective method of killing goldfish which can be employed by tender-hearted people who do not wish to inflict pain upon these colorful little creatures and yet, for some compelling reason, wish to dispose of them. I had better point out, in order to avoid the wrath of any goldfish lovers, that I have never experimented to discover whether the method actually works. I can look any goldfish in the eye without the least tremor of conscience! The method is as follows: heat up the water in which the goldfish is disporting himself very, very slowly, degree by degree — over a period of days — if possible. The goldfish will continue on his merry way, evincing not the least sign of discomfort and then, almost imperceptibly, he will be floating upside down — dead, stone dead.” (The Goldfish Bowl: The Church Since Vatican II)

As Bishop Rudolf Graber described in his 1974 book Athanasius and the Church of Our Time, Canon Roca (1830-1893), an excommunicated priest, spoke of the secret society plots against the papacy over one hundred years ago:

“There is a sacrifice in the offing which represents a solemn act of expiation . . . The Papacy will fall; it will die under the hallowed knife which the fathers of the last council will forge. The papal caesar is a Host crowned for the sacrifice.”

On this year’s feast of St. Blaise, Cardinal Cupich tweeted a picture of himself processing through the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia with the saint’s relics, adding:

“A great blessing to celebrate the 1050th anniversary of the feast of St. Blase in Dubrovnik, Croatia, today and preach on the importance of Tradition.”

“Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desire, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Just as many people have willingly smothered themselves with useless masks for two years, much of the world’s population has smothered itself in lies during the pandemic of hysteria and insanity. This situation did not occur overnight with the introduction of Covid, even though we have seen it manifested more clearly. Instead, our collective willingness to accept lies has been prepared for decades by the education systems, the entertainment industry, our political leaders, and the media — and the architects of the Great Reset would not have embarked upon their overt phase of oppression unless they deemed that preparation sufficient. None of this preparation would have had any chance of success, though, if the majority of the world’s Catholics had not learned to be silent (and eventually indifferent) in the face of evident lies about the Catholic Faith.

Within the span of four decades, the leadership of the Catholic Church set forth two radically different views on the path for world peace. In the first, Pope Pius XI began his 1925 encyclical about the Feast of Christ the King, Quas Primas, with an emphasis on the role of Jesus Christ:

“In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord.”

Among many other disturbing statements in the Roche/Francis Responsa ad Dubia, we find a reference to the so-called “irreversible” nature of liturgical reform:

“When Pope Francis (Address to the participants in the 68th National Liturgical Week, Rome, 24 August 2017) reminds us that ‘after this magisterium, after this long journey, We can affirm with certainty and with magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible’ he wants to point us to the only direction in which we are joyfully called to turn our commitment as pastors.”

Whether we think of him as an anti-pope or merely one of the the worst popes in history, the fact remains that Francis has arrogated to himself a power that no pope can ever have: to reshape the Holy Catholic Church to fit the anti-Catholic objectives of the globalists. Even if we consider him to be far worse than his immediate predecessors, though, we have to look back to the pre-Vatican II popes if we want to find Successors of Peter who assiduously defended the Mystical Body of Christ. And when we read the great encyclicals of the popes who warned about the Liberal and Modernist errors that were threatening the Church prior to Vatican II, we are struck by the way in which everything has changed. Pope Francis attacks Catholics for believing what the pre-Vatican II popes said we must always believe to remain Catholic.

Francis apparently does not like Traditional Catholics. And, unfortunately, rather than offering up his displeasure and showing us the same compassion he shows believers of every other religion, he has proven to be extraordinarily rigid in our regard. Of course we should pray for him, but his recent Responsa as Dubia also provides us an opportunity to finally acquiesce to his demands, which should help improve relations in the near term.

In preparation for Our Lord’s Nativity, many of us have recited the St. Andrew Novena since November 30th, repeating fifteen times a day this petition for God to hear our prayers:

“Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen”

For good reason, faithful Catholics have condemned Francis’s Traditionis Custodes for its unfair and dishonest attack on the Tridentine Mass and the Catholics who love it. There is no legitimate way to interpret the July 16, 2021 motu proprio in a favorable light, and those who try to do so generally expose themselves as enemies of the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, we know that God can bring good out of evil, and He has permitted Tradtionis Custodes for the benefit of those who love Him and seek to be saints (Romans 8:28).