Robert Francis Prevost Makes His Own the Old Conciliar Songs

Although I have mentioned this before, I am going to do so again prior to resuming the work of reviewing the late and thoroughly unmissed Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Evangelii Gaudium, November 24, 2013, that Robert Leo Prevost/Leo XIV has made his own.

That is, having looked for “signs” and “clues” at the beginning of the false “pontificate” of Karol Joszef Wojtyla/John Paul in the days, weeks, months, and years after his “election” on Monday, October 16, 1978, the Feast of Saint Hedwig, it is very tragic, at least to me, to see so many in the “resist while recognize” movement strain at gnats to find “signs” and “clues” about “Pope Leo XIV” even though he is a son of the “Second” Vatican Council that issued documents contrary to the Holy Faith and initiated a still ongoing process of “dialogue” with false religions and with the “world.” To focus on gnats at this late day after all the madness of inter-religious “prayer services,” “joint blessings,” “communiques,” and “joint statements” between supposed “ministers of the Gospel” is inexcusable.

I don’t know how many times I must repeat the following, but I will do so again now for those who are not yet convinced:

There are some persons, dear listeners, who hold almost everything with a firm faith that Catholics hold: but there is one thing or another, which they have not yet been able to accept completely, such as that purgatory exists, that sacred images are to be venerated, that the sovereign Pontiff is the vicar of Christ and the head of the whole Church. And since there are many things that they believe, and only one or two things that they do not believe and consider it is not important if taken together with the other articles, they think they are situated very well on the foundation of Christ. What is the difference, they say, even if I err in that one thing, which I still cannot believe, and at the judgment will the Lord be concerned about that? And will he not be mindful of the many difficult things I believe? Indeed, this is the way in which they flatter themselves; I serious rebuke them and say that they have fallen from grace and have laid their foundation on sand, and will have no part with Christ. Either the faith is had completely, or it is not had at all. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I ask you (to clarify the matter with a crass example), when you order a pair of shoes from a shoemaker, if when they are finally made you find they are an inch shorter than your feet, do you not put them on and wear them? Your will say “I cannot wear them” But they are only an inch too short, so why can't you wear them, since they are just a little bit short of the right measurement? As, therefore, your shoes are either the right size for your feet or they have no value at all, so also the faith is either integral, or it is not the faith. Therefore no one should deceive himself. If we want to build a house which cannot be moved by wind or rain, we must lay the foundation of both rocks, that is, on Christ and Peter. (Sermons of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., Part II: Sermons 30-55, Including the Four Last Things and the Annunciation., translated from the Latin by Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., and published in 2017 by Keep the Faith, Inc., Ramsey, New Jersey, pp. 152-154.)

With reference to its object, faith cannot be greater for some truths than for others. Nor can it be less with regard to the number of truths to be believed. For we must all believe the very same thing, both as to the object of faith as well as to the number of truths. All are equal in this because everyone must believe all the truths of faith--both those which God Himself has directly revealed, as well as those he has revealed through His Church. Thus, I must believe as much as you and you as much as I, and all other Christians similarly. He who does not believe all these mysteries is not Catholic and therefore will never enter Paradise. (Saint Francis de Sales, The Sermons of Saint Francis de Sales for Lent Given in 1622, republished by TAN Books and Publishers for the Visitation Monastery of Frederick, Maryland, in 1987, pp. 34-37.)

8. We are mindful only of what is witnessed to by Holy Writ and what is otherwise well known. Christ proves His own divinity and the divine origin of His mission by miracles; He teaches the multitudes heavenly doctrine by word of mouth; and He absolutely commands that the assent of faith should be given to His teaching, promising eternal rewards to those who believe and eternal punishment to those who do not. “If I do not the works of my Father, believe Me not” John x., 37). “If I had not done among them the works than no other man had done, they would not have sin” (Ibid. xv., 24). “But if I do (the works) though you will not believe Me, believe the works” (Ibid. x., 38). Whatsoever He commands, He commands by the same authority. He requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in regard to one single point. (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine:they abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88). (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: ‘This is the Catholic Faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved’ (Athanasian Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim ‘Christian is my name and Catholic my surname,’ only let him endeavor to be in reality what he calls himself.

Besides, the Church demands from those who have devoted themselves to furthering her interests, something very different from the dwelling upon profitless questions; she demands that they should devote the whole of their energy to preserve the faith intact and unsullied by any breath of error, and follow most closely him whom Christ has appointed to be the guardian and interpreter of the truth. There are to be found today, and in no small numbers, men, of whom the Apostle says that: "having itching ears, they will not endure sound doctrine: but according to their own desires they will heap up to themselves teachers, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables" (II Tim. iv. 34). Infatuated and carried away by a lofty idea of the human intellect, by which God's good gift has certainly made incredible progress in the study of nature, confident in their own judgment, and contemptuous of the authority of the Church, they have reached such a degree of rashness as not to hesitate to measure by the standard of their own mind even the hidden things of God and all that God has revealed to men. Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fulness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring" (Job xxxi. 12). Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."  (Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914.)

Do not be deceived by appearances. We do not have to strain for “clues” about the “real” “Pope” Leo XIV as Jorge Mario Bergoglio gave him many responsibilities during his, Bergoglio’s disastrous twelve years, one month, and eight days as the universal public face of apostasy.

Why am I repeating myself again?

Well, repetition is one of my chief pedagogical tools. It was in the classroom, and it is in my writing. People forget. They need to be reminded, and it is thus that I am reminding whoever reads these commentaries to recognize that a conciliar “pope’s” mentioning the right to life of the unborn does not make him a member of the Catholic Church no less a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter.

To wit, there are some very sincere but also sincerely self-deluded writers in cyberspace who believe that “Pope Leo’s” having mentioned the “right to life” in his address on Friday, May 16, 2025, the Feast of Saint Ubaldus and (in some places) of Saint John Nepomucene, was an important “sign” signifying the Robert Augustine Prevost is going to be, if not another John Paul II, who was forever defending the right to life, albeit in terms of conciliarspeak’s obeisance to “human dignity” and not to God’s laws, without ever doing anything to discipline a single pro-abortion Catholic in public, well, maybe, something a little different than Jorge Mario Bergoglio. It takes an awfully big effort to make one a Catholic by the following passages in Prevost/Leo’s address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the conciliar Vatican:

In our dialogue, I would like us always to preserve the sense of being a family. Indeed, the diplomatic community represents the entire family of peoples, a family that shares the joys and sorrows of life and the human and spiritual values that give it meaning and direction. Papal diplomacy is an expression of the very catholicity of the Church. In its diplomatic activity, the Holy See is inspired by a pastoral outreach that leads it not to seek privileges but to strengthen its evangelical mission at the service of humanity. Resisting all forms of indifference, it appeals to consciences, as witnessed by the constant efforts of my venerable predecessor, ever attentive to the cry of the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as well as to contemporary challenges, ranging from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence. . . .

In our dialogue, I would like us always to preserve the sense of being a family. Indeed, the diplomatic community represents the entire family of peoples, a family that shares the joys and sorrows of life and the human and spiritual values that give it meaning and direction. Papal diplomacy is an expression of the very catholicity of the Church. In its diplomatic activity, the Holy See is inspired by a pastoral outreach that leads it not to seek privileges but to strengthen its evangelical mission at the service of humanity. Resisting all forms of indifference, it appeals to consciences, as witnessed by the constant efforts of my venerable predecessor, ever attentive to the cry of the poor, the needy and the marginalized, as well as to contemporary challenges, ranging from the protection of creation to artificial intelligence.

In addition to being a visible sign of your countries’ respect for the Apostolic See, your presence here today is a gift for me. It allows me to renew the Church’s aspiration — and my own — to reach out and embrace all individuals and peoples on the Earth, who need and yearn for truth, justice and peace! In a certain sense, my own life experience, which has spanned North America, South America and Europe, has been marked by this aspiration to transcend borders in order to encounter different peoples and cultures.

Through the constant and patient work of the Secretariat of State, I intend to strengthen understanding and dialogue with you and with your countries, many of which I have already had the grace to visit, especially during my time as Prior General of the Augustinians. I trust that God’s providence will allow me further occasions to get to know the countries from which you come and enable me to have occasions to confirm in the faith our many brothers and sisters throughout the world and to build new bridges with all people of good will.

In our dialogue, I would like us to keep in mind three essential words that represent the pillars of the Church’s missionary activity and the aim of the Holy See’s diplomacy.

The first word is peace. All too often we consider it a “negative” word, indicative only of the absence of war and conflict, since opposition is a perennial part of human nature, frequently leading us to live in a constant “state of conflict” at home, at work and in society. Peace then appears simply as a respite, a pause between one dispute and another, given that, no matter how hard we try, tensions will always be present, a little like embers burning beneath the ashes, ready to ignite at any moment.

From a Christian perspective – but also in other religious traditions – peace is first and foremost a gift. It is the first gift of Christ: “My peace I give to you” (Jn14:27).Yet it is an active and demanding gift. It engages and challenges each of us, regardless of our cultural background or religious affiliation, demanding first of all that we work on ourselves. Peace is built in the heart and from the heart, by eliminating pride and vindictiveness and carefully choosing our words. For words too, not only weapons, can wound and even kill.

In this regard, I believe that religions and interreligious dialogue can make a fundamental contribution to fostering a climate of peace. This naturally requires full respect for religious freedom in every country, since religious experience is an essential dimension of the human person. Without it, it is difficult, if not impossible, to bring about the purification of the heart necessary for building peaceful relationships. (Udienza al Corpo Diplomatico accreditato presso la Santa Sede.)

Interjection:

Interreligious dialogue can never contribute to “fostering a climate of peace” as there is no need to “discuss” that which Christ the King Himself has settled, that there is one true Church outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order or a genuine peace among nations:

So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been  contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly." The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills." For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head.

Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and mistress of all Christ's faithful"? Let them hear Lactantius crying out: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Obstinate wrangling is the foundation of conciliarism's false ecumenism, and the fact that Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has, most unsurprisingly, committed himself to be committed to “interreligious dialogue” proves, at least to those who are intellectually honest enough not to strain for gnats, that he possesseth not the Catholic Faith.

Moreover, the Catholic Church does not exist to serve humanity in itself but to advance the sanctification and salvation of souls as the right ordering of souls in accord with the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law, and the Natural is the fundamental precondition of rightly ordered society whose civil officials seek to advance the common temporal good in light of man’s Last End.

Holy Mother Church is at the service of Christ the King, and it serves the salvation of mankind in obedience to Him as she insists that peace in the world is the fruit of souls who are peace with the Most Holy Trinity by persisting in a state of Sanctifying Grace as her own docile children. All other definitions of “peace” are illusory:

42. Because the Church is by divine institution the sole depository and interpreter of the ideals and teachings of Christ, she alone possesses in any complete and true sense the power effectively to combat that materialistic philosophy which has already done and, still threatens, such tremendous harm to the home and to the state. The Church alone can introduce into society and maintain therein the prestige of a true, sound spiritualism, the spiritualism of Christianity which both from the point of view of truth and of its practical value is quite superior to any exclusively philosophical theory. The Church is the teacher and an example of world good-will, for she is able to inculcate and develop in mankind the "true spirit of brotherly love" (St. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, i, 30) and by raising the public estimation of the value and dignity of the individual's soul help thereby to lift us even unto God.

43. Finally, the Church is able to set both public and private life on the road to righteousness by demanding that everything and all men become obedient to God "Who beholdeth the heart," to His commands, to His laws, to His sanctions. If the teachings of the Church could only penetrate in some such manner as We have described the inner recesses of the consciences of mankind, be they rulers or be they subjects, all eventually would be so apprised of their personal and civic duties and their mutual responsibilities that in a short time "Christ would be all, and in all." (Colossians iii, 11)

44. Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God's law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual.

45. When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another's word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

46. There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.

47. It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.

48. It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

49. It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 22, 1922.)

20. Every true and lasting reform has ultimately sprung from the sanctity of men who were driven by the love of God and of men. Generous, ready to stand to attention to any call from God, yet confident in themselves because confident in their vocation, they grew to the size of beacons and reformers. On the other hand, any reformatory zeal, which instead of springing from personal purity, flashes out of passion, has produced unrest instead of light, destruction instead of construction, and more than once set up evils worse than those it was out to remedy. No doubt "the Spirit breatheth where he will" (John iii. 8): "of stones He is able to raise men to prepare the way to his designs" (Matt. iii. 9). He chooses the instruments of His will according to His own plans, not those of men. But the Founder of the Church, who breathed her into existence at Pentecost, cannot disown the foundations as He laid them. Whoever is moved by the spirit of God, spontaneously adopts both outwardly and inwardly, the true attitude toward the Church, this sacred fruit from the tree of the cross, this gift from the Spirit of God, bestowed on Pentecost day to an erratic world. (Pope Pius XI, Mit  Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937.)

Yes, we must reform our own lives with every beat of our hearts, consecrated as they must be to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. In order to do this, of course, we love God as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His Catholic Church with our whole mind, our whole soul, our whole body, our whole heart and our whole strength. We must love others for love of Him, Who wills the good of all men, which is the salvation of their immortal souls as members of the Catholic Church.

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV is just another antipapal spouter of conciliar cliches, including the mania for "dialogue” and “religious liberty,” buzz words for  both Karol Joszef Wojtyla/John Paul II’s “civilization of live” and for Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as he referred to “religious liberty” as one of his many “paths” or “keys” to peace (he evidently had so many “keys” to peace that his keychain must have been as full as the keys to the treasure house: Captain Kangaroo Debut show opening segment 10-3-1955; hey, this is my site and I can have some fun with this stuff when I want to do so and, by the way):

A freedom which is hostile or indifferent to God becomes self-negating and does not guarantee full respect for others. A will which believes itself radically incapable of seeking truth and goodness has no objective reasons or motives for acting save those imposed by its fleeting and contingent interests; it does not have an “identity” to safeguard and build up through truly free and conscious decisions. As a result, it cannot demand respect from other “wills”, which are themselves detached from their own deepest being and thus capable of imposing other “reasons” or, for that matter, no “reason” at all. The illusion that moral relativism provides the key for peaceful coexistence is actually the origin of divisions and the denial of the dignity of human beings. Hence we can see the need for recognition of a twofold dimension within the unity of the human person: a religious dimension and a social dimension. In this regard, “it is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights”. . . .

Religious freedom is, in this sense, also an achievement of a sound political and juridical culture. It is an essential good: each person must be able freely to exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances. There should be no obstacles should he or she eventually wish to belong to another religion or profess none at all. In this context, international law is a model and an essential point of reference for states, insofar as it allows no derogation from religious freedom, as long as the just requirements of public order are observed. The international order thus recognizes that rights of a religious nature have the same status as the right to life and to personal freedom, as proof of the fact that they belong to the essential core of human rights, to those universal and natural rights which human law can never deny. (44th World Day of Peace 2011, Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.)

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI condemned what he calls a "freedom which is hostile or indifferent to God" such "becomes self-negating and does not guarantee full respect for others" while at the same time stating that there must be no obstacles placed in the way of those who wish "to belong to another religion or to none at all,” holding that "each person must be able freely to exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances." How can religious indifferentism, succeeded in its turn by hostility to God, not triumph when those who belong to false religions or to no religious belief at all are said to have a "civil right" that comes from God Himself to directly contradict Him and the Sacred Deposit of Faith that He has given exclusively to His Catholic Church for the right ordering of men and their nations? Ratzinger/Benedict did indeed live in a wonderland of self-delusional absurdity until the day he died at long last on December 31, 2022:

The false "pontiff's" respect for false religions, each of which is hideous and loathsome in the sight of the true God of Divine Revelation, is of the essence of Judeo-Masonry and, of course, of the Sillon: 

How can anyone deny the contribution of the world’s great religions to the development of civilization? The sincere search for God has led to greater respect for human dignity. Christian communities, with their patrimony of values and principles, have contributed much to making individuals and peoples aware of their identity and their dignity, the establishment of democratic institutions and the recognition of human rights and their corresponding duties.

Today too, in an increasingly globalized society, Christians are called, not only through their responsible involvement in civic, economic and political life but also through the witness of their charity and faith, to offer a valuable contribution to the laborious and stimulating pursuit of justice, integral human development and the right ordering of human affairs. The exclusion of religion from public life deprives the latter of a dimension open to transcendence. Without this fundamental experience it becomes difficult to guide societies towards universal ethical principles and to establish at the national and international level a legal order which fully recognizes and respects fundamental rights and freedoms as these are set forth in the goals – sadly still disregarded or contradicted – of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (44th World Day of Peace 2011, Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.) 

As a Roman Catholic, I deny that the "world's great religions" contributed to the development of true civilization. Catholicism is the one and only foundation of true and lasting personal and social order.

There is no need to "search for God." He has revealed Himself. The Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity became Man for us in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of His Most Blessed Mother by the power of God the Holy Ghost to redeem us. He commissioned His Apostles to proclaim His Gospel to the ends of the world. It is His Divine Will that each man and each nation be professedly Catholic as they submit themselves to Him, Christ the King. Indeed, it is as King that the Three Kings of the East--Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar--worshiped the Infant Jesus as they presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh at the Epiphany.

Ratzinger/Benedict believed that this "search for God" had led to a "greater respect for human dignity."

The man was mad.

Mad.

Insane.

Where is this greater respect to be found?

One cannot even find this in the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service as so-called "extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist" and lectors dress in short skirts or tight pants and as members of the laity dress casually and immodestly and speak or applaud almost at will?

Greater respect for human dignity?

Where?

In one's local pharmacy, where one can find a variety of pills and devices to frustrate the natural end of marriage and, at least in most instances, to chemically execute an innocent preborn baby?

Where?

In local abortuaries, in hospices, in hospitals, where elderly or chronically or terminally ill patients are routinely denied food and water and/or are administered with such increasingly higher doses of sedatives and palliatives that they stop respirating?

Where?

In the world's entertainment industry?

Where?

On the New York City subway system where one can be stabbed to death for accidently stepping on another rider’s shoes or can be burned to death by a mentally deranged illegal immigrant who targeted a sleeping woman?

Where?

The late "pope" from Germany lived in a fanciful world of his own creation, a world that n never corresponded to reality in the slightest.

Despite all this, though, many “conservative” and “traditional” Catholics within the conciliar structures still pine for their “restorer of tradition” despite his multiple defections from the Holy Faith, starting with his lifelong warfare against the nature of dogmatic truth that what was nothing more than a warfare against God’s own immutable nature as they ignored the following piece of apostasy contemporaneously and refuse to admit it as heresy today as they fall for yet another supposed “believer” who is said to occupy the Throne of Saint Peter:

Alongside these important initiatives, it seems to me that we Christians must also become increasingly aware of our own inner affinity with Judaism, to which you made reference.  For Christians, there can be no rupture in salvation history.  Salvation comes from the Jews (cf. Jn 4:22).  When Jesus’ conflict with the Judaism of his time is superficially interpreted as a breach with the Old Covenant, it tends to be reduced to the idea of a liberation that mistakenly views the Torah merely as a slavish enactment of rituals and outward observances.  Yet in actual fact, the Sermon on the Mount does not abolish the Mosaic Law, but reveals its hidden possibilities and allows more radical demands to emerge.  It points us towards the deepest source of human action, the heart, where choices are made between what is pure and what is impure, where faith, hope and love blossom forth.

The message of hope contained in the books of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament has been appropriated and continued in different ways by Jews and Christians.  “After centuries of antagonism, we now see it as our task to bring these two ways of rereading the biblical texts – the Christian way and the Jewish way – into dialogue with one another, if we are to understand God’s will and his word aright” (Jesus of Nazareth. Part Two: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, pp. 33f.).  This dialogue should serve to strengthen our common hope in God in the midst of an increasingly secularized society.  Without this hope, society loses its humanity.

All in all, we may conclude that the exchanges between the Catholic Church and Judaism in Germany have already borne promising fruits.  Enduring relations of trust have been forged.  Jews and Christians certainly have a shared responsibility for the development of society, which always includes a religious dimension.  May all those taking part in this journey move forward together.  To this end, may the One and Almighty, Ha Kadosch Baruch Hu, grant his blessing.  I thank you. (Meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in a room of the Reichstag Building Berlin, September 22, 2011.) 

Brief Comments: Perhaps the following commentary found in the Haydock Commentary on the New Testament pertaining to the context of Our Lord's saying that "salvation comes from the Jew will help to instruct readers that Our Lord was not ratifying the eternal nature of the Old Covenant or the Mosaic Law with its ritual prescriptions that were necessary for men to keep as they had not been liberated by His own Redemptive Act on the wood of the Holy Cross:

Ver. 22. The Israelites, on account of their innumerable sins, had been delivered by the Almighty into the hands of the king of Assyria, who led them all away captives into Babylon and Medea, and sent other nations whom he had collected from different parts, to inhabit Samaria. But the Almighty, to shew to all nations that he had not delivered up these his people for want of power to defend, but solely on account of their transgressions, sent lions into the land to persecute these strangers. The Assyrian king upon hearing this, sent them a priest to teach them the law of God; but neither after this did they depart wholly from their impiety, but in part only: for many of them returned again to their idols, worshipping at the same time the true God. It was on this account that Christ preferred the Jews before them, saying, that salvation is of the Jews, with whom it was the chief principle to acknowledge the true God, and hold every denomination of idols in detestation; whereas, the Samaritans by mixing the worship of the one with the other, plainly shewed that they held the God of the universe in no greater esteem than their dumb idols. (St. Chrysostom in St. Thomas Aquinas)

Ver. 23. Now is the time approaching, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth, without being confined to any one temple or place; and chiefly in spirit, without such a multitude of sacrifices and ceremonies as even the Jews now practise. Such adorers God himself (who is a pure spirit) desires, which they shall be taught by the Messias. (Witham) --- Our Lord foretells her that sacrifices in both these temples should shortly cease, giving her these three instructions: 1. That the true sacrifice should be limited no longer to one spot or nation, but should be offered throughout all nations, according to that of Malachias; (i. 11.) 2. That the gross and carnal adoration by the flesh and blood of beasts, not having in them grace, spirit, and life, should be taken away, and another sacrifice succeed, which should be in itself invisible, divine, and full of life, spirit, and grace; 3. That this sacrifice should be truth itself, whereof all former sacrifices were but shadows and figures. He calleth here spirit and truth that which, in the first chapter, (ver. 17) is called grace and truth. Now this is not more than a prophecy and description of the sacrifice of the faithful Gentiles in the body and blood of Christ; for all the adoration of the Catholic Church is properly spiritual, though certain external objects be joined thereto, on account of the state of our nature, which requireth it. Be careful then not to gather from Christ's words that Christian men should have no use of external signs and offices towards God; for that would take away all sacrifice, sacraments, prayers, churches and societies. &c. &c. (Bristow) (Haydock Commentary on Saint John's Gospel, Chapter 4, Verses 22 and 23.) 

The Mosaic Law did not give Sanctifying Grace. It did not wash away the stain of Original Sin. It did not feed human beings with the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Most Holy Redeemer Himself. Our Lord did indeed liberate men from the prescriptions of the Old Law as the Old Covenant was forever abolished when He breathed His last breath on the wood of the Holy Cross. Context is everything. Our Lord specifically foretold the end of the validity of the old Mosaic rituals, which have the power to save no one as both Biblical Judaism is a dead religion and its Talmudic ape has been entirely false from its origins.

"The message of hope contained in the books of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament has been appropriated and continued in different ways by Jews and Christians"?

"Appropriated" in different ways?

Our Lord is God in the very Flesh. He has revealed that He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Jews rejected Him when He told them this. The Talmudists reject it now, and it is the job of a true pope to invite everyone, including Jews into the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

"Jews and Christians certainly have a shared responsibility for the development of society, which always includes a religious dimension"? Apostasy. Jews have no mission from God to do anything other than to convert to the true Faith. Blasphemy. It is a sin against charity for the eternal welfare of the Talmudists who were being addressed by Ratzinger/Benedict for him to say such a thing. The very man who claimed to be opposed to religious indifferentism encourages religious indifferentism. Such must ever be the paradox of a Modernist mind trained in the Hegelian ways of the "new theology" that he told Bishop Bernard Fellay on August 29, 2005, he wanted to have taught in the seminaries of the Society of Saint Pius X, probably to serve as a "counterweight" to the "school of thought" that "belonged" to Saint Thomas Aquinas, Scholasticism. Ratzinger/Benedict lived in a world of confusion and contradiction that produces apostate and blasphemous assertions almost without cease, mixing in occasional elements of truth now and again as Modernists are wont to do.

Finally, one will notice that the deceased antipope closed his address to the Talmudists in 2011 by making a generic reference to God. He mentioned Our Lord's Holy Name twice in his address, neither time in a way that would present Him as anything other than an "equal" to the Jewish "tradition."

Pope Pius XII reminded us in Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943, that the Old Covenant has been abolished. It is dead:

28.That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living. [28] "And it is now," says the great St. Ambrose, speaking of the pierced side of Christ, "that it is built, it is now that it is formed, it is now that is .... molded, it is now that it is created . . . Now it is that arises a spiritual house, a holy priesthood." [29] One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will easily discover the reasons on which it is based.

29.And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area -- He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel [30] -the Law and the Gospel were together in force; [31] but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees, [32] fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, [33] establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. [34] "To such an extent, then," says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, "was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom." [35]

30. On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, [36] in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers; [37] and although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human family in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head in His Church. "For it was through His triumph on the Cross," according to the teaching of the Angelic and Common Doctor, "that He won power and dominion over the gentiles"; [38] by that same victory He increased the immense treasure of graces, which, as He reigns in glory in heaven, He lavishes continually on His mortal members it was by His blood shed on the Cross that God's anger was averted and that all the heavenly gifts, especially the spiritual graces of the New and Eternal Testament, could then flow from the fountains of our Savior for the salvation of men, of the faithful above all; it was on the tree of the Cross, finally, that He entered into possession of His Church, that is, of all the members of His Mystical Body; for they would not have been united to this Mystical Body. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.) 

Let those who have the eyes to see the truth do so. Others will never be convinced of the fact that the late Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who quoted from his "unofficial" book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection fourteen years ago, was Modernist to the core of his being. (For a consideration of how the still dead "Papa" Ratzinger has distorted Catholic doctrine in his Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, please see Coloring Everything He Says and Does, part one and Coloring Everything He Says and Does, part two.)

No, none of this mattered to the those who were “grateful” to Ratzinger/Benedict for Summorum Pontificum, July 7, 2007, even though that motu proprio was meant to “pacify spirits” to purchase silence from those he knew had criticized him as “Cardinal” Ratzinger when he spoke things as “Pope Benedict” that they would otherwise have identified publicly as apostasy, and the same is happening now because Robert Leo Prevost/Leo XIV has mentioned—mind you, mentioned—the unborn in his address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the conciliar Vatican while at the same time equating the unborn with the “rights” of migrants, presumably including the “rights” of the nationals of one country to freely violate the just immigration laws of other nations full complete impunity while expecting cradle to support taxpayer support, if not full indemnification from being deported even if, after having broken just immigration laws, they commit acts of grievous violence against innocent humans and form criminal gangs to terrorize even some of their own nationals:

It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, “a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.” In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.

My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate. All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God. (Udienza al Corpo Diplomatico accreditato presso la Santa Sede.)

Comment:

Look, it is kind of remarkable that a putative Successor of Saint Peter is being praised for having spoken out in "defense" of marriage being between one man and one woman and of the unborn. Does anyone bother to stop for a moment to reflect that it is a sorry state of affairs that it is supposed to "news" that a man presumed to be "Pope Leo XIV" would declare these things and be "praised" for doing so. Has the sine qua non of Catholicism been reduced to defending the truth about Holy Matrimony and the right to life of innocent preborn children? 

Is this what one Catholic writer, in contradiction to the entire patrimony of Holy Mother Church, including as early as Saint Augustine of Hippo as quoted by Pope Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum, June 29. 1886, and summarized by Saint Robert Bellarmine ("either the faith is had entirely, or it is not held at all), the "irreducible minima" of what it takes to consider a "pope" to be inside the Barque of Saint Peter?

Phenomenal. 

Just phenomenal.

Phenomenal. 

Just phenomenal.

Prevost/Leo’s linkage of the unborn with the plight of the unemployed, immigrants and the very real dangers posed by artificial intelligence is nothing other than an extension of the Joseph Bernardin’s “consistent ethic of life” (“seamless garment”) that Jorge Mario Bergoglio had made his own.

Nevertheless, however, the direct, intentional taking of any innocent human life is a matter of the highest moral importance as it is one of the four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance. There is a clear mandate from God that civil leaders have a fundamental obligation to preserve, protect, and defend all innocent human life from the moment of conception through all subsequent stages. This is not a matter of debate, discussion or “dialogue.” Innocent human life must be protected by the civil law and just penalties imposed upon those who attack innocent beings.

Matters of unemployment and migration, for example, are not morally equivalent to attacks on innocent human life and admit of honest disagreements among men of genuinely good will (seen any of those lately) who are interested in advancing both the temporal and eternal good of those who are suffering for the love of God as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His true Church and from love of God to a love of neighbor as God loves him.

Thus, as you can see, Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s adoption of the ever-expanding, unceasingly evolving “consistent ethic life,” which has included opposition to death penalty in principle and not a mere opposition its imposition in practice (the right of the civil state to punish malefactors with death after the due administration of law are adjudged guilty of committing a grievous crime or crimes is part of the Natural Law and can no more repealed than the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity; the former is revealed, the latter is simply an irreformable part of the Natural Law), permits his successor to mention the “unborn” without “threatening” his globalist audience within the diplomatic corps.

Far from representing a “sign” or a “clue” about Robert Leo Prevost/Leo XIV’s “orthodoxy,” his mention of the “unborn” in the context of the mania of “interreligious dialogue” and “peace” through religious freedom is a complete and thorough sign of his “orthodoxy” as a faithful son of the conciliar revolution.

As a longtime former friend within the conciliar structures said to me probably over three decades ago by way of upbraiding me for praising this or that “bishop” for being ostensibly “pro-life,” There are other issues, and the defense of the faith for the honor and glory of God is more important.” The former friend had in mind the 1986 World Day of Peace event in Assisi and other such gatherings at the retail level in one diocese after another. He was right. I was wrong. Either the faith is held entirely, or it is not held at all.

Oh, there is a passage from Prevost/Leo’s speech to the diplomatic corps that bears some attention before I bring this unexpected commentary to its conclusion:

The third word is truth. Truly peaceful relationships cannot be built, also within the international community, apart from truth. Where words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its altered perception of reality, takes over unchecked, it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking.

For her part, the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding. Yet truth can never be separated from charity, which always has at its root a concern for the life and well-being of every man and woman. Furthermore, from the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers. Truth, then, does not create division, but rather enables us to confront all the more resolutely the challenges of our time, such as migration, the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the protection of our beloved planet Earth. These are challenges that require commitment and cooperation on the part of all, since no one can think of facing them alone. (Udienza al Corpo Diplomatico accreditato presso la Santa Sede.)

Although truth does resonate in the souls of those who are open to its reception, it certainly does divide when the minds are men, darkened by being enslaved by Original Sin, or darkened by the vestigial-after-effects of Original Sin after Baptism and/or by the effects of Actual Sins inclining men to be more proud and stiff-necked than would otherwise be the case, truth certainly divides, and He Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life told us so Himself:

Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it. He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. (Matthew 10: 31-40.)

The commentary in the Challoner Douay-Rheims Bible on verse thirty-five is important to reproduce here as so many worldly Catholics, many of whom are the victims of the conciliar revolution and thus have been robbed of the most basic elements of the sensus Catholicus and have been "catechized" by the "world" and by "worldly" relatives who hate the Faith because they are steeped, whether or not they realize it, in one unrepentant sin after another, come to despise those in their families who want to change their lives and to live for the "higher things" rather than to be immersed in the ways of the world:

"I came to set a man at variance"... Not that this was the end or design of the coming of our Saviour; but that his coming and his doctrine would have this effect, by reason of the obstinate resistance that many would make, and of their persecuting all such as should adhere to him.

The truths of the Catholic Faith can indeed set men free from their adherence to falsehoods if they have a disinterested desire to respond with open minds and a loving heart while putting away all pride, but they can also divide as men must make a choice for Christ the King and His Holy Faith in this life or face the consequences in the next life for rejecting Him as He will never impose Himself in death upon those who rejected Him in life.

To be sure, as noted above, truth can resonate but, to call the mind Our Lord’s Parable of the Seed and Sower, there must be a soul must be fertile enough to provide its reception with stable, enduring, and loving embrace, something that Pope Leo XIII explained in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, when explaining the necessity of professing the truths of the Catholic Faith openly and unflinchingly, and conciliarism is not Catholicism:

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

Robert Leo Prevost/Leo XIV will consistently teach conciliarism’s corruption of Catholic truth and that kind of “truth” is no truth at all.

A Few Concluding Reflections

Yesterday, Saturday, May 17, 2025, was the Feast of Saint Paschal Baylon, whose holiness of life, which included intense love of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament and a ceaseless offering of himself to the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary, stands as a chastisement of everything that the conciliar revolution against Catholic Faith, Worship, and Morals:

Paschal Baylon was the son of poor and godly parents, in the town of Torre Hermosa, and Diocese of Sagunta in Aragon, in the year of our Lord 1540. From his childhood he gave indications of a holy life. He was naturally of a good disposition, and very wishful to learn about heavenly things. His boyhood and youth he passed in the occupation of a shepherd. This way of life pleased him well, because he thought it one useful and fitted to nourish lowliness and keep innocency. He ate little, and was instant in prayer. He had great weight and favour with his fellows and neighbours, whose quarrels he healed, corrected their mistakes, enlightened their ignorance, and roused them from idleness. They all greatly honoured and loved him, as though he were their father and teacher, and even then many called him "Beato," that is "the Blessed."

In a world which was to him "a dry land, where no water is" the vallies, "planted in the House of the Lord" Ps. xci. 14, whose strange sweetness spread all around. When he took upon him an harder life, by entering the Institute of barefooted Grey Friars, of the strict Observance, "he rejoiced as a strong man to run a race" Ps. xviii. 6, and gave himself up altogether to serve the Lord, thinking by day and by night only how he might attain more and more to have that mind in him which was also in Christ Jesus Phil. ii. 5. And so it came to pass in a little while, that his very elders set him before them for their model, as a pattern of a man seeking to be perfect in the path of the Seraphic Order. Paschal himself held the lowly place of a lay brother, and deemed himself "the off-scouring of all things" 1. Cor. iv. 13. He took most cheerfully, and discharged with the greatest humility and patience, the hardest and meanest work of the house, as though such were his peculiar right. His flesh would sometimes rebel against his spirit, but he broke it under the yoke of mortification, and brought it into subjection. Day by day the spirit of self-denial waxed stronger in him, and "forgetting those things which were behind, he reached forth unto those things which were before" Phil. iii. 13.

The Virgin Mother of God he had vowed himself when he was but a little lad, and he paid her every day the services of a son, and trusted her as a mother. It is hard to tell how intense was the love which bound him to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, a love which seemed literally stronger than death, for when his dead body was found lying on the bier, its eyes opened and shut twice when the Sacred Host was lifted up, to the amazement of all that were there. When he was among heretics, he suffered much and grievously at their hands for plainly and openly telling the truth touching this Sacrament they often sought after him to murder him, but by the singular Providence of God he was delivered from those wicked men. When he was at prayer he often became utterly insensible, and his soul fainted away with the love of God. During these trances it was believed that he received directly from heaven that knowledge which he had, and which enabled him, although a man altogether rough and unlettered, to answer the hardest questions upon the mysteries of the faith, and even to write some books. At last, full of good works, he joyfully passed away to be ever with the Lord, at the hour foretold by himself, on the Feast of Pentecost, the 17th day of May, in the year of salvation 1592, on which day also he had been born fifty -two years before. Illustrious for the graces above mentioned, and for the miracles which he worked both during his life and after his death, he was named Blessed by Pope Paul V., and Alexander VIII. enrolled him among the Saints. (Matins, Ti=he Divine Office, Feast of Saint Paschal Baylon.)

Saint Paschal Baylon was an example of profound Eucharistic piety, deep devotion to the Mother of God and an intense hatred of heresy.

Although Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV may have a sincere and genuine devotion to Our Lady, no devotion to the Mother of God is a true one unless it hates what she hates, heresy and error, as she has indeed vanquished all heresies:

 “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; for it is Thee who hast destroyed the heresies of the whole world;” “Let me praise Thee, holy Virgin; give me strength against thy enemies.”

Every Rosary when we pray helps to plant a few seeds for the restoration of all things in Christ, starting with the restoration of a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter, and such a true and legitimate successor of Saint Peter would make the following words Pope Leo XIII his very own:

In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies Itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which  it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Paschal Baylon, pray for us.

Saint Venantius, pray for us.

Appendix A

On the Fourth Sunday after Easter 

The joy of Pentecost Sunday is but three weeks away, and Holy Mother Church turns our attention today, the Fourth Sunday after Easter and the Commemorations of Pope Saint Peter Celestine and of Saint Pudentiana, to the descent of the Advocate, the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ promised to the Apostles at the Last Supper. Today's Divine Office contains readings from Saint Augustine of Hippo on the meaning of the Gospel passage read in Holy Mass today:

The Lord Jesus told His disciples what things they should suffer after that He was gone away from them, and then He said: "These things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you; but now I go My way to Him That sent Me." Let us first see whether it had been that He had not told them before this what they were to suffer in time coming. That He had done so amply before the night of the last Supper, is testified by the three first Evangelists, but it was when that Supper was ended that, according to John, He said: "These things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you."

Are we then to try and loose the knot of this difficulty by asserting that, according to these three Evangelists, it was on the eve of the Passion, albeit before the Supper, that He had said these things unto them, and therefore not at the beginning, when He was with them, but when He was about to leave them, and go His way to the Father And in this way we might reconcile the truthfulness of what this Evangelist saith here "These things I said not unto you at the beginning" with the truthfulness of the! other three. But this explanation is rendered impossible by the Gospel according to Matthew, who telleth us how that the Lord spake to His Apostles concerning their sufferings to come, not only when He was on the point of eating the Passover with them, but at the very beginning, when the names of the twelve are first given, and they were sent forth to do the work of God. Matth. x. 17-42.

It would seem then that when He said: "These things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you," He meant by "these things," not the sufferings which they were to bear for His sake, but His promise of the Comforter Who should come to them, and testify while they suffered, xv. 26, 27. This Comforter then, or Advocate, (for the Greek word "Parakletos" will bear either interpretation,) would be needful to them when they saw Christ no more, and therefore it was that Christ spoke not of Him "at the beginning" (of the Gospel Dispensation) while He Himself "was with" His disciples, because His visible Presence was then their sufficient comfort. (Matins, The Divine Office, Fourth Sunday after Easter.)

It behooves to spend the last four weeks of Paschaltide, which ends on Whit Saturday, an Ember Day, June 14, 2025, to meditate upon the gifts of God the Holy Ghost, who has always guided Holy Mother Church infallibly to preserve her from even, to call to mind the words of Pope Gregory XVI in Singulari Nos, May 25, 1834, a "light tarnish of error:"

As for the rest, We greatly deplore the fact that, where the ravings of human reason extend, there is somebody who studies new things and strives to know more than is necessary, against the advice of the apostle. There you will find someone who is overconfident in seeking the truth outside the Catholic Church, in which it can be found without even a light tarnish of error. Therefore, the Church is called, and is indeed, a pillar and foundation of truth. You correctly understand, venerable brothers, that We speak here also of that erroneous philosophical system which was recently brought in and is clearly to be condemned. This system, which comes from the contemptible and unrestrained desire for innovation, does not seek truth where it stands in the received and holy apostolic inheritance. Rather, other empty doctrines, futile and uncertain doctrines not approved by the Church, are adopted. Only the most conceited men wrongly think that these teachings can sustain and support that truth. (Pope Gregory XVI, Singulari Nos, May 25, 1834.)

This is yet another rebuke to those who contend that Holy Mother Church does not teach the truth infallibly at all times as a truly believing Catholic knows that she is incapable of her to be associated in any way with the slightest tarnish of error.

Appendix B

On the Commemorated Feast of Saint Venantius

Today’s Martyr carries us back to the persecutions under the Roman Emperors. It was at Camerino, in Italy, that he bore his testimony to the true Faith; and the devotion wherewith he is honored by the people of those parts (which are under the temporal Sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff) has occasioned his Feast being kept throughout the Church. Let us, therefore, joyfully welcome this new champion, who fought so bravely for our Emmanuel. Let us congratulate him upon his having the privilege of suffering Martyrdom during the Paschal Season, all radiant as it is with the grand victory won by Life over Death.

The account given by the Liturgy upon St. Venantius is a tissue of miracles. The omnipotence of God seemed, on this and many other like occasions, to be resisting the cruelty of the executioners, in order to glorify the Martyr. It served also as a means for converting the bystanders, who, on witnessing these almost lavish miracles, were frequently heard to exclaim that they too wished to be Christians, and embrace a Religion which was not only honored by the superhuman patience of its Martyrs, but was so visibly protected and favored by heaven:

Venentius, who was born at Camerino, was but fifteen years of age when he was accused of being a Christian, and arraigned before Antiochus, the Governor of the City, under the reign of the Emperor Decius. He presented himself to the Governor at the city Gate, where, after being long and uselessly coaxed and threatened, he was scourged, and condemned to be chained. But he was miraculously unfettered by an Angel, and was then burned with torches, and was hung, with his head downwards, over a fire that he might be suffocated by the smoke. One of the officials, by name Anastasius, having noticed the courage wherewith he suffered his torments, and having also seen an Angel walking, in a white robe, above the smoke, and again liberating Venantius—he believed in Christ, and, together with his family, was baptized by the priest Porphyrius, with whom he afterwards merited to receive the palm of martyrdom.

Venantius was again brought before the Governor; and being solicited, though to no purpose, to give up his Faith, he was thrown into prison. A herald named Attalus, was sent thither, to tell him that he also had once been a Christian, but had renounced the profession on discovering that it was false, and that Christians were duped into giving up the good things of the present by the vain hope of what was to follow in the next life. But the high-minded soldier of Christ, knowing well the snares of our crafty enemy the devil, utterly spurned his minister from his presence. Whereupon, he was again led before the Governor, and all his teeth were beaten out, and his jaws broken; after which, he was thrown into a dung-pit. But, being delivered by an Angel, thence also, he again stood before the judge, who, while Venantius was addressing him, fell from the judgment-seat, and died exclaiming: “The God of Venantius is the true one! destroy our gods!”

When this was made known to the Governor, he immediately ordered Venantius to be exposed to the lions: but those animals, forgetting their own savage nature, threw themselves at his feet. The Saint, meanwhile, instructed the people in the Christian Faith, and was therefore removed and again thrown into prison. On the following day, Porphyrius told the Governor, that he had had a vision during the night, and that he saw that those who were bathed with water, by Venantius, were brilliant with a splendid light, but that the Governor was covered with a thick darkness. This so irritated the Governor, that he immediately ordered Porphyrius to be beheaded, and Venantius to be dragged, until evening, along places covered with thorns and thistles. He was left there half dead; but he again presented himself, in the morning, to the Governor, who at once condemned him to be cast headlong from a rock. Again, however, he was miraculously preserved in his fall, and was once more dragged, for a mile, over rough places. Seeing that the soldiers were tormented with thirst, Venantius made the sign of the Cross, and water flowed from a rock, which was in a neighboring dell; on which rock, Venantius left the impress of his knees, as may be still seen in the Church which is dedicated to him. Many were moved, by that miracle, to believe in Christ, and were all beheaded, together with Venantius, on that very spot, by the Governor’s orders. So awful were the lightnings and earthquakes which followed the execution, that the Governor took to flight. But he was not able to escape divine justice; and, a few days after, met with a most humiliating death. Meanwhile, the Christians gave honorable burial to the bodies of all these Martyrs, and they are now reposing in the Church, which is dedicated to Venantius in the town of Camerino.

Dear youthful Martyr, loved of the Angels, and aided by them in thy combat! pray for us. Like thyself, we too are soldiers of the Risen Jesus, and must give testimony, before the world, to the Divinity and the Rights of our King. The world has not always in its hands those material instruments of torture, such as it made thee feel; but it is always fearful in its power of seducing souls. It would rob us, also, of that New Life which Jesus has imparted to us and to all them that are his Members; holy Martyr, protect us under these attacks! Thou hadst partaken, during the days of thy last Easter, of the divine Flesh of the Paschal Lamb, and thy courage in Martyrdom redounded to the glory of this heavenly nourishment. We, also, have been guests at the same holy Table; we, also, have partaken of the Paschal Banquet. Like thee, we have known our Lord in the breaking of BREAD: (Luke 24:35) obtain for us the appreciation of the divine mystery, of which we received the first-fruits at Bethlehem, and which has been gradually developed, within our souls, as well as before our eyes, by the merits of the Passion and Resurrection of our Emmanuel. We are now, at this very time, preparing to receive the plenitude of the divine gift of the Incarnation. Pray for us, O Holy Martyr, that our hearts may more than ever fervently welcome, and faithfully preserve, the rich treasures which are about to be offered us, by the sublime mysteries of the Ascension and Pentecost. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Venantius, May 18.)