Timothy Michael Dolan: Still Trying to Make Everyone Happy Except God

As noted in the introduction to this commentary on this website’s home page, the travesty that took place at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York, New York, on Thursday, February 15, 2024, Thursday after Ash Wednesday and the Commemoration of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, was not a staging of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical abomination but a “funeral service” which was presided by two conciliar presbyters, Edward Dougherty and John White. While there is no further need to comment on the fact of the sacrilege itself, it is quite important, at least as I see it, to comment on Timothy Michael Dolan’s abject public silence about the “service” and what transpired there.

The “resist while recognize”/ecumaniacal Lifesite News website reported on how a laywoman named Wendy Stone Long, who was the New York Republican Party’s sacrificial lamb against United States Senator Kirsten Gillebrand in 2012 and United States Senator Charles Schumer in 2016 (spoiler alert: she did not win either time), managed to corner Dolan after a Sabbath staging of the Novus Ordo on Saturday, February 17, 2024, at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in New Rochelle, New York, during which “encounter,” to use one of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s favorite words, the conciliar “archbishop” of New York actually praised “Father” Dougherty for walking out on the service at one point even though the presbyter had referred to the deceased mutant, who was a man from the time he was born to the time he died, as “she” and as he praised the “love” of those who had gathered for the celebration of pure unadulterated evil:

(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York told a Catholic laywoman that Father Edward Dougherty, who officiated at the scandalous February 15 funeral service of a transgender activist and atheist in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, “is a hero.”

LifeSite spoke with Wendy Stone Long, who had approached Cardinal Dolan on Saturday, February 17 after his vigil Mass at Blessed Sacrament Parish in New Rochelle, New York. Long told LifeSiteNews that she first asked the cardinal when a Mass of Reparation would take place at the cathedral in order to make reparation for the recent sacrilegious funeral.

Dolan leaned over to Long and whispered into her ear: “You know, I think it’s already happened – they did it on the QT (quiet) so it wouldn’t be disrupted by those protesters.”

When Long insisted that many Catholics would have liked to attend that Mass of Reparation in light of the great scandal of the funeral service, Dolan told her that Dougherty “is a hero” because “he stopped the (funeral) Mass.” And when Long objected that she herself had watched the entire service and that it was not stopped, Dolan said, “Then it went on without him,” and the cardinal turned around and walked away.

Dolan did not use his homily at the Saturday evening vigil Mass in New Rochelle to comment on the scandal that had taken place in his own cathedral some days earlier and since then has not made any public comment on the matter.

Dougherty officiated the funeral service on February 15. As can be heard on the video of the event, he was told before the service that the originally planned funeral Mass had to be turned into a funeral service. “Funeral service, no Mass,” a clergyman told Dougherty, to which he replied, “OK, OK.” He obviously did not make that decision. He continuously spoke of the trans activist Cecilia Gentili (born a man) as “she” and indicated that Gentili was on the way to heaven. At the beginning of the service, he praised the attendees – hundreds of whom were transgender persons – by stating, “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is so well turned out.” The congregation burst out in prolonged uproarious hoots and yells in response to the priest, who is then laughing.

He also tolerated the innumerable blasphemies and mockeries of the Catholic faith throughout the service, during which the Mother of God was mocked (replacing the words “Ave Maria” with the chant “Ave Cecilia,” as if Gentili was a saint and comparable to Our Lady). With the priest sitting nearby, one homosexual couple exchanged a kiss on the altar. When the “husband” of Gentili called the deceased an “angel,” Dougherty clapped his hands in approval. Another speaker called Gentili “our saint” who worked so that “sex workers are free.”

At certain points during the service, Dougherty could be heard laughing at the pranks of the audience. On the high altar of St. Patrick’s, transgenders were hugging and kissing during the remembrance speeches. One friend proclaimed Gentili as “this whore, this great whore” and “Saint Cecilia” to a huge outburst of applause. The crowd and organizers of the funeral event turned it into a political rally complete with cheers, catcalls, and intentions for “gender-affirming health care.” This blasphemous chant filled the entire cathedral as Gentili’s coffin was carried down the aisle, accompanied by Dougherty, who had stated at the end: “Let us take leave of our sister Cecilia.” He added, “One day we shall joyfully greet her again.”

The sacrilegious event in the most important Catholic cathedral of the United States has led to much criticism. A LifeSiteNews petition requesting that an exorcism of the cathedral be performed has already gained more than 10,000 signatures.

A group of Catholic scholars and authors (among them LifeSiteNews editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen) has urged bishops in the world to recognize the link between this planned provocation in New York City and the weakening stance of the Church toward the LGBT agenda under Pope Francis, especially in light of his approval of blessings for homosexual couples. Should this new move go unhindered, such provocations will soon most likely take place in numerous parishes in the world.

Dolan will likely also receive more criticism for this response to Long. “Cardinal Dolan is hiding, he is not taking responsibility for this scandal,” children’s advocate Elizabeth Yore told LifeSite. “A public scandal that took place at a Catholic cathedral demands a public act of reparation, a public Mass of Reparation, not a private one in hiding. Dolan is more afraid of the tranny protest than of the scandal that he has caused in the Church.”

LifeSiteNews reached out to Cardinal Dolan for comment. An update will be provided with his response. (EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Dolan praises priest who presided at 'trans' funeral in New York cathedral - LifeSite.)

Lots of luck with the “petitions,” folks. There is no need for such Americanist bilge in the Catholic Church as she is incapable of permitting the sacrileges fostered, promoted, and encouraged by her counterfeit ape that most baptized Catholics have the misfortune to continue to think is the Catholic Church when it is not.

Anyhow, Timothy Michael Dolan praised Edward Dougherty as a “hero” even though he approved of all that was happening there, up to and including unspeakable acts of blasphemy and overt desecration of a cathedral that opened its doors in 1879. (Yes, the Novus Ordo service is a desecration, but those within the conciliar structures do not understand that this is so. What happened six days ago was unmistakably sacrilegious.) It is offensive to God that an atheist who had his body mutilated and who celebrated all that is indecent and perverse in his twisted lifetime is on the way to Heaven. Such is not the stuff of Catholic heroism. Such is the stuff of apostasy.

Wait. It gets worse, worse to the point of being surreal, especially after Lifesite News published the account of Mrs. Wendy Stone Long's "encounter" with Timothy Michael Dolan, who posed with the Rockettes about a decade ago, I believe, on Saturday, February 17, 2024.

Not satisfied with the fact that they were given permission to cavort, blaspheme, and desecrate the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, the late mutant's supporters held a rally yesterday, Wednesday, February 21, 2024, Ember Wednesday in Lent, to complain that their plans for a "funeral Mass" were thwarted by the Archdiocese of New York:

NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan commended the priests who presided over the sacrilegious “transgender funeral” for a notorious LGBT activist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, saying that they acted “extraordinarily well.”

“I think our cathedral acted extraordinarily well,” Dolan said in a recent podcast episode of Conversation with Cardinal Dolan.

He praised the priests who held the funeral for celebrating a Liturgy of the Word instead of a Holy Mass with the irreverent crowd present, though the priests permitted numerous blasphemies and sacrileges throughout the scandalous event.

“Again, I applaud our priests, who made a quick decision saying, ‘Uh oh, with behavior like this, we can’t do a Mass, we’ll do the Liturgy of the Word … and then we’ll stop it,’” Dolan stated.

However, at the beginning of the funeral, Fr. Edward Dougherty, who officiated the event, jokingly said, “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is this well turned out.”

In a video from the event, Dougherty can be heard being told by someone that there should only be a funeral service and “no Mass” after the crowd of transgender activists erupted into loud applause and cheers.

Dougherty continuously spoke of the atheist transgender and prostitution activist, known as “Cecilia Gentili” – a man who “identified” as a woman – as “she” and indicated that Gentili was on the way to heaven.

As LifeSiteNews reported regarding Dougherty:

At certain points during the service, Dougherty could be heard laughing at the pranks of the audience. On the high altar of St. Patrick’s, “transgenders” were hugging and kissing during the remembrance speeches. One friend proclaimed Gentili as “this wh–re, this great wh–re” and “Saint Cecilia” to a huge outburst of applause. The crowd and organizers of the funeral event turned it into a political rally complete with cheers, catcalls, and intentions for “gender-affirming health care.” This blasphemous chant filled the entire cathedral as Gentili’s coffin was carried down the aisle, accompanied by Dougherty, who had stated at the end: “Let us take leave of our sister Cecilia.” He added, “One day we shall joyfully greet her again.”

Dolan nevertheless praised the priest and the cathedral staff, saying, “Bravo for our cathedral people who knew nothing about this that was coming up.”

He said that the cathedral staff was told by the organizers of the funeral Gentili was a Catholic who wanted to have his funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Dolan referred to Gentili as “a woman” during the podcast.

We didn’t know the background; we don’t do FBI checks on people who want to be buried,” Dolan said.

“Our policy at the cathedral is to be as open and welcoming to anybody who wants to be buried here, and we had absolutely no idea about this.”

Canon law requires that Catholic funerals be denied to unrepentant “manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.”

Dolan confirmed that a Mass of Reparation for the sacrilegious funeral was held in the cathedral. However, according to a Catholic laywoman who spoke to LifeSiteNews, Dolan told her that “they did it on the QT (quiet) so it wouldn’t be disrupted by those protesters” – i.e., the Mass was celebrated privately.

The same laywoman also said that Dolan called Dougherty “a hero” because “he stopped the (funeral) Mass.”

When she objected that she had watched the entire service and that it was not stopped, Dolan said, “Then it went on without him,” and the cardinal turned around and walked away.

Dolan furthermore mentioned that Harrison Butker, an NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs and a devout Catholic, personally wrote him a letter expressing his dismay over the sacrilegious funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. (Cardinal Dolan says St. Patrick's priests ‘acted extraordinarily well’ during 'transgender funeral'.)

What planet does Timothy Michael Dolan inhabit?

One does not have do any kind of background check to know that Gentili was a professed atheist who had paid to have his body chemically and surgically mutilated in the biologically impossible effort to become a woman. How can supposed priests and chancery officials be so ignorant of infamous people such as Mr, Gentili?

There was a time in the 1980s when the Archdiocese of New York permitted two laymen, the late John L. Swan, who edited The Quotable Chesterton (along with Richard Rabatin and George Marlin), and Joseph Bierbauer, to work out of the Respect Life office at 1011 First Avenue. They were not exactly employees of the archdiocese, but their job was to do undercover investigations about the growing influence of the homosexual collective within the archdiocese and in city and state politics and government. Joe Bierabauer died in 1990, but Jack Swan continued his work until he died in 1997, and I can tell you that they would have been all over the Gentili travesty. (Both Swan and Bierbauer were instrumental in getting Catholic speakers to testify against then New York Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez’s infamous “Rainbow Curriculum” in 1990 and again in 1994. I was one of those speakers in both years. The details of Fernandez's indoctrination program can be found at No Pot O'Gold At The End Of This Rainbow).

However, what once required men such as Jack Swan and Joe Bierbauer to make phone calls with their backchannel contacts in the homosexual collective to ferret out information is now readily available online. There is simply no excuse for the ignorance about Gentili being claimed by the Archdiocese of New York, and there is no excuse for Timothy Michael Dolan, who has recently endorsed a new apostolate formed by the nefarious “Father” James Martin, to praise Edward Dougherty, who said that Gentili was on the way to heaven.

It turns out, though, that the organizers of the travesty invited the staff of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick investigate Mr. Gentili's background, meaning that the "we knew nothing" line is, to be very charitable, disingenous:

Meanwhile, though, supporters of the deceased are demanding an apology from the Archdiocese of New York for what they described as “cutting short” the Feb. 15 funeral service of Cecilia Gentili, 52, a male who identified as a woman who died Feb. 6. Supporters of Gentili also want an apology for what they called “the painfully dismissive and exclusionary language” used in a statement released by the pastor of the cathedral after the funeral.

“The current narrative from St. Patrick’s Cathedral leadership that they were manipulated by funeral organizers of the identity of Ms. Gentili is simply not true,” an organization called Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society said in a written statement. “Funeral organizers advised Cathedral staff to look up Cecilia Gentili, her work, and the community she served. To now place responsibility on the funeral organizers to have affirmatively disclosed the gender identity of their loved one is imposing a burden upon the mourners that would not be expected of a non-transgender person.”

However, The New York Times reported that the funeral’s organizer did not disclose to the cathedral that Gentili, who died Feb. 6 at age 52, was a biological man who identified as a woman.

“I kept it under wraps,” Ceyeye Doroshow, the service’s organizer, told the outlet. (Cardinal Dolan on St. Patrick's Funeral: ‘We Don’t Do FBI Checks on People Who Want to be Buried.)

There were a few occasions in my Wanderer years in the 1990s when I had to make phone calls to Joseph Zwilling, the Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New York, and he was good enough to take the calls or to return them. He was forthright with me, and one occasion in late-1997 when I inquired of him about John "Cardinal" O'Connor's statement on Nightline, televised on Christmas night that year, of how he had advised a Catholic man, Stephen Dubner, to follow his "conscience" in converting to Judaism. O'Connor then said, "God is smiling on all this." I asked Mr. Zwilling about this scandal, and he told me, "Tom, the cardinal said what he said." He then paused to add, "Cardinal O'Connor beleives Catholicism is the true religion" but was at a loss to explain why he had not counseled Mr. Dubner to remain in the true Faith. It would appear that Mr. Zwilling is at a loss for words once again, this time to explain the claims made by the organizers of the travesty that took place a week ago, that is, on Thursday, February 15, 2024.

However, Timothy Michael Dolan cannot be ignorant of what his cathedral staff was told. Thus, it appears that the staff agreed to the "funeral Mass" because of the new spirit of "accompaniment" preached by Jorge Mario Bergoglio before witnessing what anyone with any degree of the sensus Catholicus could have predicted about how this "funeral" would spiral out of control as those steeped in sins against nature are, whether or not they realize it, agents of the adversary, who wants to mock even those services that appear to be Catholic by making them into foretastes of the chaos, irreverence, and anger by which he torments the souls of those people who have been stupid enough to do his bidding for him in this life. There is no appeasing those who are at war with the Catholic Faith, and the act of appeasement in holding the travesty seven days ago did not satisfy Gentili's pals, who are angered that the agreed upon "funeral Mass" was turned into a "service." The conciliar officials never learn that there is nothing to be gained by appeasing those in are in league with the devil himself.

Perhaps even more significantly, though, was that Timothy Michael Dolan, aping Dougherty, called Gentili a woman. Such is the corrupting influence of Jorge Mario Bergoglio upon cowardly weaklings such as Timothy Michael Dolan, who is stepping all over himself in becoming a Jorge Mario Bergoglio clone in all things pertaining to the lavender agenda. It has been a straight path from "Who am I to judge?" to Amoris Laetitia, March 19, 2016, to Fiducia Supplicans, December 21, 2023, to what happened at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick one week ago today. The Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical travesty provided the framework for the worship of man, not God, and for the celebration of all that is perverse, indecent, and sacrilegious in the name of the "inculturation of the Gospel." (For more information, please do purchase G.I.R.M. Warfare: The Conciliar Church's Unremitting Warfare Against Catholic Faith and Worship if you have not do so already.)

Moreover, as noted in Corrupt in Faith, Worship, Morals, and Pastoral Practice, the travesty that took place seven days ago in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick demands for its solemn re-consecration, not simply a supposed “Mass of Reparation.” While stipulating full well that the conciliar “bishops” have no power to consecrate or reconsecrate anything, the fact that the idea has not occurred to Timothy Michael Dolan or to his subordinates speaks volumes about their fear of “bad press” and of engendering more protests. This fear of losing human respect has nothing to do with the Catholic Faith whatsoever. Neither imprudence nor cowardice has anything to do with being a confirmed member of the Church Militant on the face of this earth. However, cowardice has everything to do with the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

After all, I am sure that there any many presbyters within the conciliar structures who know all this is wrong but who keep their own cowardly silence as they praise themselves publicly for being “obedient” while clucking privately about their “pope” and his apostasies. Salaries, health benefits, and pensions are powerful incentives to keep one’s silence, especially when one lacks the graces associated with a state in life (Holy Orders) that, in truth, they do not possess. The grace of state provides fortitude to true priests, noting that it is up to them to act in cooperation with those graces.

The conciliar desire to make everyone happy except the true God of Divine Revelation is explains why most of the members of its “hierarchy” have refused to discipline pro-abortion, pro-perversity, a refusal which has only emboldened the likes of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and produced at least two additional generations of pro-abortion, pro-perversity Catholics in public life, each of whom now has a personal “rabbi,” if you will, inside the Casa Santa Marta behind the walls of the Occupied Vatican on the West Bank of the Tiber River.

Biden, for example, knows that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has his back, and this is why he feels free to ignore a man, Timothy Michael Dolan, whose support for ObamaDeathCare he sought to solicit during his, Biden’s, day as Barack Hussein Obama’s vice president. The cowardly Dolan even lamented recently that Biden neither takes his phone calls nor answers his letters when seeking Federal help with the migrant crisis that Biden’s lawless open borders policies has caused in New York City:

When it comes to the migrant crisis, President Biden has committed a cardinal sin.

The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, told The Post he has reached out to POTUS about the “tragic, broken” migrant system — to no avail.

“He doesn’t take my calls or answer my letters,” he said.

“New York just can’t handle them all, we know that,” the cardinal added. “It’s very unfair. This is a New York problem, but it’s not just a New York problem. It is an American problem.”

While the nation’s two most powerful Catholics have not spoken about the migrant crisis, Dolan has talked to Gov. Hochul — and is unimpressed.

“I’ve spoken with the governor a number of times and haven’t gotten too much consolation,” he said. (Cardinal Dolan says Biden doesn't take his calls on migrants.)

Poor Timothy Michael Dolan.

There was once a time when he boasted of being somewhat “chummy” with Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., whom he actually praised a dozen years ago for his “helpfulness” on various matters:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, there was certainly no duct tape on-- on-- on your mouth when the President came out and let it be known that his health care plan included Catholic institutions having to buy birth control pills for their employees at church-- in churches and in schools and in hospitals. I want to ask you about that because I interviewed the vice president last week and he told me that it all had been resolved. Here-- here is what he said.

JOE BIDEN: On the substance, the President ended up exactly where he intended, where he began. Which was that, one, every woman in America should be able to have insurance coverage for birth control if she so chooses and that the Catholic Church and other churches should not have to pay for it or provide it. That's exactly where we are now.

BOB SCHIEFFER: For the record is that what you advised the President?

JOE BIDEN: Yes. But that's also where the President was in the front end.

BOB SCHIEFFER: So I guess that question I'd ask you, Your Eminence, are you good with that?

TIMOTHY DOLAN: No, although I appreciate very much the Vice President. He has been helpful and I-- I-- I have benefitted from his counsel and I look forward to talking to him again. So I am glad he weighed in on it but I would disagree with him. It hasn't helped us much, Bob, because-- because we still have to pay for it, because most of us are self-insured and we are still worried not just about our institutions but also the individuals. So we still find ourselves in a very tough spot, and we're still going to continue to express what we believe is just not a religious point of view but a constitutional point of view that America's at her best when the government doesn't force a citizen or a group of citizens in a religious creed to violate their deepest held moral convictions.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you agree with what the vice president seemed to be saying that this-- that the President really didn't change his position?

TIMOTHY DOLAN: Yes, I-- I think so. Although I am a little confused, because the President told me his convict--- his position, his conviction is that the government would do nothing to impede religion. And he-- he was very gracious, and especially complimenting the Catholic family in the United States in their work for health care charity and education. And he'd say I don't want this administration to do anything to-- to impede that. It's tough for me to see how the strangling HHS Regulations do anything but that. (Page Four of the Transcript from Face the Nation, Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.)

It is evidently the case that Timothy Michael Dolan appreciated then Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.’s., counsel more than the now president in name only appreciated his, Dolan’s. Additionally, as noted above, Biden does not need to Dolan about anything as he has a direct pipeline to “Papa” Bergoglio at the Casa Santa Marta. Why speak with a mere “street captain” when you can go directly to the Capo di Tutti Capi?

No, those who try to make everyone happy except the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Blessed Trinity, wind up pleasing no one and making fools of themselves in the process.

Timothy Michael Dolan does not realize this as his self-professed desire to be a “happy bishop” has led to him to slobber over himself a field to praise organizations, such the pro-abortion, pro-perversity Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith ever since his installation as the conciliar “archbishop” of New York on April 15, 2009:

This is awesome for me," Archbishop Dolan said. "I have long admired the work of the Anti-Defamation League from afar, and now to receive your welcome and your assurances of our hope for future cooperation, which I enthusiastically share, means very much to me."(Press Release of the Anti-Defamtion League, April 22, 2009.)

The "work" of the "Anti-Defamation League" of B’nai Brith has included, of course, the promotion of the chemical and surgical assassination of innocent preborn children and of "marriage" for those of the same gender. The "Anti-Defamation League," whose president, Abraham Foxman, denounced The Passion of the Christ as "anti-Semitic" and who has denounced both Bishop Richard Williamson, the Society of Saint Pius X and the unreformed Good Friday Prayer for the Jews and the Immemorial Mass of Tradition as anti-Semitic, has filed amicus curiae briefs in various cases to promote baby-killing and perversity under cover of the civil law. (See the compendium as found in Silence, which was published fifteen years ago, for a review of some of the legal briefs by the Anti-Defamation League in support of immorality).

As bad that was, however, Dolan's address at Talmudic synagogue of the pro-abortion, pro-perversity "reform" variety on February 24, 2013, just before he headed to Rome to participate the selection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the sixth in the line of antipopes that have fooled Catholics and non-Catholics alike since the "election" of Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII on October 28, 1958, the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, was the work of an anti-apostle who has no desire to effect the conversion of anyone, including Talmudists, to the true Faith:

Shabbat Shalom!

Thank you so much for your generous invitation and warm welcome. What an honor and a joy to be with you here at the historic and renowned Lincoln Square Synagogue.

Long have I been aware of the prominence of this community, as, during my graduate studies at the Catholic University of America, our course in American Religious History featured attention to Modern Orthodox Judaism, its flagship synagogue here, and the foundational efforts of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.

Now what a privilege it is to be a part of the celebration of welcome as we thank God for this splendid new sanctuary! As your psalms pray, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who toil!” So, praise God:

I’d say “Alleluia” but I can’t because for us Catholics it’s our penitential season of Lent, and we can’t say that “A-word” until Easter!

Can I get a little personal here? Today is the fourth anniversary of my appointment by Pope Benedict XVI as archbishop of New York.

Four happy years…and the Jewish community of New York is one of the big reasons why. From the start you have welcomed and embraced me. I love you; I respect you; I need you; I thank you.

Tomorrow, the second Sunday of Lent, we always have the Gospel account of what we call the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. There, the Jewish fisherman, the Jewish first pope, St. Peter, said to Jesus, “It is good for us to be here.”

Those words I make my own this morning.

I also appreciate the encouragement this visit gives me in my efforts to repair and restore another historic house of prayer and worship, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Don’t worry: I’m not going to ask for money—while recognizing what a tradition that is in both of our religions—although I do happen to have some pledge cards on me!

This beautiful occasion this morning might be a providential occasion to celebrate as well the common values we as Jews and Catholics deeply cherish. Can I mention just two?

One would be the high importance of the Sabbath: you begin with sundown on Friday and go through Saturday; we start with sundown on Saturday and go through Sunday.

We both do it with humble obedience to the Lord’s command, following His own example of rest after the labor of creation, don’t we?

I propose that our fidelity to the Sabbath is good for us, and good for the world.

It’s good for us as we individually, and as a religious community, need worship, prayer, and fellowship to keep our spirits focused and our faith fervent.

A wise mentor once told me, “Science teaches us that the earth is not the center of the universe. Faith teaches me that neither am I.”

God and others come first. The weekly reminder of the Sabbath.

I suppose that’s the message to be found in the startling decision of Pope Benedict XVI to leave the Chair of St. Peter. It’s not about an office, the pomp, the prominence, the prestige, the Holy Father hints, but about Jesus and His Church. It’s really all about God.

That’s what you and I profess every Sabbath! That’s good for us; that’s good for our culture.

Two, we both value love and service. Just ten days ago, on Ash Wednesday, as we began our forty days of fervent prayer, penance, and acts of charity in preparation for our high holy days, the fifty thousand folks who came through Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, heard the words of your prophet, Isaiah.

“This is the worship and fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”

Jesus won’t let me brag about such work that we as Catholics do, since, on that same day, Ash Wednesday, He told us in the Gospel that our good works should be done in secret.

But, I sure can congratulate you for the radiant love, service, and works of charity and justice you do! We’re all impressed by your effective food and clothing drives, your Red Cross blood drives, your community outreach and weekly bags of bread to the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. And we sure appreciated the partnership of the UJA with Catholic Charities in the Feeding Our Neighbors Campaign three weeks ago.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta observed, “There’s a word for faith without love, and that word is a sham.”

And Bl. John Paul II, who so loved you, remarked, “Men and women today learn much more from witness than from words.”

God bless you, Lincoln Square Synagogue, for the radiant witness of your love which make genuine the words of praise we express on the sabbath! (The Gospel in the Digital Age.)

I will take a few selected excerpts from this piece of diabolically inspired piece of emotionalism in order to make a few brief comments.

Excerpt Number One:

I love you; I respect you; I need you; I thank you, (The Gospel in the Digital Age.)

Brief Comment:

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wants to effect the conversion of the all non-Catholics, including adherents of the Talmud, to the true Faith. He loves all men in that He wills their eternal good, which is the salvation of their immortal souls as members of the Catholic Church. Authentic love is not an expression of naturalistic sentimentality or emotionalism. It wills the good others. In this regard, you see, Timothy Michael Dolan is a false friend to the congregation at Lincoln Square Synagogue as he did not seek their conversion to the true Faith and expressed "respect" for those who adhere to a false religion that denies Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Sacred Divinity and his hideous in his sight, a false religion whose Biblical ancestor was abolished when He breathed His last breath on the wood of the Holy Cross and the curtain in the Temple was torn in two as the earth shook and quaked.

Respect?

Let's turn to Saint John Chrysostom to handle this one:

Let that be your judgment about the synagogue, too. For they brought the books of Moses and the prophets along with them into the synagogue, not to honor them but to outrage them with dishonor. When they say that Moses and the prophets knew not Christ and said nothing about his coming, what greater outrage could they do to those holy men than to accuse them of failing to recognize their Master, than to say that those saintly prophets are partners of their impiety? And so it is that we must hate both them and their synagogue all the more because of their offensive treatment of those holy men." (Saint John Chrysostom, Fourth Century, A.D., Saint John Chrysostom: Eight Homilies Against the Jews.)

Many, I know, respect the Jews and think that their present way of life is a venerable one. This is why I hasten to uproot and tear out this deadly opinion. I said that the synagogue is no better than a theater and I bring forward a prophet as my witness. Surely the Jews are not more deserving of belief than their prophets. "You had a harlot's brow; you became shameless before all". Where a harlot has set herself up, that place is a brothel. But the synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater; it also is a den of robbers and a lodging for wild beasts. Jeremiah said: "Your house has become for me the den of a hyena". He does not simply say "of wild beast", but "of a filthy wild beast", and again: "I have abandoned my house, I have cast off my inheritance".But when God forsakes a people, what hope of salvation is left? When God forsakes a place, that place becomes the dwelling of demons.

(2) But at any rate the Jews say that they, too, adore God. God forbid that I say that. No Jew adores God! Who says so? The Son of God says so. For he said: "If you were to know my Father, you would also know me. But you neither know me nor do you know my Father". Could I produce a witness more trustworthy than the Son of God?

(3) If, then, the Jews fail to know the Father, if they crucified the Son, if they thrust off the help of the Spirit, who should not make bold to declare plainly that the synagogue is a dwelling of demons? God is not worshipped there. Heaven forbid! From now on it remains a place of idolatry. But still some people pay it honor as a holy place. (Saint John Chrysostom: Eight Homilies Against the Jews)

I need you?

Need?

Timothy Michael Dolan "needs" adherents of the Talmud?

To what end?

Human respect and his own self-esteem, that's what end.

What was this moron doing, asking the adherents of the Talmud for their support in the 2013 "conclave" so that they could pray to the devil who controls their religion to have him be the successor of the now deceasedJoseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI? As it turns out, Talmudists of the reform variety got an even better friend of the synagogue than they had in the late Bavarian disciple of the Hegelian named Father Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Excerpt Number Two:

Those words I make my own this morning. (The Gospel in the Digital Age.)

Brief Comment:

Blasphemy!

Utter and complete blasphemy.

"Good for us to be here."

Saint John Chrysostom, would you mind repeating yourself here?

Timothy Michael Dolan's whole speech revolved around the blasphemous assertion that God is worshiped at Lincoln Square Synagogue. To enter such a place is forbidden and carries with it a censure of automatic excommunication:

The spirit of Christ, which dictated the Holy Scriptures, and the spirit which animates and guides the Church of Christ, and teaches her all truth, is the same; and therefore in all ages her conduct on this point has been uniformly the same as what the Holy Scripture teaches. She has constantly forbidden her children to hold any communication, in religious matters, with those who are separated from her communion; and this she has sometimes done under the most severe penalties. In the apostolical canons, which are of very ancient standing, and for the most part handed down from the apostolical age, it is thus decreed: "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, shall join in prayers with heretics, let him be suspended from Communion". (Can. 44)

Also, "If any clergyman or laic shall go into the synagogue of the Jews, or the meetings of heretics, to join in prayer with them, let him be deposed, and deprived of communion". (Can. 63) (Bishop George Hay, (The Laws of God Forbidding All Communication in Religion With Those of a False Religion.)

Excerpt Number Three:

Jesus won’t let me brag about such work that we as Catholics do, since, on that same day, Ash Wednesday, He told us in the Gospel that our good works should be done in secret.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta observed, “There’s a word for faith without love, and that word is a sham.”

And Bl. John Paul II, who so loved you, remarked, “Men and women today learn much more from witness than from words.”

God bless you, Lincoln Square Synagogue, for the radiant witness of your love which make genuine the words of praise we express on the sabbath! (The Gospel in the Digital Age.)

Radiant love?

Works of charity and justice?

Charity and justice?

What about the chemical and surgical assassination of innocent preborn children in their mothers' wombs?

"Modern Orthodox Judaism" seems to support such killing in at least some instances, although one would be hard-pressed to find any statement of the fact on its website. Obviously, its rabbis support the chemical assassination by means of contraception.

Does that matter to Timothy Michael Dolan?

Of course not.

Timothy Dolan departs from the Catholic Faith in this as does in almost everything else, which is why he may have a chance, however slim it appears, to be a possible new universal public face of apostasy.

You're not supposed to do any of this, Timothy Dolan.

Moreover, Timothy Michael Dolan has no problem at all with the fact that "Modern Orthodox Judaism" supports Zionism, whose founder was addressed in direct terms by Pope Saint Pius X one hundred nine years ago now:

POPE: We are unable to favor this movement [of Zionism]. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem, if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot answer you otherwise. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.

HERZL: [The conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, represented by the one and the other of us, was once again under way. At the outset I tried to be conciliatory. I said my little piece. . . . It didn’t greatly impress him. Jerusalem was not to be placed in Jewish hands.] And its present status, Holy Father?

POPE: I know, it is disagreeable to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with it. But to sanction the Jewish wish to occupy these sites, that we cannot do.

HERZL: [I said that we based our movement solely on the sufferings of the Jews, and wished to put aside all religious issues].

POPE: Yes, but we, but I as the head of the Catholic Church, cannot do this. One of two things will likely happen. Either the Jews will retain their ancient faith and continue to await the Messiah whom we believe has already appeared—in which case they are denying the divinity of Jesus and we cannot assist them. Or else they will go there with no religion whatever, and then we can have nothing at all to do with them. The Jewish faith was the foundation of our own, but it has been superceded by the teachings of Christ, and we cannot admit that it still enjoys any validity. The Jews who should have been the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ have not done so to this day.

HERZL: [It was on the tip of my tongue to remark, “It happens in every family: no one believes in his own relative.” But, instead, I said:] Terror and persecution were not precisely the best means for converting the Jews. [His reply had an element of grandeur in its simplicity:]

POPE: Our Lord came without power. He came in peace. He persecuted no one. He was abandoned even by his apostles. It was only later that he attained stature. It took three centuries for the Church to evolve. The Jews therefore had plenty of time in which to accept his divinity without duress or pressure. But they chose not to do so, and they have not done it yet.

HERZL: But, Holy Father, the Jews are in a terrible plight. I do not know if Your Holiness is aware of the full extent of their tragedy. We need a land for these harried people.

POPE: Must it be Jerusalem?

HERZL: We are not asking for Jerusalem, but for Palestine—for only the secular land.

POPE: We cannot be in favor of it.

[Editor Lowenthal interjects here] Here unrelenting replacement theology is plainly upheld as the norm of the Roman Catholic Church. Further, this confession, along with the whole tone of the Pope in his meeting with Herzl, indicates the perpetuation of a doctrinal emphasis that has resulted in centuries of degrading behavior toward the Jews. However, this response has the “grandeur” of total avoidance of that which Herzl had intimated, namely that the abusive reputation of Roman Catholicism toward the Jews was unlikely to foster conversion. Further, if, “It took three centuries for the Church to evolve,” it was that very same period of time that it took for the Church to consolidate and launch its thrust of anti-Semitism through the following centuries.

HERZL: Does Your Holiness know the situation of the Jews?

POPE: Yes, from my days in Mantua, where there are Jews. I have always been in friendly relations with Jews. Only the other evening two Jews were here to see me. There are other bonds than those of religion: social intercourse, for example, and philanthropy. Such bonds we do not refuse to maintain with the Jews. Indeed we also pray for them, that their spirit see the light. This very day the Church is celebrating the feast of an unbeliever who became converted in a miraculous manner—on the road to Damascus. And so if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we will be ready with churches and priests to baptize all of you. (Marvin Lowenthal, The Diaries of Theodore Herzl.)

To refer to Judaism as a religion pleasing to the true God of Divine Revelation and as a valid path of human sanctification and salvation is to assert that belief in the Incarnation, Nativity, Hidden Years, Public Life and Ministry, Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven is a matter of complete indifference to the sanctification and salvation of human souls. It is to make a mockery of Sacred Scripture as Talmudists, who are governed by the blasphemous Talmud, and the Mohammedans, who are governed by the equally blasphemous Koran, are united as one in rejecting the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and in making war against Christendom in the past and of assuring that there can be no return to what "Saint John Paul II" referred to disparagingly as "triumphalism."

None of this is the work of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor His Catholic Church.

The proliferation of overtly sacrilegious acts within the conciliar structures, including the celebration of atheistic mutants, has been accompanied in the past eleven years by the appointment of open pro-abortion, pro-perversity atheists to various “pontifical” academies, including the “Pontifical” Academy for Life:

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The controversial member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Mariana Mazzucato, told the academy yesterday that society’s “common good” must be based on the United Nations’ pro-abortion Sustainable Development Goals and that Christianity’s teaching contributed to “climate change.”

Mazzucato’s striking statements came during her February 12 presentation at the annual assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), of which she has been an ordinary member since 2022. Delivering a short talk on the “common good,” Mazzucato presented a view of the common good as being entirely divorced from any principles of religion, or the supernatural end of man, while also attacking the teaching of Christianity in terms of a perceived impact on the climate.

‘Common good’ defined by the UN’s development goals

Asked about how society should agree on what the common good is, in order to build the new “framework” which Mazzucato was proposing, she pointed to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the foundation.

“Begin with the SDG’s,” she stated. The “principle of subsidiarity is key,” she added, before continuing. “The first answer to the question is the SDG’s, and we should take them as seriously as war,” when money is made or found, she said.

By employing themes and words drawn from Catholic social teaching, such as the “common good” and “subsidiarity,” Mazzucato re-oriented these concepts into a new manner, based entirely on an irreligious grounding and the principles of morality set by the U.N.

The U.N. SDGs – comprising 17 goals and 169 targets – are linked with Agenda 2030 and are fundamentally pro-contraception and pro-abortion. Goal #5.6 is the goal to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” and includes the following aim: “Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights,” a phraseology commonly used to refer to abortion and contraception.

Such support for the SDG’s is not surprising. Mazzucato is pro-abortion and additionally was part of the U.N. Committee for Development Policy from 2019 through 2021. Her alignment with such globalist entities is part of her normal operations, being a regular contributor to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Furthermore, Mazzucato is not alone in the Vatican in citing the SDG’s as a foundation of a new global structure. In recent years Pope Francis has repeatedly promoted the SDG’s, even calling upon global religions to orient their work to the furthering of the SDG’s.

Francis has also launched his own initiative with the U.N. and with globalist corporations in order to promote a new “economic system” of capitalism and ensure the achievement of the SDG’s. Indeed, his speeches and writings on economics have drawn from Mazzucato’s own works.

Among other aspects, the Pope’s partnerships promote “sustainable lifestyles,” “gender equality,” and “global citizenship,” while the SDGs themselves promote “sexual and reproductive health services.” The new “Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican” is fundamentally committed to promote “environmental, social, and governance measures” in order to “achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Such deepening ties with globalist corporations and leaders lends further credence to beliefs that Pope Francis is aligned with the call for a “Great Reset.” He has referenced a “supranational common good,” and said that “there is need for a special legally constituted authority capable of facilitating its implementation.”

Christianity contributes to climate change?

The final question from the PAV assembly following Mazzucato’s talk was as surprising a line of questioning as its answer was striking. “Did Christianity contribute to climate change by preaching our superiority to animals?” she was asked.

Mazzucato answered: “I don’t think it’s just Christianity, I think globally we just messed up about putting that common good at the center,” she said.

The self-described atheist cited a recent workshop she participated in, alongside leading international politicians, in which they examined “what would it look like if not only people were at the U.N. general assembly, but also rivers, forests, plants, animals.”

Having already noted that “all crises are interconnected,” Mazzucato re-issued her calls for an international “different framework” based on her description of the common good as born from the SDG’s, which she described as essential if society wished to “do better.”

St. Thomas on the common good

While modern Catholic texts on the common good have tended to portray the common good as akin to an irreligious form of social justice – even as presented in the modern catechism – the Church’s tradition presents a differing teaching.

Writing in De Regno, St. Thomas Aquinas notes that the common good of society cannot be divorced from, or outrightly reject, the supernatural aspect of life:

It is, however, clear that the end of a multitude gathered together is to live virtuously. For men form a group for the purpose of living well together, a thing which the individual man living alone could not attain. Now, the good life is a virtuous life; therefore, virtuous life is the end for which men gather together… Yet through virtuous living man is further ordained to a higher end, which consists in the enjoyment of God, as we have said above. Consequently, since society must have the same end as the individual man, it is not the ultimate end of an assembled multitude to live virtuously, but through virtuous living to attain to the possession of God.

Both at the Vatican press conference and in her own speech for the PAV, Mazzucato’s words appeared to echo those of Pope Francis, the Pope who – as she stated more than once yesterday – serves as an inspiration for her. In turn, Francis’ words closely follow the sentiments expressed by key globalist and founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, whose proposed anti-Catholic “Great Reset” is underpinned by a focus on a “green” financial agenda, as he mentions the “withdrawal of fossil-fuel subsidies,” and a new financial system based on “investments” which advance “equality and sustainability,” and the building of a “‘green’ urban infrastructure.”

Francis has signaled his intimacy with Schwab by sending an address to the WEF now five times in his 10-year pontificate, and allowing an annual Vatican roundtable at the Davos-based annual WEF conference. (Atheist Vatican appointee says pro-abortion UN goals should form basis of ‘common good’.)

Well, I suppose what is good enough for Jorge Mario Bergoglio is good enough for the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, all hollow protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

The goals of the World Economic Forum are antithetical to the work of Holy Mother Church to sanctify and save the souls for which her Divine Founder, Mystical Bridegroom, and Invisible Head shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood to redeemer. Indeed, the goals of the World Economic Forum provide the foundation for a secular anti-church in preparation for the arrival of the lord of the world, namely, the Antichrist prophesied as follows:

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us. 20 But you have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things.

21 I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also. 24 As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning, abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise which he hath promised us, life everlasting. (1 John 2:18-25.)

Bishop Richard Challoner provided the following commentary on the verses quoted above from the First Epistle of Saint John the Evangelist:

[18] "It is the last hour": That is, it is the last age of the world. Many Antichrists, that is, many heretics, enemies of Christ and his church, and forerunners of the great Antichrist.

[19] "They were not of us": That is, they were not solid, steadfast, genuine Christians: otherwise they would have remained in the church.

[20] "The unction from the Holy One": That is, grace and wisdom from the Holy Ghost.

[20] "Know all things": The true children of God's church, remaining in unity, under the guidance of their lawful pastors, partake of the grace of the Holy Ghost, promised to the church and her pastors; and have in the church all necessary knowledge and instruction; so as to have no need to seek it elsewhere, since it can be only found in that society of which they are members.

Holy Mother Church can never err. None of her popes have been heretics.

How many times must it be pointed out that the counterfeit church of conciliarism is not the Catholic Church?

Events of the sorts we have witnesses in the past sixty-five years, four months are without precedent in the history of Holy Mother Church, who remains as pure as spotless as has ever been reduced to the figurative catacombs now in these latter times as she had been forced to take refuge in the Roman catacombs during much of her first three hundred years.

Alas, the counterfeit church of conciliarism will be vanquished by the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and it will be that Triumph that will vanquish all the forces in the anti-Incarnational world of Modernity with which the lords of conciliarism are perfectly aligned.

Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary is our weapon against all the forces that oppose our own sanctification and salvation, and it is our weapon against the enemies of Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church. We must use this weapon well, now during this season of Lent, and up to and including the hour of our death.

On the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Antioch

Today is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Antioch and the Commemorations of Thursday in the First Week of Lent and of Saint Paul.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. explained the origin and significance of this feast, which is secondary to the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome but is nevertheless instructive because it teaches us that even in his first see, Antioch, Syria, Saint Peter was seen by all Christians as the visible head of Holy Mother Church here on earth:

We are called upon, a second time, to honor St. Peter’s Chair: first, it was his Pontificate in Rome; today it is his Episcopate at Antioch. The seven years spent by the Prince of the Apostles in the second of these cities were the grandest glory she ever had; and they are too important a portion of the life of St. Peter to be passed by without being noticed in the Christian Cycle.

Three years had elapsed since our Lord’s Ascension. The Church had already been made fruitful by martyrdom, and from Jerusalem she had spread into distant countries. Antioch, the first of the cities of Asia, had received the Gospel; and it was there that they who professed the faith of Jesus were first called “Christians.” Jerusalem was doomed to destruction for her having not only refused to acknowledge, but also for her having crucified, the Messias: it was time for Peter, in whom resided the supreme power, to deprive the faithless City of the honor she had heretofore enjoyed, of possessing within her walls the Chair of the Apostolate. It was towards the Gentiles that the Holy Spirit drove those Clouds, which were shown to Isaias as the symbol of the holy Apostles. Accordingly, it was in Antioch, the third Capital of the Roman Empire, that Peter first places the august Throne on which, as Vice-regent of Christ, he presides over the Church—that new family of which all Nations are invited to become members.

But the progress of the Apostles was so rapid; the conquests they made, in spite of every opposition, were so extensive—that the Vicar of Christ was inspired to leave Antioch, after he had honored it with the Chair during the space of seven years. Alexandria, the second City of the Empire, is also to be made a See of Peter; and Rome, the Capital of the world, awaits the grand privilege for which God had long been preparing her. Onwards, then, does the Prince advance, bearing with him the destinies of the Church; where he fixes his last abode, and where he dies, there will he have his Successor in sublime dignity of Vicar of Christ. He leaves Antioch, making one of his disciples, Evodius, its Bishop. Evodius succeeds Peter as Bishop of Antioch; but that See is not to inherit the Headship of the Church, which goes whithersoever Peter goes. He sends Mark, another of his disciples, to take possession, in his name, of Alexandria; and this Church he would have be the second in the world, and though he has not ruled it in person, he raises it above that of Antioch. This done, he goes to Rome, where he permanently establishes that Chair on which he will live, and teach, and rule, in his Successors, to the end of time.

And here we have the origin of the three great Patriarchal Sees, which were the object of so much veneration in the early ages—the first is Rome, which is invested with all the prerogatives of the Prince of the Apostles, which, when dying, he transmitted to her; the second is Alexandria, which owes her pre-eminence to Peter’s adopting her as his second See; the third is Antioch, whither he repaired in person, when he left Jerusalem to bring to the Gentiles the grace of adoption. If, therefore, Antioch is below Alexandria in rank, Alexandria never enjoyed the honor granted to Antioch, of having been governed in person by him whom Christ appointed to be the supreme Pastor of his Church. Nothing, then, could be more just than that Antioch should be honored, in that she has had the privilege of having been, for seven years, the center of Christendom; and this is the object of today’s Feast.

Yes, the Episcopate is most sacred, for it comes from the hands of Jesus Christ through Peter and his successors. Such is the unanimous teaching of Catholic Tradition, which is in keeping with the language used by the Roman Pontiffs from the earliest Ages, who have always spoken of the dignity of Bishops as consisting in their being “called to a share of their own solicitude.” Hence St. Cyprian does not hesitate to say that “our Savior, wishing to establish the Episcopal dignity and constitute his Church, says to Peter: To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven; and here we have both the institution of Bishops and the constitution of the Church.” This same doctrine is clearly stated in a letter written to Pope St. Symmachus by St. Cæsarius of Arles , who lived in the fifth century: “The Episcopate flows from the blessed Apostle Peter; and consequently, it belongs to Your Holiness to prescribe to the several Churches the rules which they are to follow.” This fundamental principle, which St. Leo the Great has so ably and eloquently developed (as we have seen on the Feast of the Chair at Rome, January 18th)—this principle, which is taught us by universal Tradition, is laid down with all possible precision in the magnificent Letters, still extant, of Pope St. Innocent the First, who preceded St. Leo by several years. Thus, he writes to the Council of Carthage, “that the Episcopate, with all its authority, emanates from the Apostolic See;” to the Council of Milevum, “that Bishops must look upon Peter as the source whence both their name and their dignity are derived;” to St. Victricius, Bishop of Rouen, “that the Apostolate and the Episcopate both owe their origin to Peter.”

Controversy is not our object. All we aim at by giving these quotations from the Fathers on the prerogatives of Peter’s Chair, is to excite the Faithful to be devoted to it and venerate it. This we have endeavored to do by showing them that this Chair is the source of the spiritual authority which, in its several degrees, rules and sanctifies them. Yes, all spiritual authority comes from Peter; all comes from the Bishop of Rome, in whom Peter will continue to govern the Church to the end of time. Jesus Christ is the founder of the Episcopate; it is the Holy Ghost who establishes Bishops to rule the Church—but the mission, the institution, which assigns the Pastor his Flock, and the Flock its Pastor, these are given by Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost through the ministry of Peter and his Successors.

How sacred, how divine, is this authority of the Keys, which is first given by heaven itself to the Roman Pontiff; then is delegated by him to the Prelates of the Church; and thus guides and blesses the whole Christian world! The Apostolic See has varied its mode of transmitting such an authority according to the circumstances of the several Ages; but the one source of the whole Power was always the same—the Chair of Peter. We have already see how, at the commencement, there were three Chairs: Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch; and all three were sources of the canonical institution of the Bishops of their respective provinces; but they were all three Chairs of Peter, for they were founded by him that they might preside over their Patriarchates, as St. Leo, St. Gelasius, and St. Gregory the Great expressly teach. But of these three Chairs, the Pontiff of Rome had his authority and his institution from heaven, whereas the two other Patriarchs could not exercise their rights until they were recognized and confirmed by him who was Peter’s successor as Vicar of Christ. Later on, two other Sees were added to these first three: but it was only by the consent of the Roman Pontiff that Constantinople and Jerusalem obtained such an honor. Let us notice too the difference there is between the accidental honors conferred on four of these Churches, and the divine prerogative of the Church of Rome. By God’s permission, the Sees of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, were defiled by heresy; they became Chairs of pestilence; and having corrupted the faith they received from Rome, they could not transmit to others the mission they themselves had forfeited. Sad indeed was the ruin of such pillars as these! Peter’s hand had placed them in the Church. They had merited the love and veneration of men, but they fell; and their fall gave one more proof of the solidity of that edifice which Christ himself had built on Peter. The unity of the Church was made more visible. Obliged by the treachery of her own favored children to deprive them of the privileges they had received from her, Rome was, more evidently than ever, the sole source of pastoral Power.

We, then, both priests and people, have a right to know whence our Pastors have received their Power. From whose hand have they received the Keys? If their mission come from the Apostolic See, let us honor and obey them, for they are sent to us by Jesus Christ, who has invested them, through Peter, with his own authority. If they claim our obedience without having been sent by the Bishop of Rome, we must refuse to receive them, for they are not acknowledged by Christ as his Ministers. The holy anointing may have conferred on them the sacred character of the Episcopate—it matters not; they must be as aliens to us, for they have not been sent—they are not Pastors.

Thus it is that the Divine Founder of the Church, who willed that she should be a City seated on a mountain, gave her Visibility; it was an essential requisite; for since all were called to enter her pale, all must be able to see her. But he was not satisfied with this. He moreover willed that the spiritual power exercised by her Pastors should come from a visible source; so that the Faithful might have a sure means of verifying the claims of those who were to guide them in His name. Our Lord, we say it reverently, owed this to us; for on the Last Day, he will not receive us as his Children unless we shall have been members of his Church and have lived in union with him by the ministry of Pastors lawfully constituted. Honor, then, and submission to Jesus in his Vicar! honor and submission to the Vicar of Christ in the Pastors he sends! (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. The Liturgical Year, Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Antioch.)

The Catholic Church is the shining city set on a mountain, not the United States of America. It is important to remember this whenever one hears a recording or sees a video of any politician, including the late President Ronald Wilson Reagan or former President Donald John Trump, as Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s favor rests upon Catholicism, not upon Americanism.

Additionally, Dom Prosper Gueranger’s defense of the submission and honor that Catholics must pay to the man they recognize as the Vicar of Christ on earth is a reminder that those in the resist-while-recognize movement continue to persist in the heresy of Gallicanism that has done even more harm to Catholics’ understanding of the true teaching about Papal Infallibility than all the efforts to undermine it by the conciliar “popes” and their apparatchiks. (See Novus Ordo Watch for a discussion of Dom Prosper’s book, Papal Monarchy, that was commended by none other than the heroic foe of Gallicanism and the Kulturkampf in Germany under Otto von Bismarck, Pope Pius IX.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s prayer to Saint Peter reminds us that the Faith of Saint Peter will never fail, which is yet another proof that the counterfeit church of conciliarism and its falsehoods is not and can never be the Catholic Church:

Glory be to thee, O Prince of the Apostles, on thy Chair at Antioch, where thou didst for seven years preside over the universal Church! How magnificent are the stations of thy Apostolate!—Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria (by the disciple Mark), and Rome—these are the Cities which have been honored by thy august Chair. After Rome, Antioch was the longest graced by its presence: justly, therefore, do we honor this Church, which was thus made by thee the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches. Alas! all her beauty has now left her; her faith is dead; she is in bondage to the Saracen. Save her, take her once more under thy power, bring her into allegiance to Rome, where thou hadst thy Chair, not for seven years only, but for all ages. The gates of hell have let loose the fury of every tempest upon thee, firm Rock of the Church! and we ourselves have seen the immortal Chair banished for a time from Rome. The words of St. Ambrose then came to our minds: “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” How could we despair? Did we not know that it was God’s inspiration which made thee choose Rome for the fixed resting place of thy Throne? No human will can put asunder what God has united; the Bishop of Rome must ever be the Vicar of Christ; and the Vicar of Christ, let sacrilege and persecution banish him as they will, must ever be the Bishop of Rome. Holy Apostle! calm the wildness of the tempest, lest the weak should take scandal. Beseech our Lord that he permit not the residence of thy Successor to be disturbed in that Holy City, which has been chosen for so great an honor. If it be that her inhabitants deserve punishment for their offenses, spare them for the sake of their brethren of the rest of the world; and pray for them, that their Faith may once more become what it was when St. Paul praised it, and said to them: Your Faith is spoken of in the whole world. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B, The Liturgical Year.)

Although we know that we have not had a true pope on the Throne of Saint Peter since the death of Pope Pius XII on October 9, 1958, the Feast of Saint John Leonard and the Commemorations of Saints Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, a true pope will be restored in God’s good time, not our time, and that we must simply pray, fast and make sacrifices for the day when Faith of Saint Peter will once again be the Faith of the whole world, and may we never fail to cling with tenderness to Our Lady, who prayed for Saint Peter’s release from chains once and is ever doing so now.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

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 Peter Damian, pray for us.

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