Posted on 04/14/2016 9:22:00 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Editor's Note: One of the most popular regular features in the print- and e-edition of The Remnant is "The Last Word", by Father Celatus. Father, who is a pastor working in the U.S. at a diocesan parish, enthusiastically celebrates the TLM as often as possible. Father's call to his brother priests to stand and resist what is happening in Rome speaks for itself, but I'd remind our readers that this courageous priest is not part of the SSPX or FSSP or any other traditionalist fraternity or society. He is a diocesan priest who is protecting his flock and defending Truth at a critical juncture in history. May Father's brother priests heed his call. Dear Brother Priests:
The traditional Gospel of the Holy Mass on the Second Sunday of Easter is that of the Good Shepherd:
At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd: and I know Mine, and Mine know Me, as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
By now it should be manifestly clear to all but the invincibly ignorant or hopelessly obtuse that the rogue who currently holds the office of pope speaks and acts more like a vicar of an anti-Christ than a Successor of Saint Peter. To put it bluntly, the flock of Christ is being ravaged by a wolf rather than protected by a shepherd. The recent papal exhortation is but the latest example in a long litany of papal outrages against truth and godliness. For three insufferable years Bishop Francis of Rome has been given sufficient rope to hang himself, leaving no doubt among the faithful remnant that we have a terribly rogue Pope on a Rope.
So The Last Word at this critical time must needs be an Exhortation Word to my brother priests: PLEASE do not allow this rogue pope to mislead souls entrusted by divine providence to your personal protection. We cannot expect--though we have every right to--that the Successors of the Apostles, the bishops, will exercise the authority and grace of their office to publicly oppose this rogue and his abominations. With rare exception they are for the most part either complicit through ill will or compliant through weak will.
Instead it falls to increasingly marginalized or already ostracized priests to protect whatever souls God has entrusted to us, whether in parishes, in classrooms, in confessionals or in some form of exile. Our circumstances vary and we must act accordingly but act we must.
Some priests are in a position to act openly with personal impunity, such as the clerics of SSPX. Bravo and keep up the good work! We can only pray that any regularization that your Society may consider would not in any way jeopardize your religious liberty or compromise your traditional integrity.
For many other priests in the trenches subject to bully bishops we do well to heed the exhortation of our Lord: "Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." Saint Edmund Campion, priest and martyr of England who often had to minister and witness in secret, would be a good patron and intercessor for us.
The remnant faithful cry out for shepherds; brothers, let us protect our flocks from these ravaging wolves!
And if we are persecuted by our religious superiors for speaking the truth, then like the Apostles who were persecuted by the Sanhedrin we can rejoice for having suffered reproach for the Name of Jesus. As said by Saint Peter, a true Vicar of Christ, "We ought to obey God rather than men"--to include a pope!
As I recall, Paul the Apostle ran into this problem too:
Galatians 3
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And †the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Nelson, Thomas (2009-02-18). Holy Bible, New King James Version (NKJV) (p. 1130). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
And the next step in this priest’s career: resident chaplain at a Catholic old folks’ home, preferably in a rural area accessible only by dirt roads. Or, there’s a quaint place where Fr. Pavone stayed in the Texas desert with a golf club in every room to kill the rattlesnakes.
Well, at least this courageous priest will still have the internet, God bless him.
I don’t mean this to be rude or sarcastic, but how is the doctrine of Papal Infallibility reconciled to this errant priest who was elected and dubbed “Pope.”
I don’t mean this to be rude or sarcastic, but how is the doctrine of Papal Infallibility reconciled to this errant priest who was elected and dubbed “Pope.”
I have no doubt that it will.
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