“This visible existence of the head and the certainty about it are required by the very nature of the Church. The universal Church cannot exist for a considerable time without a visible Supreme Shepherd…”

Thanks, Bishop Schneider. Agreed. Wait, what’s that over there?:

Full article at Lifesite News wherein the good bishop seeks to definitively address those who doubt the validity of Benedict XVI’s putative abdication. You can make your own call if he succeeds. But some quick observations:

Bishop Schneider, when calling into doubt the abdication’s validity as a cul-de-sac, smacking of a “spirit” of sedevacantism, takes a very odd tack. Is this like the “spirit of Vatican II”? Like the “schismatic” spirit of Abp. Lefebvre when he consecrated Bishops to (in his mind) protect the Mass and the availability of the Sacraments for the good of souls? Because of course those who contend Benedict is still pope are anything but sedevacantists. His Excellency lists a number of what-ifs that could force the Church into a position of whether it is unknowable just who is Peter. But it is unlikely that any of them would come about in this specific situation. To address one such hypothetical, this nonagenarian is highly unlikely to outlive every Cardinal appointed by JP2 and himself. Bishop Schneider uses the “attitude of sedevacanism charge to simply act as though we are saying the See is vacant, and then criticizing that position. He doesn’t address the canonical arguments at all.

Bishop Schneider rightly points out that the visible nature of the Church demands a visible head or else the mission of the Church would be paralyzed. Well, we have had a visible head during the entire Bergoglian regime. And the confusion engendered by the putative abdication and the resulting doubts about just who that is tends to prove that tendency to paralysis without a visible head. The situation is akin to the Great Western Schism, of course, in that we have a question of mistake of fact– who is the person of the Pope, not a true schism where those who favor the Benedict papacy are refusing to submit to the Roman Pontiff. They are trying to submit to the true Pontiff. I think it is clear that if there are any Catholics who refuse submission to the Pontiff, they are overwhelmingly in the Bergoglio camp.

Yes, valid appointments of Bishops and the other activities involving the Church’s Supreme Pontiff must be addressed. But in his discussion of supplied jurisdiction, HIs Excellency gives it short shrift, and does not discuss at all the effect of a Pope Benedict who sits by and allows all these appointments of Cardinals and Bishops, etc, without saying a word. Is he prohibited from objecting, or claiming his rights, or is it perhaps tacit consent to allow the juridical Church to function as she must in this unprecedented situation? I agree this is not clear, and due to our lack of knowledge involves some pure speculation from the Benedict is pope camp. But I don’t think this definitively proves Bergoglio is therefore pope. Will anyone, especially a member of the college, address the canonical arguments and the actual text of the resignation? For that is where the matter starts.

Finally, I think the most revealing thing about the Lifesite article and His Excellency’s essay is that reputable people are apparently feeling the need to address the issue at all. There must be a growing number of Catholics who are making known their doubts about the legitimacy of the Bergoglian regime. Beyond doubt, there are many Catholics who realize something is seriously, and unprecedentedly, wrong with this situation.

Oremus pro invicem.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Miss Barnhardt is on a Roll

Not that she has ever wavered on THE issue of the Church today, but her last few posts are golden. This latest is a must read. A quote that hit me in particular today:

The virile man wants to know what is going on around him. He wants a clear, accurate description of objective reality, no matter how ugly, because the virile man is constantly seeking to formulate and execute the best possible response and path forward. The virile man does not ever plop down on the ground, declare the situation too difficult or too unpleasant, and disengage in favor of a quietistic, passivistic, self-righteous pity-party.

Pope Benedict XVI Is Allowed a Visitor

Glad for some evidence the Pope is among us.

Happy Easter, from the Vatican!

After a mini-resurgence of regular blogging in the first few months of this so-far annus horibilis, you may have noticed a mini-dearth of posting in the last few weeks. Why? My motivation is still there, but after the nuclear war talk paused among the Ukraine media cheerleaders, and as it seems Russia is slowly but surely drawing the noose over the Azov battalion, there has been an absolute dearth of news.

By dearth of news, I stress dearth of news you don’t already know. I mean, yes, scads of professional athletes, young people and early middle-aged people are dropping dead of the clot shot. You knew that. Yes, they will bring back the coof restrictions as long as sheeple let them. You knew that. Yes, the Chinese communists have zero respect for human life. You knew that.

And yes, Bergoglio sure does everything in his power to destroy the Church. You knew that, too.

Today, news from Lifesite that he has removed the chaplain of the traditional Carmelite community he is trying to destroy in Pennsylvania. Yep, accompanying them all the way to an inability to receive the Sacraments. This order has said they will resist this unjust and illegitimate crackdown. Good for them.

May their chaplains stick with them, and may faithful Catholics support them. May God protect their vocations, their charism, and their souls.

Perhaps when Mary’s Immaculate Heart triumphs the Pope will finally break his long silence. Until then, pray for him.

Feast of St. Peter’s Chair in Antioch

Today is the Church’s annual reminder that the first Pope and Vicar of Christ ruled over a See other than Rome. A reminder I hope we will not need in the near future but, seeing as the liturgical tradition handed down to us also serves to instruct us, I think it possible we may.

Have Total Confidence in Mary

No matter what, she will triumph. God will glorify His Mother.

Welcome to the Party, Pal

The Catholic Monitor has a post calling on someone, anyone, in Rome to end the current anti-Catholic tyranny. Here is an interesting line therefrom:

The moral crisis and “doctrinal anarchy” as Vatican expert Edward Pentin and others have written about in the Church caused by Francis has reached the breaking point where all faithful Catholics must pray for and demand that Cardinal Raymond Burke, the faithful cardinals and the faithful bishops issue the correction and investigate if Francis is an invalidly elected anti-pope.

Cardinal Burke, You Testified that God “saved me for some work now that He has for me to do.”

You spoke rightly. may Our Lady and Her Son Be with you and strengthen you to do that work.

Traditional Confirmations Canceled in England and Wales

Cruelties in Chicago in the unjust effort of Cardinal Cupich to kill the Mass

Statement of Cardinal Burke on Traditionis Custodes

Oh, and the seemingly unrelated matter of the suspicious hit job on Pope Benedict XVI coming out of Germany

Feast of St. Peter’s Chair in Rome

Pope Benedict XVI

As we are entering into that wonderful, apocalyptic time where we wander around explaining to people that the Mass was not abrogated and expounding on Quo Primum, let me take this moment to wish all readers a Blessed Feast of St. Peter’s Chair in Rome. This feast was removed from the 1962 calendar— one of the first casualties of the modernist ascendancy— and the date of the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair in Antioch became our only celebration of the chair-iness of Peter wheresoever he sat down.

From Dom Gueranger, writing before the suppression of the Feast:

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The Archangel Gabriel told the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Annunciation, that the Son Who was to be born of Her should be a King, and that of His Kingdom there should be no end. Hence, when the Magi were led from the East to the Crib of Jesus, they proclaimed in Jerusalem that they came to seek a King. But his new Empire needed a capital; and whereas the King, Who was to fix His throne in it, was, according to the eternal decrees, to re-ascend into Heaven, it was necessary that the visible character of His Royalty should be left here on earth, and this even to the end of the world. He that should be invested with this visible character of Christ our King would be the Vicar of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose Simon for this sublime dignity of being His Vicar. He changed his name into one which signifies the Rock, that is “Peter”; and in giving him this new name, He tells us that the whole Church throughout the world is to rest upon this man as upon a Rock which nothing shall ever move (Matt. 16: 18). But this promise of Our Lord included another; namely, that as Peter was to close his earthly career by the cross, He would give him Successors in whom Peter and his authority should live to the end of time.

But again, there must be some mark or sign of this succession, to designate to the world who the Pontiff is on whom, to the end of the world, the Church is to be built. There are so many Bishops in the Church; in which one of them is Peter continued? This Prince of the Apostles founded and governed several Churches; but only one of these was watered with his blood, and that one was Rome; only one of these is enriched with his Tomb, and that one is Rome; the Bishop of Rome, therefore, is the Successor of Peter, and consequently the Vicar of Christ. It is of the Bishop of Rome alone that it is said: Upon thee will I build My Church; and again: To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 16: 19); and again: I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; do thou confirm thy brethren (Luke 22: 32); and again: Feed my lambs; feed my sheep (John 21: 15, 17).

Protestantism saw the force of this argument, and therefore strove to throw doubts on St. Peter’s having lived and died in Rome.   They who labored to establish doubts of this kind rightly hoped that, if they could gain their point, they would destroy the authority of the Roman Pontiff, and even the very notion of a Head of the Church. But History has refuted this puerile objection, and now all learned Protestants agree with Catholics in admitting a fact which is one of the most incontestable, even on the ground of human authority.

It was in order to nullify, by the authority of the Liturgy, this strange pretension of Protestants, that Pope Paul IV, in 1558, restored the ancient Feast of St. Peter’s Chair at Rome, and fixed it on the 18th of January. For many centuries the Church had not solemnized the mystery of the Pontificate of the Prince of the Apostles on any distinct feast, but had made the single Feast of February 22nd serve for both the Chair at Antioch and the Chair at Rome. From that time forward, the 22nd of February has been kept for the Chair at Antioch, which was the first occupied by the Apostle.

Yes, I Remember Today, January 12, 2022