UPDATE as of 22/01/18 - Finally with a uncommon day off of work, I can update this story. The Vatican HAS spoken on this matter. This article in the National Catholic Register (affiliated with EWTN), a credible source, reports on the matter. Turns out that Ms. Ploumen got the award as part of a delegation with her country of the Netherlands, and it was a matter of political protocol between visitation of one entourage of state with another.
Personally, this was a political and institutional screw-up on the part of the Vatican STATE and likely, that of the Secretary of State in the Vatican. In addition, I cannot speak in the defense of Pope Francis' (possibly?) calumnious allegations in his recent jaunt in Chile, in defense of a South American Bishop buddy of his, which could be true if he has internal knowledge from witnesses/investigations, but is indefensible both as a head of state and as Vicar of Christ of the Catholic Church. Let me state that such statements in Chile had NOTHING to do with the defense or teaching of Faith or Morals as the Church`s earthly head, but rather a gross injustice of a grotesquely immoral action, and the failing of the Institutional Church at large (e.g. clergy, buildings/institution, heretics, liberal liars.) The beliefs and truths of the Church are still exactly those, regardless of what sinners do ministry and are ordained, and there are still thousands of decent Catholics around the world, living within it and adhering to the faith, despite the failings of its human, yet apostolic leader, who was born into this world in sinful flesh, with a will marred by concupiscence (inclination to be tempted to sin,) just like you and I.
Back to the awarding to Ms. Ploumen, this act does NOT have any direct trace to Pope Francis, who doesn't care for pomp and circumstance. I stand by what I wrote on how RMT tabloid junkets smearing gossip of the Devil, such as 1 Peter 5 with Skojec and The Lepanto Institute under Hitchborn, commit grievous sin against the Church, the Magisterium, the Pope, and the Body of Christ, poisoning the minds and souls like my brother Knight, who without people like myself or knowledgable priests, have little to no defense against such filth disguised as "fighting for the faith." I have proven as such with a "Traditional Encyclical", Mystici Corporis Christi, though that has even not convinced some radical traditionalists to see the Satanic evil committed by RMT bodies and websites.
Radicals Misrepresenting Traditionalists and Their Infection Within the Body Of Christ: 1 Peter 5 and My Brother in Christ
Hello everyone,
Happy new year to all my viewers and any curious onlookers.
For those who have actually viewed my site in past, you may have dismissed my warnings and my cautions against the infiltration of Radical Traditionalism and in the life of the Latin Mass in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as ordinary life of the Body of Christ, that is every single baptized Catholic under the church. Other prelates, or priests, who have given some attention to this increasingly warring factions in the church, have warned people to stay away from this faction such as reigning Canadian prelate, ++Marc Oullett,
in his recent speech on
Amoris Laetitia to my Conference of Canadian Catholic Bishops' Plenary meeting.
However prelates today simply do not understand the power this faction yields, particularly against those who are more deeply invested in their faith including at the parish level. They are not the type to present their works to their bishops for Nihil Obstat and Impriaturs for their works, and contain deep mistrust and antipathy towards the hierarchy of the Church, including its Magisterium. Further, prelates do NOT understand that this NOT something contained to those with possible mental/spiritual deficiencies, or even the Latin Mass. Even worse, such "fake news" or "literature" (to use the term loosely,)
does tend to travel in said circles, and should NOT become a staple of media for such participants,
especially the youth!. If you do NOT believe me, please reread
my reflection on 10 Years of Summorum Pontificum, to see the effect it has had on one particular, "yute" under "deeper, darker concerns..." .
Examples of websites from this faction I mentioned, are: LifeSiteNews with its totally anti-Francis and anti-modern Church bias (of whom it views today's Pontificate and the modern "Church" as anti-family and life due to corrupt clergy and laity), Rorate Caeli which the very moment Francis was elected called him, "The Horror," and new to the gang in the last few years, a site I will be looking at in this post, is 1 Peter 5 (1P5), helmed or with heavy contributions from the ever increasingly, cycnical layman named Steve Skojec, whose works have been rapidly deteriorating into hatred for the Church and the Magisterium. Sadly, 1P5's motto is "Rebuilding Catholic Culture. Restoring Catholic Tradition."
Being a Catholic apologist (that is, a defender of the Catholic Church,) one loyal to Christ's church, and Him as Holy King, including His Magisterium and the Pope, I must post upon something that has happened to me today to illustrate just how powerful the radical traditionalist faction is growing, and now in infiltrating the normal life of those of the body of Christ in the every day parish life, sadly to their own understandable ignorance, yet attacking them whom have no meaningful defense.
What's going on here?
This morning, I received a message on Facebook(TM) from my fellow brother Knight, in my local Knight's Council, with an article from a website called 1 Peter 5 (I will not link to such Radical Misrepresenting Traditionalist (herein, RMT) garbage.). The article in question, from 1P5, is titled, "Pope Francis Awards Architect of Safe-Abortion Fund with Pontifical Honour." Below is a screenshot of the Facebook message, with his image and name edited out to protect his identity:
Being a pro-life advocate, and a good Catholic family man and my brother Knight, I can see why he would send something out to his friends, as it would be confusing for him. My wife informed me that he is such, so it now makes sense why this would end up in my Facebook Messenger today.
The summary of the article is (besides the usual hatred and venom laced notes,) is that, supposedly, Pope Francis, who is a ``spiritual head`` of sorts, of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great which has been around since 1831, has given a prestigious award and entry into said order of the title of ``Commander,`` to Lilianne Ploumen, former Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Netherlands. If one dares read the article, she has a laundry list of grievous offences against the dignity of life against her, meticulously compiled by Hitchborn in the 1P5 article. The article itself even questions just what Lilianne is receiving this award for, as it is supposed to be given for service to the Catholic Church.
The Dubious Article
Taking apart the article, first, I look at the author, Michael Hichborn, who heads the theo-politically "conservative" racket online called "The Lepanto Institute." When one does a general, cursory examination of Lepanto, one can see that the tone of the authors, the articles presented, and their stance towards the current pontificate and Church IS exactly the same as Skojec and 1P5, though Lepanto does cover areas politically/culturally that tie into the Church, though are not specific to it. Seeing who the author is and their sites' works, already, we have a bias present in the article: RMT type! The article originated from the Lepanto site, written by Michael. "Birds of a feather flock together they say."
Further, is there ANY supporting evidence, such as other videos on YouTube from legitimate or alternative sources, such as the official Vatican News sites like vaticannews.va or the Vatican's website with an announcement of the awarding? NONE. The only video being circulated is the ones on the sites such as 1P5 are reporting such news, as well as the article/reporting of the "incident." While there is no general website for the Pontifical order, none of the main Catholic news sites are reporting any of this. Hence, there must be doubt as to the legitimacy of the claim. Could the mainstream Catholic sites and the Vatican be so biased as to "media scrub" something like this under the radar? Possibly, but with no alternative evidence from them, one cannot attach legitimacy to this media hit piece to give it validity that said event is/has happened, nor to the claims of the article that Pope Francis is directly responsible.
Moreso, why would Pope Francis, just simply abuse a Papal award and give it to a known abortion and anti-culture/life advocate intentionally? He is NOT stupid. If anything, an argument can be made that if we were to stoop to the lowest level, believe in the very facts that enemies of the Holy Father are touting in their "literature" (loosely used) that: leading up to his Papacy he was a politician of sorts back in Argentina, formed in some sort of Machiavellian philosophy (e.g. upcoming "The Dictator Pope" and another e-novel by some pseudonamed author ...) then it backfires in their faces and actually PROVES Jorge Maria Bergoglio, as the Pope, is clearly a SMART man, who would know of online spies or enemies, and wouldn't be so bold with the Internet watching as to stupidly make a bold statement in giving a Papal award to a known anti-life and anti-family advocate. It would be a disaster from a PR standpoint, and only increase division and doubt in the church, including in his followers, the lay Faithful. This would also backfire in his enemies faces because this is NOT his supposed usual tactic of subtle undermining of the Church via pastoral practice/his underlings. Why would he be so bold, NOW? It makes absolutely no sense at all to the average person with some intelligence and is Catholic.
The only, likely way he would do so, is if he had been misinformed by his subordinates, who would likely have delivered the award to Ms. Ploumen. Being a busy head of the Church/Vatican with little time to himself to do research, not to mention sit down and spend hours cruising blogs and other sites in between Papal Visits, conferences, and we must give the Holy Father the benefit of the doubt, that if he DID award this medal, he was highly misinformed of this woman.
Posting that article, ironically, is violating the Teachings of a Prior Pope LOVED by RMTs, Pope Pius XII
In posting bile like this online, which is meant with purpose to divide those in the Church against the Holy Father and the Magisterium, authors like Hitchborn, and purveyors of their works of similar mindset like Skojec and 1P5, are attacking the Communal AND Mystical Body of Christ in this way, via the Holy Father, and the dissemination of this information to souls like my brother Knight via the Internet. To explain this, I`ll go Traditionalist for a moment and use a ``Trad`` encyclical of a Papal favourite to the Anti-Vatican II RMTs, Pope Pius XII.
Pius XII is a favourite to RMTs, as well as sedevacantists, who believe the Papal seat is vacant, usually stating this Pope was the last 'legitimate one' because all those involved with Vatican II such as Leo XXIII to Francis I today are "modernist Popes." In 1943, Piux XII penned an encyclical called
Mystici Corporis Christi, "The Mystical Body of Christ."
To begin, Pius XII speaks once again, as many Popes, Saints, and Church Fathers have many a times, about the Pope's Primacy, and how Christ purposely gave us a visible head of the Church in the Holy Father, to govern the Church and yes, men, for we would absolutely need it as finite creatures:
" 40. But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden [59] or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the "little flock" [60] Himself during His mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in view of his primacy is only Christ's Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisibly, though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His glorious Ascension into Heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter, too, its visible foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; [61] and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same. (Mystici Corporis Christi (MCC), 40.)
Pius XII, then also, gives this stinging, yet prominent note about giving lip service to Christ while intently denying fealty to His Holiness, living life in the Church on earth in paragraph 41:
"41. They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it. (MCC, 41)
That very quote, should be part of every Catholic Traditionalist's prayers every day, repeated multiple times a day. Now, just what does the above have to do with those as part of the Mystical and/or Communal body of Christ? Christ himself, is directly connected to His Body, the communal/Mystical Body of Christ in the Catholic Church. In fact, he PURPOSELY is intimately tied to it, and he WANTS and DESIRES perfectly to have His Body be a part of His Life and works. Most of all, he NEEDS it to cooperate with Him to achieve said goals. In paragraph 44, Pius XII pens this about the relation of Christ as Head of Church, needing his Body:
``44. Because Christ the Head holds such an eminent position, one must not think that he does not require the help of the Body. What Paul said of the human organism is to be applied likewise to the Mystical Body: "The head cannot say to the feet: I have no need of you."[69] ... every advance of this Mystical Body towards its perfection derives from Christ the Head.[71] Yet this, also, must be held, marvelous though it may seem: Christ has need of His members. First, because the person of Jesus Christ is represented by the Supreme Pontiff, who in turn must call on others to share much of his solicitude lest he be overwhelmed by the burden of his pastoral office, and must be helped daily by the prayers of the Church. Moreover as our Savior does not rule the Church directly in a visible manner, He wills to be helped by the members of His Body in carrying out the work of redemption... He has so willed it for the greater glory of His spotless Spouse...`` (MCC, 44)
Hence, without the works of those members of the Mystical and/or Communal body of Christ, His will cannot be done, and the salvation of souls is abruptly halted. When people like Hitchborn and associated blogging outlets, leave this trash floating in the river of cyberspace, what are they doing?
They are:
1) Attacking the Holy Magisterium of the Church in a
public forum, whereby they set themselves up as an alternative magisterium to discern who is right and true in the Church and who is wrong, similar to separated Christian brethen who have their own "Churches" made of individual councils in churches or "Synods."
2) By doing what is said in No. 1, anyone who is looking in from outside the Church, will be appalled that Catholics from within (or those defending Catholic teachings) are "smearing their own Faithful," which they will now consider as they reflect and see the same disgusting behaviour that is possibly being carried out in their own dysfunctional "churches." Talk about being "ecumenical." Does it occur to them that perhaps the Marks of APOSTOLIC authority with the Pope as the supreme Spiritual Vicar on Earth, is a big drawing point for them to consider maybe converting to the Faith? (as a related side note, that is part of why my council's current Grand Knight, a convert, became a Catholic. He saw that within the Church, unlike the opposite in his own prior church, of how individuals or 'councils' of humans, determine approach to moral situations and beliefs.)
3) Furthermore, this directly violates paragraph
40 in MCC, when the attack is directly pointing the finger at the Holy Father or implicating him because it is his "Papacy," when the supposedly evil or doctrine-violating work is directly being done at the hand of a lesser prelate or others who are abusing Francis' name and the Church's name to commit said evils.
4) Even more wicked, by placing these articles in a public forum, to be picked up by said people, this attacks and erodes their Faith, by sowing initial seeds of doubt which will be further cemented with repeated attempts, and then said corrupted lay member or priest then consumes this media, not trusting the messages of (their parish or other) priests, bishops, and the Holy Father, leading to further abandonment of Christ and His Church from within, all the while NOT defecting to another "denomination" or out of the Church altogether. In doing so, Hitchborn et al. also violate
paragraph 44 in MCC, because in corrupting that of Christ's faithful in the Church, they thus
cut off the Body of Christ from it's head.
Christ, so willingly dependent on His Mystical and/or Communal body of Christ to carry His work,
as in MCC 44, is unable to do so because His body is incapacitated from dissent. Cells, such as individual lay members and clergy, poisoned or mutated into dissenting cancerous cells. The only result of a cancerous body not starved of its cells ... is death. The "death" of the Body of Christ and His Bride, the Church.
A concluding end-note, a Biblical Note on False Teachers.
Should we be surprised that such drivel is being spewed online where anyone with Internet access can attach to such spiritual poison? No. As long as Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church exists, there will be false prophets, and we all should be aware. Christ Himself, tried to warn us, as well as his Holy Servant, St Paul in his OTHER letter to the first Pope, St. Peter himself, the one 1P5 ignores,
2nd Peter 2 (NRSV CE, 1-3): `
`But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.``
However, in what I have emphasized in bold and underlined, the destructive power they bring into the sheepfold, has also been acknowledged in Sacred Scripture and how they will do it: It will destroy the love of those for Christ and His Truth from reaching their hearts, and it is done with false words that repel the truth from them. Now, while we cannot control the actions of subordinates under the Holy Father, we nonetheless must be wary of those wielding such lies and power to deter people from expressing that Cardinal Virtue of Faith in Holy Mother Church.
Reading the passage above, this is exactly what these people and their blog sites do: Sow Satan`s division to entice the lay faithful to rebel against the Church and the Holy Father, no different from Satan`s rebellion over God, because they think their false ``truth`` is better than God`s TRUTH expressed through Jesus Christ, his Vicar Pope Francis, and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
With Scripture and MCC via Pius XII, this is exactly WHY we should NOT simply ignore these minority of bloggers, sites, etc. as lost causes to be ignored. Because the very acts they perform, reaches SUCH a broad audience in the Church today, an audience who is either NOT going to Mass, or even worse, an audience who is actually STILL committed to Christ but seeking more spiritual nourishment in our daily lives.
Of those people are the youth, the next generation of Christ`s workers in the vineyard, and of absolute necessity: our future priests who can perform the sacraments, our future religious sisters who aid the Bride of Christ and are joined to her, and our future laymen, who if they trust in the Church still, will marry and have families who will provide the next generation of vocations in the Church.
Further, of those people who are STILL in the Church, are good men like my brother Knight, striving through his daily work and in his marriage to remain faithful to Christ and to his family. Thankfully, I did reply immediately to his text and told him about the situation of the article and 1P5. I told him to consult me about future articles such as that of 1P5, as I am aware of a number of the major players spewing this fake news, and I know firsthand from my online and personal experience, encountering Radical Traditionalism in the Latin Mass environment, what form such spiritual poison comes in.
However, what about others like him, who have no trusted friend or family or spiritual superior to rely upon, or is not aware of apologetics sites, or is perhaps older and not technologically savvy? What defense does a layman or woman like him (or even, our pastors as priests) have to know to counter against such anti-Catholic propoganda that can sever their link to the Magisterium and the Head of the Church in the Pope?
It is for this reason, that we MUST not take lightly, articles like this, that have no legitimate journalistic credibility or supporting evidence from other legitimate sources, as viable and dangerous threats to the faithful in the Body of Christ. We must stand united together in protecting those spiritually vulnerable, or just trying to make their pilgrim journey home to Christ in Heaven, remaining on that treacherous, yet rewarding narrow path. Christ depends on His Earthly Body in us, the Mystical and/or Communal Body of Christ, to defend itself from such foreign invaders, and to expel them as its immune system. In Nomine Christi, Defende!
Pax Tibi Christi, Julian Barkin.
