Discernment
– True and False Seers, Apparitions (MDM – BOT)
In
the midst of a great cultural and social crisis,
as well as more confusion than ever before, many people are looking
for guidance and answers to help solve these profound problems.
Unfortunately, due to this confusion and organized deception and
promotion of relativism by Freemasonry, many people no longer look to
the documents of the Church and the writings of the saints of the
last 2000 years, but decide the truth for themselves, according to
their own likes and tastes and hidden desires and motives. The
“father of lies”, Satan (Jn 8:44), with the help of very numerous
followers, helps to create this confusion and to perpetuate it and to
offer us false information and solutions. As we know, Satan
offers at least 95% of the truth while inserting his poisonous hidden
lies.
Prophetic
private revelations are so important,
especially in times of great crisis and confusion, that Satan seeks
in every way to diminish their divulgation, influence and effect. In
1882, Christ revealed to the stigmatist, Marie Julie Jahenny of La
Fraudais, France that: "In
the last days, a seemingly unlimited amount of FALSE REVELATIONS will
arise from hell like a swarm of flies; a last attempt of Satan to
choke and to destroy the efficacy of the TRUE REVELATIONS by false
ones."
This
indicates that the true private revelations are important enough for
Satan to try to diminish their effectiveness in helping to alert
souls of the very great dangers in this period of time when even “the
elect will be deceived if possible” (Mt 24:24). But this also
indicates that there are many false revelations and thus one must be
wise and prudent especially in regards to recent revelations in which
the proper Church authorities have not made any pronouncement yet.
St.
John also tells us: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test
the spirits to see whether they are of God: for many false prophets
have gone out into the world” (1Jn 4:1).
Thus
it is very important for all of us,
especially if we have any influence over other souls in anyway
whatsoever, to be willing to listen to
someone who offers us insight and guidance with the documents of the
Church and the writings of the saints.
Pope John Paul II often encouraged dialogue. It is so easy to become
attached to our own convictions or to a particular seer or private
revelation, according to our feelings and particular sentiments, and
then not be willing to listen to anyone not in agreement with
ourselves. This danger is even greater in this period of the “great
tribulation” (Mt 24:21), when even “the
elect will be deceived if possible” (Mt 24:24)! It is not difficult
for Satan, who is very intelligent, to offer many valid predictions
in order to convince us that a particular seer is good and then in a
sly way, cause real damage to souls without us realizing it.
I
wrote to several people who follow Maria Divine Mercy
(“Book of Truth” – BOT) in Facebook, which has been condemned
by many bishops, including from the country of its origin, Ireland:
“Stick to apparitions approved by many
bishops and cardinals: “To the
Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons”
(http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/).
"FALSE SECURITY - Maria Divine Mercy – MDM"
(https://spir-food.blogspot.com/2019/11/false-security-maria-divine-mercy-mdm.html).
Their reaction was very
negative, and they did not want to dialogue with anyone not in
agreement with themselves; they only
wanted to justify and defend their own personal conviction without
being willing to learn or discern with someone who offers well
intentioned caution based on the wisdom of the Catholic Church. It
seems that this false seer is strongest in the Philippines and
Nigeria, perhaps because there is more devotionalism with less
education to discern according to the criteria of the Church and the
writings of the saints and popes. This lack of catechesis, and
perhaps a strong tendency toward protagonism and triumphalism, easily
leads many to put a seer above all, even the Magisterium of the
Catholic Church with all her documents of 2000 years guided by the
Holy Spirit. In a real way, many have started a new church, the
church of the “Book of Truth”, but Christ founded only one
Church, the Catholic Church. Unfortunately they masquerade as being
Catholic! Instead of putting before themselves the “Book of Truth”,
they should put before themselves the Holy Bible and the Catechism of
the Catholic Church for adults (CCC; ed. 1992, promulgated by Pope
John Paul II; http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM).
But
these people do not want to do this! I have not met with anyone in
this group who knows what it means to be
Catholic even though they say they are Catholic.
They truly act as if Satan does not exist or that Satan is stupid and
would never inspire a false apparition that could do great harm to
many souls in a hidden and sly way. A strong follower and promoter of
MDM, Daniel, wrote me recently in Facebook: “But do you think that
attacking private revelations is the right thing? If you don't
believe in the message why not walk away and continue with your
devotion as usual. Don't you think you are making yourself the judge
in this matter? The simple truth is that there's SENSE IN EVERY
NONSENSE. BE VERY CAREFUL BEFORE PRIDE STIRS YOU UP. Do you want to
tell me that the millions of people following the Book of Truth were
convinced by MDM? I'm not interested in knowing who MDM is and her
history and I know that many of the followers share this same thought
with me. I'm from a pagan family even though I was baptized. I have
poor or little knowledge of the catechism of the Catholic Church.”
Daniel
has no idea that the most important job of pastors
- parents, priests and bishops - is to protect the sheep, the souls
entrusted to them, from the very sly and intelligent wolf, Satan!!!
It is amazing, being surrounded today in
the atmosphere of relativism, how everything is reversed.
Is not truth established by God (Jn 14:6) instead of by the majority
of people as indicated by Daniel? Is it
not one of the first tenets of Satan, which he communicates to us,
that the immutable Truth (Who is God - Jn 14:6) does not exist,
and that all religions and truths are all acceptable even though
there are fundamental contradictions between different religions and
truths, such as Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus are all on the same level
and acceptable, as is taught in all 33 degrees of Freemasonry, which
means that Jesus is not the “only Son of God” (Jn 3:15-18; 1:14;
1Jn 4:9)?!? Is this not what Daniel wrote: “The simple truth is
that there's SENSE IN EVERY NONSENSE”?!? A fundamental attitude or
philosophy of life, the easier way, that slowly leads away from God
is: “Ignorance is Bliss!” Is this not what Daniel, along with a
very great number of people today, is embracing and promoting? Daniel
did not indicate in anyway the desire to discern how we can help each
other discover and do, in this situation, the holy will of God!
Daniel
wrote: “BE VERY CAREFUL BEFORE PRIDE STIRS YOU UP.” Things are
truly upside down today. Is it not pride to not seek the guidance
from the Catholic Church that Christ founded instead of going
according to one’s own opinion and subjectivism?!? According to
Daniel’s logic, all good pastors who seek to protect the sheep, the
souls entrusted to them, are prideful. According to Daniel, all
pastors should closed their eyes and not speak, like “dumb dogs”
(Is 56:10), about the great dangers that the wolf, Satan, offers to
unsuspecting souls.
It
seems that for Daniel pride means to not blindly obey an unapproved
and condemned private revelation (MDM – BOT).
Is this not what all dictators in the history of the world demanded,
blind obedience, with no discussion or dialogue based on Divine
Revelation explained by the One True Church, the Catholic Church for
2000 years?!? Don Stefano Gobbi, one year before his death in June
2011, said to a few people privately in the USA: “Pray
for the next pope, but do not listen to him”.
This is how saints talk, which is very different from the messages of
MDM - BOT. The more we habitually criticize others, even a supposed
false pope, the less we criticize ourselves to discover how we are
not imitating Christ in our lives and we become blind to our real
lack of authentic virtue.
The
martyrs of the first centuries of the Church,
did not hold a vengeance against their murderers and thus attracted
many new followers to the new Christian religion because people never
saw before anything similar, that is the great persecution and
injustice without vengeance or rancor, but forgiveness from the
heart.
Our
Lady in her messages to Don Stefano Gobbi (“To The Priests Our
Lady’s Beloved Sons”; http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/)
says often the importance of becoming
little children! If we feel full of our
intelligence, wisdom and holiness, God draws away from us and we
deceive ourselves and in the end we destroy ourselves. “Truly, I
say to you, unless you turn and BECOME LIKE CHILDREN, you will never
enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
As
St. Louis de Montfort explains for our times, and repeated many times
“To The Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons”, Our
Lady is forming her cohort of the truly humble little ones while
Satan takes the rest. The truly humble
little ones seek the truth from outside of their own heads from God
explained by the authentic Magisterium of the Catholic Church of 2000
years.
The
Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, once said: “The truth is
the truth even if no one believes it; error is error even if everyone
believes it.”. Is it not PRIDE to NOT
want to consider that maybe the private
revelation that I like personally is not from God and can possibly
lead me slowly in the wrong direction toward my destruction as “an
angel of light” (2Cor 11:14)? Is it
not PRIDE to NOT want to dialogue with
anyone not in agreement with me, with a person who offers me
pertinent documents of the authentic Magisterium of the Church for
2000 years? Is not the main job of good pastors to protect the sheep
from the very intelligent and cunning wolf disguised as a lamb, or
worse, disguised as a pastor who is not faithful to the religion that
he claims to represent?
Daniel
wrote: “If you don't believe in the
message why not walk away and continue with your devotion as usual.”
Daniel is saying that the only thing that is important is to find a
devotion that I like, that pleases me, without trying to discover if
this devotion pleases God or helps me or hurts me afterwards! This is
where the New Age comes in offering people all kinds of “devotions”
which do not lead to the one true God of the universe! Is not
devotionalism the seeking of what serves me rather than what serves
God? “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve” (Mt
20:28; Mk 10,45; Jn 13:1-17). Does not this devotionalism lead to
saying the Our Father, “THY will be
done”, but living “MY will be done”,
which is nothing more than self satisfying egoism? This can be
applied to anything we do or believe, “THY will” or “MY will”
be done, to love God and neighbor, or to love myself. “Not everyone
who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
If I use everything to do MY will, how can I hope to pass eternity
with God? We human beings are very
capable of justifying and defending what we want in the name of God
or in the name of a religion or in the name of a “seer”, helped
out by “the father of lies”, Satan (Jn 8:44), disguised as “an
angel of light” (2Cor 11:14)! With so few courageous pastors today,
willing to offer THE WHOLE AND INTEGRAL
TRUTH, very few people live what Saint
Peter warned us about: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of
suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world”
(1Pet 5:8-9).
I
guess I should not be surprised at this
having come to realize that at least the majority of priests today,
as the first targets of Satan, are even more confused and further
away from the Truth of God than the lay people that they are suppose
to guide according to the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church.
I recently sent a cell phone message to a priest who continually
harasses me to join the cult of man: “Dear Don Stefano. If you are
not willing to look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church for
adults (CCC, ed. 1992) together with me in order to discover what God
wants in the concrete situations, please, do not telephone me anymore
nor knock at my door, with the motive to straighten me out according
to your ideas. I follow God, not men! Is the Church the handmaid of
the Truth or the Author of the Truth??? What religion do you
represent??? Don Jo”
Almost twenty Cardinal and
more than 150 Bishops, more than 50,000 priests and religious, have
followed the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP), receiving by way of
the book, “To the Priests, Our Lady's
Beloved Sons”
(http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/),
which contains the messages, precious teaching from the Mother of
God, in this devastating attack of the ecclesiastical Masonry on the
sound doctrine of the Church and the Sacraments, especially the Most
Holy Eucharist. Many bishops have given their Imprimatur to this
book. You will find in these messages of Our Lady revealed through
Don Stefano Gobbi
a resemblance to the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort, Saint
Therese of the Child Jesus and to the messages of Our Lady of Fatima,
with the sweetness that only the Mother of God, and the Mother of
each of us, could communicate to those open to the caresses of Our
Lady!
In
these messages, Our Lady lovingly leads us to Calvary, with true
humility and suffering with Jesus. Our Lady often says, do not judge
anyone. Of course as Catholics we understand this to not judge
subjectively, that is the hidden intentions and motives and the
eternal destination of a person. But we must judge objectively the
visible and manifest facts so as not to follow those who lead us away
from God and into sin.
In
these messages Our Lady leads us to true holiness which is the
fundamental solution for the world and the Church. The more we
criticize others, the less we criticize ourselves about how we are
not imitating Christ and we become blind to our real lack of virtue.
Our Lady leads us to the foot of the cross in this period of the
crucifixion of the Body of Christ, the Church (CCC 675-677;
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM).
Mary, the Queen of Martyrs, did not yell out to the ones crucifying
Jesus! The supposed “Maria Divine Mercy” in the so called “Book
of Truth” does not lead us toward true humility and suffering with
Mary at the foot of the cross, but to FALSE SECURITY
in the so called “Seal of God” ("FALSE SECURITY - Maria
Divine Mercy – MDM";
https://spir-food.blogspot.com/2019/11/false-security-maria-divine-mercy-mdm.html)!
I
get the strong impression from the followers of MDM – BOT that the
only thing that is important for them is to read these predictions of
MDM, as if this is the criteria of their salvation and supposed
sanctity! On the other hand Our Lady in the Blue Book (Gobbi) repeats
in many ways the basic message of Fatima, prayer and sacrifice and
penance. Our Lady in the Blue Book leads us to Calvary to imitate her
Son Jesus humiliated and crucified on the cross. The
followers of MDM – BOT do not see, or do not want to see, this
fundamental difference, because it
seems that the great majority of people today do not want to follow
Christ humiliated and crucified (as was the case 2000 years ago and
always) but rather to feel important and protagonists with special
secrets and future prediction, which was one of the main appeals of
the major heresy in the early centuries of the Church, Gnosticism,
which has continued to thrive during the centuries in various
different forms.
Saint
Bonaventure and many saints tell us that without humility there is no
virtue, and there is also spiritual blindness and obstinacy!
Saint
Augustine tells us:
It
was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility
that makes men as angels. Humility is
the foundation of all the other virtues. The soul in which this
virtue does not exist, there cannot be any other virtue except in
mere appearance. There is something in humility that strangely exalts
the heart. This is the very perfection of man, to find out about his
own imperfections. You must be emptied of that which you are full
that you may be filled with that which you are empty. The greater the
building is to be, the deeper you dig the foundation. For once your
foundation is set, the height to which you can build has been
determined. You want a tower that will pierce the clouds, lay first
the foundation of humility. Humility must accompany all of our
actions. For as soon as we glory in our good works, they are of no
further value for our advancement in virtue.
The
president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), Cardinal
Bassetti, invited a priest in November 2019 to tell all of us priests
of the diocese of Perugia, Italy, with convincing words, that
everyone is having sex outside of marriage so we priests are
hypocrites to not go along with the flow (“Priests Systematically
Brainwashed”;
https://spir-food.blogspot.com/2019/12/priests-systematically-brainwashed.html).
St
Anthony, Abbot, centuries ago, said these prophetic words about our
times: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see
someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad;
you are not like us’”!
I
spent three years in a group associated with a false Marian
apparition in the United States at
Necedah, Wisconsin. At the end of this experience I wrote a book on
private revelations which included several chapters on discernment of
private revelation (“The Catholic Church and Private Revelation”;
http://priv-rev.blogspot.com;
http://necedah-cult.blogspot.com
; Wikipedia: “My Personal Reasons Why I Left The Shrine At Necedah,
Wisconsin”; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necedah_Shrine).
This book was instrumental in helping several hundred people leave
this cult in Necedah, Wisconsin in 1983.
As
a priest, I find that it happens rather often today that a woman who
has some religious inclinations, married to a man who does not pray
and does not live the Christian life, does not live her PRIMARY
VOCATION as a wife and mother as did
all the married saints, and ends up rejecting the cross of her
vocation that God has given her for her sanctification, and
distancing herself or separating herself from her husband, and often
tries to do something good in the parish or follow various seers with
special prayers, feeling she is good and her husband is a pagan. This
type of behavior is fundamentally promoted by secular feminism which
is very strong in the Catholic Church today under the banner of “The
Importance of Women In Leadership” as the primary goal while
remaining in silence about the primary vocation as is seen in all the
married saints, to inspire with much patience her husband, as a wife
and as a mother. It is rather common
today that people put aside or get rid of the cross that God has
given them in their vocation and then seek to justify themselves as
holy or at least as good Christians, by
picking and choosing other seemingly good apostolates that they like,
to be protagonists. Almost invariably these people are not open to
dialogue or discernment so as to seek God’s holy will in their
lives, in their particular situation and vocation. The married saints
of the past, such as Saint Monica or Saint Rita of Cascia or Blessed
Francesca of Rome are looked upon as living in an outdated era, since
today the world that craves power. But when one sees a vocation in
terms of service instead of power, then we begin to see the beauty of
the virtues of those who followed their vocation according to Christ
who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mt 20:28; Mk 10,45; Jn 13:1-17).
It
happens rather often in these times, surrounded by subjectivism and
relativism, to use religion, or the
Bible, or seers in the way that a person wants things to be. The
foundation of Protestantism is precisely this, since they threw out
the guidance of the Church that Christ founded. Each person or each
independent group interprets Sacred Scripture as they like, very
often in contradiction with the thousands of independent protestant
groups, on very important theological and moral doctrines.
Four
hundred years ago the Protestants left the Catholic Church, but
now the protestants remain in the Church and seek to get rid of those
who remain faithful to the immutable truth that
comes from God, not from the world. “Also it was allowed to make
war on the saints and to conquer them” (Rev 13:7).
The
world is so far from God that only God can save us.
Pope Benedict talked many times about the fact that “God seems to
have disappeared from the horizon”
(http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110511.html)
for a great number of people, and the consequence afterwards
(http://www.asianews.it/news-en/If-God-disappears,-humanity-could-destroy-itself,-Pope-says-17090.html).
Thus the most fundamental thing that we can do to help the world and
the Church is to do all we can to arrive
at great personal sanctity, totally
docile in the hands of our Heavenly Mother who will mold us into
great saints as St. Louis De Montfort explains. If we put other
things first, which are self satisfying, even though good things in
appearance, we could very easily not find ourselves in the cohort of
Mary in this great battle between “the woman clothed with the sun”
and the “great red dragon” (Rev 12:1-3). Are we looking at Christ
crucified and Mary desolate in this period of the crucifixion of the
Body of Christ, the Church (CCC 675-677;
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM),
or are we looking at ourselves and what we desire???
WHAT
WOULD YOU THINK OF A DOCTOR WHO CARED NOTHING ABOUT DISEASE AND DOES
NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT DISEASE and
sends patients with a grave disease home telling the patient not to
worry because the doctor was afraid of UPSETTING
THE PATIENT. He would be considered a
quake, an
incompetent, culpable of gross professional negligence. He could be
sued for malpractice. But if priests do not
speak about the only thing that can kill
the soul, mortal sin, because the people (spiritual patients) do not
want to hear these things, what would you think of such a priest? If
the doctor behaves in this way, the person could easily loose his
life; but if the doctor of souls, the priest, does this, the person
could lose his immortal soul which lasts for all eternity. “For
what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits
his life?” (Mt 16:26; Mc 8:36).
POPE
JOHN PAUL II (AMONG MANY OTHER
OCCASIONS) SPOKE FIRMLY TO THE US BISHOPS AGAINST THIS "PICK
AND CHOOSE SMORGASBORD TYPE CATHOLICISM"
in LA in his September 1987 visit: "It is sometimes reported
that a large number of Catholics today do not adhere to the teaching
of the Church on a number of questions, notably sexual and conjugal
morality, divorce and remarriage. Some are reported as not accepting
the Church's clear position on abortion. It has also been noted that
there is a tendency on the part of some Catholics to be selective in
their adherence to the Church's moral teachings. It is sometimes
claimed that dissent from the Magisterium is totally compatible with
being a “good Catholic” and poses no obstacle to the reception of
the sacraments. THIS IS A GRAVE ERROR
that challenges the teaching office of the bishops of the United
States and elsewhere. I wish to encourage you in the love of Christ
to address this situation courageously in your pastoral ministry,
relying on the power of God's truth to attract assent and on the
grace of the Holy Spirit which is given both to those who proclaim
the message and to those to whom it is addressed."
(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870916_vescovi-stati-uniti_en.html).
It
is interesting that Pope John Paul II did not say to the bishops that
they must obey me as Pope, but “dissent from the Magisterium” of
the Catholic Church! Lumen Gentium 25 teaches clearly that the
documents of an ecumenical council ARE
INFALLIBLE (CCC 891). The Catechism of
the Catholic Church (CCC 888-892) tell us that the doctrines of the
Church are essential to arrive to sanctity. “When
the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine “for
belief as being divinely revealed,” and as the teaching of Christ,
the definitions “must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.”
This infallibility extends as fare as the deposit of divine
Revelation itself” (CCC 891). But to the ordinary teaching of the
Church “the faithful are to adhere to it with religious assent”
which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an
extension of it” (CCC 892). Thus the
documents in an ecumenical council express in human language the
absolute truths which cannot be changed, EVEN BY A FUTURE POPE FOR
APPARENTLY GOOD MOTIVES TO MAKE THE NON CATHOLICS FEEL MORE AT EASE
or for non practicing Catholics; this would be false ecumenism, false
mercy, false love, which offers a superficial and easy solution
without the cross of Jesus, but afterwards there is slavery and
destruction!
The
Catholic Church has always taught: “CONSCIENCE
MUST BE INFORMED AND MORAL JUDGMENT
ENLIGHTENED. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It
formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the
true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of
conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to
negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment
and to reject authoritative teachings” (CCC 1783). THE ABSOLUTE
TRUTH DOES EXIST! “Conscience can remain in ignorance or make
erroneous judgments. Such ignorance and errors are not always free of
guilt” (CCC 1801, 1713, 1714). “No one is deemed to be ignorant
of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the
conscience of every man” (CCC 1860).
After
the Vatican Council and the post council was well underway, Pope John
Paul II wrote, contesting “certain currents of modern thought …
The individual conscience is accorded the status of a supreme
tribunal of moral judgment which hands down categorical and
infallible decisions about good and evil. … so much so that some
have come to adopt a radically
subjectivistic conception of moral judgment”
(Veritatis Splendor, no. 32;
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor_en.html).
RELATIVISM,
according to Pope Benedict XVI, is "the most profound difficulty
of our time."
(http://popebenedictxviblog.blogspot.it/2005_05_01_archive.html).
In his homily at the Mass preceding the conclave that quickly elected
him Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Today, having
a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as
fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be
"tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine"
(Eph 4:14), seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times.
WE ARE BUILDING A DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM that does not recognize
anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of
one's own ego and desires.”
(http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html;
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_relativism_may05.asp).
This
attitude of not wanting “to dialogue with anyone not in agreement
with themselves” happens often at the
highest levels of the Catholic Church.
St.
Thomas Aquinas quoting of St. Augustine,
in his commentary on the right of subjects to resist flaky superiors,
recalled that in St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, he rebuked the
first pope, St. Peter, “to his face because he clearly was wrong”
(Gal 2:11-14). There being an imminent danger for the Faith, prelates
must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects. Thus, St. Paul,
who was a subject of St. Peter, questioned him publicly on account of
an imminent danger of scandal in a matter of Faith. And, as the
Glossa of St. Augustine puts it (Ad Galatas 2.14), “St. Peter
himself gave the example to those who govern so that if sometimes
they stray from the right way, they will not reject a correction as
unworthy even if it comes from their subjects.” (Summa Theologiae,
IIa IIae, Q. 33, A. 4).
If
I realize and believe that the truth comes from God not from me, and
I have a little virtue, especially humility, I
should be willing to listen to someone who says to me that what I
wrote or said was not in harmony with what God has revealed
to us throughout human history (called Divine Revelation), while
quoting documents of the Church. But if I believe or feel that the
truth comes from me, I will not be willing to dialogue with anyone
not in agreement with me, as have done all the dictators in the
history of the world. By throwing out some of the precious laws of
God according to our tastes or personal criteria, we quickly go
toward “might makes right” as it is in hell!
Many
people, who are attached to a particular seer or private revelation,
are not willing to talk to anyone who is not in agreement with them.
You might say that in the name of God or in the name of Mary (of a
supposed private revelation) they end up rejecting God due to the
lack of true humility. So many naively believe that since it is a
private revelation, the messages are straight from heaven and thus
infallible and thus above any and all authority on the face of the
earth, which is what they want! Of course they do not see that this
blind prideful logic leads to the conclusion that all seers are from
God, because all seers say their messages come from God!!! Who
decides which seers are from God and those that are not? Regarding
the necessity of humility and obedience we find a very striking and
instructive example that when St. Teresa of Avila’s confessors told
her "to reject them (her visions) every time by the sign of the
cross and by derision”, Jesus later told St. Teresa of Avila “that
I was not to distress myself, that I DID
WELL TO OBEY; but that He would make
them see the truth of the matter” (“Ch. IX: Obedience To Lawful
Superiors”;
http://priv-rev.blogspot.com/2008/04/pr-chapter-ix.html).
The
Truth comes from God, and not from the Church,
and thus no priest, bishop or pope can change the Truth of Divine
Revelation which is well summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church for adults (CCC; ed. 1992, promulgated by Pope John Paul II;
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM).
Simply put, this is precisely what several cardinals wrote in the
“Dubia” (November 2016) and in their book “Remaining in the
Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church”
(October 2014), and many other cardinals and bishops and orthodox
Catholic professors in the last six years. These cardinals and
bishops and professors were not just offering their opinions among
all the other human opinions, but rather they were doing what all the
saints did and what Saint Paul did 2000 years ago! Why is there no
longer dialogue, in the last six years, with any cardinal or bishop
or priest or professor who proclaims that we must remain faithful to
the saving authentic Truth of Christ which does not change with the
world?!? Instead these courageous men are silenced in various clever
and hidden ways. Jesus said “the Truth (of God (the Rock) not of
the world (sand)) will set you free” (Jn 8:32). Jesus did not say
“a pope or a bishop will set you free”!?! Did God give us the Ten
Commandments for our own true good, or for our evil? Do we trust
ourselves or God? Do we want to spend eternity with God in peace or
with all those who want to command and make war with each other for
all eternity?
What
will we say to Jesus, who is the Truth (Jn 14:6), when we die?
- That we followed the unchanging truth of Jesus, well explained by
His Church, or that we followed the easier worldly (false) “truth”
of the majority of people or of many important people in the Church,
“politically correct”, who did not remain faithful to the truth
of Divine Revelation? For 2000 years Christians have understood from
the words of Christ, well explained by the Catholic Church, that it
is a grave mortal sin to have sex outside of marriage. Now after
‘Amoris Laetitia’, there are many divisions in the Church and a
great number of Catholics believe that “cohabitation” (outside of
Christian marriage) is OK since God loves me and God is merciful.
With this new concept of (false) mercy,
detached from Divine Truth and from conversion to the will of God,
many believe they no longer have to heed the first words of Jesus:
“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15; Mt 4:17), or even
the Ten Commandments, and they can delete from the traditional “Act
of Contrition”: “I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to
sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin”!?! “YOU
WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS” (Mt
7:15-20)! Jesus did not say “you will know them by their leaves”,
which would be their nice words, disguised “as an angel of light”
(2Cor 11:14)!
“ONLY
WHAT IS TRUE CAN ULTIMATELY BE PASTORAL.”
(No. 15; Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith; Letter
To the Bishops of the Catholic Church: On the Pastoral Care of
Homosexual Persons; 1 October 1986; Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,
Prefect;
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html).
Very
often the “angel of light” uses DISTRACTIONS
of offering good things and 95% of the truth, such as the
canonization of Cardinal John H. Newman and the beatification of
Archbishop Fulton Sheen (later suspended with the help of a liberal
bishop in the US), so as to insinuate that all is orthodox, while
inserting and promoting very grave errors in doctrine (in the Amazon
Synod) which will cause great damage, as does a few drops of poison
in a nice glass of wine. We are living in a world more full of
falsehoods than ever before - beautiful deadly lies from “the
father of lies” (Jn 8:44), presented as if they were the truth,
hidden destructive deceptions - such as the devil, hell and sin no
longer exist!!! The great majority of the pastors today “are all
DUMB DOGS, they cannot bark” (Is 56:10), and thus do not warn the
sheep of the very sly wolf, Satan, and his very numerous
collaborators! These poor pastors, who seek to please men instead of
God (Jn 5:44; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18; Gal 1:10), offer misguided compassion
and half truths (which are worse than lies!), especially to speak
only about mercy without “GO AND SIN NO MORE” (Jn 8:11; 5:14)!
Our Lady continually asks us to PRAY FOR PRIESTS AND BISHOPS! In
‘Amoris Laetitia’ and in the two preceding synods, there was no
mention or concern of the great harm done to children of separated
parents (personal responsibility), but only the desires of the
adults.
“Now
the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from
the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons
…” (1Tim 4:1), or of Witch
Doctors from the Amazon, or of recently endorsed priests and bishops
who promote in a shrewd sly way homosexual unions and that the
Eucharist is only a symbol as the protestants believe!
We
are truly in the period of the GREAT
APOSTASY before the manifestation of
the Antichrist written about by Saint Paul (2Thess 2:3-8). The
Church, the Body of Christ, will be crucified (CCC 675-677) in this
period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21), but in the end “my
Immaculate Heart will triumph” (Fatima, 1917) to prepare for the
second coming of her divine Son, Jesus Christ!
On
November 13, 2019 at the monthly meeting
of the PERMANENT FORMATION OF PRIESTS we poor priests in Perugia,
Italy listened to Don Giuliano Zanchi from the diocese of Bergamo,
Italy, who said to us that we must resign ourselves to the mentality
of the world, of cohabitation of unmarried couples, and those who do
not do this have a psychological and moral problem. Cardinal Bassetti
was not happy when I offered my comments saying: “I ask myself if
God gave us the Ten Commandments for our
true good or for our evil? Do we trust
God or do we trust ourselves? Has human nature changed in history and
thus we must change the Ten Commandments (…). It comes to mind the
Gospel of Mark chapter 10, the words of the apostles were “amazed”
and “exceedingly astonished” by the words of Jesus which seemed
too demanding. At that point, Jesus did not offer compromises with
the mentality of the world, but rather said:
“for God all is possible, but for man nothing is possible”.
And even in the Gospel of John chapter 6, when many disciples went
away due to Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist, Jesus was even
ready to lose not only those disciples but also His apostles, “Will
you leave me too?” (…) (“Priests
Systematically Brainwashed”;
https://spir-food.blogspot.com/2019/12/priests-systematically-brainwashed.html).
Satan
is pushing many people off the Barque of Peter, the Church,
on the “port side” (left side), who do not follow the laws of God
infallibly interpreted by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. But
also on the “starboard side” (the right side) of the Barque of
Church, there are many who believe they have the “fullness of the
truth and means of sanctification” and thus do not feel they need
to dialogue with anyone or any group who do not totally agree with
themselves, as did the Pharisees and Scribes, and as have done so
many people and groups in the Church and outside of the Church
throughout history (e.g., the Donatists in the time of Saint
Augustine), especially today in a world and in a Church full of
confusion. The more there is confusion, the more power Satan has. It
is true that the one true Church, the Catholic Church, has the
“fullness of the truth and means of sanctification” (Lumen
Gentium, no. 8), but an individual person or an individual group in
the Church is not the Magisterium of the Church, and thus does not
have the guarantee, the charism of infallibility, to INTERPRET the
doctrines of the Church infallibly. This is why the humility to take
the risk to dialogue is always necessary, as Pope John Paul II often
encouraged us to do. The Church is the handmaid of the truth, not the
Author of the truth! It is so easy to slide back into what the Second
Vatican Council sought to eradicate - to bring the Church back to
true humility and to eliminate in the Church this triumphalism of
being the true Church, with the fullness of Truth and the means of
sanctification (LG 8) (“Evangelization VS
the Trilogy of Devils in the Church: Triumphalism, Clericalism and
Juridicalism”; http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com).
It
is interesting how the two extremes meet:
the liberals do not obey the laws of God while the schismatic
traditionalists set themselves up as the criteria of truth and the
only valid interpretation of the truth or of the documents of the
Church or of a particular seer or private revelation.
It
is interesting that many believe that Cardinal Bergoglio was not
canonically elected pope, as is indicated in “The
“Prophecy” of Saint Francis (Assisi)”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2013/11/prophecy-st-francis.html).
But so many of these end up doing as the
false pope indicated above, by not
talking to anyone not in agreement with their particular seer or
apparition. Satan deceives many souls not only on the left liberal
side, but also on the right conservative side by enticing them to
become the final authority or source of the truth and of which seer
or apparition is true or false without having the humility to seek
and go through the discernment process that the Church and her saints
have left us in the last 2000 years.
Saint
Louis de Montfort in his classic book “True
Devotion to Mary” tells us that in this period of time of the great
battle between the “woman clothed with the sun” and the “great
red dragon” (Rev 12:1-3), Mary is forming her cohort of the truly
humble and Satan takes the rest. The
saints tell us that without true humility there is no virtue and
there is spiritual blindness and obstinacy.
“The
“Prophecy” of Saint Francis (Assisi)”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2013/11/prophecy-st-francis.html).
This
arrogance and spiritual blindness happens everywhere perhaps
especially in ECCLESIAL MOVEMENTS.
Chiara
Lubich taught that our love of Christ
crucified incarnate in our lives is the true source of lasting hope
that leads to eternal life. “You Lord
are my only good” (Ps 15:2). I discovered that very few members of
the Focolare Movement
embraced and lived one of the key elements of the spirituality of
Chiara Lubich, Jesus Forsaken, because very few of these members
imitated Chiara Lubich’s habit of spending much time before our
Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle. The great majority of these
members offer “unity” but as a false ecumenism, by putting aside
and remaining silent, like “dumb dogs” (Is 56:10), about the more
difficult parts of the Gospel and of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church for adults (ed. 1992), so that all might be happy and no one
would be offended. In this ecclesial movement the members would say,
“Let us keep Jesus in our midst”, but if one puts the
uncomfortable truth aside, who is Jesus Forsaken (Jn 14:6), there is
no Jesus in their midst, because there is not the whole Truth in
their midst! The situation is even worse with a movement founded
about 20 years after the foundation of the Focolare Movement, the
Neocatecumenal Way, which has a very
strong base of arrogance and lack of obedience to directives from the
Vatican that are not in conformity with what the leaders of this
movement want. Visit: “Neocatecumenal Way - a Trojan Horse in the
Church”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.com/2018/07/neocatecumenal-way-trojan-horse-in.html;
also: “The Neocatecumenal Mass”
(http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2015/02/the-neocatecumenal-mass.html).
A
Well Organized Misinterpretation of VCII
Recently
there has arisen confusion due Archbishop Viganò’s critique of the
Second Vatican Council. A good priest friend of Don Stefano Gobbi
explains that the problem was a well organized misinterpretation of
VCII, not the Council itself.
During
the International Spiritual Exercises, at Collevalenza – Sanctuary
of Merciful Love (Madre Speranza), June 22-28, 2008, Father Michael
Gaughran offered to over 200 priests and to over 10 bishops of the
movement these words in a meditation, with the title of the
meditation, “The Church, The Movement and
the current times”
(http://wordbelife.blogspot.com/2014/11/):
“[It
Is an Attack On the Truth of God.]
It
grew gradually. It is enough to think of a subtle change that
happened around the time of the Second Vatican Council. With the
arrival of the “experts” there developed the fashion of
theologians (Note 1), regardless of whether or not they deserved the
name; the fact that they had published a book, in general that was
enough. This continues and, with this, the center that guides the
Church in the minds of many, has shifted from where God had placed
it, in the hierarchy, the Pope and the bishops in union with him, and
became the various opinions of all sorts of writers. [The students
collected the books.] So, this has had an impact not only on the
priests, but also on seminarians in many universities. This is the
first part of the attack: the attack on the truth of God, the
foundation of the Church. (…)”
You
might find helpful a brief criteria of discernment for private
revelation at: “Ch. IV: Criteria of Discernment”
(http://priv-rev.blogspot.com/2008/04/ch-4-criteria-of-discernment.html).
Dear
friends, as a pastor, I want to try to protect you from the very
intelligent and sly wolf who wants to lead us all to his dwelling
place for all eternity. Satan is “the father of lies” (Jn 8:44)
I
would highly recommend that you read “To
the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons”
(http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/),
and put into practice what Our Lady tells us to do including to
consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart and pray as many Holy
Rosaries as possible every day, while offering many sacrifices for
the conversion of sinners.
One
can find the Act of Consecration To The Immaculate Heart of Mary (for
Religious and Laity of the Marian Movement) at:
http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/2015/10/our-lady-priests-appendix.html.
May
God bless you!
Father
Joseph Dwight
