Month: August 2017

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Pope Benedict XVI: “The Lord Wins in the End”

Benedict-the-Lord-wins-in-the-end

Photo above shows Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI giving a brief, yet powerfully-relevant message to newly-minted Cardinals: “The Lord wins in the end.”

In a most unusual message to five newly-minted Cardinals, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had a few short, yet powerfully-relevant words: “The Lord wins in the end. Thank you all.”

The pope emeritus received the new cardinals appointed last June 28, 2017, along with Pope Francis, in the presence of media cameras, which are rare for the retired pontiff. Benedict XVI received each of the new cardinals and spoke to them in their own native tongue. After speaking with each of the cardinals, he encouraged them, saying: “The Lord wins in the end.”

These six short words have rich meaning in today’s context, and we can glean from them three important points:

First, it is an acknowledgement that the Church – and the Faith – is in the midst of a major, important struggle. Although the Church has always been beset by crises and challenges, today’s crisis far outweighs many of the past crises.  We see today bishops publicly sparring with fellow bishops, cardinals against cardinals.  We see the papal encyclical Amoris Laetitia splitting the Church. Some bishops conferences have interpreted Amoris Laetitia in a heretodox manner, opening up access to the Holy Eucharist to people living in sin (divorced and remarried), redefining the Catholic understanding of hell and eternal punishment (“No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the gospel”), and many other issues.

On the other side, we have loyal bishops conferences and cardinals who have remained true to the perpetual Magisterium of the Church.  Five cardinals have even publicly asked the Pope for clarification amid the doubts raised by Amoris.

It is obvious, for those with clear eyes, that the Church is in the midst of a creeping schism that threatens to grow wider and wider.

Second, Benedict XVI’s words give us the impression that the Lord doesn’t seem to be winning, at least at this point in time. Highly-liberal, radical bishops and cardinals have rapidly taken over key positions in Church leaderships. Faithful cardinals who are loyal  to the traditional teaching of the Church have been slowly eased out. Many of the key leaders in the Pope Benedict XVI era have been pushed out of key roles, such as Cardinal Raymund Burke, as well as Cardinal Muller, former Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

The third and last point is that Benedict XVI gives us words of hope amid the dark clouds that we face in the Church. He is telling faithful clergy and lay faithful – do not worry, God is in control, He will always win in the end.

Unprecedented Times

The times we live in are unprecedented. As Cardinal Muller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said, it is the first time in history that we have two legitimate popes living.

Archbishop Ganswein, papal secretary to both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, has called the situation of two popes a “wake up call”.  During an interview, Ganswein was referred to an old prophecy that has recently gained traction in some clerical discussions: The “Prophecy of the Popes.” Also known as the “Prophecy of Malachy,” the prophecy predicts Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as the second-to-the-last pope prior to the Second Coming of Jesus.

“Indeed, when looking at the prophecy, and considering how there was always a sound reference to popes mentioned in its history – that gives me the shivers,” Archbishop Gänswein admitted. Although Catholics aren’t required to accept the prophecy, “speaking from historical experience, one has to say: Yes, it is a wake-up call.”

We cannot help but recall here as well Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s prophecy of the two popes, wherein there would be a false pope in the end times who will lead the Church into error:

I saw also the relationship between the two popes. . . I saw how baleful (harmful) would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness…

The Lord wins in the end! May the words of Benedict XVI inspire us to carry on the fight to proclaim the Truth and the Gospel to the ends of the earth. ∎

 by Paul Simeon, Veritas

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Vatican police break up cocaine-fueled gay orgy at home of one of Pope Francis’ advisors

Monsignor Capozzi

Msgr. Luigi Capozzi (far left) was caught by police amid a cocaine-fuelled sex orgy. He is secretary of Cardinal Coccopalmerio (far right), a close adviser of Pope Francis.

A high-ranking Vatican monsignor who is a secretary to one of Pope Francis’ closest collaborators was arrested by Vatican police after they caught him hosting a cocaine-fueled homosexual orgy in an apartment inside a building that is right next to St. Peter’s Basilica.

The occupant of the apartment, Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, is the secretary to Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio – a key aide to the 80-year-old Pope.  Coccopalmerio heads the Pontifical  Council  for Legislative texts and was said to have once recommended his secretary for a promotion to bishop.

At the time of the arrest, Capozzi was allegedly so high on cocaine that he was hospitalized for detoxification for a short period in the Pius XI clinic in Rome. He is currently in an undisclosed convent in Italy undergoing a spiritual retreat, Italian media reported.

Vatican police allegedly caught the monsignor, whom Italian media called an “ardent supporter of Pope Francis,” after tenants in the building complained repeatedly about constant comings and goings of visitors to the building during all hours of the night.

The building is currently being used by various high-ranking churchmen, including prefects, presidents, and secretaries to the Roman Curia.

Clergy caught having gay sex

Police were alerted to the situation when neighbours began to complain of loud noises coming from the official apartment. When police arrived at the scene, they found a group of men having sex. It’s also claimed the men had been doing drugs in the Vatican-provided apartment.

Capozzi managed to evade suspicion from Italian police by using a BMW luxury car with license plates of the Holy See, which made him practically immune to stops and searches. This privilege, usually reserved for high-ranking prelates, allowed the monsignor to transport cocaine for his frequent homosexual orgies without being stopped  by the Italian police. Italian news service Il Fato Quotidiano wrote that the building’s separate entrance into Vatican City from outside the Vatican walls made it “perfect” for clandestine activity.

“Positive elements” in gay couples?

The fact that it was Coccopalmerio’s trusted secretary who was behind the orgies makes the Cardinal’s past declarations on the “positive elements” of gay couples take on pressing significance.

In a 2014 interview with Rossoporpora, the Cardinal said that while homosexual relationships are deemed “illicit” by the Church, Catholic leaders, such as himself, must “emphasize” the “positive realities” that he said are present in homosexual relationships.

“If I meet a homosexual couple, I notice immediately that their relationship is illicit: the doctrine says this, which I reaffirm with absolute certainty. However, if I stop at the doctrine, I don’t look anymore at the persons. But if I see that the two persons truly love each other, do acts of charity to those in need, for example… then I can also say that, although the relationship remains illicit, positive elements also emerge in the two persons. Instead of closing our eyes to such positive realities, I emphasize them. It is to be objective and objectively recognize the positive of a certain relationship, of itself illicit,” he said at that time.

When the interviewer noted that some attendees at the Synod on the Family were tending in such a direction towards homosexuals, Coccopalmerio agreed. He then immediately went on to criticize those who feared that “valuing the positive elements” of homosexual relationships would be “undermining” the Church’s doctrine on marriage and sexuality, saying such a conclusion was “problematic.”

Earlier this year, the Vatican’s own publishing house released a book by the Cardinal that defended Francis’s 2016 Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The book put forward the position that civilly-divorced-and-remarried Catholics living in adultery as well as unmarried cohabiting Catholics living in fornication can receive Holy Communion.

The Cardinal later defended his interpretation of Amoris, even though it contradicted perennial Catholic teaching, stating that what he wrote was no different from conversations he had had with the Pope on the subject.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan highlighted in a talk given in Washinton D.C. last October the moral principle that “heresy” always goes hand-in-hand with an “unchaste life.” Where there is heresy, there is also sexual immorality, he said. ∎

Mark Jacobs, Veritas

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The Last Pope? Revisiting the Prophecy of St. Malachy

two popesArchbishop Ganswin, papal secretary to both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, has dramatically brought the Church’s attention back to an ancient prophecy that predicts that Benedict XVI will be the second-to-the-last pope prior to the return of Jesus Christ.

In an interview last May 20, 2016, on the occasion of the launch of a book about Benedict XVI’s papacy written by Fr. Roberto Regoli, Archbishop Ganswin  called attention to the “prophecy of the popes” attributed to St. Malachy, and said that prophecy is a “wake-up call”.

St. Malachy, an Irish Catholic bishop, was known as a gifted prophet, even predicting the date of his own death in 1148. The first native-born Irishman to be canonized, he is known in the Roman Catholic Church for his work as a healer, a miracle worker, and as a reformer of the Church in Ireland. He was canonized in 1190 by Pope Clement III. Malachy was visiting Rome in 1139 when he went into a trance and received a vision. He wrote down this extraordinary vision in which he claims to have foreseen all of the popes from the death of Innocent II until the destruction of the church and the return of Christ. He named exactly 112 popes from that time until the end.

Number 111 on the list, the “Glory of the Olive”, is Benedict XVI because the Benedictines have a branch called the Olivetans. Pope Benedict XVI was not a Benedictine priest, yet he chose the name of Benedict, founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. The symbol of the Benedictine order includes an olive branch. The prophecy, therefore, foretells that Benedict XVI is the second to the last pope prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“Indeed, when looking at the prophecy, and considering how there was always a sound reference to popes mentioned in its history – that gives me the shivers,” Archbishop Gänswein said. Although Catholics aren’t required to accept the prophecy, “speaking from historical experience, one has to say: Yes, it is a wake-up call.”

First published in 1595 by Arnold de Wyon, a Benedictine monk, Malachy’s prophecy consists of 112 short Latin descriptions of future popes. Each of these descriptions identifies one outstanding trait for each of these future popes, beginning with Pope Celestine II, who was elected in 1130. This list stretches all the way from the time of St. Malachy to the present, describing, among many others, Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and finally, “Peter the Roman”, the last pope prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Incredibly Accurate

Although through the years many critics have questioned the authenticity of the prophecy, many scholars and even clergy have come to its defense, citing the incredible accuracy of the descriptions of the future popes.

Scholars have matched up the descriptions with each pope since that time.  For example, Malachy’s description of John XXII, who held the papacy from 1316 to 1334, is “de sutore osseo,” which means “from the bony shoemaker.” This particular pope was, indeed, the son of a shoemaker, and held the family name of “Ossa,” meaning bone. In another close match, Malachy used the term “lilium et rosa” to describe Urban VII, whose family crest was composed of roses and lilies.

The prophecy for Paul VI was “Flos Florum” (Flower of Flowers) and his coat of arms contained three fleurs- de-lis (Isis blossoms). The description for John Paul I was “De Medietate Lunae,” (the Half Moon). He was baptized Albino Luciani (white light), was born in the diocese of Belluno (beautiful moon), became pope when there was a half moon (Aug. 26, 1978), and died after an eclipse of the moon.

John Paul II was prophesied under the title “De Labore Solis,” (from the labor of the sun), and indeed he was born during an eclipse of the sun on May 8, 1920.

A modern version of Malachy’s prophecies was published in 1969 by Archbishop H. E. Cardinale, the Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium and Luxembourg. Cardinale wrote “it is fair to say the vast majority of Malachy’s predictions about successive Popes is amazingly accurate – always remembering that he gives only a minimum of information.”

The Final Entry: The Last Pope

The final of the 112 Latin entries of the prophecy reads as follows.

In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills [Rome] will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.

There are three important points to note with regard to this final entry:

First, It foretells the “final persecution of the Holy Roman Church”.  Many Church events today bear witness to this reality that indeed, the Holy Roman Church is severely being persecuted, both by outside forces, as well as by “wolves in sheeps clothing” that are within the Church herself.  Prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, there will be many “tribulations” that the Church and the faithful will have to bear.

Second, the city of the seven hills (Rome) will be destroyed.  The prophecy foretells the coming destruction of Rome.

Third, “Peter the Roman” will be the final pope.  Some reputable prophecies have pointed out that in the end times, there will reign a “false pope” who will create a false church.  Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, one of the greatest mystics of all time, saw a vision of the end times, where she saw the “baleful relationship between two popes”, and how the false church grew and size.  The Church-approved apparitions of Our Lady of Lasallete likewise predicted: “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist”. Fr. Stefano Gobbi, founder of the Marian Movement of Priests and Laity, likewise received interior locutions from Our Lady, predicting that the false pope in the end would commit the “horrible abomination”, which would consist in the abolition of the Eucharist and the forming of a false , one-world ecumenical Church.  The messages given to Fr. Gobbi have received the nihil obstat and imprimatur; millions of faithful, and thousands of clergy, are part of the Marian Movement of Priests.

If there will be a false pope in the end times, as predicted by numerous reputable mystics and Marian apparitions, who then is “Peter the Roman”? While many have interpreted “Peter the Roman” to refer to Pope Francis, there is a weight of evidence, covered by this publication, which seems to indicate that Pope Francis is leading the Church in a vastly different direction from his predecessors.

In the messages of Jesus given to Maria Divine Mercy, Jesus explains that “Peter the Roman” is St. Peter himself, who will pasture the Church directly from the Heavens during the final persecution of the Catholic Church by the enemies that have taken their seat at the highest echelons of the Church hierarchy.

The prophecy of St. Malachy is, in the words of Archbishop Ganswein, a “wake up call for us.”  We are all called, in these perilous times, to become true soldiers of Jesus Christ, fighting to proclaim the full truth of the Catholic Faith against all error, and praying and imploring Our Lord: “Maranatha!”, come Lord Jesus!