The sixth age of the Church: Signs of Antichrist’s reign

by T. Stanfill Benns | May 20, 2025 | New Blog

+St. Bernardine of Siena+

Introduction

A faithful supporter has blessed us with the discovery of the documents below concerning the end times, which we have excerpted for the convenience of our readers. The importance of these documents cannot be underestimated, because they give a clearer estimation of our present circumstances. Written in earlier ages, they are not contaminated by the expectation of a grand restoration of the Church, predicted in many Catholic prophecies and even promoted by some biblical commentators. Pope Pius XII later laid these expectations to rest when he condemned mitigated millenarianism. But biblical scholars, many of them already infected with Modernism, did not see fit to bring the writings of those promoting such a restoration into line with Pius XII’s teaching. And so those turning to the duly imprimatured works of the past on these matters following the takeover of the Church felt justified in expecting a restoration of the Church, the papacy and the Mass.

But this was not God’s will for us. The Catholic Church Restoration occurred in the 19^th century  following the upheaval of the French Revolution and the subsequent rise of both religious and political Liberalism. During this period, the Church strove to re-establish Her political power and religious influence in society. She also worked diligently to oppose the erosion of traditional religious authority caused by the Enlightenment. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 was held to help stabilize Europe following the Napoleonic Wars and re-establish Catholic monarchies. This period was marked by a renewal of religious fervor and a greater push for doctrinally based Catholic education. Religious orders repressed during revolutionary times were restored and  the Church regained significant amounts of land in France and Italy, confiscated during the revolutions there.

This era seems to have more or less culminated with the convening of the Vatican Council in 1869-70. Wars, sparked by increasing Masonic influence, once more swept across Europe. Modernism, preceded by Liberalism and Americanism, began its deadly campaign against the Church. But already in 1878, there were those who warned that the time of Antichrist was very near. And in in 1903, Pope St. Pius X warned in E Supremi Apostolatus: “So extreme is the general perversion that there is reason to fear that we are experiencing the foretaste and the beginnings of the evils which are to come at the end of time, and that the Son of Perdition, of whom the Apostle speaks, has already arrived upon the earth.” (When St. Pius X wrote these ominous lines in 1903, Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Paul VI, was six years old.) One of these warning is listed as follows:

“All the efforts of Satan are directed and intended to prevent men from ever thinking about the coming of Antichrist, and more especially about the approach of the General Judgment and the end of this world, which affords to him such abundant harvest of souls for Hell. The end of humanity will extinguish the dominion of Satan over men upon Earth and will confine him with his companions and followers in the fiery prison of Hell, during a never-ending eternity of woe. The Devil dreads this increase of misery even more than the reprobates themselves.

“Let us be serious; let us think and reason and speak like men and like Christians. Let us be persuaded that the end of the world cannot be very far away. Scripture, tradition, the Fathers of the Church, most learned, grave and pious authors, older and more modern saints, and innumerable servants of God of every age, class, and condition in life, belonging to almost every country upon Earth, announce its approach. Famine and pestilence, seditions, revolutions, rebellions, wars, schisms, heresies, the frightful increase of vice and crime in society, charity cooling, iniquity abounding upon Earth, earthquakes, destructive conflagrations, terrible accidents on land, shipwrecks on the ocean, sudden deaths, increasing mortality, visions in the sky, disorder in the seasons, spots on the sun, — all nature, in short, announce the pangs of dissolution. But the majority of men affect to be incredulous. This, as we saw above, is an additional sign of the end of the world foretold by our Divine Savior.

“Let us then believe and act like sincere and devout Christians. Let us place our treasure in Heaven and our heart with our treasure. If we are poor in earthly goods, let us rejoice, for we shall leave behind fewer materials as fuel for the universal conflagration.” (The Christian Trumpet, Gaudentius Rossi, C.P., 1873, 1878). Below are excerpts which confirm what is said by Rev. Rossi.

The General History of the Christian Church, from Her Birth to Her Final Triumphant State in Heaven: Deduced from the Apocalypse of St. John

By Charles Walmesley, Bishop of Rama, Great Britain. (Made available by Google Books. Written in 1771 and published in 1834.)

The sixth Age is the last of the Christian Church militant on earth. The time of its commencement cannot be ascertained, much less its final period, that is, the day of judgment, which, as our Saviour says, “no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13: 32). Among various sentiments touching the duration of this world, that seems to have prevailed most, which fixes its period at about six thousand years: but as all is uncertain with respect to this point, we shall not trouble the reader with any discussion about it.

The Apocalyptical description of the sixth age paints it in colours that leave no doubt it will be the most turbulent, the most calamitous, and most persecuting of all other ages. How alarming and how terrible will appear those extraordinary and unnatural signs in the sun, moon, and stars, the earthquakes, the enormous swellings and roarings of the sea, the bloody wars and battles, etc.! Both our Saviour in the Gospel and St. John, in the Apocalypse, express sufficiently the impression these calamities will make on mankind, by saying, “That men will sink away for fear, and call upon the mountains to fall upon them and cover them.” How dreadful will be the destruction made by the terrible army of Antichrist ! How cruel and bloody his persecution, which will last three years and a half! These  shocking events, which throw confusion in the whole system of nature, will be certain presages of the approaching dissolution of the whole structure of the world. Happy those men, who shall take due warning from them, and shall consider them in a true light.

And here we ought to acknowledge the particular favour the Almighty God is pleased to grant us, in giving us previous notice of the disasters attending the sixth age, that we may prepare for them. And this duty is the more incumbent on this, since we touch so near that period, that the next generation or next but one, will probably see some part of it. For after the fifth vial is poured out, which we have shown will be done about fifty years hence, we do not know how soon the commencement of the sixth age may follow. There even seem to appear already some indications of the approach of that period. For the Almighty, in his, wisdom and mercy, before he pours down heavy disasters, generally sends lesser calamities by the way of admonition: and thus we see in these present times greater irregularities in the seasons of the year than used to be, more dearth and distress, earthquakes more frequent, etc., all which may be esteemed a prelude to those much more dreadful disasters of the next age.

Who would not then judge it highly necessary that parents should prevent their children of such unparalleled calamities that are to happen, and which it may be their lot to share in. They should be made acquainted with the principal transactions of the next age, as they are recorded in the Apocalypse. For disasters, when foreseen, generally make less impression. The pastors of the Church will probably think it expedient to inculcate the same to their flocks, because those who shall exist in the next age, ought to be prepared and fortified in a peculiar manner with a lively faith, with the love of God, and an “ardent desire of their own salvation. Since many of them may be destined, by divine appointment, to pass through a most severe trial in the persecution of Antichrist, they cannot be too well grounded in the above-mentioned principles. The account we have from St. John and the prophet Daniel of that persecution, indicates, it will surpass in violence and cruelty all the persecutions of the first age of Christianity: what degree of fortitude therefore must be requisite to support the faithful on so trying an occasion? “The Church now admonishes you,” says St. Cyril, “and announces to you the things that relate to Antichrist before they come to pass. Whether they will happen in our time or later, we know not: but, as you are prevented of them, it is fit you should prepare yourself” (Catech. 15).

Let the history of former persecutions be assiduously read, in order to acquire some idea of them, with which when the mind is familiarized, they will appear less terrible. Prepared by these means, and animated by the influx of divine grace, the faithful servants of God will hope to be able to undergo the same hardships and sufferings, which the primitive Christians sustained, and of which we read in St. Paul the following description: “Some were racked,” says he. “Others had trials of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bonds and prisons. They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins, being in want, distressed, afflicted: of whom the world was not worthy: wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth” (St. Paul to the Hebr. 11: 35, &c).

Let especially a diligent and repeated perusal be made of the trials of the martyrs: that by viewing their invincible fortitude and constancy, the faithful may be inspired with the same spirit. They will see with what courage the primitive Christians appeared before the tribunals of the pagan judges, with what noble fortitude they answered to the questions put to them, with what unconcern they viewed the racks and other instruments prepared for their torture, with what inflexibility they continued to profess their faith in the midst of torments, and with what resolution they bowed down their heads under the hand of the executioner. “We say we are Christians,” says Tertullian, “and proclaim it to the whole world; and under the hands of the executioner, and in the midst of all the torments you inflict upon us, to compel us to unsay it. Torn and mangled, and weltering in our blood, we cry out as loud as we are able: that we are worshippers of God through Christ” (on Apoc. 21).

Those invincible heroes of antiquity who thus sealed their faith with their blood, are the models we must set before our eyes, and which we must copy after. They had always in view that heavenly recompense which waited for them after their combat, and which infinitely surpassed whatever they could suffer in this world. They said to themselves, “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8: 18). They recollected what our Saviour had said: “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer — Be faithful unto death: and I will give thee the crown of life” (Apoc. 2: 10). And again:  “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you. — Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Matt. 5: 11-12).

This heavenly prospect animated their courage and sweetened their torments. They had likewise before their eyes the divine pattern of their Lord and Saviour, who had trodden the same path before them for their encouragement. And what homage can be more acceptable to him, than to offer our lives to him who laid down his for our sake? How beautiful a spectacle in the sight of God is a Christian entering the lists with affliction, and with a noble constancy combating menaces, racks and tortures ! When like a conqueror he triumphs over the judge that condemns him. For he is certainly victorious who obtains what he fights for (Min. Fel. in Octav). Full of such thoughts and sentiments, and inspired with interior joy, those champions congratulated one another on the view of their approaching triumph, saying: the persecutor wrests from us our lands, but heaven is open to us: the enemy of Christ threatens, but Christ protects us. They put us to death, but we are crowned with immortality; by killing us they deprive us of this world, but paradise is offered us in its stead: our temporal life is extinguished, but is changed into eternal (Cyprian de exhort, mart. c. 12).

Such ought to be the reflections of those who shall exist in the next age. The complexion of that period will be similar to that of the first age under the persecuting Roman emperors and will exceed it in violence and cruelty. The consideration therefore of the behaviour of the primitive Christians is the best preparation that can be recommended to their successors in the last age. Let them add to it another reflection, which should never be absent from their mind, namely, the immortal glory and happiness, which Christ expressly promises and describes as the portion of all those who shall sacrifice to him their lives in the persecution of Antichrist. “These are they who are come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple: and he, that sitteth on the throne, shall dwell over them. They shall no more hunger or thirst, neither shall the sun fall on them or any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Apoc. 7:14, &c).

Besides the reasons we have given above, the necessity of beginning to inculcate the preceding lessons to the present rising generation appears the more, when we consider the general decay of religion which now prevails. So little is the practice of morality attended to, so little even is religion thought of that we see already no small progress made toward that apostacy, as St. Paul calls it, or towards that general defection from faith, and that degeneracy of morals, which will take place before the great minister oi Satan, Antichrist, appears. How swift indeed must be the decline of true faith, while free-thinking grows at such a pace?

While everyone seems to fix it as a principle, to believe nothing more than his reason comprehends, or that coincides with his own private humour? What practice of morality can we expect from people, who are immersed in worldly pleasures, or in pursuits of private interest, who never spend a moment of thought about eternity, nor scarce ever address their God and Creator in a short prayer? And is not this the general course of life of the present generation of mankind? Certainly then, due care should be taken to prevent as many of the new rising race as possible from being infected by this pestiferous corruption, and to prepare them to be enrolled in the list of the few elect of the approaching time.

When a tide of irreligion and infidelity has broken in, and is seen to swell every day, what wonder if the period approach, when God will bring all to the test, and try them as metal in a fiery furnace, in order to discriminate between the good and the bad, and to separate the sound from the unsound grain? The few that will remain firm and stanch under all temptations and persecution, will shine with great lustre in those days, when the bulk of mankind will suffer themselves to be seduced so far, as to go over to Antichrist, adore him as a God, and renounce their Creator their religion, and their own conviction. Notwithstanding the great power of Antichrist, and his faculty of performing surprising wonders, the small body of the faithful will bear away the palm of victory, by their constancy in maintaining the Cause of God at the expense of their lives, and by their fortitude in not yielding to promises, threats, or torments. And thus the fruit of their perseverance will be, to see their victory completed, and the cause of religion fully vindicated, by the just judgments of God upon the impious, when he will exterminate in the most public and terrible manner that satanic man Antichrist, with his associates, will extirpate idolatry from the earth, and restore peace to his Church.

To these reflections we shall add one remark, that of the six vials of the wrath of God, hitherto considered, three, namely, the first, third, and sixth, are poured out for the punishment of idolaters, and the other three, viz. the second, fourth, and fifth, for the punishment of heretics.

The seventh age is the last and longest of all. It is the age of eternity. We see it ushered in by the tremendous scene of the general judgment of mankind; of whom a part are admitted into the heavenly Jerusalem or everlasting bliss, and the other or greater part are doomed to suffer inexpressible torments for all eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone. Whoever will take the pains to meditate a little on the great disparity of these two states, will certainly be moved, if he has not lost all sensibility, to use his utmost endeavours to gain the one and prevent his falling into the other. Both the happiness of the saved, and the torments of the damned, far surpass indeed our conception; but if they be even considered only in a general view, who would not shudder at the thought of being condemned to an eternal prison, in devouring flames that will never be extinguished?

“Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? Which of you can dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 23:14). And on the other hand, if we reflect on the possession of God, the source of all delight, joy, and felicity; with which we shall be filled according to the whole capacity of our being, and this without even the least interruption or allay, are we not transported with the most vehement desire of attaining such a happy state? “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure” (Psalm 25: 9). To this all-happy state let us then “by our good works make our election secure.” Let us spare no pains for it during the short period of our existence here. The recompense will infinitely exceed our labour, and the time of our labour bears no proportion to eternity.

Blessed is he, that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy: and keepeth those things which are written in it” (Apoc.1: 3). And again: “Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book” (Apoc. 22: 7). That this advice may be attended to is our sincere wish, and here we close the present work with the blessing delivered in the last verse of this admirable prophecy: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (End of Walmesly text)

Commentary by T. Benns

The two authors above highlight the importance of recognizing the age of Antichrist and educating others to recognize it, that they may prepare for it spiritually. They speak of the terrible torments that will distinguish this age but they identify these namely with physical torments, not mental agonies. While some have and no doubt will be subjected to both, it is mainly the mental tortures that we suffer from today on so many different levels. Of course no one in the 18^th century could have foreseen the many forms of mental misery that would proliferate in the coming centuries. In fact we ourselves are not even fully aware of all the many assaults via chemicals in the foods we eat, in the water, in the air, in various waves sent into the atmosphere and other attacks adversely affecting our physical and mental health. And this is not even to mention the many lies we have been told about these things, the deceits practiced by Novus Ordo and Traditional pseudo-clergy, or the propaganda spread by these groups and the media.

Already in the 18^th and 19^th century, they could see then what was fast approaching. And here we are, caught in the whirlwind. But at least we know where we stand in time. Those who expect a restoration of the Church and a time of peace have been sadly misled. The end of the fifth age and the advent of Antichrist marked the end of the Church’s time on earth, as St. Thomas Aquinas also wrote. The Church will survive unto the consummation in the small band of faithful left, as Rossi and Walmesley note. They will triumph over their enemies with the coming of Christ, the only King of Zion. And if they persevere until the very end, they will reign forever with Him in Heaven.

We have no pope, but Christ’s Church will last forever

by T. Stanfill Benns | May 11, 2025 | New Blog

+Third Sunday after Easter+

Happy Mother’s Day, Blessed Mother, and a blessed day to all Catholic mothers everywhere!

The seventh king of Rome, a Francis fan, has taken the name of Leo XIV. As a reader astutely observed last week, “Prevost took the name of Leo on the great feast of St. Michael, aping the Catholic Church’s Leo XIII and his great devotion to the Archangel Michael.” The name he chose suggests he intends to focus on social issues and since assuming his role as usurper, he singles out the regulation of AI as one of his primary goals. Committed to the Vatican 2 changes, he seems anxious to implement a larger “tent” for those identifying as Catholic, and this could possibly include Latin Mass devotees. But given his predecessor’s stand on Traditionalism, this seems unlikely. Time will tell. It will be an empty gesture anyway, if and when it does occur.

With the invalid election of Angelo Roncalli, the Church entered into the age of Antichrist, the end of the age of the Church that culminates in the consummation. As St. John of Damascus wrote in his An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV : “ It should be known that the Antichrist is bound to come. Every one, therefore, who confesses not that the Son of God came in the flesh and is perfect God and became perfect man, after being God, is Antichrist (1 John 2:22). But in a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age is called Antichrist.” And many other Fathers and Doctors of the Church have taught the same. As we have explained at length in previous blogs, the mantle of preserving the Church has fallen to those who recognize the signs of the times and keep the faith at home.

Leo 14 may reign from Rome as king of the Vatican 2 sect, but we continue to march to the fulfillment of prophesy outlined in the Apocalypse. A review of why this is the case seems appropriate and is presented below.

Christ’s promises to be with us till the end of time

The promises Christ made to His Church — that it would last until the end of time — have not been made void by the reign of the usurpers. But we must understand the word Church as the Church Herself understands it. Initially the one and only Vatican Council, held from 1869-1870, was scheduled to supply a definition of the Church, for as Henry Cardinal Manning explains, “In all theological treatises, it had been usual to treat of the Body of the Church before treating of its Head… But the Church in council when, for the first time it began to treat of its own constitution and authority, changed the method; and like the Divine Architect of the Church began in the historical order with the foundation and Head of the Church… The doctrine of the Church does not determine the doctrine of the primacy but the doctrine of the primacy does precisely determine the doctrine of the Church. In beginning therefore with the head, the council has followed our Lord’s example both in teaching and in fact.” (The Vatican Council Decrees in Their Bearing on Civil Allegiance, 1875).

The council ended early owing to threats of war in Italy, so while a preliminary draft of the Church’s definition had been drawn up, it was never voted on by the Council Fathers and therefore cannot be counted as the official teaching of the Church. This preliminary draft stated:

“Christ’s Church… the only Society of salvation, will last until the end of the world, ever unchangeable and unchanged in its constitution…It evolves in a variety of ways according to the changing times and circumstances in which it is constantly displaying activity. Nevertheless, it remains unchangeable in itself and in the constitution it received from Christ. Therefore Christ’s Church can never lose its properties and its qualities, its sacred teaching authority, priestly office, its governing body, so that through His visible Body Christ may always be the way, the truth and the life for all men.” (The Church Teaches, The Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary’s, Kansas, 1955). This unofficial draft version of the constitution on the Church, however, must be rightly reconciled with the infallible dogmatic constitutions which comprise the Vatican Council decrees. In the Council’s dogmatic constitution on the Church of Christ, we read, regarding the constitution and foundation of the Church:

“As [Christ] sent the apostles whom He had selected from the world for Himself, as He, Himself had been sent by the Father, so in His Church He WISHED the pastors and the doctors to be even to the “consummation of the world” (Matt. 28: 20)… And since the gates of hell to overthrow the Church, if this were possible, arise from all sides with ever greater hatred against its divinely established foundation, we judge it to be necessary for the protection, safety and increase of the Catholic flock to set forth the doctrine on the institution in perpetuity and nature of the sacred Apostolic primacy in which the strength and solidarity of the whole Church consist, to be believed and held by all the faithful according to the ancient and continual faith of the universal Church…” Later Pope Leo XIII would also teach:

 “…Christ the Lord WISHED that by the strength and solidity of the foundation the gates of hell SHOULD BE PREVENTED from prevailing against the Church. All are agreed that the divine promise must be understood of the Church as a whole, and not of any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by the assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen some of them.” (Satis cognitum, 1896). And from Henry Cardinal Manning’s translation of the Vatican Council documents found in the appendix to his work The Vatican Council Definitions: “If then, any should deny that it is by the institution of Christ the Lord, or by divine right, that Blessed Peter SHOULD have a perpetual line of successors in the Primacy over the Universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter in this primacy; let him be anathema” (DZ 1821).

Free will and heresy

“Wished” and “should” certainly are not the equivalent of  “promised,” “will” and “would.” Man’s free will enters in here and it is men, evil bishops and cardinals, who betrayed Christ by electing Angelo Roncalli, an unworthy candidate on several counts as the first usurper in a long line of papal pretenders. God never deprives man of free will, and they freely conspired to betray the faithful just as Judas betrayed Our Lord. By so doing they became heretics incapable of electing anyone — for heresy means “to choose.” LibTrad pseudo-clergy accuse those praying at home of denying the Church can never fail because they maintain valid and licit bishops no longer exist and canonical election of a true pope is now impossible. But we have never said the Church has failed or no longer exists.

They, on the other hand, by operating without a canonically elected pope at their head, themselves deny that the Church will last as Christ constituted it. They also deny that the Mass has ceased and Antichrist has already come and gone, although his system remains. This they assert by their actions, pretending that invalidly consecrated bishops, without Peter’s canonically elected successor as head bishop, is the Church Christ founded on earth. To believe that Trad pseudo-clergy are valid is to deny the teaching of Pope Pius XII in Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, an infallible papal constitution, and this results in exclusion from the Church, the Mystical Body.

There must be allowance made for that dreadful time when Antichrist will finally come, wielding power “to make war with the saints and overcome them” (Apoc. 13:7). Antichrist is identified as the abomination of desolation, for not only does he usurp the Holy See — as anticipated by Pope Paul IV in Cum ex Apostolatus Officio — but as prophesied in the book of Daniel and unanimously taught by the early Fathers, he will cause the Continual Sacrifice to cease. The Vatican Council and the Council of Trent both teach that this is a truth of faith all Catholics are bound to believe. It is not the Mass that Catholics should have rushed to save, but apostolicity of doctrine. For as Henry Cardinal Manning states above, “the doctrine of the primacy does precisely determine the doctrine of the Church.”

The Four Gospels, Francis Patrick Kenrick, Archbishop of Philadelphia, 1849

“The perpetuity of the commission [to teach all nations] without any interruption is most fully expressed. The AUTHORITY  to teach and baptize with all the functions consequent thereon remains forever. The Apostolic ministry continues to the end of the Christian dispensation which is to last till time shall merge in eternity.”

Christ’s Church, Msgr. G. Van Noort, 1959

“’I am with you at all times as long as the world will last.’ The phrase “as long as the world will last “is a clear reference to the end of the world (Matt. 13: 40; 24:3). And so until that day comes, Christ will be at the side of the apostles as they teach, sanctify and rule. He will be at the side not only of the apostles personally for they were soon to die but at the side of those who will take up the work of the apostles throughout the centuries and will thus form with them one moral person… Therefore the VISIBLE CHURCH will last forever and in an incorrupt state. It will go on forever safeguarding the doctrine of Christ, administering His sacraments and instructing all peoples in His precepts.”

Commentary on the New Testament, Rev. Leo Haydock, 1859

“Behold I am with you all days, even to the end of the world, embraces two points necessary for the Church; viz. integrity of doctrine, and sanctity of life; for, if either of these should be wanting to the Church, it might then be justly said, that she had been left and abandoned by Christ, her Spouse. (Estius) — Jesus Christ will make good his promise: 1. by always dwelling in the hearts of the faithful; 2. by His sacramental presence in the Holy Eucharist; 3. by his providential care, and constant protection to his holy Catholic Church. These last six lines of St. Matthew’s gospel, says the bright luminary of France, Bossuet, most clearly demonstrate the infallibility and indefectibility of the one, holy, Catholic Church, which all are commanded to hear and obey.”

Catholic Scripture Manuals, Book of Matthew (commentary, Madame Cecilia, 1906)

(Commenting on Matt. 28-20): “Until the end of the world there must exist an authorized teaching body to carry on the work of the apostles… Unity of doctrine must therefore be a mark of the true Church. The doctrines taught by the successors of the apostles must be the same as those which the apostles themselves taught; hence the true faith must be Apostolic.”

A priesthood chosen by Pope Pius XII

Christ has always been the Head of the Mystical Body and we are the visible members of that body.  As we read in the New Testament: “…You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people God has purchased.” (I Peter 2:9.) “He has …made us a royal race of priests, to serve God, his Father.” (Apoc. 1:5-6.) “…they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Apoc. 20:6.) St. Augustine comments on the above as follows: “Now this is not meant only of those whom the Church specifically calls bishops and priests, but as we are all called Christians because of our mystical chrism, our unction, so are we all priests in being the members of one priest.” (I St. Peter 2:9, City of God, Book 20, Chapter 10.)

We are visible members of the Mystical Body, the Church. Pope Pius XII infallibly designated the Church on earth as Christ’s Mystical Body in His encyclical Mystici Corpus Christi, teaching that: “The cooperation of all its members must also be externally manifest through their profession of the same faith and their sharing the same sacred rites, through participation in the same Sacrifice… the practical observance of the same laws” and their obedience to Christ’s vicar on earth. Pope Pius XII continues:

“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… 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; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.”  It was Pope Pius XII who provided the infallible definition of the Church as Christ’s Mystical Body in Mystici Corporis. In this encyclical he taught that bishops do not receive their jurisdiction directly from Christ, but only through the Roman Pontiff. Christ is now our only Head, and He keeps forever in existence the papacy and the Deposit of Faith, preserved and interpreted by His Vicars. In later works,  Pope Pius XII extended jurisdiction to the laity in general, shortly before his death.

“The Apostolic See does not simply tolerate your action, it enjoins you to exercise the apostolate, to devote your efforts to fulfilling the Christian’s great missionary duty, that all the lost sheep may be assembled in one fold and under one shepherd…This initiative of the lay apostolate is perfectly justified even without a prior explicit ‘mission’ from the hierarchy… Personal initiative plays a great role in protecting the faith and Catholic life, especially in countries where contacts with the hierarchy are difficult or practically impossible. In such circumstances, THE CHRISTIANS UPON WHOM THIS TASK FALLS MUST, WITH GOD’S GRACE, ASSUME ALL THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES. It is clear however that, even so, nothing can be undertaken against the explicit or implicit will of the Church or contrary in any way to the rules of faith or morals, or to ecclesiastical discipline” (The Mission of the Catholic Woman, 1957; entered into the AAS and therefore binding on Catholics. See more HERE).

So we have been given an actual canonical mission by Pope Pius XII, declaring us successors of the hierarchy in their absence. This provided we obey all the laws of the Church and adhere to ALL Her teachings. Pope Pius XII had previously outlined this mission in the following address: “The faithful and more precisely the laity are stationed in the front ranks of the life of the Church and through them the Church is the living principle of human society. Consequently they must have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church; that is being the community of the faithful on earth under the guidance of their common leader the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. THEY ARE THE CHURCH and therefore, even from the beginning, the faithful, with the consent of their bishops, have united in associations directed to the most diverse types of human activity. And the Holy See has never ceased to approve and praise them” (Feb. 20, 1946 address to the newly made cardinals).

The true and only test of faith is NOT the continuation of the Mass and Sacraments, which cannot exist without valid bishops approved by the Roman Pontiff. The true test of faith is adherence to all Christ did and taught. He founded all on St. Peter and his successors, the core of the Church’s unity, and predicted that once the shepherd is struck, the flock will scatter. The lack of unity we witness today is the fulfillment of that prophesy.

Summary

We may no longer have the visible elements of the Church — the papacy, the hierarchy, Mass and all but two of the Sacraments. But they have not ceased to exist, either. They will always exist in Heaven because Christ instituted them — we simply no longer have access to them. We do have their spiritual substitutes — Spiritual Communion and the Perfect Act of Contrition. Baptism, the most necessary sacrament, is still available to us. And as long as we have repented of our sins, made amends and asked God to lift any excommunications we may have incurred by participating in Novus Ordo or Traditional services, we can count ourselves as visible members of Christ’s Mystical Body, at least by desire. The meaning of the term Mystical Body is explained below.

“First [Christ’s Mystical Body] will be an empirical, concrete, visible, tangible thing… for it is a human institution, a human society. And it is a society quite visibly and tangibly. Its sociology and Canon Law can be written down, it has its clearly defined members and its definite seat. Secondly the Church will be an invisible reality; a life of thought, love and grace that is infused into souls… THE EXPRESSION ‘MYSTICAL BODY’ DESIGNATES THE MYSTERIOUS AND INTERIOR ELEMENT OF THE CHURCH… it does not designate the external [juridical] aspect of body except so far as it is the outward manifestation of the interior soul which consists in such a mystery… It is a union… primarily internal and supernatural. It is the supernatural union of the sanctified soul with Christ and with all other sanctified souls in Christ… The bonds that unite Christians to Christ and to one another are organic, physical, sacramental, although supernatural and invisible…

“The communion of saints is an invisible society, a “Church” or “ecclesia” in the broad sense, a moral body. Its invisible, moral, or juridical head is the glorified or exalted Christ. Besides the many or multiple external visible elements, clergy and laity, hierarchical structure, sacraments, sacramentals, etc., the Church must possess an inner element which, intimately united to the visible elements, must be the formal cause of the unity and identity of the organism, formal cause, too, of its own peculiar life which is supernatural and divine… The invisible elements… form together with the visible elements, its body, one, undivided and indivisible whole, informed and vivified by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost. This living, visible organism, of which the Holy Ghost is the soul in the real but mystical sense, is the Mystical Body of Christ, or the mystical Christ…” (end of Gruden/Mersch quotes).

In the absence of the hierarchy, we are all that is left of the Church, and Pope Pius XII has commanded us to carry on Her existence on earth. Christ will be with us until the very end, whether that be the end of our life on this planet or the Second Coming. He has promised to never leave us orphans, and is ever true to His promises.

Jews not guilty of ritual murder charge, popes teach

by T. Stanfill Benns | Apr 10, 2025 | New Blog

+Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary+

Fr. Doyle’s Reflections on the Passion, Part 5

Gesthemani (cont’d):

It is right for us to plead earnestly for what we want – earnestly, perseveringly, but never insubmissively. We should recognize that God will not give us what will do more harm than good. Many of us have lived long enough to thank God that He did not give us what we asked in prayer in every instance. The best thing possible for us is always what God wills for us. Sometimes it may be pain, worldly loss, or some bereavement; yet His will is always love, and in simple acquiescence to God’s will, we shall always find our highest good. No prayer, therefore, is pleasing to God which does not end with the refrain of Gethsemani: “Not my will but Thine be done.”

This is the way to peace, for as we yield with love and joy, and merge our will with God’s His peace will flow like a river into our souls. Resolve that each time today you hear a clock strike the hour, you will say reverently, “Not my will but Thine be done.” Christ prayed three times in the Garden of Olives. After each prayer was finished, and the words of those three prayers, by the way, were nearly identical, the Master went back to His Apostles, and in each instance He found them asleep. Between the first and second sessions of prayer our Lord uttered a powerful warning, for He said to the drowsy disciples: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41).

“Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation” is a powerful warning that no man should disregard. In wartime it is not unusual to find a soldier court-martialed and summarily executed for falling asleep at his post. Life is a constant warfare against the legions of hell, and we must be ever watchful against sudden attacks from the enemy. But to watch alone is not enough. A sentinel posted on the walls, when he perceives the enemy gathering for an attack, would be foolhardy indeed, to presume to engage the enemy singlehanded. The wise soldier would send word to his commanding officer of the enemy’s approach. Watchfulness lies in observing the imminent approach of the enemy and prayer is the telling of it to God. Watchfulness without prayer is presumption, and prayer without watchfulness is a mockery.

The great Abbot John remarked that a man who is asleep at the foot of a tree and sees a wild animal coming toward him, will most certainly climb up into the tree to save himself. “So we,” says the Abbot, “when we perceive ourselves beset with temptations, ought to climb up to heaven and by the help of prayer, retire safely into the bosom of God.”

The saints have taught that short prayers are more effective in time of temptation. St. Athanasius, for instance, taught that the opening phrase of the sixty-seventh psalm produced miraculous effects for those who used it in time of temptation. Here are the words: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered, and let those that hate Him fly before His face.” Note well, that our Lord did not tell His disciples to be relieved of temptation altogether, but rather that they “enter not into temptation.” God tempts no man, but He permits us to be tempted so to prove ourselves. “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of life” (James 1:12). St. Bernard, explaining these inspired words of St. James, says: “it is necessary that temptations should happen, for who shall be crowned but he that shall lawfully have fought, and how shall a man fight, if there be none to attack him?”

Be undeceived – position, piety, or experience will not spare you temptations. Adam fell when he was in the state of grace and Peter fell soon after his first Holy Communion. Resolve today to make use of the holy names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in the very outset of temptation. Try to commit the first sentence of the Psalm 67 to heart and promise yourself to make use of it as soon as you discern the approach of any temptation. (End of Fr. Doyle quote)

Introduction

In response to the Anti-Semitism booklet posted in a previous blog, it appears that certain bloggers frequented by LibTrads have increased postings condemning the Jews this Lenten season. These postings insinuate that the Church actually accepted Jewish ritual murder charges as true, when such charges were long ago refuted and condemned by the popes. The 1944 Antisemitism booklet explains this in no uncertain terms, and it cannot be brushed off as an already existing tendency to make concessions to the Jews at the false Vatican 2 council. Rev. Riley wrote in his booklet:

“The Popes courageously and in face of general popular antagonism have defended the Jews against calumnious accusations, notably of ritual murder, of ritual profanation of consecrated hosts and of the poisoning of wells at the time of the Black Death. The two calumnies, ritual murder and ritual profanation, still reappear, occasionally under, the names of estimable men, despite their repeated designation as vicious calumnies by Popes. This protecting charity amid wise administrative procedures has been the official tradition of the Church.”

I wish to be clear on this: I do not absolve the Jews of Christ’s time and those applauding them today of guilt in Christ’s death. The Jewish leaders in Christ’s day were definitely responsible for His Crucifixion and death. They cursed their descendants by calling down Christ’s blood upon them. But who those actual descendants are today is the real question. Certainly it is not the Ashkenazi Jews who only converted to Judaism at a later date. The Jewish convert David Goldstein and secular historians conclude that Jewish blood has been so diluted over the centuries, that Jews no longer exist as a race. As will be seen below, most Jews consider themselves such only culturally, not from a religious or racial standpoint. Orthodox and Zionist Jews comprise only a small portion of that group.

That ritual murder is indeed a calumny condemned by the popes is proven by the extensive quotes from papal documents below. But first, a sampling of what is falsely being presented — without any mention of the Church’s position — on other sites.

Fisheaters site

“[Blood Passover is] a book written by Professor Ariel Toaff — son of the Chief Rabbi of Rome, and a professor of Jewish Renaissance and Medieval History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel — about the reality behind so-called “blood libel” allegations made against some Jews during the Middle Ages. This book was published in Hebrew, in Israel, but when translated into other languages, outrage ensued. Threats were made against the writer’s life, demands were made that he be fired from his teaching post, and all copies of the book disappeared from bookstores, deliveries of the book were disrupted, etc., and it’s virtually unavailable to read in print in any language but Hebrew. So here it is, in spite of the actions and threats of those who don’t want you to read it.”

The extensive book list regarding the Jews on this site includes numerous works by perennialist E. Michael Jones, four volumes by British Israel proponent Henry Ford, Saenz/Pinay’s The Plot Against the Church, Elizabeth Dilling’s The Jewish Religion, (an Aryan nation favorite), and other questionable works. Not one papal document regarding the Jews is mentioned on this list. A disclaimer to this list does state the following: “Before going further, I want it to be made very clear — radically clear, excruciatingly clear: racism has no place whatsoever in a Catholic’s heart or mind. The information here is about Jewish leadership and the Jewish religion; it is not about every single human being born of a Jewish mother, “the Jews” as an ethnic group, or “the Jews” as a “race.” Racism — any idea that one race is more beloved by God or is more deserving of respect and charity than another race — has no place in a Catholic’s heart. None whatsoever. Nazism, “white supremacy,” and other similar ideologies are evil and toxic and in no way compatible with Catholicism.” But the books listed as authoritative seem to call this disclaimer into doubt.

Tradition in Action

This site lists several articles on Judaism, including a lengthy review of Toaff’s work. In his Toaff review, Atila S. Guimarães concludes that the Jews were indeed guilty of ritual murder.

The Thinking Housewife

Numerous recent articles have been posted at this site on the topic of ritual murder (blood libel) with a quote from Toaff. There is no mention of papal teaching on this topic that I was able to discover. Some 22 pages are listed in the search function featuring articles on the Jews. From a 2015 post on this site we read from Laura Wood: “At the time, I didn’t think much of the comment by the Jewish lawyer. But my thinking on this issue has changed, especially over the last two years after a lot of hard, time-consuming study. I am grateful to the many authors, especially Dr. E. Michael Jones, Michael Hoffmann III, the Rev. Denis Fahey and Hugh Akins, who have written powerfully and persuasively on this topic.” Wood has since disassociated herself from the perennialist E. Michael Jones, as explained in a recent blog post comment. Study might ostensibly include secular sources, but it had better be rooted in theological sources. Fahey is one, but he certainly cannot rival what the popes teach.

Rev. Fahey mentions the matter of ritual murder in his The Mystical Body of Christ and the Reorganization of Society, (pgs. 191-192). He states in a footnote that, “There are official documents of the Catholic Church unfavorable to the Jews in this matter,” but fails to quote from the actual documents of the popes. He cites St. Simon of Trent’s feast as March 25, (celebrated with another child martyr attributed to ritual murder, St. Wiliam of Norwich), as entered into the Roman Martyrology. In commenting on these feasts and others, Rev. Alban Butler wrote: “It is a notorious slander of some authors who, from these singular and extraordinary instances, infer this to have been at any time the custom or maxim of that people.” Commenting on Butler’s statement, Rev. Herbert Thurston and his assistant wrote:

“Butler’s protest is certainly well founded. No scrap of serious evidence has ever been adduced which would show that the use of Christian blood formed any part of Jewish ritual. It is possible that such child murders may occasionally have been committed by Jewish maniacs or as an act of private vengeance or by necromancers who wished to use the blood for some magical rite. Moreover if we confine our attention to the two martyrs here in question, there is no conclusive evidence that — confessions under torture being worthless — the guilt was brought home to those who were really the culprits,” (The Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, March, Vol. III, Corrected, Amplified and Edited by Herbert Thurston, S.J. and Norah Leeson, Burnes, Oates and Washbourne, 1931).

Other sites; Quas Primas

Catholic Family News, in the Spirit of Chartres (ISOC), Tradition Family and Property, The Remnant, CultureWars, the Society of St. Pius X and its publications, (and in the past, the publication Veritas) — all at various times have indicated that the Jews were the primary coordinators of Vatican 2 and are responsible for the Church’s ultimate destruction. That the Jews played a role in this is a matter of history, certainly. That they also help direct Freemasonry at the top is not disputed here, but the key word is “help.” As pointed out many times, this emphasis on Jews as the cause of all the Church’s (and for that matter the world’s) woes is a classic case of projection to avoid addressing the real problem: We were betrayed by our own Modernist hierarchy, and those acting as clergy today are not validly ordained or consecrated. Antichrist has reigned and his system continues in the Novus Ordo usurpers.  We are enduring the Passion of the Church, the loss of the Mass and Sacraments, which can only end in Our Lord’s Second Coming.  This is the inconvenient and terrifying truth from which they wish to escape.

There are those who claim that in insisting on the proper attitude we as Catholics must take toward the Jews, we lose sight of the fact that we must also defend the rights of Christ as King. They cite Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical Quas Primas, establishing the Feast of Christ the King for this, but forget the words of the encyclical: “When the populace thronged around Him in admiration and would have acclaimed him King, He shrank from the honor and sought safety in flight. Before the Roman magistrate He declared that his kingdom was not of this world… . “With God and Jesus Christ,” we said [in Urbi Arcano], “excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.”

And human society is no longer tottering; it has fallen. As St. Paul predicted, the final representation of Christ’s authority as King — the Roman Pontiff — was forcibly removed by those of His own house, the cardinals and bishops, and Christ was betrayed once again. How any of those presenting as “Catholic” can pretend that Christ’s reign as King can be accomplished now with His Church in ruins is beyond me. And yet Christ will establish His kingdom on earth, just as Holy Scripture foretells, for as Quas Primas also teaches, “He whom St. John calls the “prince of the kings of the earth” appears in the Apostle’s vision of the future as he who “hath on his garment and on his thigh written ‘King of kings and Lord of lords!’.” It is Christ whom the Father “hath appointed heir of all things”; “for he must reign until at the end of the world he hath put all his enemies under the feet of God and the Father.”  He WILL reign as the King of Zion, displacing the false Jewish messiah and vindicating those who still love and serve him.

What is totally lacking here is a correct understanding of the Church’s own teaching on this matter, which is presented below.

Ritual murder charges

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

[The death of St. William of Norwich]… has been well named “one of the most notable and disastrous lies of history”. The story is the foundation of the blood accusation or accusation of ritual murder against the Jews, which has found currency and gained popular credence from that date to the present day. In the “Jewish Encyclopedia”, III, 266, may be found a list of the cases of this ritual murder, beginning with William of Norwich. There are 5 other cases given for the twelfth century, 15 for the thirteenth, 10 for the fourteenth, 16 for the fifteenth, 13 for the sixteenth, 8 for the seventeenth, 15 for the eighteenth, and 39 for the nineteenth, going right up to the year 1900. There have been more recent cases still in Eastern Europe.

Ritual murder as a Jewish institution has been learnedly and conclusively disproved, e.g. by Strack, op. cit. below, and in the case of St. William the evidence is totally insufficient. It seems, however, quite possible that in some cases at least the deaths of these victims were due to rough usage or even deliberate murder on the part of Jews and that some may actually have been slain in odium fidei. In this connection we may notice the first case of all, and the only one before St. William, in which Jews are known to have been accused of murdering a Christian child. In 415 at Inmestar in Syria some Jews in a drunken frolic killed a Christian child in mockery of the death of Christ (Socrates, VII, xvi). Many popes have either directly or indirectly condemned the blood accusation, and NO POPE HAS EVER SANCTIONED IT (Strack, op. cit., 177 and v. Strack’s work, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, is available at www.archive.org).

Massimo Introvigne quoting Strack and various popes

What popes are referenced here? A work by Novus Ordo author and attorney Massimo Introvigne, sheds much light on the history of the blood libel accusation. The popes mentioned by this author begin with Innocent IV, who in 1247 issued a series of bulls and briefs condemning the execution of 34 Jews in Fulda Germany, who, it was said, “killed five boys and burned their blood in a magical ritual… The Pope forbade “to accuse any Jew of using human blood in their rites, since it is clear in the Old Testament that it is forbidden to them to consume any blood, let alone the blood of humans” (published in Strack 1909, 254). Twelve years after the first executions, Rome promptly declared the blood libel myth as illogical and false…

“Pope Gregory X (1210-1276, revered as Blessed Gregory X by Catholics after 1713) publish[ed] an even stronger bull on October 7, 1272. There, he threatened to excommunicate “those who very falsely (falsissime) insist that the Jews kidnap Christian children and make a ritual use of their hearts and blood, since their law in fact strictly forbids any Jew to drink blood, including from animals. We do order that any Jew jailed for this foolish accusation be freed immediately, and that in the future no Jew be incarcerated for such foolish accusation, except in the case, which we do not believe to be possible (quod non credimus), of being caught committing this very offence” (published in Strack 1909, 255-256)…

Pope Nicolas V (1397-1455) had published a bull dated November 2, 1447, where he “prohibited in the strictest way” spreading blood libel accusations and fulminated against “some who try to make Jews odious to Christians by daring to spread false rumours about the Jews, accusing them to celebrate their rites.” And Pope Martin V (1368-1431)… condemn[ed] anybody ‘claiming, with false pretexts and arguments (fictis occasionibus et coloribus) that Jews mix Christian blood to their bread for Easter…. Pope Paul III (1468-1549)… concluded that “those accusing the Jews of drinking the blood of children are blinded by avarice and only want to rob [them of] their money” (published in Strack 1909, 258).’”

Introvigne then relates that Pope Benedict XIV later commissioned a study by the Holy Office, which was conducted by the Franciscan bishop and cardinal, Lorenzo Ganganelli, (later to become Pope Clement XIV). Pope Clement XIII approved the investigation, which stated “that it is impossible, according to their history and theology, for Jews to even conceive of drinking human blood or mixing it with bread or other food.”

Rev. Denis Fahey quotes the following from Cardinal Ganganelli’s report: “Cardinal Ganganelli sets aside a number of accusations of ritual murder as not sufficiently supported by proofs but he accepts two cases. He writes in his report: “I admit as true the case of Blessed Simon, a child of three years, put to death by the Jews at Trent in 1475 out of hatred for the faith of Jesus Christ, though that murder has been denied by Basnage and Wagenseil. I admit also as true a second murder which took place in 1462 in the village of Rinn, in the Diocese of Brixen. Blessed Andrew a little child was there cruelly done to death by the Jews out of hatred for the faith of Jesus Christ.” But ritual murder is not specifically mentioned.

Merry Cardinal del Val was asked to submit documentation in a Kiev case in 1911, involving the Lithuanian priest, Iustinas Pranaitis (1861-1917),

The matter of Pope Benedict XIV beatifying Simon of Trent and Andrei of Fulda, and later popes confirming this, is constantly offered as proof that ritual murder charges were admitted to by the popes. But we find this explanation in the January 1914 edition of the Jesuit publication, The Month:

“We cannot refrain from entering a protest against the extraordinary perversity with which so many anti-Semitist journalists — not a few of them, we are sorry to say, Catholics — persist in thinking evil of their Jewish fellow-countrymen… The one argument which is appealed to by all the accusers, and which is supposed to settle the question, is the allegation that “the Church has canonized as a martyr the boy, holy Simon of Trent, murdered in that city on the occasion of the Jewish Easter in the year 1475.” Even supposing this were true, it proves nothing regarding the practices of the Jewish religion. No one denies that Jews may have killed a particular Christian boy out of hatred for the faith, and that such a  victim may lawfully be honoured as a martyr. But the unqualified statement that the Church has canonized little Simon of Trent illustrates nothing so much as the weakness of the cause it is adduced to support. It is simply untrue to say that the Church has canonized little Simon of Trent. A decree of beatification was issued by Sixtus V, which took the form simply of a confirmation of cultus and which allowed a Mass to be said locally in honour of the boy martyr. Everyone knows that beatification differs from canonization in this, that in the former case the infallibility of the Holy See is not involved, in the latter it is. Be this as it may, Pope Sixtus was careful not to say that little Simon had been put to  death with any ritual purpose, and he did not even emphasize the point that the child had been martyred by the Jews.”

Introvigne, commenting on this, explains that “In 1753 Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758), ironically a Pope who did much to fight the blood libel, confirmed the local cult of ‘Blessed Andreas.’ For several centuries, cults practiced locally for many years were simply “confirmed” by Popes as a matter of routine. Denying confirmation would have hurt local sensitivities, and there was no beatification process complete with a historical investigation as it happens today.” So why are these things never investigated and explained?

As for the Toaff work listed at Fisheaters and elsewhere, Introvigne writes that Toaff withdrew his book after it was pointed out to him that he had based one of his major examples of blood libel on the testimony of “dozens“ of Jews who confessed under torture, proofs not considered as reliable by credible scholars. An interesting account in Toaff’s work, however, accredits ritual murder to a secret Ashkenazi cult, which certainly could not be laid at the door of Jews in general. Introvigne notes further: “…Some conservative clergymen befriended by Pius X, including Monsignor Umberto Benigni (1844-1932), did propagate the blood libel, although in a last incarnation of the myth they attributed the ritual sacrifice and blood-drinking to a secret Jewish Kabbalistic cult whose existence was unknown to the majority of common Jews.” This cult easily fits the description of radical Orthodox Jews guiding the Illuminati at the top of the Masonic pyramid, which is further suggested below. But it does not indict them of ritual murder.

Jews are such primarily by way of culture today

Research shows the majority of Jews consider themselves such in ethnicity, but not primarily in religion. Most Jews who consider themselves superior to the rest of mankind do so because they believe they are still “the Chosen People.” But this does not necessarily involve the hateful anti-Christian invective spewed by certain Orthodox Jews, who are guilty of forcefully teaching and believing the stringent application of Talmudic precepts. For as seen below, the Orthodox Jews constitute only a small but fervent and vocal minority. So it seems most unfair to lump the rest of those identifying as Jewish in with a small fanatical faction and represent them all as professing the same beliefs.

“Approximately 5.8 million adults (2.4% of all U.S. adults) [are] Jewish” according to a 2021 Pew Research report (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/the-size-of-the-u-s-jewish-population/The rest of this section is taken from a Pew report issued in 2020). “This includes 4.2 million (1.7%) who identify as Jewish by religion and 1.5 million Jews of no religion… Religion is not central to the lives of most U.S. Jews. Even Jews by religion are much less likely than Christian adults to consider religion to be very important in their lives (28% vs. 57%). And among Jews as a whole, far more report that they find meaning in spending time with their families or friends, engaging with arts and literature, being outdoors, and pursuing their education or careers than find meaning in their religious faith. Twice as many Jewish Americans say they derive a great deal of meaning and fulfillment from spending time with pets as say the same about their religion…” And only 9% of that 2.4% identify as Orthodox, those most likely to take their religion seriously and practice it.

“Compared either with U.S. Christians or with the adult public overall, U.S. Jews are far less likely to say that religion is important in their lives. However, Orthodox Jews rank among the most religiously devout subgroups in the country by this measure;… Among Jews who are neither synagogue members themselves nor live in a household where anyone else belongs to a synagogue, 47% do not identify with any institutional branch or stream of Judaism. More than half of U.S. Jews identify with the Reform (37%) or Conservative (17%) movements, while about one-in-ten (9%) identify with Orthodox Judaism. One-third of Jews (32%) do not identify with any particular Jewish denomination… Nearly half of U.S. Jews say religion is either “very” (21%) or “somewhat” (26%) important in their lives, while 53% say religion is “not too” or “not at all” important to them personally… Religion is more important to Jewish women, on average, than to Jewish men.” Most Jews are deeply worried about Anti-Semitism, the report states (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-identity-and-belief/).

Conclusion

If a secret cabal of Jews engineered the demise of the Church, they were scarcely alone in this endeavor. They had plenty of help from apostates and occult heretics within the Catholic hierarchy. Such a cabal certainly is not representative of most Jews, only a certain minority. So why stir readers up against the Jewish people as a whole when they don’t even seem particularly interested in practicing the Jewish religion? By way of comparison, 62 percent of the U.S. population identify as “Christian.” The Jews are therefore outnumbered many times over. Yet the more things change, the more they remain the same: “The extraordinary perversity with which so many anti-Semitist journalists — not a few of them, we are sorry to say, Catholics — persist in thinking evil of their Jewish fellow-countrymen…” (quoted from The Month article above).  And if they did this when there were still true popes reigning, popes sympathetic to the plight of the Jews before and during World War II, what would stop them today?

All we have left of our Church is the doctrines she taught prior to the hostile takeover by the usurpers following Pope Pius XII’s death. Even papal opinions, Pope Leo XIII teaches, must be adopted as our own: “If, in the difficult times in which our lot is cast, Catholics will give ear to Us, as it behooves them to do, they will readily see what are the duties of each one IN MATTERS OF OPINION AS WELL AS ACTION (quae sua cuiusque sint tam in opinionibus quam in factis officia). As regards opinion, whatever the Roman Pontiffs have hitherto taught, or shall hereafter teach, must be held with a firm grasp of mind, and so often as occasion requires, must be openly professed. Especially with reference to the so-called “liberties” which are so greatly coveted in these days, all must stand by the judgment of the Apostolic See and have the same mind” (oportet Apostolicae Sedis stare iudicio, et quod ipsa senserit, idem sentire singulos, Immortale Dei, DZ 1880).

We have presented papal teaching on ritual murder here because regardless of the loss of the papacy — regardless of the prejudice generated on this subject by men such as the professed Mason Saenz-Arriaga and his The Plot Against the Church, also others like him — we cannot adopt the opinion popular among Traditionalists today regarding the Jews. As Catholics, we can only adopt that opinion of the Vicar of Christ sent to rule in His stead as King, until He comes. This is the bounden duty we owe Christ as King.

Why JBS failed to finger Commie “popes” in 1960s

by T. Stanfill Benns | Feb 18, 2025 | New Blog

+St. Bernadette Soubirous+

Introduction

A few months ago, in the blog article HERE, I mentioned the exposure of upper-level John Birch Society (JBS) members and their associates as high-degree Freemasons. Recently, a reader brought my attention to Francis’ picture on the January cover of the JBS magazine New American asking the question: “Is the Pope a Communist?” by William F. Jasper. Jasper has been writing for in the affirmative. While this will be received by those in the Novus Ordo sect opposing Francis as a confirmation of their claims that he’s not a true pope, the very fact that the article is belatedly trumpeting this fact should sound alarm bells. Why? Because the Birch Society, established in 1960, certainly did not call out the Communist sympathizers Roncalli (John 23) and Montini (Paul 6) whose conduct in the 1950s (and later their concessions to Communist leaders and governments) made their intentions clear long ago. Even though the idea of a sede vacante had been raised, they never seriously addressed the issue at a time when it was most crucial that it be addressed. And as mentioned in the Francis article, they knew full well that the Church had been infiltrated.

This because those espousing sede vacante then were considered the lunatic fringe, and no one picks up paid members by appearing to consider such theories. Had Traditionalists themselves made the papacy their primary concern and cried foul, this might not have been the case. They had the tools at hand — papal pronouncements, Canon Law, Church history and much more — but they refused to study the matter and arrive at certitude regarding the validity of the 1958 election. The Siri fanatics clouded the matter by insisting their boy was the real pope — another failed attempt to “preserve” the papal line, as demonstrated HERE. Practicing heretical exclusivism, LibTrads championed the liturgy above papal supremacy, as if the liturgy could exist without valid clergy in communion with a certainly canonically elected pope to celebrate it. As we wrote in our last blog, they called themselves Traditionalists because they believe, as the Traditionalists condemned by the  Church believed, that: “Human reason is of itself radically unable to know with certainty any truth or, at least, the fundamental truths of the metaphysical, moral, and religious order” (Catholic Encyclopedia).

Catholics ignorant of their faith and desperate for clergy were oblivious. As stated last week, their Modernist-leaning clergy had already eroded the authority of the papacy to such an extent they scarcely paid attention to the discrepancy. They viewed Traditionalists as the new heads of their Church and the JBS offered them an alternative world view that seemed to agree with the Church’s stand against Communism. This view, however, was Americanist-leaning and skewed. Russia, Russia, Russia was the real terror — no mention of the erosion of morals, the destruction of the Church and her absence as a guiding force on the world stage, or the dangers of Freemasonry and the Illuminati. Instead Catholics were offered the conspiracy of the Bilderbergers, the CFR, the Federal Reserve and world bankers, etc. Any weaving in of the Freemasons and the Modernists, or the real cause of Russia’s errors — schism — was left out of the equation. But then what can one expect with Freemasons running the show?

And this diversion and reorientation successfully distracted Catholics exiting the Novus Ordo from focusing on the purely spiritual nature of the problems in the world. Because their “priests” actively supported and promoted the JBS, they followed right along. But over time, Birch influence seemed to wane with Traditionalists. The Internet was born and more interesting conservative talking heads popped up everywhere. Trad sects abounded in every shape and form imaginable. Now Birchers sense a new opportunity, perhaps — a new exodus from the Novus Ordo they can cash in on. Novus Ordo sect members are calling out Francis as pope, unlike those leaving in the 1960s-1970s, and the JBS is siding with them. So what has changed, and why are they now deciding, after all the damage is done, that the man they are still calling “Pope” is a Communist? Readers can probably guess the answer, but let’s hit the high points.

The Birch Society’s Masonic agenda

Jasper asks, toward the end of his article, “Were American intelligence agencies used to coerce and blackmail “regime change” in the Roman Catholic Church? Is this a key part of the Deep State’s plan to create a Deep Church?  It certainly looks that way, as we have reported here in the past.” Here Jasper is referring to his comments on Bp. Vigano’s letter to Pres. Trump in June of 2020: “There are faithful Shepherds who care for the flock of Christ, but there are also mercenary infidels who seek to scatter the flock and hand the sheep over to be devoured by ravenous wolves. Just as there is a deep state, there is also a deep church that betrays its duties and forswears its proper commitments before God.” Vigano, the new Lefebvre, was ordained in 1968. His consecrator, Bishop Carlo Allorio, is listed as a Council Father for all four sessions of the false Vatican 2 council. Needless to say, as a member of the Novus Ordo sect Allorio was incapacitated to validly ordain or consecrate anyone, per Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis and the 1917 Code of Canon Law, then in effect. So Vigano, an avid supporter of Benedict 16, is no cleric.

What is the purpose of the JBS in ignoring the blatant Communist affiliations of John 23 and Paul 6 and suddenly recognizing those of Francis now? Well it is quite simple, if one follows the stated intent of the Masonic game plan. The secret societies do not want to wipe out the idea of the papacy. Instead, as they state in the Alta Vendita: “What we must ask for, what we should look for and wait for, as the Jews wait for the Messiah, is a Pope according to our needs… To assure ourselves a Pope of the required dimensions, it is a question first of shaping for this Pope a generation worthy of the reign we are dreaming of. Leave old people and those of a mature age aside. Go to the youth and if it is possible, even to the children. You will contrive for yourselves at little cost a reputation as good Catholics and PURE PATRIOTS…”

That generation raised at least partially in the reign of Pope Pius XII, who fled the Novus Ordo sect in the 1960s and 1970s, will soon be gone. Their children and grandchildren, born following Vatican 2, the advent of the Internet and all modern perversions, will then be all that is left of those who at least identify as Catholic. Scarcely any of them have been imbued with any true Catholic sense, only that false sense conveyed to them by Traditionalists and the false church in Rome. They follow only what their misguided “clergy” tell them, those pretending to retain their titles of cardinals, bishops and priests. They are incapable of independent thought or investigation, unless it tends to the Modernist bent of their leaders. They have no idea of what really happened following the death of Pope Pius XII and seem to have never heard of the Catholic rule of law, the observance of the Sacred Canons contained in the 1917 Code. If they follow any law at all, it is only that of the desecrated 1983 code instituted by John Paul 2.

Most of them are good little patriots; some of them are Americanists. The Birchers saw to that, presenting as “pure patriots.” This is why many conservatives in the Novus Ordo sect and some LibTrads will welcome the endorsement of the John Birch Society, and because of their parents’ and grandparents’ involvement it will be familiar to them and will even pass for “tradition.” The new-churchers enjoy the freedoms granted them by the false Vatican 2 council and have no desire to relinquish them. It normalizes their relationship with their non-Catholic peers and the false charity it exudes makes socializing with them so much easier. They have been rigorously brainwashed into believing that the papacy will exist “unto the consummation,” when this was never taught by the Church. In fact the absence of the papacy and the Mass in the end times has been anticipated by the Fathers and revered Catholic theologians and commentators, who base their teaching on Divine revelation. But of course this does not concur with the Masonic ideal; Masons have no desire to destroy the idea of the papacy, only to pervert and manipulate it.

JBS identified as Masons decades ago

We have often quoted Mary Lejeune, a Catholic writer who passed away in the 1980s, on the JBS. There was some realization of the unCatholic position of the JBS even then, as Lejeune reports in her Sept.-Oct. 1976 newsletter: “The favorable response to my May-June issue re the connection between The John Birch Society and The Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement [founded by Fathers Saenz-Arriaga and Francis Fenton] was absolutely overwhelming!  Many, many of the letters and long-distance telephone calls came from Catholic ex-Birchers (I had no idea that there were so many on my mailing list) who related to me the many sad experiences that they had suffered through — once they found out the truth about the JBS and decided to expose said organization. Quite a few had given up in frustration after they found that their sincere efforts to help out were thwarted by certain “cliques” within the Society.  One lady asked me if I was aware of the “Zionist infiltration” within the JBS.  I am completely aware of this situation (readers have sent me much documentation to this effect) — a situation which causes me great concern since the safety of Catholics, who refuse to leave the Society, is at stake!”

“I am concerned about them because the ORCM organization is run (with few exceptions) by priests and laity who are what can only be referred to as “super-Birchers.”  These super-Birchers are thwarting the efforts of people, such as myself, to expose the Masonic and Zionist influence within the JBS (and other “anti-communist outfits like them) in order to protect the Catholic members of the “remnant” who sincerely believe that they cannot live without the Mass and who will go anywhere to attend it… Mr. Welch believes in evolution (some Christian!) As anyone turning to page 140 of his “Blue Book” can clearly see. On page 155 of the same book we find that the Society is both a religion (?) and a revolution. I can believe this since the Birchers tried to “pump” me (however subtly) regarding the so-called “changes in the Catholic Church” since Vatican II.

“As I said previously, I have known about the Masonic nature of the JBS for a long time, but within the last six months or so I have learned a lot more about the deception and hypocrisy which is going on within said Society… Some will claim that these are days of emergency (against a Communist takeover which has already occurred), and that we should ignore our different religious beliefs and fight the battle together.  The Novus Ordo “hierarchy” keeps telling the new “People of God” the same thing.  Anyone who suggests such a thing to Catholics is putting said Catholics in a position wherein they can quickly become weakened in their faith.  Once the faith is weakened, there is a great danger of losing it entirely… Today, dear readers, we are in a spiritual battle, a death-struggle between the real Catholic Church and Satan himself and there isn’t a political organization in existence today which can save the world — especially this country.

“The morals in this country today are so decadent that only the great chastisement from the hand of God can purify it.  And let the Birchers not tell me that they write against immorality — indeed they do! But let them clean up their own “closets” in the “upper echelons” before they start preaching to others… The JBS gives hope to the people when there is no hope. The JBS, like some other “anti-communist” preachers around today, have to give people hope, otherwise they would go out of business, and the JBS is a very commercial organization! …America is doomed — not because good people didn’t fight to save her.  America is doomed because the Catholic hierarchy (made up of enemies and cowards) robbed the American people (both Catholics and Protestants) of a strong, spiritual leadership.” (End of Lejeune quotes.)

So true Catholics were warned, and some listened even then. But their children and grandchildren certainly have not been warned and are more vulnerable today by far than their parents ever were.

A new “conservatism” is the real goal

Once everything is put into perspective, the JBS’s motives become clear. They deliberately ignored the ”soft” takeover of the papal See in Rome because John 23 and Paul 6 were “normalizing” church relations with Freemasons. Later John Paul 2 walked some of the more egregious abuses of his predecessors back, just enough that it appeared he was anti-Communist, given his Polish origins and work with the underground during World War II. Then Benedict 16 continued this course, appearing even more “traditional,” and the Latin Mass groupies were encouraged. So this is where they picked up, citing their previous articles on Vigano’s “Deep Church.” It doesn’t matter that a much more comprehensive volume (John Courtenay Murray, Time/Life and the American Proposition, David Wemhoff, 2015), superior documentation-wise by far to Taylor Marshall’s Novus Ordo work, proves that the election of Roncalli was invalid, owing to lay interference (and the 1917 Code of Canon Law).

Like the LibTrad pseudo-clerics themselves, the JBS wishes to keep the idea of a papal “line” alive at all costs. Sacrificing dogma on the altars of their greed and lust for power, they are happy to violate the laws and teachings of the Church if it advances their own agenda. Nor is there any regard for Catholic teaching, for the Vatican 2  documents on ecumenism only echo the JBS’ own credo — liberty, equality and fraternity.  Proof of this can be found on page 11 of The Neutralizers, written by JBS founder Robert Welch: “All we are interested in here is opposing the advance of Communism so that Jews and Christians alike, and Mohammedans and Buddhists, can again have a decent world to live in.”  Lejeune nailed it when she wrote that the JBS teaches: “…we should ignore our different religious beliefs and fight the battle together.”  This fits right in with the American Proposition — that Catholics have no right to claim the Catholic Church is the one true Church of Christ or evangelize to this effect.

Toward the end of his article, Jasper writes: “The papal throne does seem to be occupied by an individual who fits the description of an apostate socialist/communist. How has this come about? The answer to that burning question would require much more space than is available here. However, it is important to note that the subversion we are now witnessing in the Bergoglian papacy was made possible by more than a century of patient infiltration.” It is how the results of this infiltration are interpreted and who is interpreting them that matters, and the JBS surely knows this. It is why they have waited all this time to address this matter head on, when it is too in-your-face to ignore. They quote Pope Pius XI’s Divini Redemptoris, but they do not cite Pope Pius XII’s 1948 and 1949 condemnations of Communism, which declare those either sympathizing with it or openly advancing it, particularly public officials, as apostates. It is the pope’s judgment, not theirs, that must be the determining factor here.

Francis and all his predecessors back to John 23rd were either Communist sympathizers or active supporters of Communism and therefore are considered apostates. As non-Catholics, none could validly be elected pope, given their affiliations. And yet the JBS fails to acknowledge this, pretending that 100 years (and more) of active infiltration would not contaminate and place into question the entire clerical pool. No, they leave it in the hands of those accepting these men as valid popes, with the exception of Francis. And this because the endgame rules call for a usurper pope who appears to be valid and conservative (by today’s standards only), working with world governments to realize the Masonic dream of a one-world religion. Once the Catholic Church was stripped of every vestige of possible efficacy and sacramental validity, there was no objection to this proposition. In fact it could eventually work hand in hand with a plan that would appear to endorse conservatism and reject the New World Order, purging the existing church in Rome and returning to the “old Church,” under the auspices of a charismatic leader restoring the world to a more conservative state.

This would satisfy both the “Catholic” expectations of restoration and a period of peace, foretold in Catholic prophecy and at Fatima, as well as usher in peace in Israel and the advent of the Jewish Messiah. A new “pope” could even rule from Jerusalem. And this would satisfy the goals of both the secret societies and their JBS satellites.

The JBS and British Israel

The Protestant writer Helen M. Peters states that “[Robert Welch’s] definition of Christianity is British Israel and is not based on the Deity of Jesus Christ at all…” The British-Israel hypothesis is that “Anglo-Saxons are the lineal descendants of the ten tribes of Israel and inherit the wonderful promises made to them. These promises the Anglo-Saxons possess nationally” (Protestant theologian William Hoste). “It thus provides for the world another gospel, which captivates and hypnotizes them with the thought of capturing great earthly blessings for themselves and the British Empire, apart from repentance and faith in Christ, as though He had never died and risen to procure us blessings…” British Israel can be found on the second level of the Masonic pyramid appearing in the original edition of Lady Queenborough’s work, Occult Theocrasy. Concerning the end times, British Israel advocates believe that:

• Before the Second Coming, the Jerusalem temple will be rebuilt.
• The Jerusalem temple, not the Church, is where Antichrist will show himself as God.
• Following the Second Coming, this same temple will exist in Jerusalem, or possibly a new or reconsecrated one.
• During an earthly millennium, animal sacrifices offered at this temple will commemorate Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.

As I have explained before, it is primarily the British Israel adherents, among them Traditionalists, who expect a millennium and the restoration of Christ’s Church on earth. Traditionalists believe they will be the beneficiaries of this restoration and Fundamentalists believe it will be a Jewish operation that will somehow include Christians, but they are not in agreement on the extent or timing of this involvement. Millenarianism, even in its mildest, spiritual sense, has been condemned by the Holy Office and is entered into the Acta Apostolica Sedis (ASS 36, 1944, 212). The condemnation reads: “The Holy Office issued a decree on July 11, 1941 (in the session held on July 9) which reached the same conclusion in a letter sent to Archbishop Jose M. Caro-Rodriguez in Santiago, Chile: “It is not possible to safely teach systematic millenarianism even if moderated — namely that it is Catholic revelation that Christ, at the resurrection of the just, will return to reign bodily on this earth.”

In an Internet article, B. E. Strauss, identifying as a Catholic layman, observes that: “The consummation of the ages denotes the last of all ages of the world, the age of the Church. This last age consummates the ages that came before, and it is itself consummated by the consummatio saeculi, by the consummation of the (last) age” or actual consummation by fire/end of the world. Strauss points out that the most common interpretation is consummation of the world, not consummation of the ages or centuries, as it should be. He notes that the Church has not said much on this discrepancy.  But as noted in previous blogs, there are other indications from magisterial documents that the hierarchical Church is not guaranteed to last “unto the consummation” of the world by fire as previously thought. In order to avoid even mitigated Millenarianism, it is important to not associate the “end of the age or centuries” translation with the meaning that such an age will be succeeded by a 1,000-year period of peace.

Strauss continues: “…The Vatican Council solemnly teaches that the Lord promised shepherds and teachers until the consummation of the age – usque ad consummatio saeculi — which, according to Catholic commentary, BEGINS WITH THE REVELATION OF ANTICHRIST, who is announced to reign before the return of the Lord. Hence, apostolic succession seems to have come to an end already, and we deal with shepherds of vengeance.” The thousand-year reign probably began after the papacy was firmly established in Rome once the major persecutions of Christians subsided. In 445, Emperor Valentinian pronounced that the Bishop of Rome was the law for all. Pope Gelasius I was the first pope to be called Vicar of Christ (492-496). A little over 1,000 years later, Luther tacked his heresies to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, followed by Henry VIII’s defection around 1532. Freemasonry was established in England 200 years after Luther’s revolt but existed secretly from the late 1400s on.

Conclusion

A new world order might mean something different than people are expecting. It could mean that a majority of countries together decide to roll back the clock so to speak, peacefully co-exist, appear to return to a more spiritual existence and more or less live by democratic principles — for a time. But we must remember that “The day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For all of you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober” (1Thess. 5: 1-6). Any reconstruction of the Church or pretended peace — all will be an illusion. For there is no reconstructing the Church once she has lost Her apostolicity. And there can be no peace without Christ’s true vicar. As Msgr. Van Noort wrote in his Christ’s Church, 1959:

“Just for the sake of argument — even though it cannot actually happen — let us conjure up some church which would bear a merely specific likeness to Christ’s Church; a church which would be like it in all respects except numerical identity. Imagine, now, that the Church planted by the apostles has perished utterly. Imagine whether you make it the year 600, 1500, or 3000-that all its members have deserted. Imagine, furthermore, that out of this totally crumpled society a fresh and vigorous society springs up and then, after a time, is remodeled perfectly to meet the blueprints of the ancient but now perished apostolic structure. Such a process would never yield a church that was genuinely apostolic, that is, numerically one and the same society which actually existed under the apostles’ personal rule. There would be a brand-new society, studiously copied from a model long since extinct. The new church might be a decent imitation. IT MIGHT BE A CARICATURE. ONE THING IT DEFINITELY WOULD NOT BE IS APOSTOLIC.”

Strauss, quoted above, obviously believes Antichrist has already arrived for he says the end of the Church’s age on earth, “BEGINS WITH THE REVELATION OF ANTICHRIST, who is announced to reign before the return of the Lord. Hence, apostolic succession seems to have come to an end already, and we deal with shepherds of vengeance.” That Antichrist will be an identifiable individual is taught by the Church as certain. That he will be accompanied by those who will support and continue his persecution is confirmed by St. John, who teaches there will be “many” antichrists. Only Antichrist could cause the cessation of the Continual Sacrifice, and if this did not indeed happen in 1969, how can anyone explain why nearly all true Catholics who exited the Novus Ordo sect insisted on a return to the Latin Mass?

What Birchers and others advocating for a papal election are doing is supporting the creation of a straw man.  A “straw man” is a logical fallacy opposed to the Scholastic method of St. Thomas that occurs when a person rebuts an argument by misconstruing it. The concept itself is taken from the appearance of a scarecrow, which some at first mistake for a real man but is not a real man — it is only a contrived imitation of one. Similarly, in the strawman fallacy, those depicting Francis as a Communist are ignoring the real facts in the case, that John 23 was a Communist, his election was invalid, and Francis is one of a long line of antipopes under Canon Law. An example of a straw man argument is: “I prefer wine to whiskey,” and the straw man promoter falsely concludes: “Then you must hate whiskey.” Likewise the LibTrads, who, when one says the age of the Church and with it, apostolic succession, ended with the invalid election of Roncalli, reply, “Then you are denying indefectibility, because the Church, just as Christ constituted it, will last ‘until the consummation.’”

But as Strauss and others point out, this refers to the consummation of the ages, as stated in the 1869 Vatican Council, not the final conflagration, and the Church did indeed last unspotted until Pius XII’s death. It is quite telling that LibTrads fail to be able to explain how their argument could possibly hold up, given that Christ constituted the Church with St. Peter as its head, and their pseudo-clergy have operated as the true Church without that head since Pope Pius XII’s death. A new conservative “pope,” even if he cleaned house from top to bottom, would be yet another antipope/antichrist, meant to deepen the deception and create yet more confusion.  Francis may be breathing his last as we write this: Beware what comes after him. No matter how amazing his successor may appear to be in rivaling Pres. Trump’s swamp clean-up, regardless of whether he is hailed as Trump’s right-hand man on a spiritual level, the con is on. The next straw man can never resurrect the one, true Church, only Her caricature — the lying wonders foretold by St. Paul.

Sedevacantism: Can it stand without Cum ex…?

by T. Stanfill Benns | Oct 13, 2024 | New Blog

+St. Edward the Confessor+

ATTENTION READERS: Please pray for the repose of the soul of Irene Keast, who passed away Oct. 9 following a long battle with cancer. Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen. Without Irene’s help, The Phantom Church in Rome could not have become a book, and the translation of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis could not have been made. She was a spiritual treasure, a dear and faithful friend who will be greatly missed.

Introduction

A reader recently inquired about Pope Paul IV’s Cum ex Apostolatus Officio — when did Hutton Gibson first publish his translation of Cum Ex… online, what year did I publish my breakdown of Cum Ex…, and whether the sedevacantist position stands without Cum Ex…? While there are several articles on Cum ex… published to this site, many of  which have been there for nearly 20 years, I will summarize below.

— Argentinian Professor Dr. Carlos Disandro translated both editions of the Bull (1977,1987) into Spanish, from the Latin text of the Magnum Bullarium Romanum, pages 829-831. The 1987 edition contained a detailed commentary on the bull.

— Publications such as Veritas and Hutton Gibson’s The War Is Now printed parts of the Bull in 1982, 1983 without offering commentary, although Hutton Gibson did remark that under Can 6 § 6, the Bull was still in effect. Veritas claims to have obtained their copy of the bull in 1975 from Hugh McGovern, publisher of The Voice.  If Gibson ever published a copy of Cum ex…, I have no knowledge of that. I first published my copy of the bull online in 2006.

— In 1984, Briton’s Catholic Library (BCL), cited the Bull in their Under the Laws of the Catholic Church the Papal See is Vacant and later, in one of their “Library Letters,” John S. Daly translated the entire bull (most likely from Disandro’s Latin edition). N. M. Gwynne and Daly also wrote what seems to be the only other commentary extant on it.

— Prof. Benjamin Dryden translated the Bull in 1984-85, with the cooperation of Daniel Dolan, but Dryden initially followed the SSPX in declaring it had been abrogated. Later he advocated for a papal election, based on the Bull. Dryden’s translation can be viewed HERE.

— I addressed Cum ex… in my 1990 book Will the Catholic Church Survive…?, and I do believe there was enough said in that book that people could easily come to the conclusion that the hierarchy was basically defunct. In the book, I gave a history of the Bull and referred to the BCL commentary, because at the time I did not have Carlos Disandro’s commentary on Cum ex… in English translation. That was later posted HERE. My observations on Disandro’s commentary are posted HERE.

So Cum ex… was well known and debated in LibTrad circles in the 1980s. The allegations the bull has been abrogated, first raised by the SSPX against Disandro in 1977,  were refuted in my 1990 book. Later, further evidence of the infallible nature of Cum ex… and its retention in the 1917 Code of Canon Law was published to this site in 2006. The abrogation allegations are still insisted upon by various LibTrad sects and even Sedevacantists cannot agree on what constitutes an heretical act, although this is not hard to determine. Canon 2200 tells us that: “Given the external violation of the law, the evil will is presumed in the external forum until the contrary is proved.”

Roncalli clearly proved that the suspected modernist label first pinned to him by Pope Pius XI and never removed by Pius XII was more than justified, given his later promotion of ecumenism and other heresies. He was a Communist sympathizer, an ecumenist, hence a heretic at the time of his “election,” so could never have been validly (canonically) elected. This was proven from his own public statements in my 1990 book. Those who argue that he “became” a heretic as “pope” embrace heresy, for they deny Christ’s promise to Peter that his faith and the faith of his successors could never fail.

Denying the necessity of canonical elections is heretical

Those who refuse to believe that Roncalli was invalidly elected and likewise refuse to consider evidence to prove this fact also deny a truth of faith necessary for salvation. Only canonical elections are valid, as the Church teaches. To be canonical they must be in accord with the rules existing and applicable at the time under canon law, as will be explained below. According to the work Dr. Littledale’s Theory of the Disappearance of the Papacy by Sydney F. Smith, S. J., (Farm Street, Berkeley Square, W. London 1896): “Of the vast majority of individual Popes, and still more of the line of Popes, reaching not merely up to the sixteenth century, but to our own days, it is absolutely clear that they received that loyal adherence and obedience from the Universal Church which Leo XIII receives now, and which of itself is so sure a sign of the legitimacy of his title that we can even make it the matter of an act of faith that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ. This is no mere theory, but the common doctrine of Catholic theologians, as will appear sufficiently from the following passage in Ferraris Bibliotheca, a work of the highest authority.

“In his article on the Pope, (S.v. Papa, p. 949) Ferraris says: ‘It is of faith that Benedict XIV, for instance, legitimately elected and accepted as such by the Church, is the true Pope (common doctrine among Catholics). This is proved from the Council of Constance, where Martin V’s Const. Inter Cunctus decrees that those who return from heresy to the faith shall be asked, among other points, ‘Whether they believe that the Pope canonically elected, for the time being, his name being expressly mentioned, is the successor of St. Peter, having supreme authority in the Church of God.’ For thereby he supposes it to be an article of faith, since those who abjure heresy are ‘interrogated only as to truths of faith.’”  And indeed it is enshrined as an article of faith in DZ 650 and 674 under the condemnations of Wycliffe and Huss. So what possible excuse can LibTrads offer to explain their absolute dereliction of duty in formally declaring that election null and void on numerous counts? They commit heresy by pretending a canonical election is irrelevant, which is no surprise since they since they routinely discount and violate canon law.

Those believing John 23^rd’s election was valid point to his “acceptance by the universal Church.” Of course this would be the cardinals, bishops and clergy, then the faithful. Well we know where they all wound up — wholeheartedly approving of and voting for Vatican 2! They definitely were NOT members of the universal Church once they elected and accepted Roncalli as “pope,” nor were many of the cardinals voting in Roncalli’s “election” members of Christ’s Mystical Body.  With no legitimate, canonical election, and acceptance by a universal Church no longer truly Catholic, there can be no true pope. Canonical election depends on faithfully following all the rules laid down in the prevailing election law, in this case Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS). In The Phantom Church in Rome and in articles on this site, I have carefully detailed the many violations of VAS, documented in biographies of Roncalli, the histories of his election and the history of Vatican 2.  And the evidence shows that there were clear violations of Pius XII’s election law that invalidated Roncalli’s election from the start, making him ineligible as a candidate, even aside from the fact that he was a heretic.

One of the very few articles in English (other than those on betrayedcatholics) that treat of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis at all is one written by Anthony Cekada. Cekada sets out to answer the question of whether para. 34 of VAS negates the sedevacantist premise. “If so, the passage means an excommunicated cardinal can be validly elected pope. Doesn’t this shoot down the fundamental principle behind the entire sedevacantist case?”  In the process of answering this question, Cekada makes points that should lead everyone to the infallibility of Cum ex… but fails to mention the connection. And the connection is right there in VAS itself, para. 36: “Canonically deposed Cardinals, or those who have renounced the cardinalitial dignity with the Roman Pontiff’s consent, have no legal right at an election. On the contrary, during the vacancy of the See, the Sacred College cannot restore or bring back to their former state Cardinals stripped of this right or deposed by the Pope.”

Disandro on tacit resignation

Cardinals can resign officially or tacitly, according to Can. 188 §4. And what constitutes tacit resignation? Apostasy, heresy or schism. Can. 188 §4, as pointed out by Prof. Disandro in his Doctrinal Precisions, is directly related to Pope Paul IV’s Cum ex… :

“Pius XII’s article 36 [in his election law] is talking about those “deposed canonically.” The debate is thus opened, since 1945, on the meaning of this expression. Are they the canonically deposed cardinals which the text of Pope Paul IV considers? Is there a coincidence between 1559 and 1945? Yes, naturally, and with a greater foundation [for such a “coincidence”] if we consider the “larva stage” of Modernism. Deposed cardinals cannot function now, nor are they subject to excommunication or interdict. Excommunication could refer to other details, while [these cardinals] remain faithful to the Church. The deposition, in effect, is RADICAL, that is, it affects not only the privileges or canonical singularities of the subject, BUT ALSO ANNULS THE DIGNITY ITSELF, (in an irreversible manner), and of course the position in the hierarchy or office, assumed or conceived in any manner. How then would an election rule be able to determine the resumption of the state of the cardinalate if the Bull itself takes care to emphasize that it is absolutely impossible?

“4. We affirm in a bold manner:

1. a) cardinals deposed, by the force of the Bull are canonically deposed, and they are not able to function either as electors or eligibles;
2. b) the reasons defined by the Bull, by referring to the bond between the Faith and the Hierarchy, are imprescribable, and they act ipso facto (by the very fact), such as the text itself of the 16th century intended;
3. c) cardinals excommunicated for other disciplinary reasons enjoy the exception granted in the document of Pius XII [para. 34], BUT THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO MONTINIAN AND POST-MONTINIAN CIRCUMSTANCES;
4. d) never have we spoken of excommunications or suspensions of cardinals for reasons other than doctrinal. And speaking of the primacy of DOCTRINE over DISCIPLINE, the question which we have pointed out against the heretics who lead the Conciliar church, against the Montinian heresy, has always been and will always be simply referred to the order of being (what actually is): EITHER THERE ARE OR THERE ARE NOT CARDINALS, THERE ARE OR THERE ARE NOT POPES, THEY FUNCTION OR THEY DO NOT FUNCTION IN SUCH OFFICES AND DIGNITIES.”(End of Disandro quote)

As a public heretic, a man declared suspect of such even by two popes, Roncalli was deposed prior to his election. He could not vote or be considered a candidate. Some contest the “public” nature of his heresy, but they should not. The definition is clear under Can. 1325.  “Whenever by silence, subterfuge or manner of acting,” one even implicitly denies the faith. Subterfuge and manner of acting are definitely in play here, both in the case of Roncalli and the cardinals who “elected” him. It was a public act, the attempt to promote an unworthy man to the papacy.

A certain number of these cardinals went into the conclave as occult heretics. Their heresy became manifest on accepting Roncalli as papabile (capable of election), because he had violated VAS and they knew this, having participated in the violations. This itself is heresy, a denial of the necessity of canonical election, which resulted in their tacit resignation; they could not cast valid votes. Roncalli was suspected of heresy by two popes and in violation of several VAS provisions, and only a future pope could lift the excommunication attached to such violations. He was therefore not eligible for election. Moreover, Pope Pius XII states infallibly in VAS that all the acts of anyone violating papal or canon law are null, void and invalid. The attempt to elect a man who was guilty of such violations and hence incapable of being elected until absolved by a future pope was automatically invalidated. As for his suspected heresy, that matter was presumed under Can. 2200 to exist until proven otherwise, and only a future pope could determine this. For as VAS clearly states, NONE of the canons can be changed or dispensed from during an interregnum. 

Cekada quotes from the theologians

“’Heretics and schismatics are barred from the Supreme Pontificate BY THE DIVINE LAW ITSELF… [T]hey must certainly be regarded as excluded from occupying the throne of the Apostolic See, which is the infallible teacher of the truth of the faith and the center of ecclesiastical unity.” (Maroto, Institutiones I.C. 2:784)

“Appointment to the Office of the Primacy. 1. What is required by divine law for this appointment… Also required for validity is that the one elected be a member of the Church; hence, heretics and apostates (at least public ones) are excluded.’” (Coronata, Institutiones I.C. 1:312)

“’All those who are not impeded by divine law OR BY AN INVALIDATING ECCLESIASTICAL LAW are validly eligible [to be elected pope]. Wherefore, a male who enjoys use of reason sufficient to accept election and exercise jurisdiction, and who is a true member of the Church can be validly elected, even though he be only a layman. Excluded as incapable of valid election, however, are all women, children who have not yet arrived at the age of discretion, those afflicted with habitual insanity, heretics and schismatics.’” (Wernz-Vidal, Jus Can. 2:415)

“Thus heresy is not a mere “ecclesiastical impediment” or censure of the type that Pius XII enumerated and suspended in paragraph 34 of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis. It is instead an impediment of divine law which Pius XII did not suspend — and indeed could not have suspended, precisely because it is one of divine law.

“Paragraph 34 of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis suspends the effects of censures (excommunication, suspension, interdict) and other ecclesiastical impediments… for cardinals who are electing a pope and for the cardinal they finally elect. Thus, a cardinal who had incurred an excommunication prior to his election as pope would nevertheless be validly elected. This law concerns only impediments of ecclesiastical law, however. As such, it cannot be invoked as an argument against sedevacantism, which is based on the teaching of pre-Vatican II canonists that heresy is an impediment of divine law to receiving the papacy.”

What Cekada could have mentioned here but did not mention is the fact that one suspected of heresy, when that suspicion still exists, automatically incurs the censure for heresy if the suspicion is not removed within six months’ time (Can. 2316). Obviously, Popes Pius XI and Pius XII did not see fit to remove this suspicion of heresy notice from Roncalli’s file, placed there in the 1920s, meaning that this suspicion still existed. Meaning also that on Roncalli’s part, the six months had long expired. He had been advised officially by Pope Pius XI of his delict and had recanted, and by Pope Pius XII regarding the worker priest affair and Roncalli’s naming of a known Freemason, his friend Yves Marsaudon, as the head of the French branch of the Knights of Malta. He may have appeared to repent, but his usurpation clearly showed that he was never sincere and continued in his heresy, just as the embracing of the false Vatican 2 council proved that the cardinals and bishops had all lost the faith. The popes’ failure to remove the suspicion of heresy letter posted to his official file is proof they believed he could not be trusted.

Papal candidates and invalidating ecclesiastical law

Above Cekada says, quoting Wernz-Vidal: “’All those who are not impeded by divine law or by an invalidating ecclesiastical law are validly eligible [to be elected pope].” Let me ask you, who is the sole interpreter of what constitutes divine law? Definitely not Wernz-Vidal or any other theologian. Pope Paul IV was the one who made this divine law clear to all in his bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio.  And he wrote regarding a man, one Cardinal Morone, who was aspiring to the papacy and was on trial for, but not yet convicted, of heresy! Morone was later excluded from being made a candidate by the future Pope St. Pius V, who as pope confirmed Cum ex… in his Intermultiplices.

In his bull, Paul IV also made clear that all the acts of apostates, heretics and schismatics who tacitly resigned from their ecclesiastical offices were invalid, null and void because they had lost their offices and had no power whatsoever. This he extended to cardinals and bishops. Therefore, Cum ex… was also an invalidating law. Pope Pius XII also invalidated any acts performed during an interregnum that violated any of the provisions of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis regarding papal elections, usurped the papal power or violated papal or canon law in any way. The cardinals violated divine law by electing a man suspected of heresy. They, including Roncalli, violated several election protocols, among them one allowing the interference of secular authorities in the election. Pope Pius XII clearly declares all these acts null and void, and any acts issuing from them null, void and invalid. This is “invalidating ecclesiastical law.”

Pius XII concludes his Constitution with the words: “This present document and whatever is contained in it can by no means be challenged… [It] will be always and perpetually true, valid, and effective, and acquire and obtain their own full and undiminished results… We command those individuals to whom it pertains and will pertain for the time being to vote, that the ordinances must be respectively and inviolably observed by them, and if anyone should happen to try otherwise relative to these things, by whatever authority, knowingly or unknowingly, the attempt is null and void.”  Sedevacantists could not afford to wholeheartedly  endorse Cum ex… because it deprived those who had “ordained” and “consecrated” them of any power to perform these acts validly, and this based on the divine law they pretend to champion. They did not dare mention Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis because that law invalidates everything done during an interregnum that is not in conformity with papal and canon law. VAS likewise invalidates all usurpations of papal authority, including the approval process necessary prior to episcopal consecration. This also nullifies any priestly ordinations emanating from men falsely claiming to have become bishops during such an interregnum.

Conclusion

The answer to the reader’s question is that the sedevacantist position is verified both by Cum ex Apostolatus Officio AND Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis; they are both documents issuing from the infallible magisterium and both work in tandem. It is impossible to discount Cum ex…as abrogated or dismiss it as a non-infallible document, since it treats of the manner of determining what is a violation of Divine law. Cekada even backhandedly admits this. Cum ex… treats of the Divine law; VAS of invalidating ecclesiastical law applicable during an interregnum. VAS prohibits, however, all LibTrad and Novus Ordo operations and nullifies all attempts at the usurpation of papal jurisdiction and violation of Canon Law. All this has been covered here before, but refresher courses are necessary when some seem to be unclear regarding the actual course of events. The one thing that should be more firmly emphasized here is that denying the necessity of confirming that an election is unquestionably canonical is to deny an article of faith — that canonical election is essential to Apostolic Succession.

This is the predominating heresy embraced by LibTrads and the Novus Ordo sect that should have been addressed from the beginning. We know that God willed otherwise, that His ages-old plan for the Church be fulfilled. And so we accept His will, pray and watch, and lift up our heads, ever hopeful that our redemption is at hand.