Is the Abomination of Desolation the same thing as Antichrist?

by T. Stanfill Benns | Sep 24, 2021 | New Blog

+Our Lady of Ransom+

Some have objected that the term abomination of desolation does not necessarily refer to Antichrist and therefore the use of this phrase by Pope Paul IV in his bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio is not a true interpretation of this Scripture phrase. In the next few blogs that will be posted here, the importance of understanding the meaning of these distinctions will be demonstrated. Catholics cannot be ignorant of the truths so necessary to understanding the current world situation today and its relation to their faith. As we draw closer to the culmination of the events that surely must be precipitating either the end proper or some worldwide disaster, no one can afford to any longer believe the fairy tales that some earthly force will deliver us; we alone are the captains of our own souls. Below please find the answer to this important question according to Catholic sources.

St. Jerome

The best source of information on this topic is St. Jerome, who according to the Catholic Encyclopedia “was very careful as to the sources of his information… The Biblical knowledge of St. Jerome makes him rank first among ancient exegetes.” St. Jerome wrote as follows on the abomination: “It is possible to apply this text easily to either the Antichrist, to the statue of Caesar which Pilate placed in the Temple or even to the equestrian statue of Hadrian, which down to this present day stands on the very site of the holy of holies. In the Old Testament, however, the term abomination is applied deliberately to idols. To identify it further, ‘of desolation,’ is added to indicate that the idol was placed in a desolate or ruined temple. The abomination of desolation can be taken to mean as well every perverted doctrine. When we see such a thing stand in the holy place, that is in the Church and pretend it is God, we must flee…,” (Breviary Lesson for the 24^th and Last Sunday after Pentecost).

The value and the amazing utility of this phrase, as explained by St. Jerome, is that it expresses several meanings, all of which correspond to the behavior and person of Antichrist and fit the actions of Paul 6 to a “T.” Other commentators concur with St. Jerome. Commenting on the term abomination of desolation in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Francis Gigot writes: “While most commentators regard the first ‘shíqqû,’ usually rendered by ‘abomination,’ as designating anything (statue, altar, etc.) that pertains to idolatrous worship, others take it to be a contemptuous designation of a heathen god or idol. Again, while most commentators render the second ‘shômem’ by the abstract word ‘desolation,’ others treat it as a concrete form referring to a person, ‘a ravager,’ or even as a participial known meaning ‘that maketh desolate.’

“After studying the picture of Antichrist in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians, one easily recognizes the ‘man of sin’ in Daniel 7:8, 11, 20, 21, where the Prophet describes the ‘little horn.’ A type of Antichrist is found in Daniel 8:8 sqq., 23, sqq., 11:21-45, in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes. Many commentators have found more or less clear allusions to Antichrist in the coming of false Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:6, 22; Luke 21:8), in the ‘abomination of desolation,’ and in the one that ‘shall come in his own name’ (John 5:43; Catholic Encyclopedia, A.J. Maas). Both these articles make it clear that the abomination has been identified with Antichrist, and who else has ravaged the Church, propagated heresy and made Her desolate if not Paul 6 and the V2 usurpers?

St. Bernard

In the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Antichrist we read that: “Antichrist simulates Christ, and the Pope is an image of Christ, [so] Antichrist must have some similarity to the Pope, if the latter be the true Vicar of Christ.” This was certainly expressed in the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, and this allusion to a false pope as the abomination and Antichrist pre-dated Pope Paul IV. St. Bernard, a Doctor of the Church, was the champion of Pope Innocent II. Innocent later recovered the papacy from antipope Anacletus, who for several years occupied the papal see in Rome.  We find in St. Bernard’s letters the following:

“Whether we like it or not, the words of the Holy Ghost must sooner or later have their fulfillment and the revolt predicted by the Apostle (2 Thess. 2:3) must come to pass. ‘Nevertheless, woe to that man by whom it cometh; it were better for him if that man had not been born,’ (Matt. 18:7; 26:24). Who is this antipope but the ‘man of sin’ (2 Thess. 2:3)… That beast of the Apocalypse, to whom has been given a mouth speaking blasphemy and power to wage war against the saints (Apoc. 13:5-7) “He has seated himself in the Chair of Peter…The holy place…he covets, not for its holiness, but for its height. He has, I say, got possession of the holy place [but]…not through the merit of his life. The election whereof he boasts is buta cloak for his malice. To call it an election at all is an impudent lie…”

In another letter he writes: “Behold, Innocent, the Christ, the anointed of the Lord, is ‘set for the fall and resurrection of many’ (Luke 2:34). For they that are of God willingly adhere to him, while opposed to him stand Antichrist and his followers. We have seen the ‘abomination of desolation standing in the holy place,’ (Matt. 24: 15), to obtain which the antipope ‘burned with fire the sanctuary of God’ (Psalm 73: 7). He persecutes Innocent and hence all innocence…”   (The Life and Teaching of St. Bernard, Ailbe J. Luddy, O. Cist., 1927). Clearly St. Bernard identifies the Holy Place with the See of Peter, nothing else. In this he simply follows St. Jerome. Why would Paul IV deviate from these two great doctors?

The Council of Florence

The following was taken from the Council of Florence, held in Florence, Italy from 1438-1447, a little over 100 years before the reign of Pope Paul IV. The Council was a continuation of the Council of Ferrara, and that council in turn was a continuation of the Council of Basel, in Switzerland. It was convoked in 1431 by Pope Martin V and in 1440 condemned the reign of Antipope Felix V (Duke Amadeus of Savoy). Clearly the idea of an antipope or false pope as the incarnation of Antichrist was not limited to the letters of St. Bernard, as evidenced by excerpts from the council below.

“With the approval and help of this sacred ecumenical council, avenge with condign penalties this new frenzy which has become inflamed to your injury and that of the holy Roman church, your spouse, and to the notorious scandal of the whole Christian people. By the authority of almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and by your own authority, remove and separate from God’s holy church, by a perpetual anathema, the aforesaid wicked perpetrators of this prodigious crime and their unfortunate heresiarch and veritable antichrist in God’s churchtogether with all their supporters, adherents and followers and especially his execrable electors or rather profaners.

“For our part, as soon as we were aware from the reports of trustworthy people that so great an impiety had been committed, we were afflicted with grief and sadness, as was to be expected, both for the great scandal to the church and for the ruin of the souls of its perpetrators, especially Amadeus that antichrist whom we used to embrace in the depths of charity and whose prayers and wishes we always strove to meet in so far as we could in God.Already for some time we had it in mind to provide salutary remedies, in accordance with our pastoral office, against an abomination of this sort.

“That within fifty days immediately following the publication of this letter, the antichrist Amadeus should cease from acting anymore and designating himself as the Roman pontiff and should not, in so far as he can, allow himself to be held and called such by others, and should not dare hereafter in any way to use papal insignia and other things belonging in any way to the Roman pontiff; And that the aforesaid electors, or rather profaners, and adherents, receivers and supporters should no longer, either in person or through others, directly or indirectly or under any pretext, aid, believe in, adhere to or support the said Amadeus in this crime of schism…”

Pope Leo XIII

Then we have the prayers written by Pope Leo XIII, reportedly following a frightening vison of demonic activity throughout the world; this happened sometime before 1886.  On September 25, 1888, Pope Leo XIII approved a prayer to St. Michael the Archangel with a 300 days indulgence that was at some point included in The Raccolta. The passage from this prayer pertinent to what is being discussed here reads: “In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.”

Two years later, Pope Leo XIII approved a new, longer prayer, “Exorcism against Satan and Apostate Angels,” including the 1888 prayer, which served as a sort of preamble to a series of exorcism prayers. These prayers were later appended to the Roman Ritual. This prayer eventually disappeared from the Raccolta and some Traditionalists claim it referred not to any infiltration of the Holy See, but to political events occurring at the time. It was removed, they said, because the pope was in negotiations with certain political powers and hoped to resolve the matter. While this could be true, no sources are cited to verify it. Nor can it be denied that it could just as easily have referred to a danger to the pope and his retinue, with Mariano Rampolla then Pope Leo XIII’s secretary of state. Why else include this prayer in an exorcism, of all things, if this was not a serious matter? A pope would not allow some transient political events to influence the content of a sacramental rite.

Pope Paul IV merely confirmed the idea of a false pope as Antichrist and Antichrist as the abomination, following St. Jerome and St. Bernard. Pope Leo XIII utilized the same language to describe what was happening to the Church during his pontificate. We cannot dispute the outcome; what they described is precisely what we have witnessed.

Paul IV’s usage of the abomination of desolation

“Whereas We consider such a matter to be so grave and fraught with peril that the Roman Pontiff, who is Vicar of God and of Jesus Christ on earth, holds fullness of power over peoples and. kingdoms, and judges all, but can be judged by no one in this world — (even he) may be corrected if he is apprehended straying from the Faith. Also, it behooves us to give fuller and more diligent thought where the peril is greatest, lest false prophets (or even others possessing secular jurisdiction) wretchedly ensnare simple souls and drag down with themselves to perdition and the ruin of damnation the countless peoples entrusted to their care and government in matters spiritual or temporal; and lest it befall Us to see in the HOLY PLACE the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, We wish, as much as possible with God’s help, in line with our pastoral duty, to trap the foxes that are busily ravaging the Lord’s vineyard and to drive the wolves from the sheepfolds, lest We seem to be silent watchdogs, unable to bark, or lest We come to an evil end like the evil husbandmen or be likened to a hireling.”

Given the content and recurring condemnations of Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, Pope Paul IV’s intent in issuing this bull is unmistakable. We see above that no less than St. Jerome interprets “the holy place” as the Church itself. And St. Jerome is the ultimate authority on scriptural interpretation. As for the abomination of desolation, the Catholic Encyclopedia has confirmed that commentators understand it as referring to Antichrist, although as St. Jerome also says it can mean “every perverted doctrine,” as well as idol worship. This would include:

“Bread idols, bread of lying, bread of wickedness, wheat bringing forth thorns, profitless wheat, vine without grapes, wine of iniquity, bitter wine, the wine of the condemned, the two iniquities [bread and wine], a strange god, idols without life, an idol moving the God of the Eucharist to jealousy, altars unto sin, a sin graven on the horns of the altar, sin of the sanctuary, unacceptable holocaust, a conspiracy, vain sacrifices, throne of iniquity, sin of the desolation (Dan. 8:13), falsehood personified, a lying vision, the abomination of desolation, (Dan. 11:31)” (Fr. Kenelm Vaughn’s Divine Armoury)” So both the person and the idol worshipped is included in the same phrase used by Daniel as biblical usage elsewhere demonstrates.

Paul IV is concerned with the persons perpetrating the crime. The reason for this is clear — he realizes that souls will be dragged down into hell if these people are not recognized as imposters and removed from office. He clearly sees that the best way to prevent perversion of the faithful is to remove the wolves from the sheepfold before they can devour the sheep. There can be no idol worship ever set up if there is no one to institute it. It is obvious that he believes the abomination to be heresy, and only a heretic could introduce idol worship. Pope Paul IV is careful to explain that a pope could never become a heretic but could only appear to become one owing to commission of it prior to election, invalidating the election.

The exception would be that a pope [erring in his private capacity] could be corrected, as the pope says above, (but not removed unless he refused to accept correction). But one who publicly spoke or otherwise disseminated heresy is a different matter. Paul IV distinguishes as follows: “Further, if ever at any time it becomes clear that any Bishop, even one conducting himself as an Archbishop, Patriarch, or primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, even as mentioned, a Legate; or likewise any Roman Pontiff before his promotion or elevation as a Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has strayed from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy, then his promotion or elevation shall be null, invalid and void.”

So here we see that one appearing to be a Roman Pontiff who was a heretic before his elevation or had strayed from the faith in some way is considered never to have obtained the office. If we now consider the abomination of desolation as the pope uses it, we can observe the following. 1) This is a definition of that term, since the Protestants at that time were contending a validly elected pope could become a heretic, i. e., Antichrist. It is not conceivable that Paul IV was not aware of this or did not have it in mind when writing the bull. In the preamble to his bull, the Pope states he intends to drive away “those who [are] corrupting the sense of the Holy Scriptures with cunning inventions.”2) It is a definition because prior to that time the holy place had been designated by some commentators to mean the Temple in Jerusalem and by others the Church.

The abomination had also been primarily interpreted as a false sacrifice or idol worship, not heresy per se. 3) Certain commentators limited application of the abomination to the time of the Jewish antichrist Antiochus, not extending it to the time of Antichrist as prophesied in the New Testament. Pope Paul IV definitely extended it to our own time. A papal definition is rendered, according to Msgr. J. C. Fenton and Denzinger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma, when some matter that has been in dispute is addressed by the pope; that matter is then no longer up for discussion. We must remember how the doctrines regarding the Holy Mass and the papacy both were being attacked by Luther and other Protestants during Pope Paul IV’s reign. The pope had good reason to believe that if a heretic of the Lutheran persuasion ever secretly ascended to the papacy, the Mass could be endangered. And as we see today, Paul IV had good reason to fear that just such a thing could happen.

When in doubt, consult Can. 18

In a case of doubt, for those questioning Pope Paul IV’s intention regarding his mention of the abomination of desolation, Canon 18 requires that Catholics first resort to parallel passages of the Code, if any; to the end and circumstances of the law and to the mind of the legislator. Here it is most important to consult the end and circumstances of the law. Therefore, it is necessary to delve into the history behind the bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, which we have done before but which will be useful to repeat here.  Pope Paul IV suspected Cardinal Giovanni Morone of heresy, something to do with the misinterpretation of Scripture and his sympathies with the Lutherans. Morone also reportedly had been holding meetings behind the pope’s back to promote himself as Paul IV’s successor even prior to the pope’s death.

This prompted Paul IV to write Cum ex. Morone was tried for his heresy and imprisoned. But when Paul IV died, he was back in the running for the papacy. He ran full force, however, into Cardinal Ghislieri, the future Pope St. Pius V. The historian Hergenrother, in his “The History of the Popes” reports that Morone’s campaign as papabili was “quashed by the intervention of Cardinal Ghislieri, who pointedly remarked that Morone’s election would be invalid owing to the question mark hanging over his orthodoxy,” (emph. mine). And this is the opinion not only of a great Pope, but of a great saint.

We also have the following quote from Paul IV himself, provided by author Glenn Kittler: “If I discovered that my own father was a heretic, I would gather the wood to burn him,” Paul IV said. During the trial of Cardinal Morone, Kittler says that Paul IV “decreed that any cardinal accused of heresy could not be elected pope,” (The Papal Princes, pg. 254). And there is to be no exception concerning those who deviated from the faith “secretly” before their election; that is, some heresy that was committed pre-election but became public only after the election. They too are automatically deposed. Here we have a perfect reflection of the mind of the lawgiver concerning an election, which today is worth its weight in gold.

In response to Morone’s attempt to promote himself as pope, Paul IV also penned the apostolic constitution Cum secundum Apostolum sometime in 1559. The constitution decreed extreme penalties against those who discuss the election of the future pope, behind the back and without permission of his predecessor while he is still alive, a crime now visited by Pius XII with the highest possible excommunication on the books: a latae sententiae penalty reserved in a most special manner to the Holy See. (This bull is listed in the footnotes to Pope Pius XII’s 1945 constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis.) This means that only the pope can dispense from such a censure.

As explained in a previous blog, Pope Paul IV was a very strict disciplinarian. He gave no quarter where heresy or the honor of the Church was concerned. Pope Paul III appointed him to head the Roman Inquisition after Paul IV himself suggested it be convened. His whole career seems to have been devoted to stamping out heresy at all costs, and given the terrible toll exacted by the Protestant Reformation, who can wonder that this would be so? His legacy on this topic is enshrined in Canon Law, with Cum ex… cited as a footnote in several canons, nearly all involving heresy. The articles below in the Archives section of the site chronicle this.

1. Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio: Infallible & Retained in the Code (PDF)
2. How “Cum Ex…” Is Retained In the Code (PDF)
3. “Cum Ex…” and Ecclesiastical Discipline
4. Doctrinal Conclusions Drawn From “Cum Ex…”

Finally, there is this regarding the interpretation of the law from Rev. Amleto Cicognani’s Canon Law:

1. Clear words admit no interpretation nor conjecture of the will.
2. General words are to be generallyunderstood, (“excommunicated”).
3. Where the law does not distinguish, neither are we to distinguish.
4. An indefinite expression is equivalent to one that is universal.
5. The words of law also should be considered in their context, (“except,” “any just reason”).
6. Any argument made should not be made outside the heading of the statute, (i.e., it should remain within the bounds of the subject being discussed under the heading of each section insofar as is possible. The heading for the statutes derived from Pope Paul IV’s bull involves censures and excommunication for heresy.)
7. Where the words are not ambiguous, they need no interpretation.

(For more on this topic visit https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/articles/a-catholics-course-of-study/canon-law/who-interprets-the-law/)

Nothing in Pope Paul IV’s law is unclear or ambiguous; ergo, it needs no interpretation. As proofs go, Canon Law tells us it is absolute and no other proof against it is admissible. We have no reason whatsoever to believe Pope Paul IV would not follow the teaching of St. Jerome and St. Bernard, also the Council of Florence and other councils, in his bull. The abomination of desolation is any high-ranking heretic who purports to hold an ecclesiastic (or even secular) office and publicly teaches heresy. This includes the pope. We know he is speaking, however, of the pope in this passage because he refers to him standing in the Holy Place, that is the See of Peter, as St. Bernard teaches. And this can be gleaned from the circumstances of his law regarding Cardinal Morone.

Conclusion

Many of the controversies concerning the times in which we live can be answered by asking the following question: Who is prophesied to take away the Continual Sacrifice? Daniel tells us it is the Antichrist of our day. Will anyone deny that the Sacrifice has indeed been taken away by John 23 and Paul 6? It would be difficult to find even a Traditionalist who would deny this. But as is so tellingly the case with all these Traditionalists and Novus Ordo types, they fail to complete the logical consequences of what they believe and follow them to the very end. Only Antichrist could have abolished the Sacrifice. It is the unanimous opinion of theologians, as stated by Henry Cardinal Manning, that the Sacrifice will indeed cease:

“The Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist and the prophecies of Daniel — all of them unanimously — say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the Holy Sacrifice of the altar will cease.” And the Council of Trent has determined that when the Fathers unanimously agree on a point of Holy Scripture, as explained above, they cannot be mistaken.

We find in St. Paul that Antichrist will be dispatched as follows: “And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, (2 Thess. 2: 8).” In other words, as Rev. Haydock explains, it will be an easy thing to take out the Son of Perdition. It is no coincidence, then, that Montini died on the day that he did. According to the reports of the Swiss guards, as related by John Parrot in the 1990s, he was tormented days before his death, and cries of despair were heard coming from his room; his face reportedly became so contorted no one could bear to look at him. His agony was ended on the feast of the Transfiguration. Holy Scripture describes the appearance of Christ during the Transfiguration as follows: “His face did shine as the sun, and His garments were white as snow” (Matt. 17: 2). This fact is examined at length by Francis Panakal in his work, The Man of Sin. It is something at least to ponder, for often the dramatic fulfillments we seek today can be explained in less obvious ways. We need only think of the Apostles, who missed so many of the meanings of Christ’s parables. Yet regarding the abomination of desolation Christ advises, “Let him who reads understand.”

Spiritual survival manual update, Unity Octave prayers

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jan 16, 2026 | New Blog

(Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome.)

+St. Marcellus, Pope, Martyr+

In past blogs we have spoken about the katechon, a Greek word for the restraining power mentioned by St. Paul in 2 Thess. 2: 6-7: “He who withholdeth,” what and who prevents the arrival of Antichrist. LibTrad pseudo-clergy have acted as the katechon for decades, pretending to perpetuate the Church and provide the Mass and Sacraments, so it will appear as though they still exist and Antichrist has not yet come. For if they once admitted that the Mass could no longer be validly offered, then the question of how it could cease would need to be answered, even though that question was raised and answered long ago. And that Antichrist alone could take away the Sacrifice was answered in the same breath as the disappearance of the papacy.  Had Catholics consulted approved sources and not those false christs and hirelings sent to deceive them they would have known this.

It has been pointed out that various political entities are now vying for the katechon title, but the katechon is not a political entity. And he is not future tense, but past tense. For Antichrist has already come and gone; what we see today is the destruction wrought by his antichrist successors in the false papacy and their associates now running the world. But to appear as though one is the restraining power and Antichrist is yet in the future is a useful tool to promote the idea of some man on a white horse, riding in to save the day and promote world peace, the “Great Monarch,” fable we have spoken about before. But private prophecy and pagan fables won’t save us either. Nothing in Holy Scripture speaks of a such a thing.

Why are so many podcasters and so-called intellectuals so anxious to voice opinions about who Antichrist might be?  Is it in order to position their katechon and appear to have prevented his coming? Given the current pseudo-Christian climate, that would not be difficult to do. Or is it because they know full well who Antichrist was and they are trying to see if anyone else has identified him, anyone, that is, who could establish the fact with reasonable certainty that he has already reigned? What is baffling is how so many non-Catholics dedicated to sola scriptura or even those identifying as Catholic believe the Second Coming is just around the corner.  This could scarcely be the case if what precedes Antichrist’s coming has not yet occurred (great apostasy, removing of restraining power or katechon, Antichrist’s actual reign). It is absolutely nonsensical, for if Antichrist is living today, and we must identify him, the katechon has already been taken out of the way. So much for Holy Scripture!

Those trying to determine the meaning of Holy Scripture from political events have it backwards. It is the spiritual happenings in the Church that determine the course of political events in these times. Some think I am playing into the scenarios spun by Candace Owens (and others), but it was my intention from the beginning only to see where she is taking her investigation and it has highlighted quite a few things that needed to be pointed out. I have noted that she missed the real reason Kirk was murdered — his identification of the current “popes” as Commies.  She identifies as (an NO) Catholic who is at odds with Israel and Jewish belief and practice, even identifies Zionists as the synagogue of Satan, yet fails to acknowledge Paul 6 and her church as the reason for Jewish ascendency. I will continue to monitor her podcasts, because I want to see where she is going with all this and correct her errors for those who may be watching. But this should not be taken by readers as any endorsement of her assessment of the chaos, since she takes the political over spiritual approach. Spiritual must come first, because it alone explains the chaos.

Among other things, Owens stresses the alternative reality in which we now live. Alternative reality is defined as: A state of things that does not really exist (Cambridge Dictionary); or any[thing] that deviates from the [Catholic-Ed.] perception of reality” (VocabDictionary). As we have pointed out often in the past, only the laws generated by the scholastics teaching formal logic can put us in touch with reality (Rev. Michael J. Mahony, S.J, Essentials of Formal Logic, 1918). All other presentations of reality are false. This is why false forms of logic among LibTrads have been repeatedly exposed here; they are attempting to justify their alternative reality. Another thing noted by Owens is the omission or change in essential wording regarding historical and other events (“all” for “many; Holy “Spirit” for Holy “Ghost,” etc). But that began long ago in the Church, not the secular world and only accelerated with the false Vatican 2 council. The same can be said of certain pronunciations such as “pahpacy” rather than “paypacy,” first noticeable in the early days among LibTrads. The traditional pronunciation is the latter, as all dictionaries show. I consider it a form of disrespect to pronounce it otherwise.

Why do I bother trying to “interpret” it? Because young people genuinely seeking the truth are listening to her. Some of them are even Traditionalists, and yes, there are pray at home Catholics among her audience.  Owens claims to attend a Latin Mass, and yet we know the Mass ended long ago. She consults her “priests.” She complains of handlers, not realizing her own spiritual advisor is most likely one of them. She mentions CIA psychological warfare ops by name, but fails to mention the CIA’s “Psychological Strategy Plan for the Use of Doctrinal Warfare,” PSB D-33, launched June 29, 1953, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The program goal was “to breakdown worldwide doctrinaire thought patterns…” and “foster a worldwide understanding and sympathetic acceptance of the traditions and viewpoints of America and the free world… paving the way from deviations from and schisms in totalitarian thought patterns.”  It was to be applied to a group “likely to include priests as commissars” (David Wemhoff, John Courtney Murray, Time/Life and the American Proposition, Ch. 33).

This was the prelude to Vatican 2, undertaken during the very year Pope Pius XII found himself near death’s door after being poisoned for months. Coincidence? I don’t think so.  This was the final blow, after decades of Modernist poison had coursed through the veins of the Church and Communists and Freemasons had infiltrated Her ranks. We know that the coming of Christ is near because we have seen all of the signs in Holy Scripture fulfilled.  The only way that the chaos and descent into the pit of depravity in the world today can possibly be explained is by admitting the Holy Sacrifice has ceased, and no longer can any reparation be made on earth for the sins of men. That explains all. But these pseudo-intellectuals want to entertain their own explanations, products of their own Godless minds, so lacking in discernment, true knowledge and spirituality.

Satan is most active now because he knows his time is short. He cannot escape the fact that Christ will come to end it all and send him back to hell forever, bringing to a close his failed attempt to destroy the last vestiges of the Church. For we must be those vestiges, and the only thing left for us to do now is to try and leave our children and grandchildren instructions on what they must believe and how they must conduct themselves after we are gone, at least as far as we are able to assemble them. We cannot anticipate every possible development, but we can give them the basics of the faith to cling to after we have left this earth.

Several years ago, I wrote When There Is No Priest, a Survival Guide for Remnant Catholics. It is in desperate need of updating, and on the request of readers I am slowly accomplishing this. Please review the contents page below and feel free to suggest in the comments section any additions, changes or corrections to any subject you feel should be included.  It is vital that this guide be complete, as a legacy to our children. Many on this site are in their 70s and even 80s. We are the ones who best remember what our Church once was, what She taught and what happened to Her in the 1960s. As Owens notes, the entire history of this country is being rewritten and omitted by the powers that be to introduce the age of Satan. We must do what we can, while we can, to see that a printed copy of the truth is available to all.

Part I — Flocks Without Shepherds —————————-13

How Catholics kept their Faith without clergy, Arianism and St. Hermenegild,

The Protestant Reformation, No Mass or Sacraments on the American frontier,

The Japanese Church, The French Revolution, Kulturkampf, Ruthenians

refused to receive Sacraments from schismatics, Romanians warned by Our

Lady about schismatic priests, Even Orthodox refused to attend Communist

church services, Catholic Uniates in Ukraine, We ARE the Church of today

Part II — The Sacraments and Their Substitutes ———— 32

Baptism

Valid baptism, Illicit Baptism, “Of the Time and Place of Baptism”  

Confirmation ——————————————————————————– 37

Holy Eucharist/Spiritual Communion ——————————————– 38

The Saints on Spiritual Communion “The Spiritual Combat” by Fr. Dom Lorenzo Scupoli “The Blessed Eucharist,” by Rev. Michael Mueller, The Blue Army,

St. Michael and the Fatima children  

Penance/Act of Perfect Contrition ————————————————— 42

Obligation of eliciting the Act of Contrition, Heaven Open to Souls, No

forgiveness with Perfect Contrition a Jansenist heresy

Extreme Unction —————————————————————————- 49

Plenary indulgence at the hour of death, Spiritual and practical aids for the dead and dying *

Matrimony ————————————————————————————- 51

Comments on the matrimonial decrees of the Holy Office, Why Traditionalists kept these decrees from the faithful, circumstances that nullify marriage, what constitutes invalidity, Canon Law provides a remedy, documenting invalidity, separation and divorc 

Part III — The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Cessation of the Continual Sacrifice

and the Abomination of Desolation ————————————- 63 

The Abomination, what or who is the abomination? The cessation of the Continual Sacrifice, consequences of fruitless sacrifices

But what about the Mass? ————————————————– 73

General comments on the Mass, St. Thomas Aquinas on the Sacraments, dry Mass, home church, history of home church

How do I explain to my family we must say Mass at home?

They Have Taken Away My Lord —————————————– 82

Sacraments, Rule of Conduct, Confession, The Holy Eucharist, Last Sacrament

Part IV — Three Methods of St. John’s Mass ——————- 95

Examination of Conscience,* Methods one, two and three

Part V — The Rosary, Fast and Abstinence, the Scapular — 114

            How to say the Rosary, Fast and abstinence laws, The Brown Scapular

Part VI — Catechetical Instruction and Homeschool ——— 120

Part VII — The Lay Apostolate ———————————— 121

Epilogue ——————————————————————- 124

Appendix I – Child’s Examination of Conscience ————————— 125

Appendix II – Marriage Decree from Canon Law Digest, Can. 1098 — 128

Appendix III – Lay Exorcism and Possession ——————————— 134

Appendix IV – Practical and Spiritual Preparation

for Death and Burial ——————————————————————- 143

Please begin the Unity Octave here on January 18.

(Scroll to bottom of this article for the Unity Octave prayers.)

The great king, the Priory of Sion and the mystery of the bees

by T. Stanfill Benns | Dec 3, 2025 | New Blog

+St. Francis Xavier+

Prayer Society Intentions for December, Month of Christ’s Holy Birth

“Eternal Father, I offer to Thine honor and glory for my eternal salvation and for the salvation of the whole world the sufferings of Jesus in the Manger… the cold He suffered, the tears He shed and His tender infant cries.” — Raccolta

Introduction

A reader recently alerted me to a very interesting article on the Tradition in Action site. While this is definitely not a recommended site, the article should be read given the past information provided here on British Israel and its connections to Zionism and Communism. (See it HERE.) The article relates the establishment of a throne in the Vatican for no less than King Charles III of England, whose ancestors slaughtered tens of thousands of Catholics and defrauded them of their property, not to mention the wholesale destruction of Catholic architecture and culture throughout Great Britain. But the full significance of this cannot be understood without a deep dive into the history of Freemasonry and secret societies in general, particularly that society most responsible for the infiltration of the clergy and the establishment of “traditional Catholicism” — The Priory of Sion.

I first sounded the alarm on this organization in my 1990 book, Will the Catholic Church Survive…? where both Angelo Roncalli and Marcel Lefebvre were pinpointed as high-ranking members of the Priory and collaborators in the destruction of the Church. And while the Priory has since been debunked as a non-entity, a fraud and a deliberately created rabbit hole, current events and additional discoveries only serve to confirm it was very much what it was portrayed to be. In the last several years I have pointed out in this blog the fact that every Traditionalist movement founded in this country can be linked to a Masonic sect known as St. John Knights of Jerusalem, and this included Marcel Lefebvre’s St. Pius X Society. As noted in the 1990 book, Lefebvre’s various branches of his Society were called “priories,” as were those of Schuckhardt, Wathen and others. Lefebvre’s seminary was located in the diocese of Sion, Switzerland. He was ordained and consecrated by the Freemason Lienart. The Holy Blood, Holy Grail authors identify him as a Priory member.

Not so well known is Angelo Roncalli’s probable affiliation with the Priory. But certainly his pre-election history — his friendship with French Masonic characters such as Marsaudon, Herriot, Auriol — and his pandering to Freemasons as “pope” was a dead giveaway. Below are excerpts from Will the Catholic Church Survive…? that explain the nature of the Priory, its relation to what we see unfolding today and Roncalli’s role as a member.

The Priory of Sion: a history

“Roncalli’s behavior was consistent with that of a man who had received a mission. Knowing the extent of masonic influ­ence and infiltration in the Vatican, it has undoubtedly crossed the minds of many good Catholics that Brother Angelo was carrying out the orders of the Satanic Pontiff, the equivalent of Pope of all Masonry. Piers Compton, in his book The Broken Cross, relates the alleged initiation of Roncalli into the Masonic lodge of the Rose Croix. Pier Carpi’s book The Prophecies of John XXIII, divulges that Roncalli took the name “Johannes” at his initiation, which apparently took place while he served as Apostolic Delegate to Istanbul, Turkey, in 1935. The connection of Roncalli with the Rosicrucians could per­haps be put aside if it were not for the fact that many of Roncalli’s subsequent actions can be seen to confirm such an affiliation. His remark concerning the unimportance of bap­tism and conversion in the case of the Jews he helped to escape during World War II certainly is in keeping with Masonic doctrine. And his later appointment as Nuncio to France, combined with his anti-Catholic behavior there, pro­vides us with a clue to the source of his Masonic affiliations.

“In his work Satan in the Modern World, Monsignor L. Cristiani quotes the heretic and satanist Giovanni Papini as having written: “…the promised land of Satanism is France.”(!) (p. 164.) How can it be that the eldest daughter of the Church should become the promised land of Satanism? The answer lies in the history of France and the pervasive influ­ence of Albigensianism or Catharism, which took much deeper root there than was ever realized by the Church. That Albigensianism became the basis for Freemasonry is documented in the book Holy Blood. Holy Grail. (Delacourte Press; 1982.) This book presents no less than a believable collection of heretical horrors that is far and away the best exposition and condemnation of the secret societies ever written, although it is presented as a vindication of that particular ruling force of all the secret societies: the Priory of Sion.

“It will be sufficient here to offer a brief synopsis of this organization, its history and its aims, since a detailed analysis of it is beyond the scope of this book. The Priory first came into existence with the creation of the Knights Templar in 1090, by one Godfroi deBoullion. Its official headquarters was Notre Dame du Mont de Sion in Jerusalem. This occurred nine years before the founding of the Knights Templar by Hugues de Payon, a vassal of the count of Champagne. In 1188, the Templar Knights separated from deBouillion’s Order of Zion which then officially changed its name to the Priory of Zion. Its first Grand Master, Jean de Gisor, founded the Rosicrucians (Holy Blood, Holy Grail). The Priory remained a vital and moving force, which operated underground once the Templars were condemned and disbanded, and has grown phe­nomenally in power and influence over the centuries.

“In order to properly understand the premises on which the Priory bases its operation, it is necessary to delve somewhat into the history behind their devilish beliefs. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, relates that the Templars and the Priory were created to protect and reestablish on the throne of France an ancient bloodline. This hideous bloodline is said to be that of Christ and Mary Magdalene. The Priory legend has it that Mary Magdalene escaped to France with Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus, who did not die on the cross, but falsified his entire death and resurrection. (It is reluctantly, and with great sorrow, that we relate such blasphemy and vile heresy, even in way of proof.) This “bloodline” then, supposedly, was continued through the line of Merovingian kings, who ruled from the fifth to seventh century in an area known as the Languedoc.

This area is said to have been the site of a Jewish colony even prior to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and subsequent exodus of many of the Jews from the Holy Land to other areas of the world. The Merovingian kings were surrounded by mystery. They were never crowned or anointed, but were considered kings as if by divine right, on the advent of their twelfth birthday. They were known as the sorcerer or thaumatergic kings. They were “…occult adepts, initiates in arcane sciences, and practitioners of the esoteric arts …they were said to be capable of clairvoyant or telepathic communication …miraculous curative powers …and bore a distinctive birthmark which distinguished them from all other men, and …which attested to their semi-divine or sacred blood.” (Holy Blood, Holy Grail, p. 210.)

“Although this book keeps the reader in suspense forever, it is not long before it becomes apparent that this “bloodline” the Templars and the Priory protect to this day is heretically presented as that of Christ and Mary Magdalene. Eventually, the Merovingians intermarried with nearly all the royal bloodlines of Europe, which makes their descendants “divine” as well. This inheritance is said to be especially centered in the British, French and German thrones. In fact, British Israelism, currently known as the Aryan Nations or “Identity” movement, can be seen to allude to this fact, since it suggests that the ancient bloodline of David is continued in the succession to Britain’s throne.

“It has been speculated that Hitler was linked to the Priory in some way, and may even have attempted to secede from it, thus bringing the wrath of Europe on his head. But if he attempted to secede, it was not owing to his moral sense, but rather to his burning desire to rule all and be subject to none. The upper echelon Nazis were immersed in the Grail legends and pre-Christian religious practices. (The “Search for the Holy Grail” is a veiled allegory imitative of the Gospel parables. It is used by the degrees of masonry to symbolize the search for man who became God; i.e., the bloodline. This is the mirror reverse of God’s Son, who as God, assumed a human body.) In her book The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, Constance Cumbey relates that Hitler was influenced early in his school years by the abbot of a Benedictine monastery school he attended near his home. The abbot “…was fascinated by the lore of the Albigensians or Cathars, who could probably be accurately classified as early New Agers, in that they believed man could gain the powers of a god.” It was here, Cumbey notes, that Hitler “…was initiated into the finer mysteries of the occult.” (p. 100.) Cumbey further instructs us, on page 102, as to the origin of the “Aryan” nations obsession of Hitler. She writes: “…one of the seven Atlantean races was that of the Aryans …the Aryans were the master race, or supermen of the Atlantean races.”

“As we have already learned, the Jewish settlement to which Mary Magdalene and Jesus “fled,” produced the Merovingian kings and the “bloodline” eventually. The founding of this line of kings has behind it a myth. Sup­posedly, a queen pregnant by her husband went swimming in the ocean and was impregnated a second time by some sort of sea creature. When the child Merovie (founder of the Merovingian dynasty) was born, the blood of both fathers ran in his veins. This could allude to an intermingling of Atlantean blood, for as Cumbey notes, the Atlanteans were known to have “…magical powers over …nature and psychic development.” (p. 100.) This would then account for the psy­chic and healing powers attributed to the Merovingians, who like Samson, wore their hair long and credited it as the secret of their power. (The sea creature might also have been Leviathon, the “sea serpent,” spoken of in Isaias 27:1 and elsewhere, and identified in the Douay-Rheims’s footnote to this text as the Devil.) However it is interpreted, it necessarily implies a link between the New Age and the Priory; Masonry and the New Age, and the Albigenses or Cathars as the progenitors of all the above.

The papacy and the Priory

“Can all this somehow be traced to Roncalli and/or Montini? Cumbey, an evangelical Protestant lawyer, fingered Roncalli in 1983 (Hidden Dancers of the Rainbow), when she wrote: “If there has been a single Catholic Pope who permitted the New Ager’s plan to take root within the Roman Catholic Church, it was Pope John XXIII, who is spoken of reverentially by New Agers and ‘Catholic’ modernists.” (p. 160.) This mammoth conspiracy has obviously covered all bases. Today, it is headquartered somewhere in France, probably the Languedoc region. Its surname indicates that it may have successfully penetrated all of the Catholic sects and factions, for it is given as Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union or CIRCUIT, from a Priory publication of the same name. It is also called “The Rose-Croix Veritas.”

“Its meetings and method of operation are shrouded in secrecy, but since 1956, the Priory has been said to have experienced phenomenal growth. It has also been connected with the society known as “Hieron du Val d’Or,” characterized by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail as being “…more Catholic than the Pope…,” but which, in fact, attempted to fuse Catholicism and Masonic principles. Action Francais, condemned by Pius XI, who placed all books pub­lished by its proponents on the Index, was no less than an attempt to place a Merovingian king on the throne of France. Today’s attempt to consolidate Europe politically and economically into a “United States of Europe,” is but a studied effort to create a modern empire to be ruled by “the descendants of Jesus.”(!)

“From Holy Blood, Holy Grail, we read: “This dynasty could not only occupy a throne of political power, but quite conceivably, the throne of St. Peter,” (p. 385.) Could the occupant of any such throne really be a pope, or would he rule a kingdom other than Christ’s? For those who loudly proclaim that Roncalli was a dear, sweet man and is being libeled; or sneeringly state that “no one can prove” he was a freemason, we would like to observe that masonry operates secretly for a reason. That reason is obvious: no one will then be able to determine who is on the up and up. For our purposes, we must content ourselves with the fact that Roncalli is a heretic, but the following infor­mation should prove he was, without a doubt, more.

1. Since the Priory’s inception, according to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, “…every grand master, on assuming his position, has adapted the name Jean (French for John) …This succession was clearly intended to imply an Hermetic papacy based on John, in contrast (and perhaps, opposition) to the esoteric one based on Peter …Roncalli caused considerable consternation when he chose the name John XXIII, anathematized since it was last used … by an anti-pope … In 1958 (Jean) Cocteau held the grand mastership …(when) Pope Pius XII died …and the assembled cardinals elected Roncalli. …Cocteau did not die until 1963.” (pp. 132-133.) Roncalli was only a transitional Pope, [as arranged by no less than the CIA] and his death coincided with that of Cocteau. If both “thrones” fell vacant at the same time, did Montini alone fall heir to the “throne?” Was the “transition” Roncalli was designated to make the deliverance of the papacy into the hands of the “Satanic Pontiff?” …
2. Roncalli has been said to be obsessed with John the Baptist. Thus, he gave us the reason for selecting the name John as his love for Christ’s cousin. (See “Urbi et Orbi,” Oct. 1958.) Actually, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist are held in high esteem by Freemasons, who Piers Compton reports, make a point of meeting on their feast days (Dec. 27 and June 24). It is said by some that both John the Baptist and John the Divine were Essenes, although the Catholic Church denies this. (See Essenes; Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 ed.) Since the Essenes were a Jewish sect, the Church sees no need to bother with them. …Holy Blood, Holy Grail, however, gives us the real reasons behind Roncalli’s use of the name John on page 55: “…the Templars were infected with the Johannite or Mandian heresy, which denounced Jesus as a false prophet and acknow­ledged John as the true Messiah.”
3. “So Roncalli was honoring Masonic tradition. And Roncalli’s “mission,” mentioned earlier, was to act in a capacity which coincided with the role of his idol, John the Baptist. For Roncalli was the precursor; the voice crying in the modernist wilderness; the one who would prepare the way for the “Rex Mundi.” Further reason for Roncalli’s choice of name as Pope is given by Jean Bardet in his Les Clefs De La Recherche Fondamentale. On page 72, he writes: “…Roncalli…was elected the 28th of October [and] took the name of John XXIII, in honor of France, for John XXIII was the last Pope of Avignon.” According to authors Lincoln, Leigh and Baigent, in their work Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Hieron du Val d’Or admitted the existence of a hidden pope and his entourage, which of course would include bishops, waiting in the wings to act either as a replacement for or an alternative to the current church in Rome:
4. “’The Hiéron’s agenda was the creation of a new Habsburg and Catholic Holy Roman Empire with a French temporal and spiritual head in the manner of the Grand Monarch, an association of Europeans bound by common law and dedicated to advancing the mission of Christ the King.” (Here they cite sources linked to the “Catholic” secret society Marcel Lefebvre reportedly belonged to, the Priory of Sion.) “They [the Hieron] claim the existence of a secret parallel Catholic tradition called l’Eglise d’Avignon (Church of Avignon), which they trace to the medieval Papacy installed in Avignon from 1309 to 1378. The claim is that it continued in secret with a Pope who represents the esoteric aspects of the Catholic Church. L’Eglise d’Avignon is said to serve as an intermediary between the Roman Church and the Eastern Orthodox tradition.’
5. This is an interesting comment when we consider that the first John XXIII was elected at Pisa (a council never considered ecumenical by the Church) and was later deposed at Constance. It seems that the plan to unite the papacy and the monarchy was conceived long ago, but was dealt a setback once Martin V was elected at Constance and the papacy permanently established in Rome, once again. Roncalli’s contribution to the “bloodline,” as “pope” was to insert the “precious blood” into the divine Praises that the God-man might become a man-God, as surely it did when Montini (Paul VI) embarked on his campaign to deify man.
6. In St. Malachy’s prophecies, John XXIII is designated as “Pasteur et Nautionner” (Shepherd and Navigator). The official title of the Priory’s Grand Master is “Nautionnier. Whether these prophecies are truly genuine, or clever forgeries as some have suggested, they accurately identified Roncalli’s dual personality while “pope.” And, the objection cannot be made that Roncalli’s identification with Malachy’s “motto” affords him legitimacy, for Malachy’s list contains mottoes for several anti-popes.
7. Roncalli was the first “pope” to contradict the excom­munication of his predecessors for membership in a Masonic sect. His relaxation of this application of Canon Law came with “Pacem in Terris,” which extolled the United Nations and granted a general relaxation of discipline begun at the start of Roncalli’s reign. In her Son of Perdition, C. Lereux relates: “John XXIII …allowed a revision of Canon Law to be expected. While awaiting these ‘new laws,’ everyone proceeded to do and say whatever they wished.” (p. 36.)
8. In June of 1960, Roncalli issued an apostolic letter on the “Precious Blood.” The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grailclaim that he attached “…a hitherto unprecedented significance to that blood. It emphasized Jesus’ suffering as a human being and maintained that the redemption of mankind had been effected by the shedding of His blood … If man’s redemption was achieved by the shedding of Jesus’ blood, his death and resurrection become incidental.” (p. 135.) How strange that Roncalli would attach such significance to the very reason for the Priory’s existence if he was not a member. One would need to be very blind, indeed, to fail to make the connection between Roncalli and Freemasonry in the face of such damning evidence.

The false prophet and the Great Monarch

“It is difficult to see, in light of what we know today, how Roncalli could have been anything OTHER than the false prophet spoken of in Apocalypse 13, vs. 11. E.S. Berry, in his Apocalypse of St. John, writes: “The beast arising from the earth is a false prophet, the prophet of Antichrist …the false prophet …will be endowed with the plenitude of satanic powers to deceive the nations, as indicated by his resemblance to the lamb. The prophet will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of anti-pope,” (p. 135). Reverend P. Huchede, in his little work The History of AntiChrist, tells us: “…this false prophet will be an individual person … he will not be a king, or a general of an army, but a clever apostate fallen from the episcopal dignity… he will become the first preacher of the false messiah,” (p. 24). C.C. Martindale quotes Father Allo on the false prophet in his commentary on the Apocalypse: “…the false prophet represents that vague, solvent ‘toleration,’ which was then going to become Gnosticism…the lazy, flattering notion that all creeds are finally of a muchness is, indeed, as modern as it was prevalent in ancient but decadent days. There could then, be two ‘foci’ of anti-Christianity–the openly persecuting state and the vague, subservient ‘religion,’ which the state could patronize without damage to itself.” (A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, p. 1206.) (End of Will the Catholic Church Survive…? quotes)

Tying the British and French monarchies into all this, Tim Cohen writes in his Antichrist and a Cup of Tea (1998): “The Priory of Zion has in fact been more an historical tool of the English monarchy and nobility than of the French. It is of significant interest therefore that the Priory of Zion, the Temple Knights and the Rosicrucians, all of which ultimately derive from the earlier Order of Zion, together gave rise to English and French Freemasonry. Moreover in 1348…the order of the Garter became the major control point from which the English monarchy exercised its global influence… The supposed Protocols of the Elders of Zion appears not to be a Judaic work but a modified work of the Priory of Zion possibly having been altered for public consumption with the complicity of the illuminati. Nevertheless with much contrivance the work was later advanced as proof of a Jewish conspiracy…

“From 1188 to the present day, the Priory of Zion has been the benefactor of a struggle for dominance between English and French royalty and nobility. Originally a French-English oligarchical order and secret society from which came the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians, its control came to rest largely with the English side even while a number of its grandmasters resided in France… The Merovingians and the Priory of Zion have long-awaited what the false prophet Nostradamus (also the Protestant John Locke and many Catholic prophecies so-called, which cannot always prove to be reliable) referred to as the ‘great monarch,’ the ultimate Prince of Lorraine and priest-king who would work with the Pope to establish a New World Order.” From what has been said in the opening paragraph of this blog, it appears that the identity of this “great monarch” has now been revealed by the Novus Ordo heresiarch and usurper Leo 14, who apparently has provided a throne for Charles III in what was once the Holy Place itself.

Conclusion

So now we can add to the British Israel mix the “French Connection,” something Candace Owens has recently been exploring in her podcasts after reports emerged that she was threatened with assassination by the French government for her exposure of French first lady Brigitte Macron as a biological man. She also has raised the possibility that Charlie Kirk’s assassination can be traced to French and Israeli operatives. She has noted that there seems to be some association with certain underground group symbols, namely bees, and says she has dreamt of bees. Utah’s state symbol is a beehive, as Owens has mentioned, and the state’s population is predominantly Mormon. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:

“Nineteenth-century leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consciously created symbols to buttress their community. The most persistent of these pioneer symbols was the beehive.” As Tim Cohen notes, “At the highest degrees and levels Freemasonry and its plethora of cult and occult branches, which include Mormonism, Theosophy, the New Age movement and even Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan not only openly deride Christ and his work but explicitly advocate the worship and adoration of Lucifer (Satan) as a means to achieve individual godhood and World Peace.” And there are those who have labeled the New Apostolic Reformation as a sort of neo-Mormonism.

Owens tells us that the Bolsheviks have infiltrated this country and we soon will be at war. She says she does not expect to see her children grow up. She blames the Masonic founding of this country for its demise, telling us her British “priest” informed her about this. She has so much of it figured out. And yet the bees surrounding her in her dreams are frantic little messengers warning that she is caught in the web of the very thing she is trying to expose.

According to online sources, the official emblem of the Priory of Sion is partly based on the fleur-de-lis, which is found throughout Saint Sulpice (a society associated with the Priory). The emblem represents a bee, and the tradition of long-haired kings of France known as the Merovingian dynasty, including Childeric, who was found with 300 gold bees in his tomb.

Roncalli’s invalid election smoothly segued into the ascent of Paul 6 as the next usurper of the papal throne. Who was the successor of Priory Grand Master Jean Cocteau following his death in 1963? Giovanni Battista Montini, and he brazenly displayed the proofs of his Priory affiliation on his coat of arms below. Note the three fleur-de-lis bees. And what is beneath them? The beehive — even Montini’s tiara resembled a beehive, unlike that of previous true popes. The coat of arms tells us the Priory had finally captured the papacy, but that is not all

Owens’ other observations regarding Zionism and its true driving force are also realized in Paul 6. All the answers she is searching for can be satisfied in the spiritual, not the political or secular realm. But the “priests” handling her today will never reveal this. Civil governments would never have toppled had the Church not been destroyed first. Unless the abomination of desolation had entered in as Pope Paul IV predicted in Cum ex Apostolatus Officio in 1559, we would not be witnessing the wholesale triumph of Freemasonry today.

If it is really truth that Owens thirsts for, as she claims — if that is what really matters, as it should matter to all of us — then all avenues must first be exhausted to find it. She owes her listeners the true explanation for why we are facing war, the loss of our freedoms, the annihilation of our religion and culture. Faith alone will survive, Our Lady told the children at La Salette, not a mad scramble of political conspiracies mixed with what passes for that faith. Removing the linchpin that will unleash on the world the real reason why we find ourselves in this predicament is the only pathway to truth. The papal see has been usurped.  Antichrist has come, the Mass has ended, and without Christ offered on our altars daily, as Dr. Nicholas Gihr wrote in 1897, the world is doomed:

“It is by Christ’s Blood in the Mass that the anger of God is daily placated, the vengeance of the Divine judgment disarmed, that He no more curses the earth on account of man, whose mind and thoughts are prone to evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21). When this “Sacrifice for sins” shall be no longer celebrated, then ‘there remains but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries’ (Heb. 10: 26-27).”

In the last days the learned shall shine, and teach many

by T. Stanfill Benns | Sep 2, 2025 | New Blog

+Feast of St. Stephen, Martyr+

Introduction

One must wonder if those who try to search out what is happening to us in these days ever think to credit and be grateful for the great Catholic minds who went before us and so eruditely plotted out what might happen to us and what we could expect in these times. But it seems that very few people really examine these things very closely because so many of the commentaries are hard to understand and also seem to mischaracterize the things that we’ve experienced as far as the destruction of the Church goes. Some commentators get most of it right, but spin-off at some point on one issue that falsely colors everything else they write. Others are wrong on most points but then are surprisingly clear on others. So most people read a little bit and tend to give up or maybe decide that, well, after all, it’s not that important. But it IS important, as we learned in our last blog, because if we don’t understand who we are and where we are in time, we’re not going to be doing what Christ expected us to do as overcomers and witnesses in this time prior to Christ’s Second Coming.

The prophet Daniel speaks of these times in the following verses in chapter 12 of the Old Testament:

“1 But at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people: and a time shall come, such as never was from the time that nations began, even until that time. And at that time shall thy people be saved, every one that shall be found written in the book.

2 And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.

3 But they that are learned, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity.

4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time appointed: many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold.

5 And I, Daniel, looked, and behold as it were two others stood: one on this side upon the bank of the river, and another on that side, on the other bank of the river.

6 And I said to the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river: How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

7 And I heard the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river, when he had lifted up his right hand, and his left hand to heaven, and had sworn by him that liveth  forever, that it should be unto a time, and times, and half a time. And when the scattering of the band of the holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall be finished.

8 And I heard, and understood not. And I said: O my Lord, what shall be after these things?

9 And he said: Go, Daniel, because the words are shut up, and sealed until the appointed time.”

And as We quoted Rev. Haydock in our last blog on verse 9 above: “The vision will not be understood till the event. It is not to be interpreted by human wit but by the spirit of God wherewith the Church is enlightened and governed.”  And this is also the opinion of St. Jerome, who likewise commented on Dan. 8: 26: “Thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.” Having explained the vision which we have examined above to the best of our ability, the angel Gabriel adds at the end: “Thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.” By the mention of a seal, he showed that the things spoken were of a hidden character and not accessible to the ears of the multitude, OR SUSCEPTIBLE OF COMPREHENSION PRIOR TO THEIR ACTUAL FULFILMENT BY THE EVENTS THEMSELVES.” (See full text HERE.)

St. Jerome’s commentary on the Book of Daniel

St. Jerome is adamant that nearly all of the book of Daniel refers directly to the coming of Antichrist. He writes against the pagan philosopher Porphyry who denied this, claiming the book of Daniel was not canonical. St. Jerome points out how, in almost every verse, the Jewish antichrist Antiochus can only be seen as the archetype of Antichrist. What he says about Antichrist is everything that we have experienced in watching the destruction of the Church. And it is interesting that in this commentary on Daniel he twice refers to Antichrist coming at the end of the age of the Church, and not at the end of the world, as B. E. Strauss has already pointed out (although Strauss takes his quotes from a different source). But not only St. Jerome says this, but St. Bede also. “Antichrist, who is to reign AT THE END OF THE AGE, because of the unity of the body of the ungodly of which he is the head, pertains to the number of the kingdoms of the world” (Apoc. 17: 11).

In later comments, St. Jerome elaborates on Dan. 12: 1-3 as follows: “And so after the Antichrist is crushed and destroyed by the breath of the Savior’s mouth, the people written in God’s book shall be saved; and in accordance with the merits of each, some shall rise up unto eternal life and others unto eternal shame. But the teachers shall resemble the very heavens, and those who have instructed others shall be compared to the brightness of the stars. For it is not enough to know wisdom unless one also instructs others; and the tongue of instruction which remains silent and edifies no one else can receive no reward for labor accomplished. This passage is expressed by Theodotion and the Vulgate edition [of the Septuagint] in the following fashion: “And those who understand shall shine forth like the radiance of the firmament, and many of the righteous like the stars forever and ever.”

“Many people often ask whether a learned saint and an ordinary saint shall both enjoy the same reward and one and the same dwelling-place in heaven. Well then, the statement is made here, according to Theodotion’s rendering, that the learned will resemble the very heavens, whereas the righteous who are without learning are only compared to the brightness of the stars. And so the difference between learned godliness and mere godly rusticity shall be the difference between heaven and the stars.” Verse 11:33 also mentions the learned, and St. Jerome comments: “And they that are learned among the people shall teach many and they shall fall by the sword and by fire and by captivity and by spoil for many days.” The books of Maccabees relate the great sufferings the Jews endured at the hands of Antiochus… [L]et no one doubt that these things are going to happen under the Antichrist, when many shall resist his authority and flee away in various directions.”

And on Dan. 12: 4 he writes: “He who had revealed manifold truth to Daniel now signifies that the things he has said are matters of secrecy, and he orders him to roll up the scroll containing his words and set a seal upon the book, with the result that many shall read it and inquire (p. 577) as to its fulfilment in history, differing in their opinions because of its great obscurity. And as for the statement, “Many shall pass over” or “go through,” this indicates that it will be read by many people. For it is a familiar expression to say: “I have gone through a book,” or, “I have passed through an historical account.” Indeed this is the idea which Isaiah also expressed in regard to the obscurity of his own book: “And the sayings of that book shall be like the words of ‘I do not know how to read.’

“But if they give it to a man who does know how to read and say, ‘Read the book,’ he will reply, ‘I cannot read it, because it is sealed up’ ” (Isa. 39:11). Also in the Revelation of John, there is a book seen which is sealed with seven seals inside and outside. And when no one proves able to break its seals, John says, “I wept sore; and a voice came to me, saying, ‘Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and break its seals’ “(Apoc. 5:4). But that book can be opened by one who has learned the mysteries of Scripture and understands its hidden truths, and its words which seem dark because of the greatness of the secrets they contain. He it is who can interpret the parables and transmute the letter which killeth into the spirit which quickeneth.

And in this same vein, on verses 8-10: “And if the prophet himself heard and did not understand, what will be the case with those men who presumptuously expound a book which has been sealed, and that too unto the time of the end, a book which is shrouded with many obscurities? But he comments that when the end comes, the ungodly will lack comprehension, whereas those who are learned in the teaching of God will be able to understand. “For wisdom will not enter the perverted soul, nor can it impart itself to a body which is subject to sins.” For in Ch. 9, verses, 13-14, St. Jerome already had commented: “’All this evil has come upon us, and we have not entreated Thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn back from our iniquities and consider Thy truth.'”

“Their obduracy was so great that even in the midst of their toils they would not entreat God, and even if they had entreated Him, it would not have been a genuine entreaty, because they had not turned back from their iniquities. Yet to consider the truth of God is equivalent to turning back from iniquity (v. 13)…. “And the Lord hath kept watch over the evil and hath brought it upon us.'” Whenever we are rebuked because of our sins, God is keeping watch over us and visiting us with chastisement. But whenever we are left alone by God and we do not suffer judgment but are unworthy of the Lord’s rebuke, then He is said to slumber.”

And exactly what are these iniquities? They are repeated again and again in the book of Daniel. St. Jerome comments: “And as for the statement, “And he glorified himself even against the Prince of Power,” this means that he lifted himself up against God and persecuted His saints. He even took away the endelekhismos or “continual offering” which was customarily sacrificed in the morning and at even, and he prevailed to the casting down of the “place of His sanctuary.” And he did not do this by his own prowess, but only “on account of the sins of the people.” And thus it came to pass that truth was prostrated upon the ground, and as the worship of idols flourished, the religion of God suffered an eclipse.” (Dan. 8: 11, 12).

For “…the Antichrist shall come, and according to the Apostle [reading apostolum for apostolorum] he is going to sit in the temple of God (II Thess. 2) and be slain by the breath of our Lord and Savior after he has waged war against the saints. And thus it shall come to pass that the middle of the week shall mark the confirmation of God’s covenant with the saints, and the middle of the week in turn shall mark the issuing of the decree under the authority of Antichrist that no more sacrifices be offered. For the Antichrist shall set up the abomination of desolation, that is, an idol or statue of his own god, within the Temple. Then shall ensue the final devastation and the condemnation of the Jewish people, who after their rejection of Christ’s truth shall embrace the lie of the Antichrist” (Ch. 9: 24-27).

Idol worship among the NO and LibTrads

And not only those of the Novus Ordo and LibTrad sects, but also those calling themselves Recusants, in order not to be totally rejected by their fellow sedevacantists, will pay this tribute to idols. They do this whenever they take it upon themselves to determine that some or another “worthy” priest can Pope Pius XII’s infallible papal constitution — Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis — is only an “ecclesiastic” or disciplinary law and therefore does not bind them; the same they claim for Pope Paul IV’s infallible Bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio. That when these papal constitutions irrefutably teach that the attempts to simulate the Sacraments by all those pretending to act on behalf of the Church are null, void and invalid. And those calling themselves “Traditionalists” can only be classified as those same heretics condemned by Pope Pius IX in 1855 (DZ 1649); for the real meaning of Tradition, as pointed out here many times before, is not what they pretend.

Commenting on 2 Thess. 2:14, the Most Rev. John Macevilly D.D., wrote in 1898: “By “tradition,” he [St. Paul] means doctrines and institutions of the Christian religion, whether appertaining to faith or discipline. Of the latter kind he spoke — chap. 11. Ep. 1 to Cor.—“Cetera, cum venero, disponam.” From this latter verse it is clear, that Tradition was intended to be a channel of divine revelation no less than the sacred Scriptures. Traditions may be committed to writing in after times; but still they are said to be the unwritten word of God, because, not written by the Apostles, like the SS. Scriptures, but merely delivered by the word of mouth…

“Hence, God wished that the great certain means of conveying His divine truth, independent of every species of casualty, was to be the tradition of His Church, which He has constituted the indefectible oracle of his heavenly truth, unto the end of time. On this account, it is, that the Gospel is called, a testimony, to be handed down by witnesses” (An Exposition of the Epistles of Saint Paul and of the Catholic Epistles: Vols. 1 & 2). That all those official edicts of the popes, including those on discipline, are to be unquestionably observed is a matter of Church teaching and practice.

Catholic Encyclopedia on Canon Law

“The Sovereign Pontiff is the most fruitful source of canon law; he can abrogate the laws made by his predecessors or by ecumenical councils; he can legislate for the whole Church or for a part thereof, a country or a given body of individuals; if he is morally bound to take advice and to follow the dictates of prudence, he is not legally obliged to obtain the consent of any other person or persons, or to observe any particular form; his power is limited only by Divine law, natural and positive, dogmatic and moral. Furthermore, he is, so to say, the living law, for he is considered as having all law in the treasury of his heart (“in scrinio pectoris“; Boniface VIII. c. i, “De Constit.” in VI). From the earliest ages the letters of the Roman Pontiffs constitute, with the canons of the councils, the principal element of canon law, not only of the Roman Church and its immediate dependencies. but of all Christendom; they are everywhere relied upon and collected, and the ancient canonical compilations contain a large number of these precious “decretals” (decreta, statuta, epistolae decretales, and epistolae synodicae).

“Later, the pontifical laws are promulgated more usually as constitutions, Apostolic Letters, the latter being classified as Bulls or Briefs, according to their external form, or even as spontaneous acts, “Motu proprio”. Moreover, the legislative and disciplinary power of the pope not being an in communicable privilege, the laws and regulations made in his name and with his approbation possess his authority: in fact, though most of the regulations made by the Congregations of the cardinals and other organs of the Curia are incorporated in the Apostolic Letters, yet the custom exists and is becoming more general for legislation to be made by mere decrees of the Congregations, with the papal approval. These are the “Acts of the Holy See” (Acta Sancte Sedis), and their object or purpose permitting, are real laws (see ROMAN CURIA).

“Whatever may be said about the forms used in the past, today the promulgation of general ecclesiastical laws is effected exclusively by the insertion of the law in the official publication of the Holy See, the “Acta Apostolical Sedis“, in compliance with the Constitution Promulgandi of Pius X, dated 29 September, 1908, except in certain specifically mentioned cases. The law takes effect and is binding on all members of the community as soon as it is promulgated, allowing for the time morally necessary for it to become known, unless the legislator has fixed a special time at which it is to come into force.” And Rev. S. B. Smith, D.D., in his Elements of Ecclesiastical Law (1881; endorsed by both Henry Cardinal Manning and John Cardinal Newman), wrote the same in his work below.

Of the Nature of the Power of the Roman Pontiffs

“The decrees of the Roman Pontiffs constitute the chief source of canon law; nay, more, the entire canon law, in the strict sense of the term, is based upon their legislative authority. Hence it is that heretics have ever sought to destroy, or at least to weaken, this legislative power. The following are the chief errors on this head : the Roman Pontiff has legislative power over the entire Church ; that the Pontifical laws bind both de jure and de facto, independently of their acceptation by anyone, even bishops…

“Are Pontifical laws obligatory on the faithful or the Church, even when not accepted by anyone? We reply in the affirmative. The proof is : Papal laws are binding, even without being accepted by anyone, if Popes (a) have the power to enact laws independently of such acceptation; (b) if, de facto, they wish their laws to be binding without such acceptation. But this is the case; therefore, etc. The Sovereign Pontiff can, if he chooses, enact laws obligatory on the entire Church independently of any acceptation. This is indubitable — nay, according to Suarez, de fide.

“The Roman Pontiff de facto wishes that his laws should bind independently of their acceptation by anyone. This is evident from the fact that the wording of the Papal laws, as of laws in general, is mandatory. Now, a command given absolutely does not oblige merely on condition of its being accepted, but unconditionally or absolutely ; otherwise the supposed law or command would be no law at all, but merely a counsel… We therefore reject the following opinion, advanced by Bouix and Craisson, (and followed by us in the first and second editions of this work, n. 22, 26, 32): The opinion of those who hold that it is the will of the Roman Pontiffs that, certain Papal laws pertaining to discipline should not, de facto, bind before being accepted, is lawful and sustained by many Catholic doctors. IN FACT, THE AUTHORS ALLEGED BY BOUIX AND CRAISSON FOR THIS OPINION EITHER DO NOT MAINTAIN IT OR SUSTAIN THE VERY OPPOSITE.”

So we see that those rejecting these decrees are only reiterating the objections posited by the Modernists and Liberals who were already plaguing the Church in the 19th century. It was simply yet another manifestation of the Gallicanist heresy, a rejection of the authority of the papacy. But we have gone over this many times before, and as St. Jerome notes above, “…when the end comes, the ungodly will lack comprehension.”

Conclusion

It is only because we have been blessed with the Internet and our own Catholic library books that we have any understanding of religious matters, ourselves. We provide only a restatement of the truths gifted us by these saints and holy people — a reflection of those great lights who shone so brightly in the past and warned us so frequently and fervently. Without them we would be totally in the dark regarding our seeming abandonment by God, an abandonment rightly understood only by Christ Himself on the Cross.

Many of them we must mention here: the Popes first of all, then the Fathers and Doctors of the Church; all the sainted theologians; scriptural commentators such as Rev. Leo Haydock, and Rev. Leonard Goffine, Rev. E. S. Berry, Rev. H.B. Kramer; members of the hierarchy including Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Louis-Edouard Cardinal Pie, Louis Cardinal Billot, Rev. Frederick Faber, Rev. Felix Sarda y Salvany, Rev. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, Rev. Adolphe Tanquerey, Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton and Rev. Francis J. Connell; the laymen Juan Donoso Cortes, Louis Veuillot and Peter Allies; all the many canonists and those writing Canon Law dissertations whom we have cited here — and there are so many others, they would fill yet another page. But all work together to help us better understand our role in these times. Little appreciated is the role that St. Michael has played in protecting those of us who do our best to preserve the faith. Without his assistance and protection, we would not even exist.

Commenting on Apoc. 12:7, St. Bede writes: “Michael, with his angels, fights against the devil, for that, according to the will of God, he contends for the Church in her sojourning, by praying and ministering help; of whom Daniel also said, that he would come to the aid of the Church in the last and most grievous affliction.” Those of us devoted to him, who each day recite the prayers given us by Pope Leo XIII, know his power and must not fail to thank him for his continued assistance. Rev. Haydock, commenting on Daniel 12: 8, tells us that when the scattering of the band of holy people has been accomplished, then they will be miraculously delivered. And we can be sure that the deliverer will be St. Michael, standing up for his people. We salute you dear St. Michael, whose feast day is this month, for truly without you as our guardian, we would long ago have been snatched up by the Evil One. May we always pray to be worthy of thy continuing patronage!

A shout out

Kudos to Laura Wood for a great blog on the need for wisdom in old age, contrary to the insane model provided by the world. Read it HERE. The video on Communism featured on her site is also an excellent if grisly reminder of where we are headed.

The Katechon, the Antichrist and the games people play

by T. Stanfill Benns | Aug 22, 2025 | New Blog

+The Immaculate Heart of Mary+

Introduction

In a comment made on the Aug. 1 NAR blog, a reader provided links to videos that explain how the powers that be are vying among themselves for control of the world with NAR being only a part of this overall plan. While the videos mentioned in the link are interesting, they are factually incorrect in certain places particularly on the subject of the “Jesuit conspiracy” within the Church. And as might be expected, they accept the Novus Ordo as the Church and have no idea (or do they?) of the level of deception perpetrated on those identifying as “Catholic.” Therefore I don’t recommend them for viewing (too much time wasted) but I do want to comment on their creator’s overall premise.

The video narrator, Jiang Xueqin, points out that the existence of NAR, the New Apostolic Reformation, is a part of an effort by Protestants to stake out their religious claim on America. He believes this could lead to a civil war that could possibly help solidify their position and advance the drive toward one-world government. While there are several contenders for the position of a one-world religious leader, the final outcome will basically be determined within their own inner circles and fought out on the world stage. Jiang deals with this on a religious level and what it boils down to is which of these world leaders will head the one world religion as “Antichrist,” although that’s not how it is presented.

He first lists Zoroastrianism as a religion and their belief in the battle of good against evil towards the end of the world. This position, however, has only a negligible impact on what we’re talking about. Then he lists the Muslims, the Jews, the Orthodox, the Anglo Protestants and finally the Catholics. Terrorist elements aside, the Muslims seemed to be not as organized as the others but are concerning because of their numbers and the inroads they have made into countries worldwide through immigration. Muslims expect a Mahdi or end-times Messiah much as the Jews expect their Messiah. The Jews anticipate a Messiah who will act as a leader and Liberator — a military figure who will liberate Gaza and return it to Israeli dominion. This so the Jews can reclaim the Dome of the Rock, rebuild their temple and restore Jews to their homeland to enjoy the promises God made to the chosen people.

The Orthodox are working to establish their religious worldview and this includes the possible invasion of America and its conversion to orthodoxy as part of that plan. Then there is the Anglican Protestant faction which is behind the New Apostolic Reformation worldwide jostling for its own position in the queue. Finally there are the Catholics who Jiang calls the king of conspiracies and of course he is referring to the Novus Ordo, which already has a worldwide organization capable of demanding from its members any number of policy changes. Jiang notes in the final analysis that some melding of the Novus Ordo and Orthodox may result, something for which the Novus Ordo sect has been lobbying for decades. And there are now positive signs that this is being actively discussed in Rome.

This would place the Jews and the Muslims in an awkward position. It renders them outliers along with those Protestants who refuse to endorse NAR and “Traditional” Catholics not in communion with Rome. Eventually these two entities must battle each other to determine who will control Jerusalem. Jiang also completely discounts China as a contending force in this race for world religious recognition, stating he believes the country will collapse under the considerable weight of its own population. This may be a major miscalculation on his part but only time will tell. Jiang goes into great detail about the Jesuit conspiracy, dating back to their origin, suppression and reinstatement, calling them the spy network of the Catholic Church. He does not mention of course the spy networks for the other religions — the terrorist organizations for the Muslims, the Mossad for the Jews, the revamped and renamed KGB for the Russian Orthodox, and the Freemasons for the Protestant sects, who created this organization from their own ranks in the 1700s.

The Katechon

The comical aspect of all this is that Putin, the Jewish Messiah, the Muslim Mahdi and presumably the people at the top of the NAR movement and their prophets all believe  themselves to be a version of what some refer to as the katechon, a Greek word for the restraining power mentioned by St. Paul in 2 Thess. 2: 6-7: “He who withholdeth.” Primarily the NAR but also Russia, seem to be fancying themselves as the withholding power that can stop the coming of Antichrist — a human way to prevent Antichrist from ever arriving. And they brazenly twist Holy Scripture in such a way that it basically can be used and interpreted in a manner totally disassociated from its true meaning and purpose — Christ ‘s intent for His Church. One of those indirectly involved with the NAR movement is PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and he has some interesting views on how the katechon might be able to permanently prevent Antichrist’s coming.

At the same time, however, he makes the statement that people tend to fear the Second Coming more than they fear the coming of Antichrist. But if Holy Scripture is believed as it is written the Second Coming cannot occur unless Antichrist is revealed, Armageddon happens (Apoc., Ch. 16), Rome is destroyed, (Apoc. 17-18) and Christ comes to judge the  living and the dead. This is the classic example of man’s believing that he can dictate the outcome of world events to God. The Bible has always been for Protestants a book or cipher they are free to interpret or understand in any way they want in order to arrive at their desired goal. Of course we know better and the problem with this katechon business is that they have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to the withholding power that St.  Paul speaks about.

The idea is not new. LibTrad pseudo-clergy have acted as the katechon for decades, pretending to perpetuate the Church and provide the Mass and Sacraments, so it will appear as though they still exist. For if they once admitted that the Mass could no longer be validly offered, then the question of how it could cease would need to be answered and Antichrist brought into the picture, even though that question was raised and answered long ago. And it was answered in the same breath as the disappearance of the papacy, had Catholics consulted approved sources and not those false christs and hirelings sent to deceive them.

Cardinal Manning on the withholding power

In his The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, (1862), Henry Edward Cardinal Manning wrote: “The barrier, or hindrance, to lawlessness will exist until it is taken out of the way.  Now what is the meaning of the words, until it ‘be taken out of the way’? The Son of God shall permit, for a time, the powers of evil to prevail.  That He will permit it for a time stands in the book of prophecy.  When the hindrance is taken away, the man of sin will be revealed. The event may come to pass that as our Divine Lord, after His three years of public ministry were ended, delivered Himself of His own free will into the hands of men, and thereby permitted them to do that which before was impossible, so in His inscrutable wisdom He may deliver over His Vicar upon earth, as He delivered Himself, and that the providential support of the temporal power of the Holy See may be withdrawn when its work is done…

“The gates of hell may war against it; they may strive and wrestle, as they struggle now with the Vicar of our Lord; but no one has the power to move Him one step until the hour shall come when the Son of God shall permit, for a time, the powers of evil to prevail.  That He will permit it for a time stands in the book of prophecy.  When the hindrance is taken away, the man of sin will be revealed; then will come the persecution of three years and a half [representing an indefinite period -Ed], short, but terrible, during which the Church of God will return into its state of suffering, as in the beginning; and the imperishable Church of God, by its inextinguishable life derived from the pierced side of Jesus, which for three hundred years lived on through blood, will live on still through the fires of the times of Antichrist!

“When the whole number of those whom He hath chosen to eternal life is filled up. It may be that when that is done, and when the times of Antichrist are come, that He will give over His Vicar upon earth, and His Mystical Body at large, [for a time]… The Church would, as in the beginning, again be made up of members voluntarily uniting themselves together throughout the whole world, having indeed a legal recognition here and there, but wandering up and down the earth, without any contact with the nations of the world as such…” And here Manning ends with a warning to the LibTrads: “For as surely as the Son of God reigns on high, and will reign “until He has put all His enemies under His feet,” so surely everyone that lifts a heel or directs a weapon, a tongue, or a pen, against His faith, His Church, or His Vicar upon earth, will share the judgment which is laid up for the Antichrist whom he serves… ‘Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall he broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder’” (Matt. 21:44). Christ’s Vicars shall not be mocked.

Revs. E.S. Berry and Rev. H.B. Kramer, also other commentators, share this opinion on the pope being the withholding power. And as will be seen below, it must necessarily come with the cessation of the Holy Sacrifice, for only Antichrist can abolish the true Mass. The abolition of the Continual Sacrifice and the taking away of the pope and his power are both predicted in the Book of Daniel as being accomplished in one fell swoop by the beast — Antichrist proper. The Jewish sacrifice of lambs happened daily, but ended with the destruction of the Temple in  70 A.D. The Old Covenant became the New, because Christ came to fulfill the law. Likewise, the Continual Sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, was taken away in 1958 when the true katechon was taken away. Cardinal Manning writes in his The Present Crisis of the Holy See Tested by Prophecy (1861):

“Let us hear, therefore, the words of the prophet Daniel. Speaking of the person whom St. John calls the Antichrist, whom he calls the king that shall work according to his own will, the prophet Daniel says,” “He shall speak words against the High One, ”— that is, the Almighty God,— “and shall crush the saints of the Most High.” Again he says, “It’— that is, the power of this king — “was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them. And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength; and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary.” Further, he says, “The victim and the sacrifice shall fail, and there shall be in the  temple the abomination of desolation.” These three passages are taken from the seventh, and the eighth, and the ninth chapters of Daniel. I might add more, but they are enough, for in the Book  of Apocalypse we find a key to these words. St. John, evidently referring to the Book of Daniel, writes of the beast, that is, the persecuting power which shall reign on the earth by might, “It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.”

“Now here we have four distinct prophecies of a persecution which shall be inflicted by this antichristian power upon the Church of God. The Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist, and of these prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know, and they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin Church — all of them unanimously — say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the holy sacrifice of the altar will cease… The fulfilment of the prophecy is yet to come; and that which we have seen in the two wings, we shall see also in the centre;’ and that great army of the Church of God will, for a time, be scattered. It will seem, for a while, to be defeated, and the power of the enemies of the faith for a time to prevail. The continual sacrifice will be taken away, and the sanctuary will be cast down.”

How do you have a Sacrifice without a sanctuary? And who can you take the Sacrifice from who would be a Prince of Strength if not the pope and those he commissions through his bishops (symbolized by stars, the commentators say) to offer the Sacrifice? And if the sanctuary has been cast down, where is the Prince?

LibTrad misrepresentation of “consummation”

And what else does Daniel have to say on this topic? A great deal more, for he predicts in Ch. 9:27 that “ …The victim and the sacrifice shall fail and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation AND to the end.” And the footnote to the Douay Rheims Bible reads: “By his sacrifice upon the cross, Christ abolished all the sacrifices of the law… The abomination of desolation some understand as the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews and by the bloody faction of the zealots; others of the bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the Pagan Romans. Others in fine distinguished three different times of desolation: that under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans and the last near the end of the world under Antichrist to which, as they suppose, this prophecy may have a relation.”

The definition of consummation is completion, fulfillment, conclusion. When Christ spoke on the Cross, “It is consummated,” He indicated that His sufferings were finished, over, done with; completed or brought to their final conclusion. In his work Eschatology, (1929), Rt. Rev. Joseph Pohle tells us:

“The consummation of the world may be regarded either as in process (in fieri) or as an accomplished fact (in facto esse). Regarding it from the former point of view we speak of the “last things” (novissima, τὰ ἔσχατα), i. e. the events to happen at the second coming of our Lord. “The four last things of man” are Death, Judgment, Heaven (Purgatory), and Hell. The four last things of the human race as a whole are: the Last Day, the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Final Judgment, followed by the End of the World. These four events constitute so many stages on the way to the predestined state of consummation (consummatio saeculi, συντέλεια αἰῶνος), which will be permanent and irrevocable.”

Daniel foretells the utter consummation and desolation of the temple, resulting in the “completion” of the 70 weeks for his people and the Holy City (Dan. 9:24, 27; 12:7).  This marked THE TIME OF THE END of the Jewish age, NOT the end of time itself (Dan. 12:4). He distinguishes between the consummation and the end proper. The Jews have never been able to rebuild their temple; all attempts have met with frightening natural disasters and deadly accidents that have brought their work to a halt, and this can be expected to continue. And while presumption has led some to believe that an end to the Church’s time on earth would never come, we must remember why it came for the Jews: disobedience, sins of the flesh, idolatry, blasphemy, apostasy. And those identifying as Catholic were/are not guilty of these same sins?

Commenting on 1 Cor. 10: 11. Haydock notes: “Upon whom the ends of the world are come, the last age of the world  which Saint John calls “the last hour.” (1 John 2:18) This verse reads:  “Little children it is the last hour and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh and now there are many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last hour.” Haydock comments ”It is the last hour:” that is, according to the common interpretation, the last age of the world from the coming of Christ to the day of judgment and the end of the world which Saint Paul calls “the end and consummation of ages.” Hebrews 9:26: “Jesus… at the end of ages… hath appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Haydock then says: “He came at the end of the ages, as it were, in the last age of the world; the putting away or abrogating of sin.” All this is made quite clear in B.E. Strauss’ s work, quoted here at length before, Even to the Consummation of the Age (2023). Strauss quotes from Fathers of the Church showing that what happened to the Jews in 70 A.D. will happen and has happened also to the Church.  (Strauss’s PDF is available on request).

Strauss emphasizes that even though the word saeculi which translates as age appears in many magisterial and biblical works in Latin, not mundi, meaning the world, saeculi is still translated as “world.” LibTrad forums claim that the Vatican Council documents read “world,” but they do not read mundi in Latin, but saeculi. Below we present the Latin from Denzinger/Bannwort’s Enchiridion Symbolorum, 1911. This is far more reliable than the 1957 Denzinger edition edited by the Modernist Karl Rahner, quoted from by LibTrads. The question is: How do you translate saeculi to mean mundi or world?

Why have the distinctions on the withholding power and consummation of the age versus the world not been rightly understood or presented until recently? Regarding understanding, we read from Daniel, Ch. 12:4: “O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the appointed time…” Rev. Haydock: “The vision will not be understood till the event. It is not to be interpreted by human wit but by the spirit of God wherewith the Church is enlightened and governed.”  As for presentation, much has been hidden from the faithful to deceive them and attain purely political and financial ends. The LibTrad forums offer only their own opinions and ipse dixit (parrot) their exalted leaders the pseudo-bishops, such as Sanborn, without ever investigating for themselves. The Church and Her approved authors alone have the right to interpret these things. The word “world” was used for a very specific reason in these mistranslated documents and they refuse to see it. It is what keeps their pseudo-clergy and the prostitute Novus Ordo church in business.

The Triumph of the Church

In response to questions raised by readers concerning the triumph of the Church on earth that has been promised in various places, Card. Manning has a very good explanation for what that triumph truly is and what we should expect it to be — and it’s not what people think. It is not a restoration of the Church on earth as She once was. There is nothing in Holy Scripture that even hints that that is a possibility. Amazingly, Manning tells us that what we are experiencing NOW is the glorious triumph of the Church, when there are so few of us left who recognize what has happened and yet we continue to persevere in our own poor way, awaiting the last day and the Final Judgment. We read from his The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, p. 148:

“We are fond of imagining triumphs and glories for the Church on earth,— that the Gospel is to be preached to all nations, and the world to be converted, and all enemies subdued, and I know not what,— until some ears are impatient of hearing that there is in store for the Church a time of terrible trial… many among us intoxicate their minds with the visions of success and victory, and cannot endure the thought that there is a time of persecution yet to come for the Church of God…. according to the analogy of all God’s dealings, the last glories of His Church on earth will be greater than the first. And yet perhaps we are perplexed to understand how this can be verified. We look at the present state of the Church in the world, and all seems dark before us. The reason is this, that it is difficult for us justly to estimate and to understand the days  in which we are. As we cannot measure the motion by which we are carried along, as no man, perhaps, knows his own countenance, or is conscious of his own stature, so it is with the times that are upon us… It is necessary, therefore, that the present should be known by retrospect. And the greatest times and the most glorious are often those which look darkest when they are near.

“The days, therefore, which are upon us now, though heavy shadows and dark clouds hang upon the horizon, will doubtless hereafter be glorious to those who see them afar off; and I may say without rashness that they will be more glorious than any times we read of in the history of the Church… certain other periods of history which we look upon now as  periods of especial glory, and to show that  they were moments which those who lived in them looked upon as times of the greatest darkness, suffering, and tribulation, pregnant with evils known and unknown for the present and the future… these times were dark beyond anything we see now. They were times of old heresies and new. They were times when arose the greatest heresy that has ever afflicted the Church of God — I mean that which is now upon it; for there has been none so widespread, none so manifold, none so hostile, none so universal in its denial of the revelation of God… What could be darker than these epochs of the past? Yet we look back upon them now as the most bright and glorious times in the annals of the Church.” (End of Manning quotes).

Conclusion

Those who have not bothered to study Holy Scripture and the teachings of the Church will quite possibly be led astray by the machinations of those who pretend that man can hold back the coming of Antichrist when we know that Antichrist has already come, the Sacrifice has been taken away and the consummation will last till the end. This diabolical political charade is simply a culmination of the ecumenism that was foisted on the world at the false Vatican 2 council because this is man’s solution to God’s revealed Word, an insult He will not abide. By not accepting the fact that the Church has physically disappeared and could disappear just like the Jewish church disappeared, people have found themselves this cozy little corner where they can weather the storm, or so they think. But that storm has yet to break and when it breaks those who don’t have the truth will find themselves without any solace, any protection and sadly without any faith. We hope and pray this is not the case but what we have seen over the last 60 plus years does nothing to encourage us to believe that many will eventually accept the truth. God, have mercy on our souls.