T. Stanfill Benns | Betrayed Catholics

An archbishop’s 7th Century commentary on St. John’s Apocalypse

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jul 1, 2026 | New Blog

Prayer Intention for July, Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Jesus in atonement for my sins.” (Raccolta)

+Most Precious Blood of Jesus+

Introduction

The following is taken from a little-known commentary on the Apocalypse, a 2011 translation made by the Catholic University of America Press. It is a very enlightening commentary, and I have excerpted some of its finer points for comment here, since they add to our knowledge of what the early Fathers and hierarchy believed regarding the end-times. The author of this work, Archbishop Andrew of Caesarea, lived in the seventh century, and his commentary was responsible for the acceptance of the Book of Apocalypse as a genuinely inspired book of the Bible. The link to the complete work is included in the title below. Also available at this link is another work containing fragments of the teaching of Pope St. Gregory the Great on Apocalypse, and what he says there I would like to offer as a reason for providing previews of these ancient works.

“Whoever makes progress by beholding spiritual realities must also offer them to others by recounting them. For he who beholds in order to proclaim is the one who, inasmuch as he makes progress in himself, also preaches out of concern for the progress of his neighbor. For this reason it is written somewhere else: Let him who hears say: Come! (Apoc. 22:17). For when he has already heard the voice of God speaking in his heart, he must unsilence his own voice on behalf of his neighbors through the office of preaching, and thereby call another because he himself has already been called… Let the one in whom the inner voice has lodged itself proclaim what he has heard to attract others also to the place where he himself is carried away, lest, even though he was called, he find the doors shut, if he comes without companions near the one who called him.”

Interpretation of Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea, Cappadocia — On the Apocalypse of St. John

Prologue

Despite the fact that the books of the prophets of old have been explained by many, still the depth of the mysteries in them are kept invisible until that day in which the “partial knowledge” will be abolished and the perfect knowledge will be disclosed.

Benns Comment: It seems that day has come, for what has been written clearly appears to be unfolding before our eyes each day.

Ch. 1 — The letters to the seven churches

Due to the existence of many churches in many places, he sent <letters> to only seven, mystically meaning by this number the churches everywhere.
Benns Comment: Each church, however, seems to have some connection to various churches and times throughout history. Pope Pius XII compared the Church of his time to that of Laodicea, and I have always believed the Philadelphia Church somehow applied to the city of that name in this country and the saintly, dedicated, self-sacrificing Ven. John Neuman, once its bishop, a bishop so unlike those who abandoned us after the death of Pope Pius XII.
The glory belongs to him, it says, who freed us through love from the bondage of death, and washed the stains of sin through the outpouring of his life-giving blood and water. And he has made us “a royal priesthood” so that we may offer, instead of irrational sacrifices, “rational worship” as a living sacrifice to the Father.
Benns Comment: And this persecution we now endure is what we offer in these times, when the Mass has been taken away.

Ch. 2, 5-6. (Church of Ephesus)

The movement of the church <means> to deprive them of divine grace, by which he brings down upon them swells and waves of evil spirits and evil men ministering to them. Some understood the removal of the lampstand <to refer to> the throne of the archpriest of Ephesus, because it was moved to the seat of the king.

Benns Comment: Here bishops are seen to be removed for their wickedness, something which certainly happened during the false Vatican 2 council for all to see, although they lost office immediately on accepting John 23 as a true pope. Enough evidence existed of his intent, from 1959 on, and even before, for such an informed decision to be made and for the sake of the faithful they were bound to make it.

Ch. 6, 5-6: Loosening of the Third seal

It is likely and sensible for a literal famine to occur then, just as it will also be announced by what follows. We think that by the black horse the mourning for those who have fallen from the faith in Christ on account of extreme torture is signified. The scale is the examiner of those who had fallen from the faith, both through an easily changing mind or vainglory, and on account of weakness of body. The quart of wheat worth as much as a denarius means figuratively those who “lawfully struggled” and perfectly guarded the divine image which was given to them, and the three quarts of barley suits those who, in a manner befitting a beast, bowed down before their persecutors on account of cowardice, but accordingly repented later, and washed clean the soiled image with tears.

The command do not harm wine and oil means not to disregard the healing through returning to Christ, which healed the one who has “fallen among robbers,” in order that those who through long-suffering were about to renew the fight would not be carried off by death. Therefore, so that we too will gain, for the disease of our souls, the Physician-God who loves humankind, let us hurry to be such for our fallen brothers, by offering to them the oil of sympathy mingled with the wine of exhortation, “in order that the maimed parts not worsen but be healed,” according to the divine Apostle, so that becoming “co-workers with God,” we will delight forever in his blessings, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom glory <is due> together with the Father, with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Benns Comment: And how much we have always hoped that the little we have to offer here might be that spark that prompts those in error to return to the true faith and save their souls, even if what they read be a hard saying.

Irenaeus said in the fifth discourse of his Refutation of False Knowledge, thus verbatim: “Neither the subsistence nor the essence of creation disappears — for he who formed it is truthful and certain — but ‘the form of this world is passing away,’ that in which the transgression occurred, as the elders say.” And the great Irenaeus <said> these things. We think that we should use the Apostle for <an understanding of> the ancient custom. Because the Hebrews were using scrolls instead of our books, the unrolling of them did not bring about a disappearance but the complete disclosure of what is written, so that the opening of the heavenly body also shows the revelation of the blessings reserved for the saints. And this <verse> we have understood in four ways, as it has been given to us from God.

Benns Comment: This and the above is a very insightful spiritual appraisal of these verses, since the Apocalypse must first be interpreted spiritually, although in many cases both a spiritual and literal interpretation of the verses is meant. It also indicates that the “saints’ of the end times would know the full meaning of the visions of St. John.

Ch. 9, 13-16 — The bottomless pit and army of horsemen

Some say that the four angels are Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael who had been bound by the gladness of the divine vision, to be untied on the day of judgment with innumerable angels for the condemnation of the impious, of whom one third is to be destroyed. I myself think, however, that these four angels are the most cunning demons who were bound upon the coming of Christ who, by the divine command coming out of the heavenly altar, which was an image of the ancient tabernacle, were released by the divine angel so as to rouse the nations, not only against Christians, but also against one another, so that those tested might be revealed as the faithful ones and shown to be worthy of greater rewards and of the heavenly mansions, or rather <worthy of> barns, like ripe wheat.

But those who are like chaff, the impious and the exceedingly great sinners and the unrepentant, are to be punished justly here, by these receiving a milder sentence at the judgment. And if they are bound at the Euphrates, it is nothing strange. For they have been sentenced by God until the time, some in the abyss, some among the swine then some in other places according to the position, bound to be eternally tormented after the completion of their war against human beings. And perhaps by the mention of the Euphrates it is shown that Antichrist will come out of those parts. And it is not necessary to doubt the great number of demons, for all the saints say that they fill the air.

Benns Comment: In articles on this site and in previous blogs, we explain that the River Euphrates has almost completely dried up and mention certain videos that report the “finding” of caves and tunnels exposed by the dried up river and chains in those caves, also the sounds of loud moaning. Certainly we know demons have been loosed are attacking people everywhere. Certainly the testing and sifting of the wheat from the chaff is well underway.

Ch. 11, 1-2 — An angel measures the Temple

…Some understood the temple of God to mean the Old Testament, and the outside yard, which is not measured, to be the New, on account of the innumerable number of those saved in it. The forty-two months they took to mean the shortness of time during which the sacraments of the New Testament are to prevail until the second coming of Christ arrives. But we think that the temple of the living God refers to the Church, in which we offer rational sacrifices to God; the outside court <is> the gathering-place of the unbelieving nations and of the Jews since the unworthiness is measured by the angel through the impiety. “For the Lord knows his own,” as it has been said. It is said that he who is All-Knowing does not know the unlawful. The trampling of the holy city <is> either the new Jerusalem or the universal Church, and the forty-two months by the nations I think means that the faithful and the ones being tested will be trampled upon and persecuted in the three-and-a-half-year appearance of the Antichrist.

While we believe the three and a half years is only a symbolic number, or could refer to the period 1965-1969 when most of the damage was done to the Church, the temple of God obviously refer to the Church, not Jerusalem.

Ch. 11, 6 — The two witnesses

Oh, the great goodness of God! For he brings healing equivalent to the wound. For since the pseudo-Christ will be manifested in the “many signs and false wonders” by all drugs and enchantments because he <the pseudo-Christ> accepts every diabolical operation, so God will equip these saints by the power of true signs and wonders, so that by the placing of truth and light they will refute falsehood and darkness; those who had been deceived will return, both because of fear of the teachings and because of the chastising blows, <namely,> drought and fire and the alteration of the elements and the like, making the Deceiver into an example, and being not at all persuaded, either by him or by another, until the completion of their own prophecy.

Benns Comment:Drugs, enchantments (spells) and diabolical operations — we have them all! How strange he should mention drugs, and certainly the operations must reference the operation of error on many levels. But God helps us, that we may recognize error and refute it.

Ch. 12, 1 — A woman clothed with the Sun

Some, on the one hand, had understood this woman entirely to be the Theotokos before her divine birth-giving was made known to her, <before she> experienced the things to happen. But the great Methodios took <her> to be the holy Church, considering these things concerning her <the woman> to be incongruous with the begetting of the Master for the reason that already the Lord had been born long before. It is good to remember also the very words of the blessed Methodios, who says in his so-called Symposium through the person of the virgin Procle11 thus: “The woman wrapped in the sun is the Church. That which to us is our garment, to her is light. And that which gold is for us, or glowing gemstones, for her are the stars, the superior and more brilliant stars.” And the following:

“She stood upon the moon. The moon I regard figuratively <to be> the faith of those who are cleansed of corruption by the washing <of baptism>, for the condition of liquid substance is regulated by the moon. She labored and gave birth anew to those ‘carnal-minded into spiritually minded’ and formed and fashioned them according to the likeness of Christ.” And again he says: “We must not think that Christ is he who is to be born. For formerly, before the Apocalypse, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Logos had been fulfilled. John speaks with authority about the present and future things.” And afterwards <he mentions> other things, <and then says>, “Therefore, it is necessary to confess that the Church must be the one in labor and gives birth to those redeemed, as the Spirit said in Isaiah: ‘Before she labored to give birth, she escaped and gave birth to a male.’

Benns Comment: How painful a labor today for the Church to give birth to new members! Most are infants, with a few adults here and there mixed in. But that Baptism is symbolized, when Baptism and marriage are the only Sacraments we still enjoy (although all remain in existence), is significant when coupled with the painful labor. It tells us that Church membership will be very difficult as well as limited in this time.

Whom did she escape? Either the dragon, certainly, in order for the spiritual Zion to give birth to virile people.” And in continuation, “so that in each one Christ is to be born in the nous. Because of this the Church is swollen and in ‘great pain’, until Christ, having been born, might be ‘formed in us,’ so that each one by partaking of Christ becomes <one with — Ed.> Christ.” Moreover, the Church has been clothed in the “Sun of Righteousness.” And the legalistic light of the moon, which shines by night, and the secular life, alterable like the moon, has been mastered under the feet, and round about upon her head <is> the crown of the apostolic precepts and virtues. Since <it is> from the moon that liquid substance depends, the same one <Methodios> also says that by the moon is meant baptism, figuratively called “sea,” which, on the one hand, <is> the salvation for those who are reborn and, on the other hand, ruination for the demons.

Benns Comment: Only very steadfast Catholics will survive the onslaught of the dragon. That the belief the Church has always been “spiritual Zion” was even then known is illustrated here.

12:10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. Accusation and Slander against human beings [132] are the names the devil had been called, as had been said, which he is. The angels are delighted about his ejection “for there is nothing in common between a believer and an unbeliever.”

12:11–12. 11And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives even unto death. Wherefore rejoice, Heaven and you that dwell therein! Woe to you, Earth and Sea, for the devil has come down to you with great anger, because he knows that he has little time <remaining>!” Those accused by him, it says, the saints and those slandered as <was> Job, in comparison to all the people persuaded by him, have been victorious over him nonetheless by suffering for Christ. The powers above, following an imitation of God, rejoice at his fall and grieve over those who had cleaved to his earthly plot. Woe to those who dwell on the earth, that is, to those who do not have <dwelling> “in heaven,” but have their citizenship on earth. For many of them on the earth are victorious over the enemy and will be victorious, even though he is now more angered by those who are struggling because of the nearness of his punishment. Wherefore, it is necessary to deplore those who have their “minds on earthly things” and who are tossed by the waves in the sea of life here.

12:15–16. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. When the Church was fleeing, it says, into inaccessible places <due to> the attack of the deceiver from his mouth, that is, by his command, behind her will come a river of water, that is, a multitude of ungodly men or evil demons or various temptations against her that he might enslave her <the Church>. The earth, it says, helped her on the one hand either by lengthening the way and by the drought and dryness in the places preventing the impulses of evils, and swallowing up the river of the temptations on account of this, or by the humble-mindedness of the saints who say inwardly, “I am earth and ashes,” rendering impotent all the snares of the devil, as the angel had spoken to the divine Anthony.

12:17. And the dragon became angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. When the chosen teachers of the Church and those despising the earth have withdrawn to the hardships in the desert, if he has utterly missed them, the Antichrist will declare war against those drafted for Christ in the world. It says he will begin the war, so that, just as when dust thickens the smoothness of oil, finding them vulnerable in the occupations of life, he will put them to flight. But many among them will conquer him because they have genuinely loved Christ.

Benns Comment: How many of those who stay at home to pray have forsaken the city, where they are constantly tempted by Satan, to live in small towns and rural areas. There they can escape most of the dangers and lead a quiet life.

In our next blog, we will examine the verses dealing with Antichrist.

Guest blog: An appeal to Protestants to return to the Catholic Church

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 19, 2026 | New Blog

+St. Juliana Falconieri+

Introduction

Last month, I asked anyone with any ideas on how we might reach out to Protestants to please forward their comments. A friend and reader sent me this article she had written for her friends some time ago, and for those who might have Protestant friends or relatives they would like to approach regarding the faith, I thought it might be something that would be helpful. Thank you, Jennifer, for your work on this and especially for the many links provided. I continue to research all avenues I feel might be helpful in appealing to non-Catholics because I believe that today the faith must be presented from an entirely different angle and in an entirely different way than in previous times. At some point, when my thought ate better organized, I will share them with you. And any further comments, suggestions or observations are greatly appreciated.

To My Protestant Friends

By Jennifer Patrick

That eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him. — 1 Corinthians 2:9

Remember the digging that we did in the Rocky Mountains with our friends? Our dear husbands dug down to the very tree roots to amass a pile of crystals. On our honeymoon, we dug for a half day on the breezy Maritimes seashore, and you have a carefully assorted box of colorful ocean glass to show for your rugged determination.

As we get older, it is essential for us to seek, find and carefully keep the eternal treasure Jesus has promised only to those who truly love Him — by prayerfully digging with all zeal and determination to find and take possession the roots of True Faith. But we must not be taken by fool’s gold on this quest!

The “Roots” of Protestantism

Proud Martin Luther died in regret over the chaos that he had caused in separating from the Church, outside of which there is no salvation. Despite letters from the Church that lovingly, reasonably pleaded reconciliation, he contrived his false doctrines Sola Fidei and Sola Scriptura (“By Faith Alone; By Scripture Alone“). Luther led the “Reformation,” which upon thorough investigation, was truly a Deformation. Luther did not believe Apostle St. John, the beloved disciple who laid his head on the breast of our Lord at the Last Supper! Luther mocked the New Testament book of St. James, calling it “the Epistle of Straw,” along with other unmentionably vile remarks.

Even his closest friends warned him. Only because of their forceful insistence did he leave four books in the New Testament that he’d determined to remove- including The Apocalypse: Revelation- with the other seven that he did remove. It is anathema- resulting in God’s condemnation- to add or subtract from the Sacred Canon of the Bible, which was set in three holy councils in the fourth century. The Decrees of the Council of Trent clearly render baseless the errant arguments for the removal of those Biblical books, which Protestants have long misunderstood as “Dueterocanonical,” or “Apocryphal”. Five hundred plus years later, Luther’s one, broken branch has disintegrated into 30,000 plus Protestant denominations, all which are founded on his false doctrines, whether they acknowledge it or not!

Since the author of Protestant doctrine is Luther, he is the head of every one of those churches, not Christ.

Cut off from our Mother Church long ago, Luther’s shattered branch is continually disintegrating. Divisions inevitably form by conflicts of false doctrines, as arguments over contrived Scripture interpretations and applications produce more and more irreparable fractures. This continuous decay takes place even as “nice people” unwittingly practice Luther’s prideful, gravely erring principle of arbitrary belief: that “we choose what to believe” by making our own inferences from Scripture, ignoring Apostolic teaching and the holy heritage of Church Tradition which comes from Christ Himself, not man.

About Church Tradition

Church Tradition is “…the word of God transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles concerning faith and morals — not written but transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles and from them to their successors down to us“— [and it] must be accepted as de fide. “The principal instruments by means of which divine tradition has been conserved are the professions of faith, the sacred liturgy, the writings of the Fathers, the practice of the Church, the acts of the martyrs, and archaeological monuments. Its organ is the living magisterium of the Church, (the Roman Pontiff and the bishops, united with and subordinate to him),” (Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, Pietro Parente, Antonio Piolanti, Salvatore Garofolo, 1951).

Protestant doctrine is not true doctrine, rather, it is false doctrine. It is heresy, the deadly poison in a glass of water. Just as one drop of arsenic in a glass of artesian well water can kill many people, so heresy does to souls by denying any- even one- article of Faith, despite maintaining the rest. This denial of one or more articles of Faith is most often done with subtlety and craft, which can be seen starting with the Epistles of St. Paul as he fought the heretics within the Church, and warned the faithful away from them (“the circumcision”). The continual battle of the Church against heresy, including Arianism and Modernism, is amply documented, including by the testimonies of the Lives of the Saints.

Luther openly defied the Apostles, along with their teachings given with Divine authority and power directly by Jesus Christ. Luther said and wrote horrific things about Our Lord, and tore books out of the Holy Bible. Little do most people know that the Bible versions they possess are but his raped, falsified version of Scripture- yes, even the reknown King James Version. King James also perversely rebelled against Christ’s Church.

A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. A heretic cannot establish true doctrine. We must fully reject and not accept Luther’s faulty Protestant foundation- it shall not stand; it perishes indeed. Nor should we foolishly insist that a non-Catholic Christian Church (Protestant or Anglican) is somehow on good standing, separate from Luther. Only one true Church is firmly built by Christ on the Rock: St. Peter.

This isn’t boring, irrelevant Church history that we can safely ignore. Rather, it is crucial to our salvation. It took the discovery of this enormous, ugly truth about the roots of Protestantism to get me to do what I never would have done otherwise: renounce my license in local church ministry, physically turn in my “church keys,” and throw away twenty years of Bible studies, missions trips, all my social media, including ASCAP “worship” music publishing. Walking away from the false church was walking away from people who were much closer to me than any flesh and blood relatives.

But it HAD to be so.

I care about those dear families and close friends more than words can say. But this is much like the painful situation of a Mormon who discovers that Joseph Smith was a false prophet who said and did very bad things in opposition to the teachings of Christ. That former Mormon, for the love of God, simply cannot stay in what he had once firmly believed to be his happy “church family” or “community” any longer. He must follow Christ at all costs.

The exact same thing applies to finding out the truth about Protestantism. We must not only be willing to give up mother, father, family, friends, and properties in order to follow Christ as He commands — but we must also actually DO it.

We must get back to the true roots of Faith in order to be saved. At all costs, we must believe and obey what Jesus taught His Apostles in order to partake of the Redemption He merited for us by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. He has made all of this very clear. Grace isn’t an ambiguous, feel-good free ticket to Heaven. We must cooperate with God’s grace in order to be saved, and this is in obedience to the Church, as He commands. If we love Him, we will obey Him and those He sent to tend our souls. He tells us so.

Apostolic Roots

Apostle Saint John, the Lord’s beloved disciple, is pictured here at the Last Supper, sorrowfully reclining his head on Our Saviour’s breast. From that upper room- the Cenacle- Our Lord took St. John, his brother St. James, and St. Peter to witness His Agony in the Garden of Olives, telling them to watch and pray, lest they fall into temptation. He knew that “when the Shepherd has been struck, the sheep would be scattered.”

St. John returned to follow our Lord to the Cross. He witnessed Jesus’ unbearable torment and the incomparable anguish of Mary, the Mother of God. From the beginning the Church has taught that through St. John, Our Lord gave to all of us His Mother as He spoke these words from the Cross, the Holy Tree: “When Jesus therefore had seen His mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.”

Apostle St. John died a holy death, receiving the glorious crown of martyrdom. When he was quite elderly, suffering a desolate exile on the isle of Patmos, he was given the Revelation: the Bible Book of the Apocalypse. This is a divine vision about the end times, into which you and I were born. It is a time of great deception, of pride, of “choice,” of selfishness, of wickedness. As prophesied, the Great Apostasy has come to pass, and the true Church has fled to the deserts there to keep the Faith, while false shepherds inhabit the holy places and pretend to be Christ’s holy ones.

Do not be fooled by the scandals attributed to Christ’s Catholic Church, His spotless Bride. She has kept the Faith, as our Lord said She would, by the Holy Ghost. For centuries, true popes warned us about the imposters responsible for these modern scandals. The whore of Babylon has stood in the Holy Place for over 65 years — Luther was merely a precursor to the Antichrist. Like him, the false popes have with silver tongues ravaged the Holy Mass, the Sacraments, and cleverly inserted their false doctrine.

True Apostolic doctrine is a very necessary shield of Faith. Modern deception is so insidious that Our Lord said that when He returns, will He even find faith on the earth?! And he warned us that there would arise false Christs and false prophets … insomuch as to deceive (if possible) the elect. This being the case, we cannot afford to be presumptuous and/or half-hearted. Instead, we must humbly, diligently seek the truth at all costs.

When teachers mark/grade science papers, it is necessary that every letter, number, and symbol must be exact for an answer to pass as correct. This principle applies in the sciences, and in so many aspects of our daily life, such as in medicine, legislation, sports, and the most basic of the unalterable laws of nature. So too it is that the true doctrine of the Christian Faith must not be changed in the least. Our Lord Jesus Christ is known to be the same yesterday, today, and always, for He is the unchangeable, eternal God, and Son of God, the Second Divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration (James 1:17). There is no such thing as a “slight altering” of Christ’s doctrine that is not in grave error. This is why we can no longer trust anyone who wears the clothing of a pastor, but does not teach Apostolic doctrine just as it has been taught from the very beginning.

Upon Christ’s Apostles alone did He confer His Authority and Power to teach His doctrine– meaning what we must believe and do in order to be saved. To His disciples He said, “He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me, despiseth him that sent Me.” Christ made Apostle Saint Peter our very first “Papa Nostro,” our holy father, the pope:

“And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter. “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.”

In the first two chapters of Acts the disciples persevere in prayer with Mary, are baptized by the Holy Ghost, they speak in tongues, St. Peter addresses the crowd, and “they therefore that received his word, were baptized; and there were added in that day three thousand souls. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Our Lord Himself made it abundantly clear that outside His Church — the Barque of Saint Peter — there is no salvation. Unlike Luther’s dead, splintered branch which is in the continuous decay of disunity, the Church has four marks: She is One, Holy, Apostolic and Roman Catholic. She is unified in doctrine, for all that She teaches was revealed to Her and entrusted to Her by Jesus Christ Himself, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

There is a necessary hierarchy in the Church as Christ established it. The sheep and lambs Jesus referred to are in the Learning Church — we are laity. The Teaching Church is composed of the pastors — shepherds. Christ appointed them with divine power and authority to feed and guard us. It is our job to learn from the Teaching Church.

In Canada, a proper teaching license is required, even for substitute teachers. How much more so does the necessity of duly appointed authority apply to the care of our eternal souls? In the case of the Faith and the Church, Divine authority is imperative.

Christ is the Author, perfector and finisher of our faith, and He established the Catholic Church for this very purpose. Christ entrusted the Divine Deposit of Faith to His Church, governed by true popes- His appointed Vicar on earth. The Church is the sole guardian of the deposit of divine revelation in its twofold form, Scripture and Tradition. In unbroken succession, She alone has preserved the Faith from the contamination of error and defended her children against the insidious poison of heresy.

It is imperative — a matter of eternal life and death- that we wisely use the time He has given us to save our souls by prayerfully learning from, trusting and obeying Him and His Church:

“For the doctrine of the faith which God has revealed is put forward not as some philosophical discovery capable of being perfected by human intelligence, but as a divine deposit committed to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly promulgated. Hence, too, that meaning of the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by holy Mother Church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more profound understanding.” the First [and only true] Vatican Council

We must not follow Luther’s false doctrine that leads to hell. We must be certain that the Faith we believe and obey is the very same one which Christ gave to His Apostles:

On Luke 6:13, Christ’s choosing of The Twelve, Haydock’s Commentary relates: “These twelve Christ chose as individual companions and domestics. To these He committed the charge of founding and governing His Church. He sent them as legates, or ambassadors (for this is the import of the word apostle), to all the world. Hence their power was more universal……The jurisdiction of the Apostles was not limited to place.” Tirinus. Saint Augustine, Doctor of the Apostles writes:

“This power which Jesus Christ delegated to his Apostles, and which was for the benefit and regulation of the universal Church in all future ages, the Apostles, in their turn, delegated to their successors in the ministry, with such regulations and limitations as have been judged in the Holy Ghost necessary for the proper government of the spiritual kingdom of God upon earth. And it is the height of presumption to question any ordinations that come to us with the authority of the Catholic Church: for, “whatever the Church says, is true; whatever She permits is lawful; whatever She forbids, is evil; whatever She ordains, is holy; whatever She institutes, is good.”

Since the false election of antipope Roncalli which followed the death of our last true pope, Pius XII, Antichrist Montini presided over anti council “Vatican II.” All the Church bishops participated in that illicit, heretical council where the Mass and Sacraments were violated in abominable abrogation of Canon Law. This was the Great Apostasy: all bishops lost their Holy Orders and jurisdiction, by ipso facto excommunication — no trial or hearing necessary, according to Canon Law. They had failed to refuse the false pastors, that is, antipope Roncalli and Antichrist Montini, they failed to lawfully elect a true pope before it was too late.

So now, over 65 years later, without a true pope since the apostolic succession was broken, and no bishops remain with true succession of holy orders, there is no jurisdiction, not even the invocation of “epikeia” — a provisional, exceptional law that certainly requires a pope to oversee it. In short, the Church is in the wilderness, without a true pope, bishop or priest. This is in fulfillment of Scripture and hundreds of years of clear, unanimous warnings of the popes, Church Fathers and Doctors.

How do we learn and keep the Faith now when “that which holds back”- the pope with his keys of binding and loosing- has been taken out of the way? (Thessalonians) We can still learn from the Divine Deposit of Faith by the Teaching Church that has gone before us, which I will explain after making a point on the governance of family, which has an application to us in the Church now, orphaned of our holy father.

When a family loses its father, instead of turning to one another (in the case of the Church, to self-appointed, illicit ” pastors”), we turn to our Mother. Call on Mary — it pleases the Lord that we seek Her guidance, protection and intercession, because She is His Mother- — indeed the actual Mother of God — and He has given Her to us as our Mother, even as He gave Himself to us as our Savior! For those of us new to praying to the Saints, it is not a sin. Baltimore Catechism Three teaches us the reasons why it is well in keeping with God’s will to ask the saints, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary, to pray for us.

For learning the Faith, free from error, we can find many good Catholic books and documents, that bear on their publication page the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur stamps dated before October 9, 1958 (the death of Pope Pius XII).

The Church by historical precedence has much necessary instruction to give us in this time of dire deprivation. The website betrayed Catholics has an excellent free book available upon request, entitled, “When There is No Priest- Survival Manual for Remnant Catholics,” currently in revision by the author (2026). In this helpful manual, we can learn how to keep the Faith through the Church’s instructions and examples of the clergy and obedient, faithful laity who lived through similar extraordinary times, including: the Japanese who kept the Faith for 200 years without priests to help them, the faithful in times of persecution (French Revolution; England in the “Deformation”), Father Demaris’ letter “They Have Taken Away my Lord.”

Fr. Demaris’ letter provides courage necessary to our perseverance, along with practical instructions. In this time when “they have taken away our Lord” by the cessation of the Mass, and the modern flood of neopaganism that seems to have swept away from the earth the true Faith, we can and must take heart. For in this time when the pastor has been struck and the sheep scattered, the Lord will turn His Hand to His Little ones.

To His Apostles Christ promised that He would be with them, even unto the end:

“Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (St. Matthew 28:19-20)

We can be sure that we are living in the time immediately prior to the consummation, the Apocalypse. The Church at this time — also called the Mystical Body of Christ — is following His footsteps in Her Passion, as prophesied. It is as He says it is: to share in His joy we must first share in His suffering. The road is broad that leads to destruction; the road is narrow that leads to salvation. We must daily deny ourselves, take up the Cross and carry it, following after Jesus. Our Lord told us so very many solemn truths, as did His holy Evangelists and Apostles throughout the New Testament, through whom we learn-

This life is not about the accumulation of worldly goods; we must come out of the world: for what good does it profit a man to gain his life here, but lose his soul forever? He even told us that we must hate our lives in this world in order to be with Him in Heaven, and said many such things to encourage and warn us. Jesus was grieved when the rich young ruler who obeyed God’s commands walked away from Him because he wasn’t willing to do what Our Saviour asked: to sell everything he had, give to the poor, follow Him, and he would have Treasures in Heaven. We must lose our life in this world if we are to live with Him in the next. Remember the man in Jesus’ parable who sold all he had to buy a field which contained the Pearl of Greatest price?

“This hidden treasure (“pearl”) is the gospel of Christ, which conducts to the kingdom of heaven. Thus he who by the knowledge which the gospel affords, has found the kingdom of heaven, should purchase it at the expense of everything most near and dear to him: he cannot pay too great a price for his purchase.”(from Haydock’s Commentary on the official Holy Bible , compilation of Church Fathers and Doctors). I don’t want to gain the world and lose my soul. By the grace of God, I want to love and obey Him, and in doing so to save my soul. I want that for you too, my beloved husband.

So, let us “lay aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us.” Let us daily seek, knock and ask Jesus to lead us into all truth at all costs. Time is shorter than we think, and eternity approaches. We must not take either for granted! Now, dear husband, let’s roll up our sleeves, and begin digging for True Treasure, solely found in Christ’s one, true, holy, Apostolic Roman Catholic Church.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +

All the links here are a good starting point, which we can take up with daily humble prayer, to persevere in learning and practicing the Faith- all by God’s grace! 🌹

Reference links

Please note that while these resources contain very helpful information regarding their specific citations, most websites are sadly in error about the Faith. For an excellent introduction and general overview of the modern crisis, and what the Church teaches us about how to learn, love, live and keep the Faith in this extraordinary time, see YouTube Channel: Heavenly Gems, for the three-part video series: catacomb Catholics.

Because many times websites and pages disappear or change addresses, below I have cited resources for all the above hyperlinks- in case they don’t work, you will hopefully still be able to find the references by searching.

List of links (mostly) in order of citations:

Sola Scriptura

https://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/general/solascript.htm

also see: “Twenty-One Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura” By Joel Peters

https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=598

About the Bible

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02543a.htm

The Council of Trent:

The Roman Catechism

Catechism of the Council of Trent; Edited under St. Charles of Borromeo; Published by the Decree of Pope St. Pius V;

Translated by JOHN A. MCHUGH, O. P., CHARLES J. CALLAN, O. P.

https://www.catholicsociety.com/documents/Catechism_of_the_Council%20of_Trent.pdf

Ripperger videos and thoughts on who really needs to repent

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 4, 2026 | New Blog

Prayer Intention for June, Month of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

“Sweet Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us and on our erring brethren!” (Raccolta)

+Feast of Corpus Christi+

Introduction

I wanted to address “Fr.” Chad Ripperger’s YouTube video that explains how Catholics today have been deceived and another video of his that warns of an impending chastisement. Ripperger is, of course, presenting as a true priest and exorcist, but he’s a non-Catholic Novus Ordo minister. We know that this sect does not receive true holy orders, so he’s a layman. In his video on Catholics being deceived, he’s telling people that the church that ordained him and gave him whatever powers he thinks he has as an exorcist has actually been promoting false doctrine. Having said that, he has nothing to say about how a Church that Christ promised the gates of hell could never prevail against could possibly promote false doctrine, but that’s another matter.

Why the deceit

In any event, he is telling people what false doctrine is being promoted, why it’s being promoted, how it’s being promoted. And he’s very skillfully manipulating the truth to make it appear that you can basically have a church teaching false doctrine that’s still a true church. Yet at the same time, he indicates that you need to seek the truth elsewhere. So how he figures that, I have no idea. Ripperger rightly blames modernism and cites emotionalism versus doctrine as being the heresy of today that’s leading people astray. Well, of course it is. Pope Pius X pointed that out in his Pascendi Dominici Gregis. And he’s questioning why people cite Christ’s mercy as basically a whitewash for everything that is done wrong and explains that that’s not how it works. Mercy is tempered by justice, and God’s justice must also have its day. Ripperger notes there is theological confusion and a weakening of discernment, in general that is afflicting people today. Well, of course there is. Why? He could explain it, but he doesn’t. He’s citing John Paul II and Ratzinger as if they’re true popes, so we know where he stands.

Christ IS a merciful God, but he expects us to use our brains, and he expects us to study and pray, look into things, do what we’re supposed to do and try our best at whatever we do to find Him. And if we don’t do that, then we can’t expect him to be a merciful God. He says that for some reason, they’re trying to reverse the natural law and divine revelation, and they are, and they have been for a long time, and we know that. And we’ve pointed out how they’ve done that and where they have done that and what is the cause of it. He says that loyalty to doctrine is interpreted as a personality flaw, and orthodoxy is equated to emotionalism and even mental instability. Well, that’s not surprising. He also goes into how psychological language has replaced theological language. In short, he wants to let Catholics know they’ve been deceived, but he isn’t willing to go to the wall and explain the real reason for the deception, how and why. And he weaves his tale with just enough truth to draw the unwary into his lair. And while he recommends people study their faith, that study could only be conducted from the polluted NO sources he is party to. It’s something I have been saying for 40-some years and urging people to do, from sources that can be trusted.

In several of my blogs, I’ve warned readers against watching these people. They’re tricky, and they can easily deceive; they can make it sound like they know what they’re talking about. But we have to remember, this man has no real authority — he is just another layperson circulating videos. And a lot of people will say, “Well, who are you to call him on the carpet?” Well, who am I? I’m a layperson, just like he’s a layperson. As a Catholic layperson, under Can. 1325, I have the obligation to call out anyone who is teaching falsely regarding the Catholic faith and misrepresenting their credentials. And while his title as exorcist draws many to him as an expert, he cannot exorcise by the authority of the Church. He may have the power to exorcise as a layperson, but he lacks true jurisdiction granted to a priest to exorcise in the name of the Church.

**Notes from a real exorcist**

The Franciscan exorcist Rev. Dominic Szymanski wrote in his A Notebook on the Devil and Exorcism (1944): “Exorcism is private if it is performed not in the name and authority of the Church, but in the name of the expelling person. If some good holy layman would undertake to exclude the devil from a possessed person, he would be performing a solemn private exorcism for which no permission is necessary from the ordinary. The Church restricts the public use of the power of her ordained exorcists, not private persons. What is permitted to a layperson cannot be denied to a priest. When the priest acts as a private person, he should not use the exorcism stole. Although public exorcisms performed by the authority of the Church are more effective, nevertheless the demon may also be expelled from possessed persons by private exorcisms. Christ has promised not only to His apostles, but to all who will believe in His name that they will cast out the devils:

“These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18). Exorcisms should be used often, and whenever they are needed. When the permission is necessary, it should be obtained. Superiors are not free to say yes or no, however. if the case is certain, it must be yes, because the sacramentals cannot be denied to a person who reasonably asks for them. It is a serious infringement of duty and inexcusable sin to leave a person in the power and tyranny of the devil who torments his victims day and night” (See Rev. Szymanski’s book HERE, but please ignore the post Vatican 2 footnotes).

In the Introduction to Rev. Szymanski ‘s work the editors of Immaculata Magazine wrote in the early 1970s: “Twenty years ago a Notebook on the Devil and Exorcism would have been unsalable. At that time, with the exception of a few hidden pockets of devil worshippers, the devil preferred to remain in the background and generally well hidden. It seems as though he were awaiting the “new morality” and the drug cult first before seeking open worship from fellow creatures. According to Mike Warnke, a former Satanist high priest, the devil wins our young people to devil worship through the bait of unlimited sex, drugs and money. With more and more of our society falling under his domination through sin, the devil seems to have thrown away the cover that he is an imaginary buffoon with horns and a long tail. He has openly shown himself in our day as “Prince of the world.” And we do not even want to speculate on the number of possessions existing in the world today.

In 1945, C.J. Woolen wrote an article for the December Homiletic and Pastoral Review (H & P) entitled “A Schizophrenic Generation” calling for a worldwide exorcism., possible given the time frame after reading Szymanski’s work. Jean Lehrmitte, in Soundings on Satanism, by various authors, describes hysteria as pseudo-possession, and certainly hysteria is rampant today. Yet his theory is called into question by another author in the same book. F. M. Catherinet. Writing on the many demoniacs cured by Christ that are recorded in the Gospels, Catherinet even goes so far as to state that “all true diabolic possession is accompanied, in fact and by a quasi-necessity, by mental or nervous troubles amplified or produced by the demon.” (And the Devil’s means of amplifying these nervous troubles has been greatly assisted today by the wide variety and availability of both prescription and illegal drugs, which induce relaxed mental states he can easily manipulate.)

So the Evil One can either exacerbate such mental states, thereby installing himself at this point of least resistance, or actually produce them — either out of whole cloth or aided by the use of psychoactive drugs/narcotics — to gain access to the intellect. By the time such a malady comes to the attention of a psychiatrist, it seems likely that it already has advanced sufficiently to admit of such demonic installation. Catherinet admits the capability of psychiatrists to identify the mental condition, but denies them the right to exclude the possibility of possession. “The doctor…if he enjoys the light of faith, will never exclude a priori, and in some cases may well suspect the presence and action of some occult power behind the malady.” As Pope St. Pius X, quoting Pope Leo XIII, stated in condemning the Modernists: “If you carefully search for the cause of errors, you will find that it lies in the fact that in these days, when the natural sciences absorb so much study, the more severe and lofty studies have been proportionately neglected…They have been disfigured by perverse doctrines and monstrous errors.”

Lay exorcism cautions

Although we may exorcise as lay people, these exorcisms do not have the spiritual effects that an exorcism from a truly good and holy priest would have if done by such a priest. We’re sinful creatures begging for assistance. We don’t have jurisdiction. We don’t have powers. We’re asking God to help us regardless. That’s not going to have the same effect as an official exorcism. if we get too deeply into these things, as I’ve warned especially one Traditionalist who contacted me about this, we risk running into real spiritual danger and exceeding our limitations. As one saying goes, “Be careful, when peering into the abyss, lest the abyss peer back into you.” If you want to exorcise someone, a family member perhaps, or a person that is begging you to do it, do it privately, in your home, with people of like mind who could be there to witness it. But to treat it as a service readily available to others on a regular basis, no. In my opinion, that is neither pleasing to God, nor is it going to be helpful to the people afflicted by the devil. And yes, it may appear that it has benefited some people; that’s possible. But we never know for sure whether that is because Christ is assisting us, or the devil is tricking us. And if you read spiritual books and look into discernment, it will tell you that. One of the finest, Sancta Sophia by Rev. Baker, specifically treats of this situation.

In ending his talk, Ripperger says the crises won’t be resolved by making the faith more palatable, that it can only be resolved by God. He tells us to pray the rosary for sin, for our own sins and for purification of the Church, all good recommendations. And finally, he says, don’t give up hope. Well, it depends on what you call hope. And that is what brings us to the second video on the chastisement. Here is what he has to say on why “punishment is coming.”

The Divine Chastisement

God has warned us of this punishment in both Scripture and private prophecy and He has been very patient. He cites Sodom and Gomorrah, the disobedient Israelites, Nineveh and Tyre as types of punishment. He also names the seven deadly sins and explains how the commission of all these has been magnified a millionfold, likewise the sins crying to heaven for vengeance. Leaders of nation and the clergy he identifies as far more culpable. True repentance is still possible he says, but… “You can’t treat a disease you refuse to name.” Really? Of course he cannot name the disease or how it has spread without incriminating himself, so it remains unnamed. He emphasizes true repentance but does not go into any detail about what all is involved to achieve it. He recommends that Catholics return to Church, frequent the Sacraments, fast, do penance, become souls of reparation, consecrate their families to the Sacred Heart. But what he doesn’t say, what he dares not say, is what really needs to happen and it is the only thing that might possibly forestall the Divine vengeance or mitigate it at least, (although I fully believe it will be exacted, regardless).

All of us must certainly repent, but that alone is not enough. It is the leaders of the world pretending to rule legitimately, the scions of “Christianity,” the “hierarchy” of Rome, the Patriarchate of the East and all other heads of world religion who must step down from their imposture as men of God, fall on their faces and beg God’s forgiveness — every one of them. Telling us to repent as though we are the ones who have behaved badly after being persecuted, propagandized and misled by these usurpers and hirelings all these years is rich indeed. He tells us not to be afraid, but if I were him, I would be very afraid.

There is one thing we can do, and it is an act of mercy itself. We can say our exorcism prayers daily, and beg God to end this diabolical deception. At this point, many tell me, a chastisement or the General Judgment would almost be a relief to escape from the horrors of this unbelievably wicked world. Pray always, pray and watch. Dear Jesus, come quickly and do not delay.

Some Scripture selections reflecting our troubled times

by T. Stanfill Benns | May 19, 2026 | New Blog

+St. Bernardine of Siena, Confessor+

Introduction

In one of his lesser works, St. Thomas Aquinas mentions that the following (Psalm 82) was written to be said by the faithful in the end times. Calling down justice on our leaders seems in these days to be the only recourse given their lawlessness, deceit and frightening disregard for those they govern. In the second Scripture reading from Isaias, we see how God turns a deaf ear to those who sin with impunity and will not hear their prayers. This is how Israel must have felt before the coming of the Redeemer. It does seem we live in darkness at times, like dead men. Truth has been forgotten, and we are the prey of our enemies. We do our best to patiently await God’s judgment. Ezekiel warns those who present as little tin gods what will happen to them; how they shall forfeit their kingdoms, be they kings of nations or those reigning unjustly during an interregnum. Let us hope we are not those slain “in the heart of the sea” the prophet mentions in these verses, although we know that our country cannot survive much longer as things stand today. We pray, we watch and beg for God’s mercy.

Deus, quis similis. A prayer against the enemies of God’s Church.

“A canticle of a psalm for Asaph.

“O God, who shall be like to thee? hold not thy peace, neither be thou still, O God. For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy saints. They have said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation: and let the name of Israel be remembered no more.

“For they have contrived with one consent: they have made a covenant together against thee. The tabernacles of the Edomites, and the Ismahelites: Moab, and the Agarens, Gebal, and Ammon and Amalec: the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre. Yea, and the Assyrian also is joined with them: they are come to the aid of the sons of Lot. Do to them as thou didst to Madian and to Sisara: as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson.

“Who perished at Endor: and became as dung for the earth. Make their princes like Oreb, and Zeb, and Zebee, and Salmana. All their princes, Who have said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God for an inheritance. O my God, make them like a wheel; and as stubble before the wind. As fire which burneth the wood: and as a flame burning mountains:

“So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest: and shalt trouble them in thy wrath. Fill their faces with shame; and they shall seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever and ever: and let them be confounded and perish. And let them know that the Lord is thy name: thou alone art the most High over all the earth.”

Isaias 59: 2-21

The dreadful evil of sin is displayed, as the great obstacle to all good from God: yet he will send a Redeemer, and make an everlasting covenant with his church.

“Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth iniquity. There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity. They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.

Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are in their ways. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps: their paths are become crooked to them, every one that treadeth in them, knoweth no peace. Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have walked in the dark. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, we are in dark places as dead men.

“We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us. For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and we have known our iniquities: In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression: we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not come in. And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment.

“And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice supported him. He put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak. As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries, and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands. And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and they from the rising of the sun, his glory: when he shall come as a violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on: And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them that return from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.

“This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.

Ezekiel 28 — warning to the King of Tyre

“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God.

“Behold thou art wiser than Daniel: no secret is hid from thee. In thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast made thyself strong: and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. By the greatness of thy wisdom, and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy strength: and thy heart is lifted up with thy strength.

“Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up as the heart of God: Therefore behold, I will bring upon thee strangers, the strongest of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy beauty.

“They shall kill thee, and bring thee down: and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain in the heart of the sea. Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am God; whereas thou art a man, and not God, in the hand of them that slay thee?

“Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.”

And this one is my favorite, from the book of Daniel, who foretold what we suffer today:

Daniel 9: 3-20

“And I set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord God, great and terrible, who keepest the covenant, and mercy to them that love thee, and keep thy commandments. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted: and we have gone aside from thy commandments, and thy judgments.

“We have not hearkened to thy servants the prophets, that have spoken in thy name to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To thee, O Lord, justice: but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, for their iniquities by which they have sinned against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers that have sinned. But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee: And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his law, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

“And all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have turned away from hearing thy voice, and the malediction, and the curse, which is written in the book of Moses the servant of God, is fallen upon us, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us, and against our princes that judged us, that he would bring in upon us a great evil, such as never was under all the heaven, according to that which hath been done in Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth. And the Lord hath watched upon the evil, and hath brought it upon us: the Lord our God is just in all his works which he hath done: for we have not hearkened to his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity,

“O Lord, against all thy justice: let thy wrath and thy indignation be turned away, I beseech thee, from thy city Jerusalem, and from thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and thy people are a reproach to all that are round about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of thy servant, and his prayers: and shew thy face upon thy sanctuary which is desolate, for thy own sake. Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken and do: delay not for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people.”

It was Daniel who told us the Holy Sacrifice would betaken away because of sins. The curses of Moses in many ways foretell what will happen to a sinful people and a sinful nation when God’s laws are trodden underfoot and His teachings ignored. It is our hope that readers will meditate on these Scripture verses as they make preparation for the feast of Pentecost.

Join us in a novena of reparation for IDF sacrilege in Lebanon

by T. Stanfill Benns | May 2, 2026 | Blog

+Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop+

Prayer intention for May, Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“For all those who impiously blaspheme thee Blessed Mother, not knowing what they say… obtain for them from Almighty God the grace of conversion.” (Raccolta)

Novena of Reparation for IDF insults to the Holy Face

St. Therese of Lisieux had a special devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and the Infant of Prague. Jesus’ Holy Face was smashed by IDF (Israeli) soldiers recently invading Lebanon, and for this a reader has begun a crusade to make reparation. He requests that all may: “Please unite with us in a Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face to end the Zionist/Epstein cabal, torturing and murdering children and smashing the Holy Face. We will pray May 6-14, Ascension Day.

MIRACULOUS INVOCATION TO ST. THERESE

O glorious Saint Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and counsel mankind, I implore thy Miraculous Intercession. So powerful art thou in obtaining every need of body and soul our Holy Mother Church proclaims thee a “Prodigy of Miracles . . . the Greatest Saint of Modern Times.”

Now I fervently beseech thee to answer my petition [mention here] and to carry out thy promises of spending Heaven doing good on earth . . . of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses.
Henceforth, dear Little Flower, I will fulfill thy plea “to be made known everywhere” and I will never cease to lead others to Jesus through thee. Amen.

Petition: O dear St. Therese, so devoted to the Infant King, beg the Holy Child to cast down this Satanic cabal now enslaving the world and free the suffering innocents they hold captive, that He may then reign in their stead as our King.

St. Therese Prayer in honor of the Infant of Prague

O Eternal Father, Thine only Son, the dear Child Jesus, is mine, since Thou hast given Him to me. I offer Thee the infinite merits of His divine childhood, and I beg Thee, in His name, to open the gates of heaven to a countless host of little ones, who will forever follow this divine Lamb. Amen.

Beware of the influencers condemning Zionism

In lamenting the Noahide law issue last week, I provided a link to a Substack feed for a Jana Bennrun. I hope readers understood it was only for attribution purposes. After corresponding with her, I must ask readers to please not subscribe to her feed, view her videos or read her articles. Her anti-Catholic animus emerged quite quickly following the release of my last blog. But I have to say I am not surprised. As with Candace Owens (who given her Novus Ordo alliance would obviously have issues with Bennrun too), I keep trying to make inroads regarding the views presented by these people, educate them a little and see if it is information they lack or whether they are working a different agenda. So far it has always been the latter. And that tells us something.

Working from different platforms — but all headed, seemingly, in the same direction — they are using their exposure of Zionism as a means of attempting to gather “Christians” into a malleable mass able to abolish Zionism and Freemasonry, and they are doing this from many different fronts. This without crediting the Church for being the first to warn against these evils. And not only do they fail to credit the Church, or, in some cases, even view these entities from a spiritual perspective, they pointedly ignore the fact that the organizations THEY belong to are the original promoters of both evils — Zionism with the Novus Ordo and Freemasonry with the Protestants, agnostics and atheists. They fail to mention that Zionism and Freemasonry are simply different tentacles of the octopus, thoughtlessly brushing this inconvenient truth aside.

I would like to officially point out to those referring to themselves as Christians and pretending to defend the faith that they don’t even know what the word faith really means. If it wasn’t for the Catholic Church, they would never have been able to even call themselves Christians in the first place! They have contributed to the creation of the very monsters we find ourselves fighting today, so they should be on the Internet warning others about them. But while they repeatedly broadcast their devotion to truth and proudly proclaim that they are promoting it, it is only THEIR particular brand of the truth they are promoting. They steadfastly refuse to plunge into the very depths of the abyss of errors to acknowledge the fact that it is the Church that long ago warned about all these things and prescribed the remedy — the acceptance of pre-1959 Catholicism as the one, true Church. For really it is authority over others that they want, the right to direct others and be seen as the defenders of the Christian faith, a faith and a body that can never think and believe as one without the papacy.

Even in these last throes of our final existence on earth they cannot, will not see it, and we know why. Yet we keep approaching them, correcting them, just in case. Wherever we see evidence of this psyop, we will call it out. For deliberately or unwittingly, they are all working for the creation of a one-world religion to replace the one, holy Catholic apostolic Church which once gloriously ruled from Rome. It is reminiscent of the attempt to create the tower of Babel, the first attempt at world government. Babel is Hebrew for Babylon and its end will be the same. In the meantime, these podcasters and Internet stooges will continue to “babble-on,” contributing some good information with the rest of the slop they sling, just enough to make it palatable for those not wise to what they are up to. Are we angry, as they claim, because we have been “dethroned”? No, because there is no need to be. Christ promised to be with us until the very end — US, the one true Church — and He is ever true to His promises.

A diabolic, schizophrenic generation

We have referred to this quote before but it bears repeating here because it explains how even prior to the psychological warfare unleashed on U.S. Catholics in 1953 by the CIA, a mental state existed among Catholics that made them even more susceptible to being led astray. In 1945, C.J. Woolen wrote an article for the December Homiletic and Pastoral Review entitled “A Schizophrenic Generation.” The article held that already in post-war America a condition existed among Catholics that effectively minimized sin and evil living by attributing its cause to a mental illness which Woolen calls the “split mind,” or schizophrenia, known also today as the dissociative state. The predilection for this schizophrenia, he observes, is present in us all and needs only a conscious assent to take hold and completely replace any pre-existing ego state. Described effectively enough by St. Augustine in his City of God, the citizen sojourning in this vale of tears simply makes the decision to set his sails for a different port — the River Styx adjacent to Satan’s kingdom rather than Heaven’s safe harbor. A sort of convenient amnesia following this radical change masks any uncomfortable pangs of conscience, making the transition a smooth one.

Woolen noted that this condition was known even to the pagans, and quotes from Aristotle’s The Republic to prove it is the age-old struggle between good and evil, literally as old as Adam. In modern times, man’s final descent into the pit of deliberate unknowing began with Liberalism then Americanism and concluded with secular humanism, the belief that man can become a god himself, perhaps even greater than the Triune God. The Liberals were the first to master the art of dissembling for public consumption while intending by narrow mental reservation not to believe or comply with certain teachings of the Church. Will Herberg in Protestant, Catholic, Jew coined a great term for it: “…religious narcissism,where the individual and his psycho-spiritual state is made to concentrate on its own navel.”

In other words, “It is not man who serves God, but God who is mobilized to serve man.” And faith is only a “sure fire way to get what we want.” Religion, then, is not a standard by which Catholics order their allegiance to America, family, the community, their jobs etc., but vice versa. Civic and social allegiances dictate the role religion will play in most people’s lives. This results in what Herberg described as an incurable “civic idolatry.” This lifestyle, led by those he labels as “other-directed” individuals constitutes an inversion of the natural order that perfectly accommodates the schizophrenic mentality. And isn’t that what we see today, both in the extreme MAGA mentality and mindless allegiance to the Zionist cause?

“The Christian, if he is to be faithful, has no choice but to be heroic,” Woolen stated towards the end of his article. The numbing process of denial, psychiatry, prescription and psychotropic drugs are modern choices for dulling the pain of living in a materialistic world where fidelity to the Catholic ideal means loss of earthly goods, the patient enduring of pain, admission of guilt and indifference to human respect. Catholic Action, coupled with the “world exorcism,” Woolen advised could have provided the solution decades ago, but that time has long since passed. No faithful bishops, as a united whole, cared to relieve the sheep of this terrible danger to their souls. There are now only lay people to plead for this exorcism for it seems the only solution to our present state. But perhaps there is yet a way to practice Catholic Action, although it would need to be done with great care, one-on-one, and in very limited cases.

Hope for a slim Protestant minority?

Several readers have expressed the belief that a select minority of Protestants could be brought to the true faith if there was some way it could be explained to them in a way they could accept and understand. They have even observed that certain Protestant families seem to them to be more “Catholic” than some of the Traditionalists they know. One reader even pointed out that some of them probably are the products of fallen away Catholic families, which means they have still retained a modicum of Catholic sense. And it seems that in a way God has given us an open door to appeal to those who seem attracted to the faith, or at least are curious as to why we do not attend “church” or accept the “pope” in Rome. I say this because many of the things that were most strongly objected to in the past no longer exist, and this gives us an opportunity to explain why. But the daunting nature of this task is easily seen when the following is carefully considered.

Pope and hierarchy — This would be the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Any convert to Catholicism must first accept unequivocally, with firm, irrevocable assent the Scriptural primacy of the popes, the binding nature of nearly two centuries of their teachings until the death of Pope Pius XII and understand that those teachings fully bind us yet today. It should be demonstrated from papal teaching that nearly every evil we suffer from today was long ago condemned by the popes and had world leaders obeyed, we would not now be suffering from the evils that afflict the world today. It must be carefully explained that shortly before he died, Pope Pius XII entrusted the spread of the faith to the laity, who in the absence of the hierarchy were commanded to assume all their duties. Then VAS would be brought in and the false election explained, meaning that valid hierarchy no longer exist.

No extraordinary jurisdiction — This leads in directly to the mission Christ conferred only on the Apostles by valid ordination/consecration and the valid transference of jurisdiction in a continual unbroken line, until the coming of Antichrist. Christ confers jurisdiction only through validly consecrated bishops approved by the Pope who then “lend” (delegate) their jurisdiction to the priests.

The Latin Mass and Transubstantiation — As long as the Mass existed, Transubstantiation existed: Catholics received the true Body and Blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. But the Prophet Daniel tells us the Continual Sacrifice will cease, and sacrifices among the Jews were not continual. The early Fathers of the Church, also the Doctors, authoritatively teach that this refers to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And it has ceased because there is no one able or worthy to offer it because valid consecration of the bread and wine requires that the one consecrating is validly ordained and possesses jurisdiction.

Sola Scriptura — Tradition, “…the word of God transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles concerning faith and morals — not written but transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles and from them to their successors down to us“— must be accepted as de fide. “The principal instruments by means of which divine tradition has been conserved are the professions of faith, the sacred liturgy, the writings of the Fathers, the practice of the Church, the acts of the martyrs, and archaeological monuments. Its organ is the living magisterium of the Church, (the Roman Pontiff and the bishops, united with and subordinate to him),” (Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, Pietro Parente, Antonio Piolanti, Salvatore Garofolo, 1951).

The Sacraments — All the sacraments will exist eternally because they were instituted by Christ, but only marriage and Baptism are available to us today. Infant Baptism only must be insisted upon, unless new converts are adults not certainly baptized.

Honoring the Blessed Mother, the Angels and the Saints — This is part and parcel of Tradition and the teachings of the ordinary and extraordinary magisterium.

Justification, Purgatory, et al — Only the saints are certainly in Heaven. We cannot assume that anyone else is in Heaven or Hell. Faith without works is dead. Without good works and sincere intent to obey the commandments and the teachings of the Church, we cannot be saved. We must diligently pray for the souls in Purgatory, as the correct version of Holy Scripture, the Douay-Rheims, states. Even the Jews prayed for their dead.

Home church — One article reports that, “As of 2023, an estimated 6–12 million Americans worship regularly in house churches — a number that has grown steadily since the early 2000s as believers seek the relational depth modeled in Acts 2:46, where the early church met “from house to house.” And the article also notes that home or house churches are especially appealing to younger people.

The numbers of this movement are important because it directly contradicts any notion that worshipping privately from home is eccentric or cultistic, and the movement is predicted to be growing by 8-10 percent annually. The establishment of house churches is a natural companion to homeschooling, and statistics show that 3,408,000 children were homeschooled in the U.S. in 2025. This provides a broad base to work from, and gives hope that in the midst of the false Christianity now prevailing, some sincere individuals might consider Catholicism. But a Catholic structure and supervision of these converts would need to be diligently attended to by the individuals instructing them.

Holy Office Instruction

The above is only a brief summary of what would need to be established in order to build a framework for conversion. We must remember that catechumens were often instructed for two years or even longer in the days of the early Church, and yet were considered to be baptized Catholics by desire if they died during that time period. Unlike those days, some of these Protestants today have already been validly baptized, but the instruction was lacking. Others would need conditional Baptism. But at least it would be a concerted effort to save their souls, an heroic act of charity. Below is a summary from an Instruction of the Holy Office regarding The Ecumenical Movement, how any contact with non-Catholics from a conversion standpoint must be conducted.

“All should be on guard lest, on the false pretext that more attention should be paid to the points on which we agree than to those on which we differ, a dangerous indifferentism be encouraged, especially among persons whose training in theology is not deep and whose practice of their faith is not very strong. For care must be taken lest in the so-called irenic spirit of today, though through comparative study and the vain desire for a progressively closer mutual approach among the various professions of faith, Catholic doctrine, either in its dogmas or in the truths which are connected with them, be so conformed or in a way adapted to the doctrines of dissident sects, that the purity of Catholic doctrine be impaired or its genuine and certain meaning be obscured…

Also, they must restrain the dangerous manner of speaking which generates false opinions and fallacious hopes incapable of realization, for example, to the effect that the teachings of the encyclicals of the Roman Pontiffs on the return of dissidents to the Church, on the constitution of the Church, on the mystical body of Christ, should not be given too much importance, seeing that they are not all matters of faith, or what is worse, that in matters of dogma even the Catholic Church has not yet attained the fullness of Christ, but can still be perfected from outside…The whole and entire Catholic doctrine is to be presented and explained. By no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ” (Rome, Dec. 20, 1940, AAS 42-142).

And these are just the primary considerations. But before any Catholic engages in Catholic Action, let those who see an opportunity to assist Protestants interested in the faith first be firmly grounded in the interior life, as the popes have taught, and let their own house be in order. That is, let those who have families make certain that all their needs are first attended to, both spiritual and material, for as St. Augustine taught, charity begins at home. And as the Holy Office instruction reminds us, “Nothing more effectively paves the way for the erring to find the truth and to embrace the Church than the faith of Catholics when it is confirmed by the example of upright living.”

This topic needs much discussion and prayer before it can even be considered as something that could be put into actual practice. Please feel free to make any comments or suggestions.

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MIRACULOUS INVOCATION TO ST. THERESE

Petition: O dear St. Therese, so devoted to the Infant King, beg the Holy Child to cast down this Satanic cabal now enslaving the world and free the suffering innocents they hold captive, that He may then reign in their stead as our King.

St. Therese Prayer in honor of the Infant of Prague

O Eternal Father, Thine only Son, the dear Child Jesus, is mine, since Thou hast given Him to me. I offer Thee the infinite merits of His divine childhood, and I beg Thee, in His name, to open the gates of heaven to a countless host of little ones, who will forever follow this divine Lamb. Amen.

Beware of the influencers condemning Zionism

A diabolic, schizophrenic generation

Hope for a slim Protestant minority?

Holy Office Instruction

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