Church Militant The Vortex Feed

TRANSCRIPT

It seems the Vatican is annoyed at criticism on social media aimed at it, the hierarchy and Pope Francis. So a few days ago Rome dropped a "polite" document advising Catholics not to be divisive on social media, but rather behave "not so much as 'individual influencers,' but as 'weavers of communion': pooling our talents and skills, sharing knowledge and contributions."

Well, that's all well and good and certainly has some merit objectively, but (and this is a big — really big — "but") when you have people within the Church who are "influencers" in their own right and they are dividing the faithful and depriving them of actual Church teaching and making it up as they go along, what are faithful Catholics supposed to say in response?

Does the Vatican want us talking about how lovely the parish bake sale was after the 10 a.m. Mass and that the Smiths are very excited about helping plant the parish vegetable garden?

Give me a break. 

This is war — spiritual war — and the only difference now (and which is likely eliciting the document from the Vatican) is that the true believers are pushing back against modernism and all its evils. Shut up and build community? Seriously?

Either some folks in the Vatican are incredibly naive, or they sense, rightly or wrongly, they may be beginning to lose the initiative and so are resorting to the "be nice and sweet" strategy, shorthand for "shut up and stop drawing attention to our agenda."

This maneuver runs a close parallel to the Marxist Democrats' strategy of recognizing the danger to their agenda posed by so-called conservative influencers on social media and doing everything possible to shut them down, up to and including weaponizing the Justice Department, working in cahoots with Giant Tech, cooperating with corporate America and linking arms with their comrades in Big Media, all to shut down criticism by labeling it "conspiracy theories" and "misinformation."

While there is no substantial evidence of the Vatican employing that degree of censorship, this latest document certainly smacks of that mentality. It just makes it appear more spiritual and less political. But the funny thing is this is one of the most political papacies you could imagine.

Francis and his appointees' high level of cooperation with globalists on a huge range of issues (illegal immigration, phony man-made climate change, anti-capitalism, for example, you name it) point to the scales definitely tipping in favor of that agenda.

That faithful Catholics, rightly fed up with the shenanigans, would be the ones to draw the penalty flag is ludicrous. It's kind of like a football game. One player takes a swing at another in between plays, the refs don't notice, and, then, the other guy swings back and he gets the penalty flag thrown at him.

It's always the dude who reacts who draws the ire.

The same dynamic is at play here, mostly. The notable exception is that the bad guys are the ones in control and throwing the flags — kind of the textbook definition of an unfair fight.

So, frankly, what does the Vatican or even Pope Francis himself expect to happen? The Faith is either betrayed, undercut, soft-pedaled, distorted, or presented in such a watered-down way that it is attractive to no one.

The promoters of all this are, like James Martin, the "polite bullies" who attack but get a pass. We respond and get a flag on the play.

Word to the Vatican: Stop promoting the heresy of modernism in its multiple arenas and we will go back to talking about the parish bake sale. In the meantime, this is war. Knock it off with the "be polite and not divisive" crap. It's spiritual and emotional abuse meant to intimidate the less plucky and those whose personalities are already predisposed to be soft and confrontation avoiding. Forgive us for trying to whip up the troops.

Many of them need a good kick in the pants to force them to wake up to the heresies and schisms being promoted, ignored and allowed to run rampant. If the effort to do that smacks of division and being offensive, well, so be it.

Our Lord said the same thing: "I have come to bring the sword," and as St. Mark records, they took offense at Him. We kind of think the Vatican would issue some sort of social media document against both Our Lord's and John the Baptist's Twitter feeds.

But they give a pass to @JudasTraitor because, well, you know, gotta be polite and not divisive.

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When Bp. Sheen, who could be a canonized saint by now if not for the scheming by various U.S. bishops to prevent that from happening, said it's up to us, the laity, to save the Church. he wasn't kidding.

So in addition to all kinds of efforts of the more high-minded sort dealing with the brain and intellect directly, there are also what we might term more down-to-earth efforts (literally, down to earth), like what you put on your feet while walking around. We're talking about Catholic devotional socks, the brainchild of Scott and Elizabeth Williams, who started up Sock Religious — home-based in Indianapolis and just having passed the 100,000 order milestone, making it the biggest Catholic sock company in history.

Scriptures do say, "How beautiful the feet of those who bring glad tidings." So those feet might as well be wearing beautiful socks as well, right? In fact, something we may almost never really pay any attention to in the Bible is feet.

But there are over 100 mentions of feet in the Holy Writ, and, while not all of those references are necessarily profound, they do remind us that feet are a thing.

Sock Religious is now under the parent company Catholic Concepts. Along with the brands Live Liturgically, 4 Marks Printing and States of Faith. Once Scott and Elizabeth stuck their "toes in the water," so to speak (you knew some joke phrases were coming, admit it), they quickly discovered a market for all kinds of Catholic merchandise.

Everything is made in-house by a staff and team of almost 30 folks helping to bring back focus to the Catholic devotional life by trodding fresh ground. OK, we'll stop.

So get on your feet and show some love to faithful Catholics who only want to blaze a trail back to a regular devotion to the Faith. If you'd like to find out more, go to CatholicConcepts.com.

And remember, you can even support the ongoing case of a not-saint-yet like Bp. Sheen. We do need the official blessing of the Church for public devotion of folks like Sheen, but nothing is stopping us from stepping out and showing support for all that.

OK, now we're done.

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Obviously, here in the United States, this is Memorial Day weekend, where we honor those who gave the last measure in defense of freedom.

One war in the history of wars involving U.S. fighting men, the Vietnam War, comes with a black stain, and it is beyond time to talk about it. It was unpopular because the news media took advantage of turbulent times and began pushing the "America sucks" narrative, even going so far as to lambast our soldiers as "killers of children."

It was in those days that the Democrat politicians of today, like John Kerry, started cutting their teeth on the anti-American messaging. It was the first time that they aligned with media on a large scale and began pushing what has now, 50 years later, become their foundational message: America is bad.

But what about the experience of those young men who came home to scorn and ridicule because the media had labeled them as reprehensible (lies, of course)? If I sound like I have a dog in this fight, it's because I do. As many of you might know, I grew up in a U.S. military family.

My dad was in the Air Force and stationed in the Philippines during the last years of the war. The American POWs were flown from captivity to freedom and processed at Clark Airbase before being put on flights that eventually landed at Travis Air Base in northern California, where we were stationed stateside.

For quite a few weeks, servicemen were flown into Travis and processed out of the military. I saw quite a few of those planes landing. The young men — who had seen their brothers blown up and shot — were not monsters. They were young, brave guys who got caught in the crossfire of the beginning of the tearing down of America.

And, having achieved veteran status, were then dumped on by the still-forming communist contingent known as the Democratic Party. Those ungrateful, scheming politicians climbed over the bodies of our returning servicemen, as well as the "KIAs," to advance themselves and their emerging communist agenda.

But what about the soldiers' time in the jungles of southeast Asia, when the reality of war hit them smack in the face — modern warfare. Many turned to the Faith, not shocking given their location and oftentimes fragile grip on life.

The Faith was brought to them by brave clergymen like Fr. Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll missionary and Navy chaplain killed in action in a Marine Corps infantry unit on Sept. 4, 1967. His nickname from the admiring troops was "the Grunt Padre."

The native New Yorker (Staten Island) volunteered to go into hellish battle where many Marines had already been killed but many more were severely wounded following a sneak attack by a very large force of North Vietnamese communists.

He moved about the fallen, unarmed, blessing the bodies of the dead and giving last rites to those who needed them. He was shot and wounded in the hands, arm and leg, but refused medical evacuation, instead being patched up and going back into the slaughter that evening.

He was ministering to two wounded Marines and a Navy corpsman only yards from a machine gun nest when he was cut down and killed. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, but more importantly, his cause of sainthood was opened in 2002.

On Memorial Day 2006, his designation as "servant of God" was formally announced in Washington, D.C. In 2019, Fr. Capodanno was officially credited with the healing of a Florida woman with M.S.

Last year, the Vatican halted the proceedings, concerned that his actions showed more military bravery than religious fervor. Why are those necessarily at odds? King St. Louis died fighting the Muslims during the Crusades.

Anyway, the postulator of the cause is fighting vigorously to overcome those concerns. In the meantime, we'd like to show you something. It was provided to us by long-time supporter, good friend and Vietnam chopper pilot vet Paul Nick.

Its an AP photograph of what is strongly believed to be Fr. Capodanno offering Mass in the midst of battle. We can't be 100% certain, but all indications seem to be that this is him. In the absence of modern technology, this is a unique "no do-overs" picture of God in the midst of war, with his priest bringing him to the fighting men.

Notice that Mass is being offered on top of ammo and rations boxes, with the Marines on their knees. That CH-53 is bringing in more ammo and taking out the dead and wounded, and right there in the midst of the carnage and confusion and killing, God is present.

Without getting into too much detail, one reason it's believed that it is Father is the dating of the picture — the CH-53s were in service during a narrow window of time and locale, and that corresponds to Father's time and location in the war.

In addition, it greatly resembles him, so what are the odds that it could be another priest that looks like him in that time and place in the middle of a war zone, offering Mass?

But even if, by some slim chance, it isn't, the picture still represents the dedication of our Catholic clergymen and the brave warriors willing to lay down their lives.

This Memorial Day weekend, let this image sear into your minds, and offer prayer for not only Father and the dozens of young Marines cut to ribbons in that battle, but all of our fallen, who gave everything they had to defend this nation.

And then ponder on the madness the nation has descended into at the hands of commies, and ask yourselves, "Is this what they died to protect?"

Dr. Howard is a leading expert on the teachings of Ven. Fulton J. Sheen and the founder and president of the Fulton Sheen Institute headquartered in Sandpoint, Ohio, where it exists to continue the implementation of Sheen's mission and teachings. Howard is the author of The Woman: Mary as Mediatrix in the Teaching of Fulton J. Sheen, the authoritative book on Sheen's Mariology. He has traveled the globe helping others discover this future saint and advancing his cause.

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Ever notice how the commie bastards take something from history, distort it or lie about it, manufacture some altered version of it, create a new vocabulary about it, fabricate an entire narrative about it, produce a list of erroneous and incomplete talking points, push that through the media and educational institutions, and, when it's all said and done, they have rewritten history?

They are the most creative human beings in history. You've got to give 'em that. Of course, the inquiring mind would, well, inquire, "What's the point of all that?" 

And the answer to that question is what lays bear the real intentions of the commies (also known as "the Left," "socialists," and "Democrats" — all the same thing). It's not that they are so much anti-American (although that is certainly true). They are anti-Catholic, anti-God. Heck, Marx even said so when he called religion the "opium of the people."

While he would have — in theory, anyway — extended his definition of religion to all religion, remember that his experience of religion, what he saw every day, was Christianity. I'm pretty sure he wasn't really concerned with Pygmy tribes worshipping trees in some far-off forest somewhere.

The religion he saw as a holdback to the creation of his utopia was Christianity, shorthand for Catholicism.

It was, and remains the case, that Catholicism built Western civilization — a political and social structure predicated on the dignity of man owing to the single fact that he is made in the image and likeness of God.

That is the North Star of Western civilization. And while, yes, there have been many individual examples of leaders and followers betraying that compass point through the ages, it remains the case that human dignity is the starting point for all of this, a dignity conferred by God.

And remember the significance of that dignity — so overwhelming that it caused many of the angels to fall, so enraged were they that a creature made of clay would surpass them in majesty that their pride could not assimilate that, so they rebelled.

Likewise, human dignity so far surpasses the angels that the Eternal Logos took on our nature to redeem and restore it. Those theological truths are the starting points of Catholicism, and all of Western civilization is predicated on them.

Culture, coming from the word "cult," is built on religious principles; it always has been for all of history, no matter what empire or civilization you encounter or study. This brings us to a theme that drives the commies nuts in their attempt to subvert the Christian order.

All civilizations cannot be equal, cannot have the same worth, because they have different starting points based on their guiding principles, their North Stars. Only Catholic civilization can claim to be superior, and that's because it is.

That's why the Church set out to bring the gospel to different lands and civilizations — because it is not just superior, but primary.

It's true that the Church's missionaries rode along on the coattails of European powers, whose greater interests were likely political and financial, but that doesn't negate or wipe away the intentions of the actual missionaries.

This dual reality is what gets lumped together in the communist analysis and rewrite of history. That's why "colonization" has emerged as a dirty word in the Marxist lexicon. After all, how dare one civilization think it is superior to another (bypassing the screamingly obvious point that they believe their civilization is superior, which is why they are attempting to overthrow Catholic civilization)?

So laying aside the clear hypocrisy, the question has been asked and answered: Is one civilization superior to another? Yes. And not just yes, but glaringly so.

Despite the Marxist talking points of historical revision, when Europeans came to the western hemisphere, they found other civilizations built on brutality, child sacrifice, slavery, ritualized murder and people's hearts torn out from them when they were still alive.

But, of course, none of that ever gets presented by the commies. They fancy the presentation that these "empires" were sweet people sitting around charting the stars and quietly inhabiting the land. Creating a victim class goes back very far with the commies because victims are victims, after all, because of their oppressors. 

So the good guy versus bad guy dichotomy is instantly created — and guess who the "bad guys" are: European powers who also happened to have Catholic missionaries in tow.

It is true that there were various atrocities and so forth committed by the governmental powers (note that we never see the commies admitting that every civilization or empire engaged in the same types of acts). That said, since the European colonial powers had been tempered by Christianity, they were nowhere near as brutal and subjugating as previous empires of history.

They did not wipe these people from the face of the earth; they allowed the Church to baptize them. And therein is the sticking point for the commies, the one they are loath to actually admit: They don't really care about the idea of military conquest or the subjugation of one civilization by another.

All you need to do is look to Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong to see that. When commies are the oppressors, well, it's just the natural flow taking its course. They will, of course, pretend that this is the real issue, but it's not. Communists understand completely, even more so than most Christians, that their ultimate enemy is religion, and not just religion in some general sense, but Catholicism, in particular.

So they set up a facade that it is the colonial powers, meaning the monarchies, that are the enemy, when the reality is that it was and is the spread of the gospel, based on that pesky little God-given dignity of man — that's the real bee in their bonnet.

When Catholic missionaries came ashore, within hours, the cross was planted in the earth and Mass was offered, and the spiritual welfare of the people was almost immediately begun being tended to.

I'm pretty sure that's not what Caesar did, or Stalin or Chairman Mao. They just killed and created slave populations. Colonization, in the lexicon of communism, secretly refers to the evangelization of the nations, not the conquest of one empire by another. That last part is just the lie to smuggle in their atheism and make it have an air of respectability.

A point to always keep in mind: Any political or cultural system that denies the dignity of man based on being made in the image and likeness of God is antithetical to the Faith and must be confronted and defeated.

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Well, they're at it again. The schismatic sex abusers over at the SSPX are once again victimizing children and then revictimizing them as adults by lying and covering up their crimes.

It's an odd position to take for the society of clergy that thinks themselves, and often declares themselves, to be holier than the rest of the Church to be so closely aligned in this area with the Church. Their leaders are no better and, in some cases, actually worse because of their ecclesiastical hubris than bishops and clergy who are not in schism.

Ever since Pope John Paul II declared them to be in schism in 1988, they have created a fortress of unaccountability and zero transparency around the issue of sex abuse by their priests and, more importantly, the enabling cover-up by the illicitly consecrated bishops.

The most recent case, a trial in France that begins this week, is a shocking example of this schismatic group's flat-out arrogance. A priest of the Society has been accused of abusing not one, not two, not even a dozen, but 27 children. And, get this, Church Militant has confirmed that even though trials in France, like here in the United States, are public, this one will not be, ostensibly to protect the victim's identities.

However, even though it was the attorneys for the victims who requested the closed proceedings, in a very strange and awkward legal twist, one of those two attorneys has represented the SSPX in past cases. This conflict of interests works out well for the SSPX, which gets to pretend it agrees on principle but actually benefits mightily from the secrecy.

We wonder if one of the two S's in their initials actually stands for "secrecy." It also told followers to stay away from the courthouse and not even discuss the case, practically under the pain of sin. Can't let word get out now, can we?

The trial is taking place in the famed Vendée region of France, where Catholics held out against the notorious Reign of Terror until they were wiped out by the anti-Catholic revolutionary forces. It is expected the court proceedings will go on for two weeks.

The priest, Fr. Pierre de Maillard, was originally outed by Church Militant two years ago in one of our investigations by senior Special Projects producer Christine Niles. He is charged with "rape of a minor under 15 years of age, rape committed by a person abusing his authority, attempted rape, sexual aggression on a minor over 15 years of age and corruption of minors."

This went on for 25 years in the Vendée as well as other regions of France. He was arrested two days after the Church Militant report in October of 2020. SSPX supporters, their clergy and their communications teams, including James Vogel here in the United States, circled the wagons and essentially accused Church Militant of lying, distorting, "having an axe to grind" and other such ridiculous claims.

For the record, Church Militant stands with the popes, as well as notable cardinals like Raymond Burke, who have said the Society is in schism. But that does not inform our reporting on their sex abuse. Two different issues. No one should look the other way on such crimes just because they support Mass being said in Latin and somehow think shining a light on these evils tarnishes their reputation.

Sex abuse is sex abuse, no matter what language or form of the Mass is being said. But that's not how the Society and its more fanatical supporters see it. 

A couple weeks back, a $42-million church was opened in St. Marys, Kansas, by the schismatic group, and leading the blessing and consecration was none other than Bp. Bernard Fellay, a virtual expert in sex abuse cover-up within his breakaway group.

As Church Militant has reported over the past 3 years, Fellay not only knew of various clergy and their crimes, he personally reassigned them to their posts, where they abused more children and even eventually promoted at least two of them — after their periods of prayer and penance, of course. We guess they haven't "broken away" from Rome as much as they pretend to have.

To understand the even more galling situation here with the cover-up, remember that Fellay and his group declare themselves to be "Eternal Rome," superior to the rest of the Church, calling the usual Mass that most Latin Rite Catholics around the world attend "evil" and saying they should not attend it.

They acknowledge the pope (sort of) when it's convenient but simply ignore and disobey him, prompting Pope Benedict to have officially declared that their problems are "doctrinal," not just that they prefer the Old Rite Mass. Lots of Catholics not in schism attend the Old Rite. Their followers could too, but they stick with cover-up clergy because they are "holier" and don't have their hands stained by association with Rome.

They have set up their own marriage tribunals, frequently "re-ordain" any priests who come to them because they doubt the validity of some sacraments offered in the Church. They tell their followers that they are superior in every way and manner to the actual Church — well, every way except one: sex abuse and covering it up. In that regard, they may as well be the USCCB. They collect huge amounts of money from their flock — hence the $42-million facility just opened in Kansas—yet keep from them their filthy little secret.

And that not only includes the clergy but also the enabling support mechanism around them, their communications apparatus (read department of deception) both on this side of the Atlantic, headed up by James Vogel, as well as the other side of the Atlantic. They publish duplicitous misleading statements aimed at deceiving the public — and that's when they actually deign to release a statement to the peasantry. Most of the time they just say nothing. We contacted Vogel and leadership inquiring about this case and, of course, crickets.

And then they count on their enabling U.S. Catholic internet personalities, some of whom were at the Church opening, to carry their water for them by keeping as quiet as possible on the abuse and cover-up — or even attacking other Catholic outfits who report on it. Those so-called media sites and personalities are in the tank for the SSPX, ignoring the schism, yes, but, something everyone should be able to agree on — ignoring the rape of children and, even more grotesquely, ignoring the cover-up orchestrated by Bp. Fellay and the leadership.

But hey, what's a little child rape between Latin Mass friends, right? It's one thing to rape a minor; it's another thing to cover it up, and it's an entirely different thing to enable it and deceive the public about it while pretending to be a "news outfit" in favor and support of "life." What about the lives of those children? Why aren't they ever talked about?

Why would big names in the traditional Catholic internet world be hobnobbing and rubbing elbows with the SSPX propagandists who refuse to answer media inquiries? Does the Latin Mass mean so much to them that they can simply overlook the rape of children and cover-up by the leadership?

You will search high and low on these sites, one in particular, as well as listen to others on their podcasts from their basements, and have extreme difficulty in finding any discussion or reporting on this, any of this. Yet these same figures and outfits will hammer nonstop on Francis and the awful stuff in Rome.

When an internet celebrity or a Catholic supposed media site supporting life refuses to talk about these things, they should lose your support. They cannot be trusted. This has nothing to do with schism.  It has everything to do with integrity and protecting those children and bringing to justice the bishops and clergy who continue to lie and cover all this up every day of their lives.

Everyone involved in this evil, in any way, needs to be held accountable. Anyone out there who follows such sites and personalities needs to start demanding answers to why they will not report on these evils in the SSPX while they, on the other hand, celebrate them. The double standard is atrocious.

TRANSCRIPT

The Church is in woeful condition. Anyone who denies this either likely votes Democrat or is dead — or both.

Normally, we would be extremely cautious about making a distinction between the "Church" and the "Faith," but in this case (meaning what has arisen from the current chaos), a special treatment of this is somewhat necessary. The Church is the vehicle for the Faith. It brings us the physical truths of the faith, the sacraments, as well as the intellectual life of the faith, the teachings. Likewise, theology, which plumbs the depth and mysteries of those teachings, is also transmitted via the Church.

Mind you, we are speaking here of the Church in the singular dynamic of its human composition. It's divine and mystical dynamic, that which makes it the indefectible Bride of Christ, is not what we are speaking of in this episode.

When certain individuals, be they leaders or influential lay people or those who possess some authority in the Church, go off the tracks, that does not mean the faith is wrong. It does mean those individuals are wrong — but not the Faith.

The Faith is that spiritual reality that informs your soul: your spirit, the intellect, the will, the memory. Those are the spiritual faculties we each possess and those are what the Faith works on. The Faith has the ability to seize hold of a person, illuminate his mind, properly order his will and transform him into a saint.

Normally, it is the Church that is the vehicle for the transmission of the faith — again, meaning the human dynamic. But as we have seen time and again, individual members of the Church have abused their authority and betrayed the Faith. Don't let them take you in, trample your faith or make a shipwreck of it. Errant individuals in the Church can be ignored in so far as they preach or instruct something contrary to the Faith. Their job is to transmit the Faith, not deform it.

However, given the current state of affairs, many Catholics have conflated leaders in the Church with either the Church Herself or even the Faith itself. Bad move. Mortal mistake. Don't ever leave Jesus for Judas. Don't jump off the barque, the ship of St. Peter, just because the seas are rough and you run into a drunken sailor — or even a drunken captain. The ship does not belong to them; they just have temporary custody. One day, remember, those individuals will not have custody any longer.

And this is the chief reason we must all stay on the ship and tough out the storm and fight and be men and never abandon ship. This is the theme of this year's Strength and Honor retreat and conference, our annual gathering for men we hold each year here in Detroit the first weekend of August, and this year that is Aug. 4–6. So we're highlighting this for you, so you can plan ahead and register now, damn it.

Joining us will be the world-famous Jesse Romero, kickboxer Catholic extraordinaire, as well as a first-time special panel we are hosting that we call our Catholic Young Guns.

That's a panel consisting of our own Joe Enders, host of our hit show Red Top Report, Trey Brock, a two-time all-American wide receiver for Hillsdale College and special guest John Doyle, a standing threat to all things Left, communist and woke. Also on stage will be our own no-apologies, in-your-face Simon Rafe — and little ol' gentle, meek me.

We'll have Mass at a local, historic church, confession, rosary and, of course, great talks and plenty of food because, you know, we're guys. Another feature of these events is the coming together and bonding that happens between men who look to the perfect Man, Christ, as their model, especially as He is found in His Holy Catholic Church.

Many new friendships are forged at these, as well as old ones that are renewed and rekindled. It's a great time for all involved, and this year, we're at a nice, air-conditioned banquet center — for those of you who might remember the sweltering heat under the tents last time.

We had about 250 last time around; let's shatter that record this time. Faith, friends and food — perfect. And a special note for fathers, if you have young sons, young men, bring them. The Catholic Young Guns panel will give them plenty to think about. Please click the link, and sign up now. 

TRANSCRIPT

Controversy continues swirling around Pope Francis regarding whether he is actually the pope or not.

And these questions are being fueled by online Catholic personalities who are either 1) misinformed, 2) poorly educated, or 3) a grifter happy to profit monetarily by keeping the fires of controversy stoked and all the clickbait they get from it.

Of course, it could also be some combination of those factors, but whatever the case, they keep the question of Francis' legitimacy alive.

And then, every now and then, the controversy erupts in a very pointed way. For example, Catholic internet personality Patrick Coffin has begun an online effort called "Hope Is Fuel," wherein he presents to Catholics (although anyone is welcome, presumably) various topics and speakers about the Faith and its application in all sorts of areas (mental health, for example).

But in the last week or so, various speakers and hosts began dropping out and stepping down from being presenters because of, according to them, Coffin's claim that Pope Francis is not really the pope.

Of course, the problem with that claim — and there are many problems with it — is that if he is not the pope, then who is, or is there a pope at all, and, if not, how would we ever get another pope? The Church would descend into anarchy and completely splinter apart if this were the case.

It is a very dangerous proposition to claim there is no pope when there is a man in the office who actually is the pope — and recognizing this danger is why various speakers have stepped aside from Coffin's Hope Is Fuel online effort.

Coffin, for his part, has tried to blunt the criticism, saying he is not saying there is no pope (the official term for which is "sedevacantism," Latin for "the chair is empty"). He maintains instead that it's just that Francis is an antipope.

There are a couple of problems here. First, that is not what he maintained immediately following Pope Benedict's death.

Here's his tweet: "The pope (Benedict) has entered eternity, RIP. The impeded See is now empty. May the pre-2013 cardinals do the right thing and avoid yet another antipope."

To say "the See is now empty" is the very definition of sedevacantism.

And further, to claim that Francis is an antipope underscores this by accusing Francis of being a false claimant to the Chair of Peter. So Coffin clearly believes from his own tweet that it's not just the case that Francis is an antipope, but that there is, in fact, no pope. That's why, again, various speakers have left the conference. 

It's kind of hard to square any anti-Catholic position as being "Catholic." It's the very principle at play for why we all think Nancy and Biden, along with many others, should be excommunicated. But within the Catholic internet world there are many bigger-name types who believe this, but are not quite so public and out there with it as Coffin. 

They secretly cheer the idea and promote by innuendo that Francis is, in fact, not the pope, and what's more, they get at it from different starting points. But all of them end up at the same conclusion.

Here are three separate arguments they use or imply or suggest or let hang in the air because it benefits their agenda or bottom line.

They do not believe PF is the pope because:

Depending on who you are on the Catholic internet scene, you jump into the stream of "Francis is not pope" at various points, either before, during or after his election, but the current takes you to the same point: Francis ain't the pope.

For the record, supporters and promoters of the "Francis was validly elected but is now a heretic position" are fond of quoting saints who say holding or preaching heresy disqualifies a man from being pope, without mentioning the opposing arguments from other saints and doctors who say just the opposite.

That point has never been settled in Church teaching, and for some public figures in the Church to pretend it is, is either very dishonest or massively uninformed.

In either case, they should not be presenting erroneous information to people because they simply like the conclusion because it suits their agenda of claiming some kind of strange moral high ground. Saints argued over this, but the talking heads lie to you and deceive you and allow you to think all the saints and doctors agreed. Far from it.

Those who do not know should not speak.

But in the days of the internet — well, enough said.

Another point here is this: Small-minded Catholic internet personalities can't seem to grasp that a man cannot be both pope and antipope at the same time. Coffin and various of his Catholic internet-celebrity buddies like to leave this claim floating around out there as well and, consequently, add to the confusion, just like Pope Francis adds to the confusion.

They employ his exact same method, confusion, and they denounce him for confusing people. An antipope is a false claimant to the Chair of St. Peter. You cannot hold the position (which is done as a dodge, to avoid being accused of being a sedevacantist) that man is both pope and antipope.

He is either the pope or he is not.

They deliberately conflate the notion of a "bad" pope with the idea of an antipope as though they are just different ways of saying the same thing. They are in no way related. We have had many bad popes in 2,000 years. But they were not antipopes. They were legitimate popes; they just sucked.

Likewise, we have had many antipopes in 2,000 years, but they were never the actual pope. They were the "not pope," the anti-pope. See how that works?

Bad pope does not equal antipope. They are two entirely different things.

Why is all this, any of this, so constantly bandied about in some Catholic circles? Because of the confusion that the validly elected — and still valid — Pope Francis has created by his own constant statements and appointments and so forth.

That said, it is not Catholic to move from that truth to suggest that he either never was, or no longer is the actual pope, and then construct a cottage industry whereby you get clicks and money and notoriety by pushing any of those three lines of thought, which each arrive at the same conclusion.

Francis is a crappy pope. No doubt. Church Militant was actually the first Catholic media outlet to publicly call for him to resign from the papacy, and we did it not once but twice. But nowhere did we or do we make the claim that he is not the pope, and those who do (however they pretend to argue to it) are doing tremendous damage to those who have weak faith.

They are unnecessarily planting seeds of doubt into people's minds that the Devil can then cultivate and use to destroy their faith. 

And for what? Some more clicks and revenue-generating controversy, or as a phony reason to excuse going into schism and pretending it's not schism?

Supporting schism, claiming the pope isn't really the pope for whatever reason, is no way for faithful Catholics to respond to the current crisis, even if some of it is fueled by the pope himself. Such people need to be mindful of this: Francis will one day, likely soon, no longer be the pope.

You best make sure that the scorched earth approach you are fanning the flames of does not leave so many souls in spiritual turmoil that they refuse to accept the next pope as well.

TRANSCRIPT

Barack Obama, the America-hating communist bastard that he is, is the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to this nation. He set the stage for the transformation of the country from a somewhat tattered constitutional republic to a top-down-controlled socialist state.

During his tenure, he quietly converted the intel and law enforcement agencies into his own personal police state to ensure that all political opposition would eventually be suppressed. His IRS targeted conservative groups with audits, and Church Militant was one of those organizations audited under his despotic regime.

In the summer of 2016, when the presidential campaign was in full swing, he, at the very least, went along with a plot to spy on the Trump campaign, based on totally bogus information concocted by Hillary Clinton, and unleashed the full force of the federal government against then-candidate Trump. The plan was to smear Trump so badly that he would have no chance of winning, thus giving the White House to Hillary and continuing the Obama conversion of America into a godless, socialist country.

But Trump won, and the communist applecart was completely upended, but it was just for a short while. Before he left office, Obama approved an FBI and DOJ investigation, run by his handpicked team of what would turn out to be a completely phony investigation into Trump's supposed ties to Russia. The media trumpeted it nonstop, relentlessly pounding it into people's minds with headlines that were flat-out lies. And what's worse is that they knew they were lies.

Eventually, after Trump won, his attorney general, Bill Barr, was able to appoint special counsel John Durham to investigate the phony investigation. So after almost three years, the long-awaited Durham report was released this week, and it shows every single so-called conspiracy theory about the Russia hoax has all turned out to be true.

It was a giant conspiracy to completely undermine Trump and hamper him from turning the clock back on Obama's American communism and reverse the destruction of America. It was a complete and total propaganda campaign orchestrated by a combo of the Obama White House, candidate Hillary Clinton, the Department of Justice and the FBI.

But above all, it would not have been possible and could not have gotten a single tread of traction had it not been for the promulgators of the propaganda: the national media. America is not being taken over by treasonous communists; it has been taken over. The deal is done. It's over, and what's done is done.  And remember, that point becomes clear from a report reviewing the actions of the highest of government leaders back in 2017, six years ago. You don't think it's gotten worse since then with them now controlling the White House?

At one point in his report, you can almost hear John Durham's exasperation at the inability to actually do anything about this. While reviewing the implications of his own findings, he concludes: 

The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI's guiding principles of "Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity" are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI's mission of "Protect[ing] the American People and uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States." The answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old.

In short, unless there is a change of heart, an embrace of morality by commies in control, nothing will or even can change. Don't hold your breath. But even though the report relates to events from six years ago, there is even more to fear. Never having to face the consequences of their evil, far from repenting, they persist in it. The same cast of villains went straight back to work in 2020 to undermine Trump's reelection. They were going to ensure they didn't get caught with their pants down a second time.

So they called on their media bullies to get into high gear again, colluded with every major social media platform possible and did everything they could to deny the truth of the Hunter Biden story and cover it up in order to clear the way for Biden to get into the White House. We'll skip the obvious issue about him "getting into the White House" and just say that, at the very least, the American public was denied the full truth about Joe Biden by a combination of immoral unelected government leaders colluding with giant media and social media.

If the election itself wasn't stolen, your votes certainly were through being deprived of what you needed to know. That was the whole point. America is quickly careening to its end. It was fashioned for and completely dependent on a moral people. Remove that, and it's lights out.

However, the sorriest aspect of all this is that there are still a large number of people here who do believe, but they are so wrapped up in business as usual — content to whine and kvetch about the commies but unwilling to actually sacrifice their fortunes and time to alter their lives (that's the key) to ensure some kind of turn around — that the inevitable outcome is almost a foregone conclusion.

If all this goes the way it sure looks, the sorry epitaph on America's tombstone will be "The Commies Were Allowed to Win." There are many "conservatives" I don't want in my foxhole nor will I want in my prison cell.

TRANSCRIPT

Religion, all varieties, is in a decline, a downward trajectory in America. There are many reasons for this, but one overriding one, culturally speaking, is the emergence of a belief that religion is a matter of opinion, as in personal taste. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but that is where we are as a nation.

This is not altogether surprising either. The "do your own thing" mentality from about 30 or so years ago has really set the stage for it to bleed over into religion. But in reality, all of this, in the culture and religion specifically, is owing to the heresy of Protestantism, with its "every man is his own pope" foundation.

When you tell hundreds of millions of people that the only authority is Scripture and then follow that up with "you get to interpret Scripture," well, what other outcome could you expect? Protestantism is not rooted in truth. True, it does profess some individual truths here and there, but overall, it always comes back to the proposition that when the rubber hits the road, it's how you think and feel about this or that particular Bible passage.

A recent survey by Lifeway Research, an evangelical polling outfit found the following among those polled: 60% said religious belief is "a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth." Bingo! And in reality, that number seems like it should actually be higher. Religion has become an almost strictly private matter, disconnected largely from people's interactions with others.

"You believe what you want to believe, and I'll believe what I want." Again, that is the foundational, fundamental expression of Protestantism, which helps explain why there are 40 thousand denominations of it — and counting. Since religion deals with the divine, it necessarily deals with truth, objective truth, as found in the divine, in God.

First, there is no such thing as "contradictory truths." That's impossible. There can be different ways of approaching the same truth but not different truths. For example, a team cannot both win and lose the same football game. It cannot be true that it won and lost. Sure, the victory could be examined and explored and varying views arrived at as to why it won, a good running game, great defense, whatever. But those questions all revolve around the same truth: The team won. Period.

So imagine after the game that opposing fans walked out of the stadium agreeing to believe that their team won, and the objective truth of the matter on the final scoreboard means nothing. "You have your beliefs and I have mine." It's completely stupid. Yet when it comes to eternity, this is how the overwhelming, vast majority of people lead their lives.

For example, the same survey also asked if people believed the Resurrection was/is a historical fact; did it actually happen in the material, physical world; yes or no. Sixty-six percent said yes. The remaining 34% either didn't believe it or weren't sure. But here's the kick: A majority of those who believe the Resurrection also said it doesn't impact their daily lives. Marxism and Modernism, using Protestantism, have done their work well.

What kind of jacked-up, insane world do we live in when a majority of people say they believe Jesus actually, physically rose from the dead and walked out of the tomb and yet think it doesn't have any meaning or significance to their lives? If it's true, which of course it is, it's the only thing that matters because, as St. Paul says, everything about eternal life and our beliefs ride on the historicity of the Resurrection.

But illogical thinking has not only set up camp in Protestant circles; it has also bled over extensively into Catholic circles as well. Can anyone look around the Church these days and really think that most Catholics order their lives around the objective truth of the Resurrection and everything that necessarily flows from it? Uh, no! And that includes the hierarchy, for the record as well as many clergy. How whacked in the head do you have to be to believe in the Resurrection and then simply ignore it? 

But because "religion in general" has been shoved to the margin of being simply "private opinion," there's really no other outcome that can be expected. In the vast majority of cases, people don't want to accept objective truth because that means they would have to change their lives, their moral choices, and that they do not want to do.

For a few, a handful, it might be more of a matter of intellectual pride, not wanting to admit the sheer logic of Catholicism, but those are somewhat rare birds. For most, there is a correct intuition that "religious beliefs" have a constraining effect on moral choices, and they simply do not want to be bound if they want to do what they want to do.

So they play a head game and reduce objective truth to a matter of just personal preference or opinion. When morality becomes nothing more than individual tastes, the culture disintegrates. Look around and behold a culture disintegrating.