by Jonathan Ekene Ifeanyi
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Francis |
February 11, 2013, the day we all woke up to hear Pope Benedict XVI announcing
his intention to “resign”, remains historic. It’s historic because the
papacy—office of the pope—is monarchical and the very idea of a pope resigning, let alone doing so falsely, is simply abnormal. (For my father’s interesting reaction to the news,
an article on the FALSE “resignation”, see: How
Pope Ratzinger messed up the papacy!).
On February 28, 2013, to the immense consternation of conscious Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI actually did “resign” and
subsequently, a papal conclave “elected” a new pope as his successor on 13
March, 2013. The original name of the
new “pope” is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but his “papal” name is Francis. Just
within some months, however, Francis intentionally
began to scandalise Catholics. For instance on Holy Thursday of 2013 Francis
adamantly ignored the normal traditional practice of washing the feet of 12
men—a practice originated by Jesus Christ Himself who washed the feet of His 12
apostles, ALL MEN—choosing instead to include women in the washing! Conscious Catholics had no doubt that the action was a real scandal, and they
were still discussing it when the man began to manifest his main true colours.
Apart from innumerable terribly blasphemous statements which he began to dish
out almost on daily basis, such as saying that the cross of Jesus was a
“failure”, all of which are simply impossible to document here, it may suffice
to mention only the following:
First,
shortly after the so-called resignation of Pope Benedict XVI a thunder struck the
Vatican. (And something similar was to happen a year later when “Pope” Francis
visited Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and days later,
a fire broke out at the scene).
Then shortly after “Pope” Francis’ “election” in March (2013) the Grand Master Gustavo Raffi
of the Grand Orient Masonic Lodge of Italy—a very powerful Secret
Society—praised the “election”, writing, “With Pope Francis, nothing
will be as it was before”. Later, Francis himself “joked” with the
cardinals who “elected” him, saying: “May
God forgive you for what you have done”.
On March 16, 2013, “Pope” Francis reportedly said, “Carnival
time is over!” when offered the traditional papal red cape after
his “election”.
On May 22, 2013, “Pope” Francis said that atheists who do good are redeemed. In other
words don’t just bother about believing in God—just do good and that’s enough.
“We all have the duty to do good”, he said. “For Atheists: Just do good and we’ll
find a meeting point”.
On
September 04, 2013, “Pope” Francis vomited a similar error, saying: “The issue for those who do not believe in
God is in obeying their own conscience”. (Of course he was defended by
many who argued that he wasn’t really saying that atheists shouldn’t be
converted to the Catholic Faith). Then on October 01, 2013 “Pope” Francis
contradicted his defenders by stating clearly that “Proselytism (the idea of converting unbelievers to the Christian or
Catholic Faith) is solemn nonsense”. “...It makes no sense”, he said. “We need to get to know each other, listen to
each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us”. (See: Pope Solemn Nonsense ).
On
October 9, 2014, “Pope” Francis said, in an interview: “But God does not exist: Do not be
shocked! So God does not exist! There is the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, they are persons, they are not some vague idea in the clouds …
This God spray does not exist! The three persons exist!” Again, he said: “I believe in God, not in a Catholic
God. There is no Catholic God...You know what I think about this? Heads of
the Church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their
courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy”. Francis further
stated on the same day that “The most
serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth
unemployment and the loneliness of the old.” (See: Pope Francis: The ‘most serious’ evils are ‘youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old’).
On July 29, 2013, when asked about the scandals of homosexual
“priests”, Francis replied: “Who am I to
judge?” Again, as usual, some—including Anthony Cardinal Okogie of Nigeria—defended
him, arguing that his words should be studied in their “context”. Then again,
on March 10, 2014, “Pope” Francis contradicted his
defenders by stating that
“the Catholic Church should not dismiss gay marriage, but should study
it”. He was still defended by some, in fact, even after demonstrating to
his dumb defenders what he really meant on the day he visited the United
States, in 2015, when—AMONG ALL American Catholics—only a notorious homosexual
man, named Morocca, was found worthy to serve as a “lector” during his
diabolical “Papal Holy Mass”.
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Morocca (middle) |
Of
course it should be noted that Bergoglio, as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, had
been championing the so-called gay-rights—that is, even before he invaded the
Vatican. He was quoted in favour of “gay rights” while he was the Archbishop of
Buenos Aires. And don't just take my word for it—read it yourself. (See: EL PAPA APOYÓ LA UNIÓN CIVIL ENTRE HOMOSEXUALES: ACTIVISTAS ARGENTINOS).
Bergoglio’s words: “estoy
a favor de los derechos de los homosexuales y en cualquier caso, también apoyo
las uniones civiles de los homosexuales, pero creo que Argentina no está lista
para el matrimonio legal.”
Translated: “I'm in favour
of gay rights and in any case, also support civil unions for homosexuals, but I
think Argentina is not ready for legal marriage”. And the Cardinals who
pioneered his “election” as pope were perfectly aware of all these; in fact
they “elected” him because he holds all these beliefs.
On September 11, 2013, “Pope” Francis implied that
the sinless Blessed Virgin Mary has ‘defects’, saying, “The Church and the Virgin Mary are
mothers…All mothers have defects, we all have defects, but when we speak
of our mother’s defects we gloss over them”. (Note that this is a blatant heresy because
it simply contradicts the Church’s defined dogma of the Immaculate Conception
and Francis was perfectly aware of that). On December 20,
2013, “Pope” Francis, again speaking of the sinless Blessed Virgin Mary,
said: “Our Lady was human! And
perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ ”
On September 13, 2013, “Pope” Francis said that the
Catholic Church “is obsessed with
gays, abortion, and birth control”. “It is not necessary to talk about these
issues all the time”, he said “...We
have to find a new balance”. To really prove what he meant, in 2015—at
a time when America under corrupt Barrack Obama legalised homosexuality,
abortion and the like—Francis visited the United States, where he spoke to all
those responsible for all the legalisations. Judy Meisner, my FB friend (a
professor of psychology), made the following interesting observation on Francis’ speech before the Congress—those championing
the evils—in the United States:
“ISSUES COVERED IN FRANCIS' SPEECH
BEFORE CONGRESS (In numbers):
Number of times Francis referred to
himself: 43
Number of times Francis attacked the
death penalty: 2
Number of times Francis condemned the
Christian Holocaust in the Middle East: ZERO!
Number of times Francis condemned the
crime of abortion: ZERO!
Number of times Francis condemned the
crime of adoption of abandoned and orphaned by homosexuals: ZERO!
Number of times Francis mentioned
Marriage as the union of a husband and a wife: ZERO!
Now for the REAL CLINCHER: Number of
times Francis mentioned Jesus Christ: ZERO!
Whose Vicar is he? Am I missing
something?”
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Francis and Obama |
Similarly, in July 2014, “Pope”
Francis gave his Top 10 List on how to be happy—he never mentioned
Jesus Christ even once. (Reported by NATIONAL CATHOLIC
REPORTER, July 27, 2014).
On April 23, 2014, “Pope” Francis phoned a woman in invalid
marriage, telling her it’s okay to take Holy Communion. “A little Bread and Wine does no harm”, he
said. The woman’s diocesan priest protested and Francis replied saying: “There are some priests who are more papist than the Pope” (April
24, 2014).
Carefully note that Francis’ support of “married priests” is
not a news. Before he invaded the Vatican, he had been notorious for
encouraging priests to leave the priesthood if they fall in love, and divorce
as well. For instance in a private conversation with his
longtime friend from Buenos Aires, Oscar Crespo, Francis reportedly revealed
his plans to change important “archaic” parts of the Catholic rules. Crespo
says “the Pope” intends to overturn the “centuries-old ban” on Catholic priests
from getting married and to lift the banishment of divorcees from the Catholic Church.
Crespo claims Francis
told him “six years ago”, when “the Pope” was archbishop of Buenos Aires, that
the ban on priests getting married was not “doctrine”. (See: Pope Francis wants to change two major Catholic laws he sees as 'archaic' ).
As Bergoglio
himself, before invading the Vatican, said in “Conversations”, (pp.
118-119): “There are times when a priest
does fall in love and must reassess his vocation and his life. Then he must go
to the bishop and tell him, ‘I’ve made up my mind… I didn’t know I was going to
feel something so beautiful… I truly love this woman’, and he asks to leave the
priesthood”.
And what do
you do in these cases?
Bergoglio (“Pope”
Francis) says: “I stay with him; I
accompany him on his spiritual journey. If he is sure of his decision, I even
help him find work… We request what is called ‘dispensation,’ permission from
Rome, and then he would be allowed to receive the sacrament of marriage.”
So Francis
will help a man who took a permanent vow of chastity before God to break his
vow and leave the priesthood! (Of course he will, since he doesn’t believe in a
Catholic God). The Catholic Church has never allowed a priest to leave the
priesthood and get married. This is a heretical invention promoted after
Vatican II. Celibacy, in
fact, has existed in one form or another throughout history and in virtually
all the major religions of the world. It was common in the ancient world—when
men were really religious and pious—to view sexual power as a rival to
religious power, and the sexuality of the opposite sex as a polluting factor,
especially in sacred or crisis situations. Even in the Old Testament times,
there were prescribed periods of sexual abstinence in connection with rituals
and sacrifices and the prosecution of holy wars. Hence we learn that King David—at
a time when a war was going on between Israel and Rabba—after committing
adultery with Urias’ wife, Bethsabee, and learning that she had become pregnant,
sent for her husband, Urias, who was among those fighting the war, and tried different
means of sending him to his house to sleep with his wife but in vain. “And Urias said to David: “The ark of God
and Israel and Juda dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my
lord abide upon the face of the earth: and shall I go into my house, to eat and
to drink, and to sleep with my wife? By thy welfare and by the welfare of thy
soul I will not do this thing”. (2 Kings 11: 1-11). In post-Old Testament
times, some members of the Essenes, according to the Jewish historian Josephus,
rejected marriage, and the medieval Talmudic scholar Ben Azzai remained
celibate. Our Lord Himself, speaking of celibacy, said, “...there are eunuchs, who have made themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it”.
(Matthew 19:12). The origin of priestly celibacy goes back to the
first apostles of Christ who, for the sake of God’s kingdom, gave up marriage. As
we read in the Gospel: “Then Peter
answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee:
what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the
regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you
also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every
one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, OR
WIFE, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold,
and shall possesses life everlasting”. (Matthew 19:27-29). St. Paul, who
was celibate, writes: “…It is good for a
man not to touch a woman…For I would that all men were even as myself: but
every one hath his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another
after that.” (1 Corinthians 9:1&7).
“A priest”, says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “may be defined as one who, as a mediator,
performs the sacred function of communicating through rites the needs of the
people to heaven and the sacred power and presence from heaven to the
congregation. His function is objective. Its efficacy is assured if the priest
conducts the proper rite and has the proper qualifications of ordination and,
perhaps, of ritual purity, regardless of whether he is particularly moral or
fervent. Celibacy serves as such an objective mark of special state and ritual
purity.” The point to note here is that the main purpose of priestly
celibacy is ritual purity required
for sacerdotal rites—this is different from another type of celibacy associated
with monasticism, the main purpose of which is moral and
spiritual advancement. Today we are often given the false impression (by some
perverts among the clergy who, like Martin Luther who renounced his vow of
celibacy and married the former nun Katherina von Bora,
are intoxicated with sex) that “Well, celibacy is not a dogma. Priests in the early centuries were
married and priests today can still marry.” But the fact is that, even at
the so-called “time when priests were married”, it was common for ordained men
to give up sexual relations with their wives. In fact the reason why some of
them had wives in the first place was because they had been married before they
took the decision to become priests—so having become priests, some gave up
their wives. (Matthew 19:12; 27-29). (Such actions are unthinkable today only
become modern men and women have become extraordinarily
canal—intoxicated with sex!). These perverts will never mention the
regional Council of Elvira in Spain (c. AD 306)
which decreed that all priests and bishops, married or
not, should abstain from sexual relations—or the ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325) which forbade priests to live with women other
than their mothers, sisters, or aunts.
Note that all I’ve been describing took place between the
apostolic times and the fourth century. Thus when Pope St. Gregory VII
championed the compulsory clerical celibacy in the 11th century, it wasn’t
really seen as something new. Celibacy, then, was only made a part of church
law—at the first and second Lateran Councils (1123 and
1139) which abolished clerical marriage and thus established the official and
still-existing position of the Roman Catholic Church.
|
Cardinal Onaiyekan |
Nigerian
Novus Ordo priests and bishops have unanimously condemned the current push to
abolish priestly celibacy—which they describe as a “selfish and parochial idea”.
(See: ANTI-CELIBACY PUSH: NIGERIAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS KICK ).
But that is not enough—if they don’t stop behaving like cowards and condemn the
originator of the scandal himself, namely “Pope” Francis, they are in no way
free.
As for Crespo’s testimony
that “the Pope” intends to lift the banishment of divorcees from the Catholic
church, we have already seen that in action—in Francis’ latest scandalous Amoris Laetitia which champions reception of Holy Communion by divorcees,
and we have also seen his championing of divorce in his 2015 Motu Proprio which “allows”
local bishops to grant uncontested divorce (deceptively called annulments) to
married couples within 45 days!
On
June 6, 2013, in a private audience with the board of The Latin American
and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women, “Pope” Francis said: “There are some restorationist groups. I
know some. It fell upon me to receive them in Buenos Aires. And one feels as if
one goes back 60 years! Before the Council… One feels in 1940… An anecdote,
just to illustrate this, it is not to laugh at it, I took it with respect,
but it concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of
these groups, and they said: “Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual
treasure: 3,525 rosaries.” Why don't they say, ‘we pray for you, we ask…’, but
this thing of counting… And these groups return to practices and to disciplines
that I lived through – not you, because you are not old – to disciplines,
to things that in that moment took place, but not now, they do not exist
today…”
So
here is a “pope” who not only doesn’t believe in praying the Rosary—the
greatest Catholic prayer after the Holy Mass—but makes a mockery of those who
pray it.
“…Evolution
in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution
requires the creation of beings that evolve,” he said. But on the Bible: On
June 29, 2014, when asked about misogyny and women in the Church, Francis—referring
to the biblical account of God’s creation of woman, Gen. 2: 21-23, said: “The fact is that woman was taken from a rib
… (he laughed strongly). I’m
kidding, that’s a joke. I agree that the question of women must be
explored more deeply, otherwise one cannot understand the Church herself.” (IL MESSAGGERO).
Similarly, on June 2,
2013, “Pope” Francis, speaking about Jesus
multiplying the bread and fish, said: “Here’s the miracle, that it
is more a sharing than a multiplying”!
Carefully note that even when Francis
talks about “Jesus”, it is NOT the Jesus of Scripture we all know but a
radically different one. His “Jesus” is not God but man. For example on October 28, 2014, “Pope”
Francis said: “Jesus prays to the
Father for us”. (NEWS.VA). This statement is
subtly blasphemous. Jesus is God, so He doesn’t pray for anybody, rather we
humans pray to Him, and the saints and the Virgin Mary pray to the Father, to
Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit for us.
On June
13, 2014, Francis said, on Pope Benedict
XVI’s “Resignation”:
“Pope Benedict has made
a very significant act. He has opened the door, has created an
institution, that of the eventual popes emeritus. 70 years ago, there were
no emeritus bishops. Today how many are there? Well, as we live longer, we
arrive to an age where we cannot go on with things. I will do the same as him,
asking the Lord to enlighten me when the time comes and that he tell me what I
have to do, and he will tell me for sure.” (Reported by CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY).
On July 9, 2014, at a private lunch “Pope”
Francis told Brian Stiller of World Evangelical Alliance: “I’m not interested
in converting evangelicals to Catholicism. I want people to find Jesus in their
own community. There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let’s
not spend our time on those. Rather, let’s be about showing the love of Jesus.” (Reported by WORLD
EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE). (The Nigerian Novus
Ordo clergy who promote FALSE ECUMENISM will of course have no problem with
this!) Hence we have seen “Pope”
Francis canonising the arch-heretic and blasphemer Martin Luther—Martin Luther
who broke away from the Catholic Church in a schism 500 years ago. Just early
this month Francis’ Satanic Vatican declared that Catholics should now see Martin Luther as “a witness to the Gospel”. Martin
Luther, the demon-possessed Monster who
pioneered the Protestant revolt that led to the division of Christianity in the
sixteenth century and consequently the fragmentation of “churches” we see
everywhere in today’s world, a disgraceful fragmentation which causes so
many unbelievers in our time not to take the Christian Faith seriously and
to scorn the very idea of being converted to the Faith; Martin Luther who
declared that the papacy (office of the pope) was “founded by the devil” and that the pope himself is the “antichrist”—as he wrote: “Seeing the pope is antichrist, I believe
him to be a devil incarnate...”; Martin Luther who not only condemned the
papacy, but also condemned Catholicism completely—he referred to Catholics as
the “papists”, and condemned them together with the entire Church: ‘‘They that do not hold the sacrament as
Christ instituted it, have no sacrament. All papists do not, therefore
they have no sacrament; for they receive not the sacrament, but offer it...The
sacrament is God's work and ordinance, and not man's,’’ he wrote. This
Martin Luther, says current Satanic Vatican, should now be recognised by
Catholics as a “Witness to the Gospel”!
In a similar development, the Vatican office
charged with issuing stamps, known as the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, confirmed Tuesday, January 17, to
LifeSiteNews that Martin Luther will be celebrated with a postage stamp in
2017. The office is in charge of the annual commission of stamps, coins, and
other commemorative medals. Please note that usually if individuals are
commemorated on stamps they are saints, so Francis is indeed canonising Martin
Luther. This is not a mere joke. Francis believes that anybody—Catholic or
non-Catholic—can be canonised a saint. For instance on October 13, 2016, a day Catholics were supposed to
commemorate the 99th anniversary of the Fatima apparition, “Pope” Francis intentionally
ignored the event but rather went to Sweden to honour the Arch-heretic and
blasphemer, Martin Luther. Now during in his speech at Sweden Francis said
(referring to “St.” Martin Luther): “Both in the Lutheran and Catholic Churches there are
saints, men and women with a holy heart who follow the Gospel: they are the
Church’s reformers.” Francis’ honouring of Martin Luther—both last year and this year—is
indeed “special”, trumping even significant events in the Catholic Church such
as the 100-year anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and the
300-year anniversary of our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil. (See: Yesterday, Francis
managed to spit into the faces: of Our Lord, of the Blessed Ever Virgin Mary,
of past popes, and of the entire Church)
Kindly note that Novus Ordo priests usually don’t see anything
wrong in this canonising of Luther. This is because these priests were taught
in the Protestantised seminaries where they were trained that Luther was indeed
a great theologian. As one Protestant historian (lecturing in a Catholic
seminary) who read my book ‘Telling The
Truth’ remarked when we met in the university some years ago: “Oh your book is good....except I’m
surprised to hear that Martin Luther is a heretic!” When I responded he
said, “See, Mr Jonathan Ifeanyi, I have a
lot of friends who are Catholic priests. They don’t say things like these.”
What many dumb “Catholics” don’t understand is that these
priests are being trained almost like the Protestant “clergy”, and that’s why
they all have a FALSE UNDERSTANDING of Catholicism and in fact are even worse
than Protestants in their behaviours. You will always observe this in the way
many of them pray (screaming and shouting, “speaking in tongues”...“in Jesus’ name, Amen”, “it will be well with you!”, all about
God’s blessings and prosperity for infidel “Catholics”,...no asking of God’s
forgiveness for their massive sins and those of their victims, etc.), and in their
purely Protestant understanding of the Holy Mass (Rev. Sisters can also give
Holy Communion, altar girls and women lay readers are excellent achievements of
Vatican II, etc.). And it seems the Nigerian situation is simply the worst.
Hence while “Pope” Francis is busy demolishing the Church, these priests are
equally busy telling their poor victims that all is well. In several places—particularly
in this January—many of them are busy organising “prayer seminars” where they
pray and “prophesy” to their poor victims that they will prosper in this new
year 2017.
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"Catholics" the world over have advanced more than the Pentecostals, the Nigerian situation being the worst! |
The errors and blatant heresies of “Pope” Francis go on and
on and are quite impossible to document here. For the first time in history,
the world has seen this “pope of mercy” who blasphemes as he likes; a “pope of
mercy” who keeps advancing the “gospel of mercy” through deception, dishonesty,
manipulation, and lies; a “pope of mercy” who blesses public sinners such as homosexuals and the
abortionists—a “pope of mercy” who does not judge them, but who, at the same
time, never hesitates to drive away from the Vatican conservative churchmen who
dare to uphold the true Catholic Faith, and in fact, who has sacked many others,
and so on.
|
Cardinal Burke |
Conscious Catholics
have been discussing the scandals of this “pope of mercy” since 2013 when he
was “elected”, wondering what was actually the real intention of the cardinals
who pioneered his “election”, and what the hell some good Cardinals in Rome are
doing right now even while the man is really CONSCIOUSLY destroying the
Catholic Faith. As US Cardinal, Raymond Cardinal Burke, was forced to testify
in an interview recently:
“...everywhere I go — and I travel a lot
now — everywhere I go people are saying: 'What's wrong with you Cardinals?
There are these serious questions, and yet you remain silent. You don't say
anything.' And they’re correct. If we were to remain silent, it would most
definitely give the idea to the faithful that everything is fine. But
everything is not fine.”
Tragically,
it is only in Nigeria—where “Catholics” worship money and the personalities
instead of God—that such questions are not being asked.
Conscious
Catholics outside Nigeria have been asking these questions
until the issue of Amoris Laetitia came up just last year. Amoris Laetitia (Latin: “The Joy of Love”), is a post-synodal
“apostolic exhortation” written by “Pope” Francis, dated 19 March 2016, which was
released on 8 April 2016. The document follows the so-called Synods on the
Family (called by Francis himself and held in 2014 and 2015). It focuses on
several of the issues of contemporary morality and church practice that had
proved contentious during the third extraordinary and the
fourteenth ordinary synods’ presentations and discussions, surrounding
access to communion, divorce, sexual mores, and “pastoral practice”. Major
controversy erupted at the end of 2016 when four courageous Cardinals formally
asked “Pope” Francis for clarifications, particularly on the issue of giving Holy
Communion (Body of Christ) to Catholics living in a state of adultery—the
so-called “divorced and civilly remarried Catholics”—which the document champions.
The four Cardinals initially wrote the letter to “Pope” Francis privately in
September 2016 asking the supposed “pope” to clarify grave errors in his
document but they were ignored by him. Consequently—after waiting for Francis’
response for about two months but in vain—they
courageously decided to make the matter public by releasing their letter with
an explanatory note giving the faithful the opportunity to see their grave
concerns. The Cardinals are: Raymond Cardinal Burke (quoted above, from the
United States), Walter
Cardinal Brandmüller (from Germany), Carlo Cardinal Caffarra
(from Italy), and Joachim Cardinal Meisner (from Germany). The letter is called
“Dubia”. “Dubia” (from the Latin:
“doubts”) are formal questions brought before the Pope and to the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith asking for clarifications on particular issues
concerning doctrine or practice. What is peculiar about these inquiries is that they
are worded in a way that requires a “yes” or “no” answer, without theological
argumentation. This way of addressing the Apostolic See is not an invention of
the cardinals, but an age-old practice in the Church. (For the Letter, see: On the "Open Letter" to Francis by the four cardinals).
On
why they wrote the letter, Raymond Cardinal Burke explains in an interview:
“To
understand the present publication, we need to consider what has led up to it.
“Just after
his election, in his first Sunday Angelus message, Pope Francis praised
Cardinal Walter Kasper’s understanding of mercy, which is a fundamental theme
in Amoris Laetitia. Only a
few months later, the Vatican announced an Extraordinary Synod about Marriage
and Family for October 2014.
“In
preparation for the Synod, I, along with four other Cardinals, an Archbishop,
and three theologians, published a book, Remaining in the Truth of Christ. As a member of the Synod, I
noted that the mid-term report lacked a solid foundation in Sacred Scripture
and the Tradition of the Church. Later, I agreed with other Cardinals that
there was manipulation in the running of the Synod itself, and in the writing
of the final report of the Synod.
“Prior to the
2015 Synod, to which I was not invited, eleven Cardinals contributed to a book
about marriage and the family. Although I did not contribute to this book, I
read it with a great interest. Also prior to the 2015 Ordinary Synod on the
Family, over 790,000 Catholics signed a “Filial Appeal” to Pope Francis about
the future of the family, asking him to say “a clarifying word” to dissipate
the “widespread confusion” about Church teaching. Along with other Cardinals, I
was a signatory. During the 2015 session of the Synod, thirteen
Cardinal-participants signed a letter to the Pope indicating their concern
about the manipulation of the process of the Synod.
“In April
2016, Pope Francis published Amoris
Laetitia as the fruit of the 2014 and 2015 sessions of the Synod of
Bishops. In the summer of 2016, forty-five academics, including some prelates,
wrote to the Holy Father and to the College of Cardinals, asking the Pope to
repudiate a list of erroneous propositions that can be drawn from portions
of Amoris Laetitia. This
received no public response.
“On 29
August, 2016, I joined many bishops, priests, and lay faithful in signing
a Declaration of Fidelity to the
Church’s Teaching on Marriage and to Her Uninterrupted Discipline. This
also has received no public response.
“My position
is that Amoris Laetitia is
not Magisterial because it contains serious ambiguities that confuse people and
can lead them into error and grave sin. A document with these defects cannot be
part of the Church’s perennial teaching. Because that is the case, the Church
needs absolute clarity regarding what Pope Francis is teaching and
encouraging.”
And
what has been the response of “outspoken” clerics in Nigeria such as Cardinal
Okogie, Bishop Kukah and others?
Recently, I stated the following in one of my online articles
in which I tried comparing the beliefs of Cardinal Okogie and Cardinal Burke (one
of the Dubia Cardinals just quoted):
“Cardinal Okogie, like “Pope Francis”, believes in giving
Holy Communion to public sinners. I’m not saying merely what I heard, but what
I actually witnessed—like the case of a notorious homosexual receiving Holy
Communion regularly in his own parish some years back. Anyone who doesn’t see
any “big deal” in giving Holy Communion to a homosexual will equally not be
embarrassed if a “pope” gives the same Communion to public adulterers. Cardinal
Burke, on the contrary, is opposed to this evil practice—which is why he participated
in writing the Dubia anyway. Burke is also famously known to have refused
Communion to the abortionist presidential candidate John Kerry, in 2004.
“Cardinal Okogie usually doesn’t care when the Church is
suffering, as we can see in the case of “Pope” Francis who has tormented the
Church for over three years now. But the same Cardinal has criticised virtually
ALL Nigerian Presidents—from Babangida in the 1980s to Abacha in the ’90s, then
Obasanjo, Yar’adua, Jonathan, and now Buhari in the 2000s—just to mention those
I can easily recall. He is always one of the firsts to find faults in any
administration. His 2016 Open Letter to President Mohammadu Buhari is just an
example of what I’m talking about. (See: Cardinal Anthony Okogie writes open letter to President Buhari
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Cardinal Okogie |
“So why has the same Cardinal, who is always the first to see
the evil in any government in Nigeria, never seen any evil in “Pope” Francis
and his disastrous “pontificate”? Why is Cardinal Okogie, a Prince of the
Church, busy writing an open letter (on hunger and bad leadership!) to the
Nigeria’s President even while his own house (the Church) is on fire? Which is
more evil—Buhari’s bad leadership which only results to temporal hunger
affecting the body, or “Pope” Francis’ poisonous pontificate of disaster which
kills both body and soul?”
Tell me, after the reading,
if you still doubt why a critic like the Cardinal never bothers to condemn any
of the monumental evils in “Pope” Francis’ pontificate of disaster. For
my humble response to that article, see: No, Cardinal Okogie, Homosexuals Deserve No Respect!
On Bishop Kukah who is also a “critic” and one of the famous
Catholic bishops in Nigeria, I wrote, in the same online article:
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Kukah |
“Bishop
Kukah—one of the worst enemies of Catholicism in Nigeria—who goes about
criticising Buhari’s government even while rejoicing over “Pope” Francis who
“has opened to the world the real face of the Catholic Church”, is indeed a
source of temptation. I can’t waste my time on him because he is simply
annoying. For Kukah’s lauding of Francis, see (online): ‘Pope
Francis: A Pope For All Seasons’; and
for his political jargon, see: POPE
FRANCIS VS BISHOP KUKAH ON CORRUPTION,
written by a non-Catholic observer!”
Just like Kukah and Okogie, almost all other Novus Ordo priests
and bishops in Nigeria also follow the teachings of “Pope” Francis—confusing
their poor victims with these teachings. This attitude—the blind leading the blind—is, indeed, a tragedy for the Catholic
Faith in Nigeria.
Recently, in a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated in a Catholic
Church in Lagos State, (Church of the Assumption in Falomo), a lady said the
following during their Protestant “Prayer of the Faithful”:
“Let us pray for all
the new changes that are being introduced into the Church right now, that we
may not feel hurtful about these changes but see God’s hand in them, and accept
them as new means of spreading God’s kingdom. We pray oh Lord!” And the congregation answered: “Lord hear our prayer!”