The Forces of Evil Will Not Prevail - Public Resistance to Error Grows

Torch of The Faith News on Monday 09 February 2015 - 15:59:13 | by admin

Rorate Caeli has provided a full translation of Cardinal Burke's interview, which aired on France 2 yesterday. During the interview, the American cardinal gave a very clear affirmation that he will continue to defend the true teachings of the Church on marriage and family. Key quotes include:-

On Divorce and on Homosexuality

''I cannot accept that Communion be given to a person living in an irregular union, because it is adultery. On the matter of persons of the same sex, this has nothing to do with matrimony. This is a suffering that some persons have, of being attracted - against nature, sexually - to persons of the same sex. Those people, we must help them to live chastely. But there is no relation to marriage and family, it is a separate issue.''

On the Nature of the Papacy

''The classic formulation is that, 'the Pope has the plenitude, the fullness of power.' This is true. But it is not absolute power. His power is at the service of the doctrine of the Faith. And thus, the Pope does not have the power to change teaching, doctrine.'' 

On his response if Pope Francis were to continue on the present path

''I will resist. I cannot do anything else. There is no doubt that this is a difficult time, this is clear, this is clear.'' 

Whether the Catholic Church as an institution is under threat

Having acknowledged that this is a painful and worrisome time, His Eminence replied: ''The Lord assured us, as He assured St. Peter in the Gospel, that the forces of evil will not prevail - non praevalebunt, we say in Latin. That the forces of evil will not achieve, let us say, victory over the Church.''

Another high-ranking prelate has also spoken out in defence of the Magisterium's constant teaching on marriage and family. Poland's Archbishop Henryk Hoser told Niedziela that he expects a big and important battle to take place at the next Rome Synod in October.

  

His Grace explained: ''I tell you most brutally, the Church has betrayed John Paul II''... ''Not the Church as the Bride of Christ. Not the Church of our Credo, because John Paul II was an expression, an authentic voice of the Church; but it is the pastoral practice that has betrayed John Paul II.''

We at Torch of The Faith would perhaps add that there is much more than St. John Paul II being betrayed here. As we've noted a number of times since the autumn, the events of the Synod last October were merely the symptoms of a deeper malaise; they are the bad fruits and shoots of diseased roots. The real cause of the problem is the gradual triumph of Modernism and its pervasive attempts to sideline the Blessed Trinity, the truth about Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacred Priesthood called to offer It, and the constant Tradition of the Magisterium. If St. John Paul II's teaching is being rejected, this is only because the teachings of Blessed Pope Pius IX, St. Pope Pius X and Pope Leo XIII - to name a select few - were ignored first. 

These things being said, we totally agree with the thrust of Archbishop Hoser's comments. He is particularly prescient in his observation that family breakdown has been exacerbated by the failure of Church leaders to embrace and implement St. John Paul II's teachings in Familiaris Consortio and its orthodox approach to family formation in parish, school, pre-marriage preparation and support groups for married couples and families. 

We have often highlighted here - and over on the Protect the Pope website last February - the fact that widespread rejection of St. John Paul II's reaffirmation of Church teaching on marriage and sexual ethics is a key factor in the massive challenges now threatening the Church's mission for souls. Indeed, dissent has reached such power that the Church Herself is threatened (in so far as this is possible in God's permitting will).

As we write this, public resistance to the Bergoglian ideology being manipulated through the Synodal processes is growing still further. In addition to the clear words of Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Hoser, the on-line petition of the Filial Appeal to Pope Francis has reached 75,500 signatures from concerned Catholics throughout the world.

We too feel something of the pain and the worry alluded to by His Eminence, Cardinal Raymond Burke. Indeed, we have done so in increasing degrees since Kasper first announced his dark 'hypothesis' almost one year ago.

There is a real danger that the Synod of 2015 will not only break out into open confrontation. The spectre of a real schism in the Church also looms. Such an outcome would not only be confusing and spiritually dangerous to many souls. It could lead to more than the present 'soft-persecution,' which has been endured for decades by orthodox Catholics in many diocesan curial establishments, parishes, schools and seminaries. 

The powerful movers in world events, seeing a house divided - between those wanting to embrace the re-alignment of the Church with their own secularist mores and those hoping to remain faithful to Christ - may join in with more 'hard' forms of persecution against those they consider to be stubborn resisters of the new order. 

Already we see Catholics, and other Christians, being closed down, sacked, fined, suspended or sidelined on an increasingly regular basis for being supposedly 'homophobic' or 'intolerant'. Only last week some Christian bakers in Oregon were fined $150,000 for refusing to make a cake for a homosexual 'wedding'. 

When one factors in the popularity which Pope Francis has cultivated with government leaders, atheists, transgenders, homosexuals and those seeking a merger of all religions into one, then awareness of the present dangers facing orthodox Catholics becomes particularly acute. In the emerging cultural climate, to be 'more Catholic than the Pope' could be interpreted - and punished - as a form of religious extremism.

We do not say these things merely to be sensationalist or scary. But it would take some real ostrich behaviour to ignore these emerging dangers and threats. 

Cardinal Burke reminded his hearers, through the France 2 interview, that in the end Christ has promised that the forces of evil will not prevail. Let us pray then that the True Faith will again be faithfully affirmed and lived for the glory of God, the salvation of souls, the good of the Church and the well-being of human society.

Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!   

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