As most readers are likely aware, a signature drive with the name “Filial Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis” has practically gone viral; petitioning the pope “to reaffirm categorically the Catholic teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics cannot receive Holy Communion and that homosexual unions are contrary to Divine and natural law.”
As of this writing, the drive has garnered over 76,000 signatures, some of which are from people I admire.
Mine, however, is not one of them.
I realize that this post isn’t likely to win many new friends, especially among those who, with good intentions, forked over their name and email address to the anonymous creators of this operation, but hey, someone has to deliver the unwelcome news:
At best, the so-called “Filial Appeal” is a monumental waste of time; at worst, it unwittingly undermines the very thing it proposes to accomplish.
Before we get to that, however, let’s talk about the petition itself.
There’s reason to believe that the author of the text may not be a native English speaker, so perhaps a little leeway is in order. Even so, it’s a terrible read.
Most annoying of all is its use of the capital “Y” in “You” every time it addresses Pope Francis directly, as if referring to the Almighty Himself. Perhaps this is a norm in some other languages. Who knows?
(NOTE TO WHOEVER WROTE THAT TEXT: The last thing this pope needs is an ego boost.)
In truth, the entire thing could be reworded simply to say:
Dear Pope Francis, please be Catholic. Thank you.
As it is, the “Appeal” informs the pope of “widespread confusion arising from the possibility that a breach has been opened within the Church that would accept adultery,” asking him to remedy the situation.
Seriously?
Every interested party with a middle school education knows very well that Pope Francis is the author of that would-be breach, and furthermore, he seems Hell bent and determined to exploit it as far as the Lord will allow.
So, what’s the danger in just signing the petition anyway?
Let’s think this through logically:
We’re living in the midst of a disastrous pontificate that shows forth every indication of going from bad to worse before it mercifully comes to an end.
Why is this so?
In part because we have a pope who appears determined to circumvent Catholic doctrine under the guise of “pastoral concerns;” even going so far as to tell the Synod bishops, “the Church must listen to the beat of this age.”
In other words, we have a Roman Pontiff who seems to put more stock in the emotionally charged opinions of broken people persisting in sinful lifestyles than he does in the immutable voice of Christ as made known in the tradition of the Church.
So, how shall we respond?
Well, by joining a petition drive calling on the pope to listen to us, of course!
It’s as if we’re saying, “Hey, we’re part of the ‘beat of this age’ too; in fact, we already number nearly one-ten-thousandth of one percent of the world’s one billion Catholics, and we’re just getting started!”
All levity aside, the point is rather simple:
The Bishop of Rome is not, contrary to his own dangerous behavior, like a local alderman who is called to govern according to the concerns of his constituents. That’s the problem.
Petitioning him, albeit with good intentions, only adds to the false impression that the sheep should be leading the shepherd.
Surely some will counter with the idea that we are occasionally called, in charity, to offer fraternal correction, even to our superiors.
Indeed, but this isn’t one of those occasions.
Pope Francis has been attacking Catholic doctrine and those who embrace it with remarkable rancor from the earliest days of his pontificate; not because he doesn’t know how those worthy of the name Catholic think and feel and worship, but precisely because he does.
Further informing him of the true Faith and our devotion to it isn’t going to help the situation one iota.
The petition is at least correct in identifying the pope as the central figure in the current controversy concerning marriage and family, but let’s not kid one another – this isn’t an ignorance problem that calls for correction; it’s a crisis of faith that calls for a damned good confession.
The bottom line is this: Our part in this terrible crisis is neither as flashy nor as newsworthy as a well-organized petition drive; it’s prayer and fasting, plain and simple.
Now if that went viral, we might be getting somewhere.
I agree on the prayer and fasting. 15 decades a day.
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Logically, if one can authentically (and one certainly can) say to a Bergoglio/ a ‘pope’, ‘please be Catholic’, he is not the pope, because he is, obviously, not Catholic.
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A Pope need not be perfect, but he MUST teach the Faith of the Popes of Holy Roman Catholic Church.
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Imagine if we discovered that Roncalli had been a secret Sillonist and that he secretly overturned Pius XII excommunication of known Communists who’s aim is, like the freemasons, to replace the Faith with athiestic or luciferian ideologies? And that he wrote a secret encyclical that was secretly praised by freemasons (the first ever); and that he was secretly found upside down in his coffin long after his funeral; and that his successor, Montini, secretly changed the Mass into a protestant service, and secretly perverted the rites of ordination so as to overthrow authentic apostolic succession, and then secretely changed all the other sacraments, diminishing all efficacy, and then he secretly introduced doctrine and discplines into the seminaries that would brainwash all God’s chosen into being liberal enemies of the True Faith, and friends of Belial, and that Montini also secretly handed the papal tiara to the UN in order to secretly ritually abdicate the sovereignty of Christ (at least in his mind and that of his true brethren); and that his successor Wojtyla secretly worshipped with buddhists and hindus, muslims and jews and that he secretly taught that all men are already saved; and that he secretly officiated at ‘mass’ ceremonies where naked women were servers; and that his successor Ratzinger secretly said that the second vatican council is an anti-syllbus to the Faith taught by pre-VII Popes and that conversion was no longer necessary – simply a matter of conscience; and then also secretly worshipped with jews, hindus etc., and then his successor, Bergoglio, secretly said that we should not obsess about child-slaughter and that traditional Catholics are terrorists, and secretly insulted and slandered those who pray the Rosary and then secretly persecuted seminarians who hold to the Faith of the Apostles, and then secretly said that there is no Catholic God, whilst also secretly worshipping with jews, muslims etc. even in the Vatican, whilst also secretly promoting the dissolution of marriage, the promotion of homosexuality, etc. etc. etc….one would hope upon finding out all these terrible secrets we Catholics would stand up and go, these men could never have been Popes! Heretics, Apostates, or perhaps out and out devil worshippers, but not Popes!
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http://christorchaos.com/?q=content/church-flowed-second-vatican-council
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/index.htm#.VNrJrS7sdOU
PS. and then imagine if they all secretly canonized themselves as ascended masters of their New Order Religion? Just imagine. Except no one needs to imagine or go uncovering any secrets. It has all happened right in front of us since the white smoke turned to black smoke in 1958.
Dear Louie,
Well said. You obviously personally add to the prayer and fasting, the spiritual work of mercy of getting the word out to others about what is going on in the Church today, which the messages of Fatima and Akita and other approved apparitions of our time warned us would be very serious and reach all the way to the top of the Hierarchy, and will last until her Triumph and the Time of Peace is granted to the world..
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Cardinals like Raymond Burke and others appear to be chiming in, speaking of duties to “resist” all efforts contrary to God’s will, no matter how high the authority who makes them.
– Bishops like Athanasius Schneider
(who BTW has a speaking engagement in Washington D.C:.
Feb 14th at 2pm at Annunciation Church – 3810 Massachusetts Ave NW)
has called for a new syllabus of errors, and communion on the tongue only, and says,”Thank God for the internet” as he gets the word out over it.
http://www.courageouspriest.com/bishop-athanasius-schneider-fourth-great-crisis-church
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These voices may be few compared to the larger number of modernists in control right now, but then God blessed the work of 12 men and spread His Church throughout the world. And they didn’t HAVE the internet, only the same promises we have.
The following are two quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, with emphasis in bold added:
1) “The pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church” (“Church legislation on heresy”).
2) “Ordinarily [notoriety] is equivalent to public, manifest, evident, known; all these terms have something in common, they signify that a thing, far from being secret, may be easily known by many“.
Link (must be prefixed with “http://”):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11126b.htm
I see we can include more than one hyperlink in our comments now. Obviously both the above links work without any prefixing.
I agree.
I do believe, however that the onus of prayer and fasting should primarily be on the shoulders of Bergolio who must work out his own salvation with fear and trembling.
Dear All,
Today’s Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, might be a good day to remember
the power of the Rosary, Pray to the Immaculate Conception, and ask God to help His Church and for the conversion of all sinners.
http://en.lourdes-france.org/tv-lourdes/
Dear Salvemur,
That was a very long sentence indeed…to convert that into an alternative petition, might require some shortening.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zqBEpj3NKCA/TzDWp6bZb2I/AAAAAAAABqs/9HlJTlLtIfc/s1600/holy_p24.jpg
Dear Salvemur,
On reflection, apologies, as my feeble attempt at humour should not take away from the serious point you are trying to make
How can Francis be Head of something he has repeatedly demonstrated by word and deed that he is not apart of? Louie you have been masterful at illustrating this. So I am perplexed. This petition illustrates how far the physical Church has sunk. There is nothing positive. Beam me up Scotty!!
salvemur, you make valid points. But bad popes doing bad things does not make them ‘not popes.’ Christ promised he would always be with us. This indicates He will always give us the means of salvation. We have a bad pope but a pope nevertheless. He gives us bad bishops (by authority) but bishops nevertheless. These bad bishops give us bad priests, but priests nevertheless.
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This is the way Our Lord has promised to be with us – through His Church, and her Sacraments – without which we could not be saved.
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Are we frustrated with this situation? Yes, but we must accept it, and do those things the Saints did. Their writings, thoughts, prayers, and activities comprise the instruction manual.
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Does God not place each of us in the time, place, and circumstances that He sees fit? Doesn’t He love us? How could He allow His beloved children to have such bad shepherds? We don’t know, and if I am correct we (like Job and his friends) are not even supposed to ask Him. We can discuss this amongst ourselves, but we are not to ask HIM. His ways are not our ways.
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We are asked to live it. Right here, right now. Liking it is not relevant. Telling Him we don’t think His pope is real is to kick against the goad.
But there are lots of positives: Holy Mass, Confession, Baptism, The Blessed Sacrament, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, Last Rites – all goods that we still have given to us. It may take a bit of searching but these goods are there.
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As well we do have good shepherds – the internet (Thanks Be To God) shows us daily there are good bishops and priests all over the place.
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And we have Cardinal Burke, and Bishop Schneider too! So cheer up!!!
Something we might keep in mind as well: Poor Francis hates ‘counters.’ Even a million or a billion signatures would make no dent in his understanding.
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The fact that there are only 70,000+ signatures shows us up too! Where are the millions? Going viral does not mean 70,000+ it means more than that. Each one who signs would have to pass this on to everyone on his e-mail list, and on and on. That obviously has not happened. Superbowl ads go viral, this petition, not so much. In the same way the March for Life is ineffective in that there are ‘only’ a million marching. Where are the 50 million American Catholics? Mary Wagner and Linda Gibbons stand alone in front of the baby-killing mill in Toronto. Where are the millions of Catholics in Canada? If we are going to play the numbers game, the numbers have to reach the tipping point or we look as foolish as we are. (this is NOT to denigrate these efforts, their reward will be great in Heaven)
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But again, numbers make no difference. Only Our Lady can defeat this Modernist heresy. As IF says above, the Apostles were only twelve. We are the few in our age. I personally cannot shoulder a back-pack and head out into Ontario preaching the Gospel, and Repentance. But I must do what I can do: the mantra of Fast, Pray The Rosary, give Alms is even more powerful for voices that are stifled in this apostate world than petitions.
Something else we can do with some real effort: ask for a day of Adoration once a week in each parish we frequent. However, the effort required is to present to the priest the list of those willing to be Adoration Guards. And this means two people for each hour. And it means a firm commitment – and someone has to be responsible for opening the Church and closing up afterwards if the priest won’t do it.
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Adoration, regularly scheduled, brings great benefits to the whole parish. We are blessed to have the traditional 40 hours Devotion leading up to Maundy Thursday (All FSSP parish do this). Yes it means our very small FSSP parish has to come up with 80 Adoration Guards, and that means from midnight to one, from one to two, and two to three, and three to four, AM and on through out the day.
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NO priest in our fallen Church will do the work required. NONE. Unless his life is made easier, not harder, he will not cooperate. Yes, there are a few, but most simply see this as either worshiping a ‘cookie’ or extra work for himself.
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But we if do the work, The Lord does the rest.
oops, I mean Fat Tuesday, not Maundy Thursday.
Louie, you are so right! We’re in big trouble when the Pope and the hierarchy have to be petitioned to be Catholic. Personally, I don’t think these petitions bother them. It just validates that they are doing a great job replacing the True Catholic Church with a different “church” totally unrecognizable. “New ” is not “True”.
Our Lardy of Lourdes, pray for us!
Dear my2cents,
Not only might these petitions not “bother” them, but as Louie pointed out, the fraction of the percentage the petition represents, when you consider there are
1, 200,000,000 registered Catholics in the world, and only 70,,000+ signed it; might actually encourage them. And if they don’t choose to ignore it, they can always use it as a “hit” list.
–This reminds us of the petitions Father Gruner keeps sending to the Popes to Consecrate Russia, too–we signed them, we wrote individual letters, and it seemed he was more and more reviled by the Vatican, and blamed for harassing the Pope. The mindset against it is similar to this, although they use the excuse that Fatima was a “private” revelation (even though it was proven by a very public miracle and it’s messages were for the whole world).
Lou,
Thank you, you have said everything I have wanted to say about this petition, since I first knew of its existence.
I have not signed it for the same reasons.
Indeed, the petition shows just how sick the Church is in her visible head as well as all her members from every class of society and nation.
Has everyone lost their sense of just how to be Catholic?
Has everyone lost their sense and denied the plain obvious signs of what is going on the in Church?
If anyone thinks there is any hope, humanly speaking, of the conversion of Bergoglio, he’s either insane or an idolater of false human hope or political correctness.
Let face it folks, Bergoglio is a heretic, a schismatic, an enemy of all that is of Christ, an enemy of the Catholic Church. He who is in communion with him, in the sense of collaborating with him, is not of God, is deceived of the Devil.
I pray and count the days till the Bishops of the Church, which ever still have some sense of faith, excommunicate and depose the man.
The sooner the better!
True, Fatima is a private revelation. Nonetheless, all the Popes since Fatima publicly acknowledge their acceptance of it. So, if in conscience they believe Our Lady (and thus Her son, God) is giving them a command to obey and they refuse to obey it, they are disobedient. In they don’t believe Our Lady of Fatima, then they’re dishonest, while exhibiting false piety to a high degree. So they’re either publicly disobedient to God or publicly dishonest to God and everyone else. Either way, we’re in big trouble at the top, even before Bergoglio came on the scene.
All you say is true. But I signed the “petition” and circulated it, not because Catholics should have to petition the pope to uphold the doctrine of the Faith and the moral law, or because I think the pope or any of the opponents of the Faith, could care less, but so that we, Catholics, can stand together, in a thinly disguised protest at the attacks on the Faith and morals by the Holy See, and be a support and encouragement for one another as we see that we are not alone but a sizeable remnant.
I don’t think many signing it will be so naive as to think this is how popes are made to conform to the Faith, or that the pope would be likely to change his opposition thereto, in response (though perhaps it would affect his tactics).
I’m also familiar with the organisation that asked for my signature, and believe them to be a sound Catholic organisation. (That is what’s known as Tradition, Family, Property in the US, by other names in other countries. It’s a very small organisation in Ireland, but I support their work, and they have been on the streets getting signatures for this “petition”.)
My initial reaction was yours – no, this is wrongheaded taking it at face value, for the obvious reasons. But when I thought more about it, I thought it would at least help people to encourage one another, to know how many we are, a way to unite, etc.
I am glad to know that named people are standing together, in what is, effectively, a statement that conveys that we know the Faith, and we know what’s happened at the Synod, and other emanations of the Holy See is in contravention of the Faith, and we will not be silent.
Maybe it’s dishonest, but I think its a fair way to protest to the pope at this stage, given the might of, and infiltration of the Church by Her enemies.
Yes, two cents, of course, it doesn’t bother them but I don’t think anyone believes they will stop attacking the Faith in response. As I said, below, it’s a thinly disguised protest, in a formally polite mode of address or invocation, and it helps people to know there are many others who recognise and object to the ever-increasing attacks on the Faith from the Holy See, the Synod of Bishops, etc.
I’m quite sure Cardinal “I will resist” Burke, and the holy Bishop Athanasius Schneider, both of whom, signed it, are fully aware of the facts, and the unchangeability of Faith and morals and how petitions to uphold the Faith, don’t make logical sense, in themselves. However, I think, as they must, that there is some good in the exercise, not as a real petition, but what it really signifies.
The onus to pray and fast is on us all, particularly, the good, or those who respect the good and try to adhere to it. The bad are unlikely to pray, or fast, except for the promotion and spread of evil. Like the woman whom Bishop Sheen met, fasting for the spread of abortion, which is a diabolical evil, which cries out for vengeance. Lord, help me, to pray and fast, fast and pray.
Barbara, I think that figure may be only the Internet figure, and maybe not from all the internet sources of the petition either. I know various groups have been collecting handwritten signatures on the streets in various cities, over the past week or two.
Amen, Barbara.
And Mary Wagner is currently in prison; and Linda Gibbons may be returning there, if she hasn’t alteady. There are others in prison for the Faith, and for truth and justice, and the bishops, etc., refuse to vehemently fight against the governments responsible. Shame.
Let’s all be foolish (in the world’s eyes) for Christ.
Hello Barbara. God loves us – when the early Church was being brutally martyred they did not doubt that God loved them; they did not doubt either that the world hated them. Christ is with us in His Church ‘unto the consummation of the age’; we still have valid priests and Bishops who keep and hand on the Faith, minister unadulterated sacraments and offer the True Mass everyday. They have not defected from the Indefectable Church. We can unite ourselves in prayer with them if we cannot actually attend. It is not the first time in the Church’s history that access to priests and sarcraments was scarce. God knows what we have and what we don’t have. Cardinal Pie said the Church would be reduced to ‘individual and domestic proportions’. Christ gave us a Rock upon which we can all stand and It has not defected even if it has been exiled by the usurpers.
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Either the Church is indefectable or It isn’t. If it isn’t and can suddenly teach doctrines that were condemned, then Ratzinger is right, there is no need to convert and logically priests and sacraments are not necessary, but simply something optional as a result of truth being changeable. If the Church is indefectable it is impossible that It can suddenly teach against Itself. Modernism was condemned, the Novus Ordo Religion promulgates modernism in its doctrine, worship and disciplines. They are not one.
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Modernism/New Order ‘church’ is an institution of innovations and rejection of what was handed on to it. The Novus Ordo stands in direct contradiction to the errors condemned by the Church. Which church is the ‘church’? The Church and Its exiled Bishops, Priests and Faithful, or the Novus Ordo and its heirarchy? Either the successors of Peter who condemned those errors are authentic or the New Order promulgators are authentic in which case we should have no problem with the modernist mockery of what we would call authentic Tradition – clown masses, world youth day, ‘popes’ who teach ‘make a mess’, ‘popes’ who promote the worship of demons and promote place false religions on an ‘equal’ footing with Christ, the constant debasement of the papacy and Apostolicity and Holiness. We should obey and embrace modernism – the synthesis of all errors. But of course, we know better.
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The Novus Ordo ‘popes’ are not bad popes, they are not in the Church because the teach, worship and exhort against the Church.
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/tradcast/index.html
RE: the ‘bad popes’ theory of what is happening in the Novus Ordo: ‘There is not a heretic or a schismatic who has not endeavored to legitimate his own conduct dogmatically: Photius tried to justify his pride, Luther his sensual passions, Calvin his cold cruelty. Neither Sergius III nor John XII nor Benedict IX nor Alexander VI, supreme pontiffs, definers of the faith, certain of being heard and obeyed by the whole Church, uttered, from the height of their apostolic pulpit, a single word that could be an approval of their disorders.’ Rev. Fernand Mourret, A History of the Catholic Church.
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An authentic Pontiff must never err in ‘mainting and conserving the unity and integrity of the Catholic Faith’.
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The True Church declares in the First Vatican Council: ‘For, the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully set it forth. Indeed, all the venerable fathers have embraced their apostolic doctrine, and the holy orthodox Doctors have venerated and followed it, knowing full well that the See of St. Peter always remains unimpaired by any error, according to the divine promise of our Lord the Savior made to the chief of His disciples: “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren”.’
Dear Lynda,
I agree. And if I may add, that it is not about whether we will win or loose. It is about the fight.
Dear Roman Watcher,
Now that would be what I would call a very “meaty” petition indeed!
By the way, I also signed the other petition, asking the college of bishops to investigate heresy and apostasy on the part of the Pope and to make a declaration in that respect.
Dear salvemur,
One of the more frustrating aspects of these times we’re living through, with this type of access to one another’s thoughts via the internet, is seeing in writing the things we have in common– passionate love for the Church; willingness to defend God’s Holy Truth and to work and pray for the salvation of souls; -gut-wrenching stories of loved ones whose hearts have become hardened by lies they’ve been fed–and yet we find we’re divided for reasons that all seem right to us.
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We’re wondering, (seriously-not a trick question or with any sarcasm) have you any hope of what you would consider a true Papacy being resumed before the end of time, or do you think we’ve gone beyond that possibility? And if not, what would it take to restore it?