The Catholic Monitor

On Twitter, Nick Donnelly wrote: "Bishop Schneider tells Raymond Arroyo that the signatories were wrong to accuse Francis of heresy because he hasn't made a formal, universal declaration of heresy. Though he admits he has allowed wrong teaching Very disappointing hair splitting." [  youtu.be/PH26z5uJlBQ 3:30 AM - 17 May 2019 ] In responding to Donnelly's statement, anti-Open Letter Taylor Marshall, apparently, is implicitly calling Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales a "sedevacantist": "I agree w Bishop Schneider. If you condemn Francis as “heretical pope” one must break communion with him. This is why I called the doc “practically sedevacantist”. It’s not formally sede but the natural conclusion is." [ https://mobile.twitter.com/TaylorRMarshall/status/1129334902153986050 ] Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales wrote: "Thus we do not say that the Pope cannot err in his private opinion, as did John XXIL....

Fr. Brian Harrison in his latest attack on the Open Letter, in his defense of Pope Francis's religious indifferentism in the Abu Dhabi statement, said: "Since, according to Vatican II teaching... Dignitatis Humanae... the truth or falsity of the religion we profess does not in itself affect our right to freedom from governmental or social harassment." (The Wanderer, "Pope Francis: The Charge of Formal Heresy," May, 14, 2019) Does Harrison believe that Vatican II gives satanic-like children sacrificing Baal religions the "right to freedom"? Do the teachings of Vatican II mean that Rome was wrong to destroy the child sacrificing religion of Moloch? Does religious freedom mean that G. K. Chesterton was wrong to socially harass the memory of the religion of Baal? Chesterton said: [W]orshippers of Baal or Moloch... a religion of despair... fell [by the hands of Rome]... to its logical conclusion [of] her own vision of the universe. Moloch had ea...

Therese, a commenter at the Catholic Monitor, said: "[C]onservatives have... a slow-moving liberalism that by one accommodation after another will end in humanism." "I was listening to a radio interview from the 90's in which the featured guest pointed out that when you lose your faith typically you are unaware of the fact... I am praying especially for the grace not to fall into this trap." A few years ago,  if anyone other than Pope Francis had explicitly taught what Francis now teaches about allowing Communion for adulterers and that the death penalty is "immoral," most of the conservative Catholics would have said it was heretical. What early Church expert Rod Bennett said of the Semi-Arians is now true, apparently, of most conservatives attacking the Open Letter: "[Pope] Liberius signed the Semi-Arian Creed of Sirmium... designed to bear both an orthodox and heretical interpretation." ("Bad Shepherds," Page 27) Li...

It appears that Cardinal John Henry Newman, who is called the greatest Catholic theologian of the 19th century, thought that Pope Francis's liberal religion was "evil" and the "great apostasia [apostasy]." Scholar Marvin O'Connell quotes some of Newman's thoughts on "Liberalism in religion" which apparently condemn Francis's liberal theories: "[T]he liberalistic theory... we pronounce it to be evil." "... one creed is as good as another... It teaches that all are to be tolerated... it is the right of each individual to make it say whatever strikes his fancy... Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, nay get good from both and belong to neither. They may fraternise together in spiritual thoughts and feelings, without any views at all of doctrine in common..." "[T]his great apostasia... [is] one and the same everywhere." (Volume 1, Newman Today, 1988, "Newman and Liberalism," Pages ...

In my opinion, it is obvious that Pope Francis doesn't have even a remnant of Thomism. Nor does he apparently care about being loyal to the infallible Church teachings. He appears to be a Modernist (See: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-evidence-that-pope-francis-is.html?m=1 ): -"[T]he [Modernist] Blondelian schema holds that justification for the faith is to be found by turning inwards to the personal experience of the human subject. This turn to the subject is characteristic of modern philosophy, from Descartes right up to the Idealism of Kant and Hegel and beyond, and presented a major challenge to the traditional Catholic apologetics... If it were the case that inner experience justified the faith, if each person was to find the proof of God’s existence within their own life, then what would be the basis for the teaching authority of the Church?" - Neo-Modernist AnthonyCarroll  [ https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090724_1.htm ] "Betwee...

Pope Francis's new law for clerics to report to bishops clerical sex abuse and cover-up is being called "groundbreaking" by the media. I can't stop laughing. It's like saying it would be "groundbreaking" if the Mafia just made a rule in which low level Mafioso stool pigeons or police informants should report to Mafia bosses instead of the police. Abuse victim Peter Isely said it best: "Bishops reporting to themselves, that's been the problem from the beginning... What we need are police and prosecutors." (USA Today, "Don't send a 'bishop to the crime scene': Church sex abuse survivors blast Pope Francis' new law on reporting," May 10, 2019) Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church.

Open Letter critic Ed Feser in a recent post said the Open Letter was "rashly made." Moreover, he wrote Pope Francis only "seems to contradict traditional Catholic teaching on... capital punishment." Francis just said: "I have clearly stated that the death penalty is unacceptable, it is immoral." The renowned Catholic philosopher Feser has said: "To contradict this [capital punishment] is a doctrinal error, pure and simple." (EdFeser.blogspot, "Pope Francis and. capital punishment," August 3, 2018) It appears that Francis is saying that Feser is teaching and promoting the "immoral." Vocabulary.com defines the word: "Immorality is evil, sinful, or otherwise wrong behavior." Dictionary.com says synonyms for immoral are "bad, wicked... DEPRAVED... applies to one who seeks evil and viciousness." It appears that Francis is saying Feser is teaching and promoting sinfulness, depravity, "...

It is the Catholic Monitor's honor to post Catholic scholar James Larson's article. Larson is an American independent scholar who resembles the British independent scholar Christopher Dawson in depth of analysis and learning.  This is one of the best short essays anywhere on how to pray the Rosary and how to pray at all times by my friend Jim Larson. It is very much needed in our time of supreme crisis in the Church. We must first go to Jesus in prayer then go do our daily duty and then do what Our Lord is calling us to do in the Catholic Resistance in this greatest crisis in Church history. - "' Praying At All Times' 'Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21: 36)'" "Never in Christian history has it been more imperative that we pay heed to the scripture quoted above. Never have we more needed an escap...

In my opinion, the two intellectual giants in the Church in the United States are Ed Feser and Fr. Chad Rippinger. In philosophy Feser is the top mind while in spirituality and psychology Fr. Rippinger tops Feser.  Feser and Rippinger disagree on rather Catholics and Moslems worship the same "God." I am sure that their disagreement is as Feser says because he is talking about the issue in the "philosophy of language" and not about the Catholic and Moslem "deep disagreements about the nature of God." Despite that I would love to see a debate between the two on the subject. I have seen Feser totally destroy, with a devastating intellectual knock out Mark Shea (which is pretty easy), theologian Massimo Faggioli (a bit harder) and on YouTube win an impressive victory over a very intelligent Atheist. I feel like I am getting into the ring with Mike Tyson when he was knocking everyone out in the first round, but I think Feser is wrong on the...

Fr. George Rutler on Tweeter called out Jimmy Akins for his amateurish ""screed" against the "most distinguished theologian in the English-speaking world: [Open Letter signer] Father Aidan Nichols" for daring to call the renowned scholar "loopy" for signing the Open Letter. Dartmouth graduate Fr. Rutler who holds a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Rome, after saying the Open Letter is "considerable if not irrefutable," challenged Akins to debate Fr. Nichols at the renowned theologian's "alma mater, the University of Oxford" in Latin. I think Fr. Rutler is being unfair to the Akins. He doesn't have a chance. He'll be intellectually knocked out in the first minute of the debate. I suggest that it be a tag team match with four other collaborators of Akins who attacked Fr. Nichols. On one side at a podium will be the "most distinguished theologian in the English-speaking world" on the other si...

In this time of cowardice when so many false friends of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, of His Church and the Ten Commandments have been revealed. They have disclosed themselves by all their attacks on the 19 scholar heroes' Open Letter. In this time of cowardice it is good to look for a hero to guides us on how to respond to those promoting the destruction of the Church. That hero is St. Athanasius. I found comfort in a old 1919 book by F. A. Forbes titled "St. Athanasius." We in the rag-tag Catholic resistance have only one member of the Successors of the Apostoles that is the embodiment of Athanasius: Bishop René Gracida, but he is enough. As I read this book it showed me that we have not come close to the persecution that the Catholic heroes of the Arian crisis endured. Through it all Athanasius had "peace" and "joy... for Christ." So remember to always have peace and joy in Christ. Now please read the following excerpts of our hero ...

The Wanderer's Fr. Brian Harrison issued a attack on the 19 scholar heroes by first presenting a straw man then showing his argument: "Pope Francis has indeed said some things I believe to be heretical... the heretical doctrine of annihilation... [but] Francis is notorious for frequently speaking 'off the cuff'... [was] he/she accurately reported... [but] supposing... [It's] really heretical opinion... Only if he/she remains stubborn and obstinate can the Church declare him/her to be a formal heretic." (The Wanderer, "Why I didn't Sign the Open Letter Accusing the Pope of Heresy," May 3, 2019) It is strange that Harrison says Francis has only "said" some things that may be heretical when he knows the pontiff wrote the Argentine letter that teaches that those committing adultery can receive Communion which was called "authentic magisterium" by the Pope's Vatican and placed in the Holy See's Official Acts of the Ap...

I got a few laughs reading the snooty attacks on the 19 scholar heroes by pompous Catholic commentators who apparently don't think the Ten Commandments are infallible Catholic dogma. Catholic News Agency Ed Condon very seriously wrote the "pope himself... content[s] that Amoris can and should be read in continuity with Catholic teaching." But, Condon doesn't show us where Communion for those committing adultery is anywhere in previous Catholic teaching so there could be "continuity." Catholic Culture Phil Lawler nonchalantly says "the claim that the Pope has committed heresy is at best a leap of logic." But, Lawler doesn't show how it is a "leap of logic" to come to the logical conclusion that teaching Communion for those committing adultery is a heresy. Finally, coming down from the mountain comes the National Catholic Register's Jimmy Akin who proclaims in "addition to demonstrat[ing] dogmas, the Open Letter also...

"These scholars and pastors have risked their standing and livelihoods. They could lose their positions, their freedom to work in churches or Catholic institutions. They might even face excommunication." (Stream, "Catholic Scholars Accuse Pope Francis of Heresy for Promoting Lax Sexual Ethics and Acclaiming Islam," by John Zmirak, May 2, 2019) Shame on Dr. Taylor Marshall who, today, on his popular Catholic YouTube TNT show threw the 19 Catholic scholar heroes under the bus by saying : "If you are saying he is a heretical pope [as the 19 scholars said]... It is practically sedevacantist.'"  [ https://youtu.be/mOwyGHgBcvw , 7:31] What Marshall said against the scholars reminds one of the hi-tech lynch mob against the Covington kids about which I wrote: "There is no excuse for the so-called 'conservative pro-life' mob that included the National Review, Rod Dreher, the March for Life president and the many others who were part of ...

Internationally renowned theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P., one of the most prolific Catholic scholarly writers in the English language according to Sophia Institute Press was joined by 18 "academics and clergy calling on the world's bishops to admonish the Pope and publicly reject heresy or face losing the papacy" stating: "A heretical papacy may not be tolerated." (EdwardPentin.co.uk, " Father Aidan Nichols Signs Open Letter Charging Pope Francis with Heresy," May 1, 2019) The 18 Catholic heroes and Dominican Fr. Nichols Open Letter Statement is not for Francis. It is for Cardinal Raymond Burke and the apparently fairly small percentage of Catholic cardinals and bishops who still believe the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Church and who are not heretics or compromised. Cardinal John Henry Newman said that during the Arian Heresy Crisis 80% of the bishops were heretics which is probably similar to the number of bishops who have fallen in...