“The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatise from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. …Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.”—Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861.
Notice that the Cardinal predicted a day when the true Vicar of Christ would be “driven away.” That day, he asserts, would be concurrent with Rome “return[ing] to its ancient paganism.” Does this remind anyone B16’s forced-resignation being followed by Pachamama worship? It also seems Cardinal Manning practically prophesies the effects of Traditiones Custodes upon the entire TLM-community: “Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs.”
I write these things not to depress traditionalists, but to show that the Catholics found on God’s side at the end of time have been prophesied to be in the extreme minority. So, keep the ancient faith and liturgy and you’ll be on the winning team, even if your tribe be very small.
I wish people wouldn’t just accept things because other people tell them, but actually think if it makes sense. If a non-Catholic cannot be a pope, and Franco teaches obvious heresies that even a child can understand is not Christian, and if formal heresies automatically remove you from the Church, then the conclusion follows.
But this is not just in religion but in other matters. People simply assume that the media’s purpose is to inform them, because everyone believes so. People accept that cells formed incrementally over time even though irreducible complexity is real because scientists say so. People assume their leaders want to save their lives, even as they talk about the need for drastic reduction in the global population and euthanize the unhappy. These are all easily discerned if they would think about it, instead of accepting things at face value.
Pius IX not XI.