A manifest public pertinacious heretic places himself outside the Church. He cannot hold ecclesiastical office. He cannot be pope. He is not even Catholic. It really is this simple. But if you need citations from the most famous theologians, Cardinals, and Doctors of the Church in the last 500 years, Dr. Mazza will be happy to explain it to you:

These people need prayers. There are still two million without power. This won’t be resolved anytime soon, as it is not just downed wires, but also uprooted poles. It’s going to be mid-90s with heat index way over 100 for the rest of the week. I’m thankful that the Docherty clan in Houston are safe and sound, though without power and hunkered at the in-laws under a massive whole-house Generac. My son sent me a pic of his normal commute:

 

Meanwhile in Phoenix… yes it was 118 yesterday. But fairly dry and not unbearable once the sun goes down. You can still sit on the patio in the evening, believe it or not. Looking forward to that weekend cool down!

19 killed, 86 wounded in shootings during extended Fourth of July weekend in Chicago

I hope he posts a picture of the Declaration, then has it matted and framed.

Questioning the person of the pope does not put you in schism. That is nonsensical, by definition. Questioning elements of a disastrous Council does not put you in schism.

This sentence is invalid, issued by invalid authority.

(If you are from the north, just know that the victors write the history books, and they’re usually a bunch of liars. If you are from the north, you need to re-learn, for the first time, 19th Century American history. -nvp)

Following is cross-posted from our friend thetimman :

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Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”, which became the national anthem of the United States of America.

Patriotic Fun Fact

Francis Key Howard was an American newspaper editor and journalist. The grandson of Francis Scott Key and Revolutionary War colonel John Eager Howard, Howard was the editor of the Daily Exchange, a Baltimore newspaper sympathetic to the Confederacy. Just after midnight on September 13, 1861, he was arrested without a warrant at his home by U.S. Major General Nathaniel Prentice Banks on the direct orders of General George B. McClellan enforcing the policy of President Abraham Lincoln. (In his book he writes that he was told by the arresting officer that the order had come from Secretary of State William Seward.)

The basis for his arrest was the writing of an editorial printed in his newspaper that was critical of Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, of the declaration by the Lincoln administration of martial law in Baltimore, and of the imprisonment without charge of Baltimore mayor George William Brown, sitting U.S. Congressman Henry May, all the police commissioners of Baltimore, and the entire city council.

Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in Maryland had already been declared unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney (Howard’s great-uncle by marriage) in Ex parte Merryman, but Lincoln had ignored the federal court ruling. Howard was initially confined to Fort McHenry, the same fort his grandfather Francis Scott Key saw withstand a British bombardment during the War of 1812, which inspired him to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”, which would become the national anthem of the United States of America. He was then transferred first to Fort Lafayette in Lower New York Bay off the coast of Brooklyn, then Fort Warren in Boston.

He wrote a book on his experiences as a political prisoner completed in December 1862 and published in 1863 titled Fourteen Months in American Bastiles, two of the publishers selling the book were then arrested. Howard commented on his imprisonment,

When I looked out in the morning, I could not help being struck by an odd and not pleasant coincidence. On that day forty-seven years before my grandfather, Mr. Francis Scott Key, then prisoner on a British ship, had witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry. When on the following morning the hostile fleet drew off, defeated, he wrote the song so long popular throughout the country, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. As I stood upon the very scene of that conflict, I could not but contrast my position with his, forty-seven years before. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the same place over the victims of as vulgar and brutal a despotism as modern times have witnessed.

Happy Independence Day, everybody!

(Ah, forgiveness. It’s hard, right? God knows, but He insists. You are not getting to Heaven without it, as our Lord stressed over and over. So you had better get on with it, understanding that it isn’t a one-time event, but a lifelong project. -nvp)

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By Father David Nix

And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on His right and one on His left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide His garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at Him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”—Lk 23:33-35.

We often [rightly] associate Christ’s forgiveness of His enemies with the above chapter from St. Luke. As Christ is undergoing the most exquisite torture of the Roman Empire, He maintains the composure to say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Clearly, the Apostles had not received that gift, probably due to their own lack of cooperation with grace even before Pentecost. But it’s not totally to be excused either, for they had spent three years with Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh, in person, day and night, even before His arrest.

Then came Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. Then, God chose to prepare the Apostles for Pentecost with nine days of prayer and fasting with Mary (the first Novena through which we live right now this week in the liturgical season.) To spend all this time with Mary was not just a sweet devotional addition to Pentecost. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur, (Summa Theologiae, 1a, q. 75) that is, “What is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” For Pentecost, the Apostles could only be ready to receive the Holy Spirit after nine days with the Immaculate Virgin Mary. I personally believe that time with Mary was not accidental, but substantial, to changing the “mode” of the Apostles to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles were formed in and by Mary during these nine days. The Holy Spirit came through Mary at Pentecost, as all graces come through her. Perhaps we can go so far as to say the Apostles would not have been able to receive those many gifts of the Holy Spirit without nine days with Mary. Why? Because they weren’t ready before then, for quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur. Thus, I tend to believe Mary changed “the reception mode” of the Apostles, from the inside-out. Of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, Fortitude and Wisdom are greatly associated with forgiveness. Mary helped the Apostles (who would one day be martyrs) to forgive those who would kill them, as she forgave those who executed her Divine Son. (You might be surprised that 15 decades of the Rosary a day greatly helps at forgiveness.)

After Pentecost, the Apostles and disciples sound like Jesus, act like Jesus, move like Jesus, even in terms of forgiveness. Notice the likeness of the first martyr, St. Stephen: And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.—Acts 7:59-60. Practically, we can approach this slowly too. For example, I will often pray a forgiveness prayer I made up based on the work of Fr. Ripperger: “Blessed Trinity, I dissolve anything negative between me and x by the Most Precious Blood of Jesus and I entrust him/her to your Sacred Heart, Lord Jesus.” (Negative emotions may persist in my heart after I pray this, but I know I have at least willed to them to be free from debt to me.)

Not only will God’s infinite mercy restore those who lived the Beatitudes on earth, but God’s infinite justice will also serve as recompense towards those whom history judges as losers. Christ said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.—Mt 5:5. St. Thomas Aquinas says meekness is all about “moderating anger according to right reason” and “consists in a certain restraint, since clemency mitigates punishment, while meekness represses anger.”—ST II-II Q. 157. This is not to say you are called to be a doormat without boundaries. (I just wrote about Catholics cherishing the Second Amendment here two days ago.) Restraint of anger sometimes needs to be suspended, such as defending the innocent from predators. But did you ever think how glorious it is to “inherit the earth”? That is nothing to sneeze at. We know the promise of God that He will re-form not just a new heavens, but even a new earth for those are saved. (See Is 65:17 and Apo 21:1.) The meek will rule.

The preface of the Resurrection in both the old Mass and the new Mass has the priest pray to God just before the triple-Sanctus: “By dying You destroyed our death. By rising, You restored our life.” If death is trampled down by Christ’s death, then so everything negative can be transformed in Christ. This includes the grudges we hold. If Christ can forgive an infinite offense against His own majesty by praying “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” then we can forgive finite offenses against our puny humanities. This is given to us not only by the merits of the Passion, but also the merits of the Resurrection (hence, the Mass Preface: “By rising, You restored our life.”) This transformation in grace includes our approach to our enemies. And I believe silent time every day is one of the main keys to overturning unjust anger. But like the Apostles, our time in silence must be with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“We learn from the lessons of the office formerly composed for this feast, that the object of its institution was, as Urban conceived it, to obtain the cessation of the schism then desolating the Church. The Papacy, exiled from Rome for 70 years, had barely re-entered it, when hell, infuriated at a return which crossed all its plans, had taken revenge by ranging under two leaders the flock of the one sheepfold. So deep was the obscurity wherewith miserable intrigues contrived to cover the authority of the legitimate shepherd, that numbers of churches, in all good faith, began to hesitate, and ended at last in preferring the deceptive staff of a hireling. Thicker yet was the darkness to grow, till night should be so dense, that for a moment the conflicting mandates of three Popes would simultaneously spread through the world; whilst the faithful, struck with stupor, would be at an utter loss to discern accurately which was the voice of Christ’s true Vicar. Never had the bride of the Son of God been in a more piteous situation. But Our Lady, to whom the true Pontiff had turned at the first rising of the storm, did not betray the Church‘s confidence. During all those years while the unfathomable justice of the Most High let the powers of hell hold sway, she stood for the defense of holy Church, trampling the head of the old serpent so thoroughly under her victorious foot, that in spite of the terrific confusion he had stirred up, he was unable to sully the faith of the people. Their attachment was steadfast to the unity of the Roman See, whosoever might be, in this uncertainty, its veritable occupant. Thus the West, divided in fact, but in principle ever one and undivided, reunited herself spontaneously as soon as God‘s moment came for the return of light…”

https://stlouiscatholic.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/the-visitation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/

“It is granted to few to recognize the true Church amid the darkness of so many schisms and heresies, and to fewer still so to love the truth which they have seen as to fly to its embrace.” -St. Robert Bellarmine

Think about the implications of this for the faux green deal: 1. Anyone who wants an EV surely already has one, with all the subsidies and whatnot, 2. Tesla has poisoned the resale waters by slashing prices to move metal, and 3. The people who bought, want to dump! Good gravy, this is fantastic! -nvp

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If You Don’t Want Buyer’s Remorse, Don’t Get An Electric Vehicle