Month: January 2025

“A Manifest Heretic Can Neither Become nor Remain a Pope”

(Today is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome in the pre-1955 Liturgy… reposting this from a few weeks ago -nvp)

From  by 

The saints and doctors of the Church teach that if a pope having sufficient knowledge and having made sufficient reflection denies an article of Faith and professes heresy, he falls to heresy and loses his papacy.

When it is taught that ‘a pope cannot profess heresy’ it simply means that this profession cannot be made and completed while he is pope, for upon attempting to profess heresy he loses his papacy and is reduced to a heretic, whereby the profession is made as a heretic and not as a pope.

Hence a pope as a private person can profess heresy but could never make this profession while occupying the papal office. Consider the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1797), Doctor of the Church:

“If ever a pope, as a private person, should fall into heresy, he should at once fall from the Pontificate. If, however, God were to permit a pope to become a notorious and contumacious heretic, he would by such fact cease to be pope, and the apostolic chair would be vacant.”

St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, makes this very point.

“A Pope who is a manifest heretic automatically ceases to be a Pope and head, just as he ceases automatically to be a Christian and member of the Church. Wherefore, he can be judged and punished by the Church. This is the teaching of all the ancient Fathers who teach that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction.”

St. Francis de Sales echoes this point as well:

“Now when the Pope is explicitly a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church…”

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia states:

“The Pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church.”

St. Antoninus says that such a pope who is cut off from the Mystical Body cannot be the head of that Body.

“In the case in which the Pope would become a heretic, he would find himself, by that very fact alone and without any other sentence, separated from the Church. A head separated from a body cannot, as long as it remains separated, be head of the same body from which it was cut off.”

The lus Canonicum on the 1917 Code of Canon Law by Wernz-Vidal makes this same point:

“A pope who falls into public heresy would cease ipso facto to be a member of the Church; therefore, he would also cease to be head of the Church.” It adds, “A doubtful pope is not pope.”

Continue reading at the Daily Knight

Leader of Operation Warp Speed Dies Suddenly at 65

By Sarah Owermohle

WASHINGTON — Paul Mango, an integral part of the Trump administration’s drive to invent coronavirus vaccines and treatments, has died at 65.

Mango joined former President Trump’s Health and Human Services Department in 2019 as deputy chief of staff. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he became the agency’s chief liaison to Operation Warp Speed, the record-breaking effort to develop new vaccines and medicines to counter the coronavirus pandemic.

He published a memoir about those months, “Warp Speed: Inside the Operation That Beat COVID, the Critics, and the Odds,” in 2022. In the book he lauded Moderna’s cooperation with the government in developing clinical trials and delivering millions of doses. He criticized Pfizer for a lack of transparency and not collaborating more with the Trump administration. But overall, he painted a picture of a national effort to overcome historical odds to develop new vaccines.

“Paul was a mentor and friend who dedicated his life to serving his country, who led a life of amazing accomplishment, and who will be dearly missed,” said Brian Blase, president of the Paragon Health Institute, where Mango worked as an adviser. Mango was “instrumental” in the success of Operation Warp Speed, Blase said…

Paul Mango, Warp Speed leader and Trump adviser, dies at 65

Jan 16: Our Lady Refuge of Sinners

The following taken from Roman Catholic Saints:

The worst evil that can befall us is unquestionably SIN, which makes us an object of abhorrence in the sight of God.

God’s infinite mercy has not only prepared for us a potent remedy against sin in the merits of Jesus Christ, our Savior, but it has also given us poor sinners a secure refuge in the assistance of Mary, Our Lady refuge of sinners. In the Old Law there were cities of refuge to which the guilty could flee for safety; in the New Law, Mary’s mantle is for us that citadel of refuge for sinful souls. How can the Divine Wrath strike us, if we are covered by the mantle of Mary, the chosen daughter and the honored Mother of God?

Our Lady refuge of sinners is thus not merely a pledge of our safety, but by her unrivaled sanctity, she is as earnest of pardon for all sinners who have recourse to her intercession. She not only disarms the just anger of God roused by our sins, but also obtains for her true clients sincere and heartfelt conversion. All we need do is turn toward her with Faith, to obtain Divine Clemency and the means to rise from the mire of sin.

To be cleansed from sin and to be admitted again into the friendship of God is a grace beyond compare; but to be kept free from fresh falls is even more important, as our salvation depends entirely upon final perseverance. Mary, by her intercession, helps us detest past sins and faults; and keeps us from renewed relapses.

Through God’s permission we are tempted in all sorts of ways; but Mary’s watchful assistance helps us put Satan to flight while she suggests to us, through our Angel Guardian, all manner of good thoughts and holy aspirations.

More than ever at the hour of death, Mary shelters her devoted children, driving the Tempter far from us, and encouraging us to fight valiantly to the last gasp.

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us SINNERS, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

St. Bonaventure has aptly said: “Thou embracest with maternal affection a sinner who is even despised by the whole world, nor dost thou cease thine embrace until thou hast reconciled him with his judge.”

In the Old Testament we find many figures of Mary as the refuge of sinners, like Ruth who “gleaned the ears of corn after the reapers.” St. Bonaventure draws this comparison:

“As Ruth found grace in the eyes of Booz, so Mary found Grace before God. The reapers are the gleaners in the vineyard of the Lord, the missionaries, preachers and confessors who endeavor to gain souls to God. But there are obstinate and hardened souls who do not allow themselves to be gained; these can be saved only through the powerful intercession of Mary. There is no sinner so corrupt and sunk in vice that Mary will despise and reject him. If such a one seeks help with her, she will most certainly reconcile him with Jesus and obtain pardon for him.”

*from The Woman in Orbit and other sources

https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-refuge-of-sinners.html

DEI consultant gets canceled for being non inclusive

By now you’ve seen video of the (drunk?) Eagles fan hurling vulgarities at the Packers girl last weekend. I say (drunk?) because I’m not sure he actually was. I think this might be sober him. Just a complete jackass in real life.

The man has been identified as Ryan Caldwell - An unidentified male Philadelphia Eagles fan was captured on video heckling a female Packers fan repeatedly calling her a 'dumb c-nt' while her fiance, Alexander Basara, filmed the entire altercation in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field, Jan. 13, 2025.

Turns out this guy work(ed) for a totally woke DEI company, whose mission was to turn other companies more woke.

Alas, the “I” in DEI does not extend to old white jerk dudes. They fired him last night.

BCT Partners… now hiring!

 

Latest near-miss: DEI at FAA means ATC is fubar

You may remember the near miss at ATL last year, where a DEI controller instructed a FedEx plane to land on top of a Southwest jet that was taking off from the same runway. They blamed that one on fog, which seems a little like saying “it was muh dark outside.” Although ground controllers do rely on visuals, which is why airports have towers.

The latest stunt occurred last Saturday at PHX, and you will be shocked by how obvious it was. This was between two aircraft on approach.

Sky Harbor has parallel east-west runways, with enough separation that two planes can land at the same time (on 08/26 and 07L/25R… the runway numbers correspond to the heading, with the trailing zero left off).

Runway Diagram
Planes always take off and land into the wind, and the prevailing morning winds here are out of the east. So there is always a steady diet of flights coming from eastern cities that fly an approach north of the field, then turn around and land back toward the east; that is the pattern this Delta A330 from Detroit was flying, to land on 08. This will get you set up for the video below. A United B737 from SFO was on final for 07L at the same time, which is the normal pattern for flights originating from the west. This shouldn’t be an issue, except she gets distracted with other aircraft farther out in the sequencing, and forgets to instruct Delta to turn left onto a final for 08, so it continues south and directly toward the United. By the time she issues the final (02:24), the Delta has already crossed the approach:

TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) onboard both aircraft saved the day. This system generates an “RA” (resolution advisory) instructing one aircraft to climb and the other to descend in order to avoid a mid-air.

I’m no expert, I just fly a lot, and have always been an airplane nerd. But I have two observations. First, the controller almost seems unaware of what just happened, and that she caused it. She was 20-30 seconds late issuing the left turn and landing clearance to the Delta. She never issues corrective action, and after both aircraft respond to their TCAS RAs, she asks them what they want to do next. Is that SOP? Second, the pilots seem as if all this is utterly routine, as in here we go again with these dopey DEI hires.

Thoughts?

https://www.azfamily.com/2025/01/14/close-call-delta-united-flights-nearly-collide-over-phoenix/

Baptism of our Lord: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

The Christ Child was manifested to the wise men from the East as the king of the world, the ruler of all nations. The mature God-man opens His public ministry with the manifestation of His divinity on the shore of the Jordan River. The Sacrament of Baptism, prefigured by the baptism of John, incorporates us into union with God. Adopted as sons and made co-heirs of heaven through Baptism and the Holy Spirit, we begin our mission as followers of Christ. Our own lives must echo the words of the forerunner of Christ: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
 
COLLECT: O God, Your only-begotten Son appeared in the substance of our flesh. May He who outwardly was like us, change us interiorly …
 

I found this helpful: https://wdtprs.com/2025/01/wdtprs-13-january-baptism-of-the-lord-double-dipping-3/

Do you know the date of your Baptism? If not, reach out to your place of rebirth and ask for the sacramental record. You should celebrate your Baptism Day even more than your birth day, for obvious reasons. Go read the Collect again, and I bid you Memento Mori. 

I see there was just a 6.9 earthquake in Japan.

Thousands of people in the mountains of NC are still living in tents, in the dead of winter, with no help from FEMA. Will Trump help them? Has he mentioned them? There are also missing/uncounted dead numbering in the four digits, a story no one is reporting.

As the sun rises on the left coast, winds in LA County the next three days are forecasted to be as bad as last Tuesday when all hell broke loose. We will soon see what that means for the existing, not at all contained fires, as well as potential new ones. 12,000 homes lost as of this morning.

Let us pray that people of faith use their suffering toward the purpose for which it was permitted, always and everywhere. 

 

Also, Octave Day of the Epiphany, last day for the house blessing.

(update: I am now being told this pic is fake)

Today is the day to consecrate your family to the Holy Family, “to forgive one another from our hearts”

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family in the traditional calendar. Short reflection:

God chose to incarnate into the world through a family, for very good reasons. It is the nature of His creation that family is the base unit of society. Family, not the individual. As creatures, we cannot change this fundamental law. God could have come to us any way He pleased, but he chose family, and in outwardly difficult circumstances, in case you didn’t notice. The entire Nativity narrative appears outwardly to be one bad break after another. Yet the whole time, He was in charge.

God knows everything going on in your family, including things you don’t know. God is not limited in any way, and He wants to help. He wants you to ask.

So today, no matter where you are, or who you’re with, consecrate your family to the Holy Family. You can do it with the intention of your entire family expanse, not just your domestic family. The words of the prayer can easily be adapted to first person if you are solo. Happy feast!