Fake pope kisses real pope’s Fisherman’s Ring. Also, Leftists gonna Leftist.


I have written previously about Pope Benedict’s decision to retain the Fisherman’s Ring after his faux abdication HERE. At the end of every pontificate, without exception, the ring is smashed… with a special silver hammer that is made for this exact purpose and this purpose only. Several writers described the procedure in the days following the Declaratio. Then Benedict came out and corrected them. Oh no, dear friends, he’s keeping it. Huge red flag, along with retaining the form of address “His Holiness,” and all the other papal vesture, you know, because no other clothes were available.
The occasion itself is also very interesting. Did you know that antipope Bergoglio has always brought his newly minted cardinals in front of Pope Benedict for his blessing? After the first consistory, which Benedict attended in person, Benedict receives the new cardinals at his residence/monastery, where he imparts the his blessing. Could it be any more obvious that he’s not really retired?
2018.06.28 Concistoro CPF
 


Anyhoo, there’s a lot going on in the world, boys and girls. Some pretty big  SCOTUS wins, the biggest being Kennedy’s retirement. The last few days have seen the Left, with now yet another thing to lose their minds over, descending further into chaos, hypocrisy, and hate. Their only acceptable immigration policy is now we must let everyone in. Most of the bishops are with them. I tried to explain to a liberal friend this week that a sovereign nation has both the right and the duty to regulate immigration. She said that doesn’t matter because these people need us. I said, well we have a formal process for that, and it starts by presenting yourself at a legal border crossing, instead of sneaking in and getting caught. That’s when the shouting started.
It’s going to be a long hot summer, folks. Be prepared.
If you want a glimpse into how far the divide is yet to go, check out Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28 year old Latina Democrat in Queens who just beat out the 56 year white guy Democrat Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful congressmen in the House. Her campaign was openly racist, basically claiming she was the better choice because she wasn’t white. She won with virtually zero campaign spending, running on a platform of a federally mandated jobs guarantee, and the abolishment of ICE. Sounds like a pure socialist utopia.
At least the ICE guys would be guaranteed a job in another agency, right?
While Ocasio-Cortez has no chance of being beaten in the General, other Dems in other districts will be hurt as the party turns harder and harder left. That’s a good thing, although this is such a powder keg, I hate to think about what might happen if some sort of trigger event takes place. What I do know, because they write it on twitter using their reals names, is that the left wants you dead. Not silenced, dead. They think you deserve death. it’s right there out in the open.

The swag shop is now closed; the analytics are interesting

The shirts are ordered and will be delivered in a few weeks, first to Chez Non Veni, then out to all the happy customers.
I conducted this little experiment out of curiosity, more than anything else. I mean, of course I wanted one of the shirts myself, but I really wondered what we would learn from such an exercise. I won’t reveal the actual numbers, for fear your heart might sink upon discovering the tininess of Tradland. But I will share some percentages on the analytics that may or may not have spiritual and/or psychological implications.
What I will say regarding quantity is that we far exceeded the minimum needed to break even, and in fact delivered a small surplus that I will be sharing with worthy benefactors, notably Frank Walker at canon212.com and Ann Barnhardt, who both drove traffic to the effort. Thanks for playing!
Here are the analytics:

  • Overall site traffic fairly typical for a post endorsed/linked by Frank and Ann, although slowed a bit by the Sunday timing
  • The post at barnhardt.biz drove more than half of the referrals, and it is worth noting that her post explicitly laid out what the reader was getting themselves into, including a picture of the product
  • Of the people who viewed the post here and saw the picture of the product, 30% of them clicked on the link to go to the store to buy the product – this is called the “click-through rate”, and 30% is off the charts high
  • However, once they got there, only 6% actually followed through and made a purchase – this is called the “conversion rate”

So if you complete the math, what it says is that only 2% of the people who read the post bought a shirt. Contrast this data point with the single most instructive data point we have regarding the disposition of trads at large on the issue of whom is the one true pontiff: The Saint Louis Catholic blog poll results show that fully 72% of trads, and anyone else who voted in that poll, believe Benedict to be the only true living pope. While highly unscientific, the dichotomy at play here is so glaring that it begs a psychological explanation.
Draw your own conclusions. Maybe I suck at art.
But it seems to me that fear plays a large role in this, and we need to get past that fear if things are ever going to be corrected, and the truth prevail. Polls are anonymous; action requires conviction and commitment. To those of you who chose to participate, even in a lighthearted/fun sort of way, thank you.
I wrote a short essay last year on the difference between fortitude and courage. It was directed primarily at clergy and “professional” Catholics, but it applies to everyone HERE.
 

HURRY! Swag Shop is now OPEN, for a limited time only

il mio papa
Just as I was about to give up on twitter as nothing other than a 100% time suck and purely a slothful activity, I found out that it can actual be productive. This picture popped up in my feed during morning coffee yesterday, creativity awakened, and I was soon encouraged to “do something.”
Although I immediately wanted one of these, I also realized how misleading the wording was. “My pope is Benedict,” while factually true, seems to leave room for people choosing who their pope is, like we see from the “resistance” and Deep Staters on their “not my president” kick. The question of who is true pope is not a matter of opinion, but rather of facts. The truth doesn’t depend on popular opinion or on the opinion of popular people. However, for what it’s worth, I’m told the man in the picture is the new Italian deputy prime minister.
So the first thing I had to replace was the wording. But I also couldn’t bear the image, so that had to be switched too. I think what I ended up with is far more classy, factually accurate, and flattering for the wearer. The black is so slimming, you know.
 
benedict shirt final 2
Oh yes, it’s real, but only for a very limited time. These puppies are being custom made, obviously, and I’m not holding any extra inventory. Swag Shop closes forever in 48 hours, at Noon Eastern Daylight Time, 19 June 2018.
Don’t miss out! What a great (belated) Father’s Day gift, eh? No?
Buy HERE.

“The Divine Heart guards and loves them by living with them, as they live and abide in Him”

Today is the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the pre-1955 liturgy, Thursday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart. This feast was not merely downgraded, but rather completely suppressed (as was the Octave wherein it resided), while the Feast of the Sacred Heart was retained as a Solemnity, yet not transferred to Sunday nor made a holy day of obligation. +Bugnini had already become head of the liturgical reform by then, and almost surely not believing in Eucharist nor the Sacred Heart, his diabolical intent is all over this. However, by divine will, I just happen to be in possession of a 1948 Bugnini-free missal, so let’s talk about the Heart.

”I understood that devotion to the Sacred Heart is a last effort of His love towards Christians of these latter times, by proposing to them an object and means so calculated to persuade them to love Him… This devotion was the last effort of His love that He would grant to men in these latter ages, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which Jesus desired to destroy, and thus to introduce them to the sweet liberty of the rule of His love, which He wished to restore in the hearts of all those who should embrace this devotion.” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, vision of the Sacred Heart, 1673

“An object and means so calculated.” Thus did St. Margaret Mary introduce to the world a special weapon reserved for these latter days. It is very compelling as a means of amending your life. Have you ever set aside time and reflected on the Sacred Heart? On what it means? How it so fully expresses God’s love for us, in a very special way? Spend some time on it, because it’s really helpful. It’s a deeper meditation on the reality of the Incarnation: That God himself stitched together His own physical human heart, with the specific intent of having it pierced by us, for our sake.
Pierced by you, for your sake. You can find a good article HERE.
“The sweet liberty of the rule of His love.” The heart is where we discover the intimacy of Jesus’ love for us. It is very important to understand that this love is not simply for all mankind collectively, but for each one of us individually and specifically. He loves you personally, one-on-one, and more than anyone else loves you. His love is not just in real time, but throughout time. He loved you before He created the universe, He loved you from the Cross, and He loves you now. He desires to have His love reciprocated. We do this by adoring him in praise and thanksgiving, and by ordering our lives according to His Word. If you’ve never understood that thing about having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” this is exactly what it’s all about. When you really love someone, you try really hard not to hurt them, especially in the things They’ve told you hurt Them most.

“The heart stands for love. The human heart of Jesus stands both for His human love and for the infinite love of His divine Person. His love was not just a shimmering, dreamy softness; it was wisely strong and true to its eternal purposes. Despite the anguish of Gethsemane, His love yielded His human life to crucifixion. His love had all the majesty and fullness of God, a height and a depth that make paltry the wisdom of men. Every mystery of His life, every miracle, sermon, and kindness, was a new revelation of divine love that enlightens and warms mankind.” (quote from a hand missal, Feast of the Sacred Heart)

His love for us burst forth physically in the spilling of His Sacred Blood. Not just in a general sense all through His Passion and death, but rather acutely as the lance, the Spear of Destiny, pierced his side and reached His heart. That lance is you.

“They dug therefore, and they dug through not only His hands, but also His feet, yea, and His side also; and the very recesses of His most sacred Heart, they pierced with the spear of rage, though it had already been wounded with the spear of love. ‘Thou hast wounded,’ says the Spouse in the Canticles of love, “thou hast wounded my Heart, my sister, my spouse.’ O Lord Jesus, Thy spouse, Thy love, Thy sister has wounded Thy Heart. Why then was it necessary that that Heart should be wounded further by Thine enemies?” St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Vitis Mystica

 
Here again is our Lord instructing St. Margaret Mary; note whom He cites as hurting Him most:

“Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus.”

The thing that most strikingly ties these two feasts together is the ontology of the Eucharist itself: Not only is it truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior, but it is literally the Heart of Jesus, the Heart of God. Yes, that’s right, and there have indeed been examples of the host turning into visible flesh, and this flesh has been confirmed scientifically as actual heart muscle. Reflect on this as you read Pope Benedict XV on the institution of the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, 9 November 1921:

“The chief reason of this feast is to commemorate the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist. By this means the Church wishes more and more to excite the faithful to approach this sacred mystery with confidence, and to inflame their hearts with that divine charity which consumed the Sacred Heart of Jesus when in His infinite love He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, wherein the Divine Heart guards and loves them by living with them, as they live and abide in Him. For in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist He offers and gives Himself to us as victim, companion, nourishment, viaticum, and pledge of our future glory.”

And finally, a short reflection on the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart from a priest at a Benedictine Priory who apparently has permission to celebrate it:

The adorable mystery of the Eucharist sums up, contains, and communicates to us the entire mystery of Christ: His incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If you seek the open Side of the glorious ascended Christ, you will find it in the Eucharist. If you seek the pierced Heart of Christ, beating with love for the Father and with mercy for sinners, you will find it in the Eucharist. The Communion Antiphon of the Mass of the feast is meant to be repeated and treasured. It is, at once, a promise and an invitation: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” HERE

You can read about Eucharistic miracles and the human heart muscle HERE.
History of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart HERE.

“O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast poured forth the riches of Thy love for men in
instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist: help us, we beseech Thee, to love Thy
most loving Heart and ever to make worthy use of so great a Sacrament.” Collect for the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus

 
 
 
 

Imagine my shock that boys would win races against girls

Does no one in a position of authority have the balls to put a stop to this? The denial of reality that is required to accept this is mind boggling. You have to purposely choose anti-reality to see nothing wrong with this.


I’m firmly on record as saying there is no such thing as MAGA; my position is that the republic is dead, past the point of no return, where the eventual outcome is now unavoidable collapse and hot war.
But…
If there is one thing that could possibly trigger an outbreak of sanity, I think it’s this one. It’s certainly not homosexuality or any other grave condition related to sex. Maybe when the pedo normalization attempt comes, maybe. But the Trans Hoax does have the potential to mobilize whatever tiny amount of fortitude might be left in the tiny amount of non-neutered men, because the whole thing is so utterly, transparently, FALSE.


I was not aware of this Jazz person until a few days ago. Apparently he has been an internet star since coming out trans at age 11. He now has a cable show documenting his “journey” towards surgery, with the full support all along of his parents, who in a just society would be in prison. This poor creature has announced his intent to cut off his male parts and volunteer to go through the rest of his life with an open wound (anti-vagina) which needs constant care so that it doesn’t kill you. Think about the fact that this is now considered “medicine,” when the obvious remedy would be to leave the body alone and treat the diseased mind. Here is some excellent testimony from a sufferer of gender dysphoria who became grounded in actual reality HERE. If gender is fluid, isn’t the more rational approach to change the gender, rather than change the sex? Yeah, just try to have a “rational” discussion with anyone in this field. There’s no real money to be made in therapy. The real money is in the surgery.
Don’t you see how perfectly all this aligns with post-modernism’s core doctrine of the denial of reality? How the very nature of things must be transformed, and instead of conforming your mind to observable reality, we are forced to conform reality to the mind of the individual. Never forget this.
Where are the surgeons with morals? Where are the psychologists grounded in actual reality? STEP UP.
Oh, and in case you missed it…


I will leave you with a post I wrote back in May 2016, in the wake of the Obama Administration forcing the trans bathroom mandate. I knew immediately that this could serve as a turning point, both in the presidential race and America at large. To this day, I firmly believe that this overreach helped Trump, and may have been the initial spark that would turn into a raging dumpster fire in the ensuing months, as the heat of summer wore on and Sick Hillary wilted. I think the issue is still hot enough to serve as a rallying point.

In America, a time for choosing

And so it came to pass, 13 May 2016, the Obama administration announces it will cut federal funding to schools who do not allow transgender students to use the bath/locker room of whichever gender they identify with.  We love the little children so much, it simply must be done. HERE
Today is the day we decide if we are going to take back our country.
That’s a pretty big deal, so we should probably examine some facts and try to determine exactly what’s at stake here.  Without getting into some of the more bizarre claims of the Trans movement, where there may be oh a thousand genders, let’s just stick with the simple case of “the gender I identify with is the opposite of my biological sex.”
Indoctrination of children in “gender studies” and forcing them to “choose” genders is child abuse.  Gender Dysphoria in children is not unusual, especially among girls.  Ever hear of a “tomboy”?  They’re not exactly rare.  In the vast, vast majority of cases, everything works itself out during puberty, when the sex hormones do their thing.  To force or encourage hormonal treatment of a pre-pubescent child should be a crime.
Gender Dysphoria in adults is a mental illness.  It’s a disorder.  As such, treatment is the rational course, even if the effectiveness of treatment varies.  Celebration and encouragement lead to further misery.  Ten minutes of research into life outcomes of this group will astound you.  41% attempt suicide.  The movement will try to convince you that’s all about bullying and social stigma, but it’s not.  Even those who have “fully transitioned” (in quotes because that’s not physically possible) are still overwhelmingly very sad, regretful, and yes, still very suicidal.  Please, ten minutes, do the research.  There are entire websites dedicated to this.
The irony of the bath/changing/locker room signage battle is inescapable.  The Trans movement has spent years attempting to disconnect gender from biological sex.  Yet the sign on the locker room isn’t referring to your feelings (even if those feelings are very real).  The sign is referring to your biological sex, which is a metaphysical certitude.  The X and Y don’t lie.
We’re going to hear a lot of talk about hatred and bigotry.  I want to talk about love.  Love and charity.  When you profess to love someone, or to be charitable to your fellow man, you are professing that you care for them.  These people are hurting; there is no doubt about that.  They deserve to have their human dignity upheld and respected.  Sometimes, caring means sharing hard truths for the well-being of another.  If you really do care, then it’s your duty to call it out.  Because the opposite of love isn’t hate, the opposite of love is indifference. Doing nothing, staying silent, is the opposite of love.
Let me assure you, what’s going on here with fedgov intervention has nothing to do with Trans rights.  Do you really think the political ruling class gives a shit about 0.0016 of the voting population?  No.  This is about pushing the envelope to see where the breaking point lies.  This is about testing the moral fabric of this country to see just how outrageously they can overreach until somebody decides to do something about it.  This is a weighing of the sheeple.
I hope everyone understands this: If you support biological men in girls’ locker/bath/changing rooms, you are making a conscious choice to place the feelings of a tiny minority above the physical safety of all women and children.  If that’s your opinion, just get comfortable with the fact that, in your mind, an increased level of violence against women and children in the form of rape, assault and murder by sexual predators abusing this new paradigm is simply the price of progress.
This is an appeal to every father, brother, husband.  Do you willfully submit to putting your daughters, sisters and wives at grave risk for the sake of the “feelings” of 0.0016 of the population?  Are you okay with giving the green light for every sexual predator to claim he “feels like a woman” and to freely enter, by federal law, any girls’ bathroom, changing room, or locker room he wants? If not, what are you going to do about it?  Do you even have the balls to share this post?
Here’s an idea:  Withdraw your kids from public school on Monday.  Give the schools and the states the summer to stand up to the fedgov overreach.  That action brings zero risk to you and your family, yet if done on a massive scale, could do some real good. HERE
This is a war on women and children.  Period.
Gentlemen, into the breach…

“Objectivity, as found through rational thought, is a Western and masculine concept that we will challenge throughout this text.”

Dr. Jordan Peterson consoles two professors who are waking up to the anti-reality dogma of the post-modernists. The redpilling is quite a sight. Video in a moment…

David Haskell: “I’m trying to get into the head space of some of my colleagues, so I got out a textbook called Race, Class, and Gender. It’s an anthology that’s used in Cultural Studies courses, Women’s Studies courses; it’s sort of the “go-to” text, so I’m told. I’m reading it, and I turn to page 14, and I can tell you it was page 14 because I was so astounded by what I found. It said: “Objectivity, as found through rational thought, is a Western and masculine concept that we will challenge throughout this text.””
Peterson: “Yeah. It’s too bad that you’re shocked by that.”
“I couldn’t believe it! So you want to go for irrational?!”
“The PC-types have been saying exactly that since the 1970s.  Make no mistake about this…this isn’t something they are “secreting” in. This is the dead statement. The whole notion of logic and coherence, and empirical data for that matter…”
“Objective evidence!”
“Let’s question the definition of evidence…”

As noted in the video comments, the very fact that these professors are just waking up to the extent of the problem really demonstrates the isolation of academia from the real world, and this is as scary as the subject matter itself.
This is a six minute clip (containing the quoted exchange) of a two hour discussion. You can find a link to the whole thing in the video description.

Compare and contrast with St. Thomas Aquinas via +Garrigou-Lagrange:

This introduction (to Aristotle’s Metaphysica) concludes with a defense, against the Sophists, of the objective validity of reason itself, and of reason’s first principle, the principle of contradiction. He who denies this principle affirms a self-destructive sentence. To deny this principle is to annihilate language, is to destroy all substance, all distinction between things, all truths, thoughts, and even opinions, all desires and acts. We could no longer distinguish even the degrees of error… A more profound defense of the objective validity of reason and reason’s first law has never been written…
In the intelligible reality thus known, our intellect seizes at once its opposition to non-being, an opposition expressed by the principle of contradiction: Being is not non-being. “By nature our intellect knows being and the immediate characteristics of being as being, out of which knowledge arises the understanding of first principles, of the principle, say, that affirmation and denial cannot coexist (opposition between being and non-being): and other similar principles.”
+Garrigou-Lagrange, Reality, 1.7, 4

Keep in mind, the anti-realists would say, “You just proved our point. You think arguing from Aquinas’ so-called objective reality means anything to us? Um, Western and Masculine much?”
By the very nature of their position, these people can’t be reasoned with.

“Belonging to a Church whose leaders don’t even believe in its teachings does seem kind of dumb.”

We certainly could go a lot of places with that headline, am I right?
The story at LifesiteNews is titled: “Chaste same-sex attracted Christians counter Pope Francis: ‘God did NOT make us gay’.” HERE
Indeed, the responses are harsh, and the universal theme is: Shut up, fake news, fake pope, fake religion. Either we believe what we believe or we don’t, and lying to people in order to make yourself popular, on a matter that concerns the salvation of souls, is a most detestable act.
No commentary is necessary: (my emphasis)

There is one thing…that every single one of these chaste same-sex attracted men and women made clear in their statements to LifeSiteNews: God most certainly did not make them gay.
Thomas Berryman wonders “just how seriously the Holy Father takes the Church’s teachings on this and other issues of sexual morality … It is deeply disturbing to believe that leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are more concerned about winning people’s affection and approval than the fate of their eternal souls.
This certainly makes it a lot harder for those of us who are same-sex attracted and trying to obey the Church’s timeless teachings to do so–or even feel like we are truly welcome in the new, paradigm-shifting Church,” said Berryman. “Belonging to a Church whose leaders don’t even believe in its teachings does seem kind of dumb.”
The Pope’s “remark disturbed me greatly because first of all, it’s a lie, and second of all, he is deceiving millions of people into hell,” said Anita Angelo, who did not mince words when speaking to LifeSiteNews. “He just told millions of homosexuals that it’s ok to stay gay and sold them on the devil’s lie. It’s not. Sure Jesus said to ‘come as you are’ but He will turn your life around if you let Him. God can and will deliver us from every yoke of bondage if we let Him.”
Angelo said that those who have “itching ears … longing for affirmation” need to know that the Pope’s alleged but uncorrected statement “logically speaking doesn’t even make sense.” She asked, “Why would a loving God create someone to be same-sex attracted and then at the same time condemn them to hell? He just wouldn’t.
“I am very grieved over his remark,” said Angelo. “It actually makes me sick to my stomach because people will stay trapped and not even know it.”
Before he started his outreach in San Francisco to the LGBT community, Catholic Joseph Sciambra assumed his struggle would be with the secular gay community. Yet he found, “Those who stand up for truth … have almost no support from the hierarchy.”
“Over the past ten years, because of this issue, I have teetered every day on the edge of leaving the Catholic Church. Beyond the physical and mental torments I have suffered due to a decade I spent as a gay man, the Church has been my greatest source of suffering,” said Sciambra in a published opinion.
“When I hear those in the Catholic Church say ‘you were born gay,’ I think: My God, they are killing us,” he concluded.

You can read the rest over there.