I agree that Pope Benedict's comments have probably struck a nerve with Pope Francis and all of his supporters. Considering that a lot of people have worked a long time to put a Pope into Francis' position so that he could make changes that would undermine the Catholic Church, don't you think that they may retaliate? I just wonder if Pope Benedict's comments may have put his life in danger.
Most likely there will be a statement issued in the near future saying that the Pope Emeritus is upset by people spinning his tribute to Cardinal Meisner as any kind of criticism of the wonderful, saintly Pope Francis and his merciful, crystal clear teaching of the Faith.
I would say his life is in very great danger indeed. If I were him I would get as far from the Vatican as quickly as I could. Failing that I would try to get as much done as quickly as I could. He is very brave for trying.
I still think God will intervene directly, what else can He do? Things are so bad. Even if Pope Francis were gone and we were to get another Great Pope like St Pope John Paul I think the gates of hell have been opened as far as heresy is concerned. It can't be an accident that this is the centenary of Fatima and Fatima spoke exactly to this situation. It is right to pray , hope and not to worry as Padre Pio said, it is God's Church and He will look after it. Much that has been happening lately is very, very positive. However the fact is Pope Francis and His fellows can do even more immense damage before they go. How many more Cardinals and Bishops for instance could he put in place that are bad?
I take great comfort at the moment by going up every Sunday to a Traditional Latin Mass in a little jewel of a Church , St Teresa of Liseaux about half an hours walk from my home. There is a grotto to Our Lady there and you cannot imagine the pleasure I got from having bought a candle, brought it up and lit it at her feet. I don't find the Latin too much of a struggle. I love the Latin hymns, especially Salve Regina. I am at home. So prayerful
I go to a Traditional Latin Mass every first Saturday. Its very special. I go to my own parish masses otherwise as all the family go there and I like to support my local. We have a lovely holy priest. He is retired now but still working away. we are blessed to have him.
I believe Pope Benedict has strong faith and some foreknowledge of the trials to befall our Church. After all, he knows the full 3rd secret of Fatima. Let us continue to pray for this holy shepherd.
I have attended 2 Latin masses recently. I struggle with the Latin though (as expected of course). But I will persevere. I love the sense of sacredness of the Latin mass.
I can't 'remember exactly when or where I read it but I remember Pope Benedict said that the church was akin to an Apple. The core still sound but the flesh has grown bad and would eventually fall away just leaving the core, a small remnant. He also said the church would be much poorer, smaller but faithful. I believe he was led to step aside and let the unfaithful fall away and so complete the plan to return to a faithful church. Who knows how all this will play out but God has not abandoned his people. I am heartened by the story in OT where Jacobs sons go to Egypt to beg for food during famine. God sent Joseph ahead of them, even though it was through their sin he ended up in Egypt. I believe God has someone prepared to lead us through all of this.
http://www.lastampa.it/2013/02/18/v...the-church-h7DcrYFxNmAleoeDLkekzN/pagina.html A restructured Church with far fewer members that is forced to let go of many places of worship it worked so hard to build over the centuries. A minority Catholic Church with little influence over political decisions, that is socially irrelevant, left humiliated and forced to “start over.” But a Church that will find itself again and be reborn a “simpler and more spiritual” entity thanks to this “enormous confusion.” This was the prophesy made 40 years ago on the future of Christianity by a young Bavarian theologian, Joseph Ratzinger. Digging it out again today perhaps provides us with another key to understanding Benedict XVI's decision to resign, because it traces his gesture back through the course of his interpretation of history. His prophesy concluded a series of radio preachings which the then professor of theology gave in 1969 at what was a decisive moment in his life and the life of the Church. These were the turbulent years of the student revolts and the landing on the moon but also of the disputes over the Second Vatican Council which had only recently come to a close. Ratzinger, who was one of the Council's protagonists, had left the riotous university of Tübingen seeking refuge in the calmer city of Regensburg. He found himself isolated as a theologian, having split with liberals Küng, Schillebeeckx and Rahner over their interpretations of the Council. It was in this period that he concolidated new friendships with theologians Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac, with whom he founded Catholic theological journal, Communio. Communio soon became a training ground for young “Ratzingerian” priests who are now cardinals and all seen as potential successors to Benedict XVI: Angelo Scola, Christoph Schönborn and Marc Ouellet. In five little known radio speeches made in 1969 and published again a while ago by Ignatius Press in the volume “Faith and the Future”, the future Pope gave his vision of the future of man and the Church. His last teaching, which he read out on “Hessian Rundfunk” radio on Christmas day, had a distinctly prophetic tone. Ratzinger said he was convinced the Church was going through an era similar to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. “We are at a huge turning point – he explained – in the evolution of mankind. This moment makes the move from Medieval to modern times seem insignificant.” Professor Ratzinger compared the current era to that of Pope Pius VI who was abducted by troops of the French Republic and died in prison in 1799. The Church was fighting against a force which intended to annihilate it definitively, confiscating its property and dissolving religious orders. Today's Church could be faced with a similar situation, undermined, according to Ratzinger, by the temptation to reduce priests to “social workers” and it and all its work reduced to a mere political presence. “From today's crisis, will emerge a Church that has lost a great deal,” he affirmed. “It will become small and will have to start pretty much all over again. It will no longer have use of the structures it built in its years of prosperity. The reduction in the number of faithful will lead to it losing an important part of its social privileges.” It will start off with small groups and movements and a minority that will make faith central to experience again. “It will be a more spiritual Church, and will not claim a political mandate flirting with the Right one minute and the Left the next. It will be poor and will become the Church of the destitute.” The process outlined by Ratzinger was a “long” one “but when all the suffering is past, a great power will emerge from a more spiritual and simple Church,” at which point humans will realise that they live in a world of “indescribable solitude” and having lost sight of God “they will perceive the horror of their poverty.” Then and only then, Ratzinger concluded, will they see “that small flock of faithful as something completely new: they will see it as a source of hope for themselves, the answer they had always secretly been searching for. 0 0
Pope Benedict has also likened our time to that of the West in the fall of the Roman Empire https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/01/europe-and-its-discontents And in 1969 he predicted the future of the Church https://aleteia.org/2016/06/13/when-cardinal-joseph-ratzinger-predicted-the-future-of-the-church/ All in all -- we still need to listen to him!
The beauty is that even in not understanding the Latin you are still being bathed in powerful graces as the ancient liturgy is celebrated.
I am so happy for you. When I hear the Salve Regina chanted I cannot help but feel tears it's beauty overwhelms me and I am back again as a child kneeling in front of Our Lady's statue.
I think that is what Pope Benedict was trying to tell us when he told the new Cardinals "God wins in the end." Hope for the hearts of some but perhaps fear in the hearts of others.
Oh yes. Stepping up prayers for this. Perhaps he too like Cardinal Meisner has offered his Cross and death for the restoration of Holy Mother Church. It just echos so many prophecies about a Pope having to flee for his life.
Oh how beautiful! How fortunate you are Padraig. Where I live most of our churches are hideously modern.
Francisco Sanchez Ventura, a spiritual son of Padre Pio, great economist and winner of Spain's most prestigious writing prize, wrote extensively about Marian apparitions until he died in 2007. In his book about Fatima, based on all the evidence surrounding its historical development, fathers of the Church like St Ireneus, and the chapters of the Apocalypse referenced by sor Lucia as containing the third secret, he concludes that it is about a Pope, an authentic pope (not an anti pope as some would think) that influenced by the prevailing culture and pressured by really difficult circumstances will end falling in heresy and becoming an antipope because of his way of thinking and acting. He will lead the Church into a generalized apostasy and become the prophet of the anti-christ. But then the Lord will send a so called mystical Pope: like in his first coming, in his second coming Christ will leave behind the official Church, the Sanhedrin, and will choose an ignorant lay person to lead the Church. "That is why the Virgin has repeatedly said: "it will be the lay people who will save the Church." (Francisco Sanchez Ventura, The hidden secret of Fatima (1990)) To sum it up, according to Ventura: anti pope prophet of the anti-christ, general apostasy, and then the mystical pope which will be a lay person to lead the Church into the end times.
When has the Virgin said that it will be the lay people who will save the Church? I don't remember any account of Our Lady having said that in any apparitions. There's something not quite right about a Pope being the False Prophet. A member of the hierarchy, most likely a Cardinal, would make sense and there's no shortage of contenders these days, but a Pope as FP sounds wrong because it means that the faithful would have erred by remaining inside the barque rather than jumping ship..
