Cardinal Raymond Burke: The faithful remnant should place themselves under Christ the King during these days of apostasy...

Cardinal Raymond Burke is exhorting the faithful remnant to place themselves under Christ the King during these dark days of apostasy.

In his Encyclical Letter Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI wrote:


"In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord. We were led in the meantime to indulge the hope of a brighter future at the sight of a more widespread and keener interest evinced in Christ and his Church, the one Source of Salvation, a sign that men who had formerly spurned the rule of our Redeemer and had exiled themselves from his kingdom were preparing, and even hastening, to return to the duty of obedience." (No. 1).

What of this papal teaching on the Kingship of Christ? Why is it that we hear almost nothing on this subject these days? Largely because of our modern democratic mentality. Beginning with the "Enlightenment" (although it was hardly that) and the Industrial Revolution, there was the realization that the rights and interests of a people are best furthered by self-government. This was a positive development. And as nations began to adopt more democratic models of government, the whole notion of royalty either disappeared altogether or was reduced to little more than a museum-piece whose purpose was merely to perpetuate the memory of a romanticized past.

The transition from monarchy to democracy is rightly labelled progress. This because, as any student of history knows full well, the kingship of men more often than not was an exercise in injustice, brutality and unmitigated tyranny. The reign of these merely human kings (and emperors) brings to mind the words of Lord Acton: "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I write these words as I listen to the Iraqi Prime Minister address the United States Congress and testify to the same.

But should this fact have any implications for our approach to the whole notion of Christ as King of the universe? Obviously we cannot totally divorce our religious concepts from those of the secular sphere. If the notion of kingship is now considered obsolete with regard to our political life, then there are two alternatives which present themselves to us: either we abandon the entire concept and terminology of kingship in the religious sphere, or we must define the Kingship of Christ more precisely so that we might better distinguish this Divine Kingship from that of merely human kings and thereby present it to the world in a more appealing way.

But can we abandon the title of king which Sacred Scripture applies to Christ? Unlike presidents, prime ministers or those we simply refer to as leaders, a king reigns; he rules. And what does it mean to reign or rule? It means to direct or order members of a given society toward their proper end. In a democratic government, it is the people who have the power to rule and the president or prime minister is merely their delegated representative. Whereas in a monarchy, the king alone has the power to rule. And this not by delegation but because this power to rule is derived from his pre-eminence or excellence.

In a democratic form of government, there are three functions which are divided and which are the proper domains of three separate brances of government: the legislative, executive and judicial. But a king possesses the fullness of these powers and it is of his royal essence that he is subject to no one else in the realm with regard to these powers.

Christ has full legislative power. We see this in the New Testament as He accomplished His task of setting up the New Covenant. He has full executive power which He exercises over His Mystical Body the Church and through His Apostles. He has full judicial power, a power which will be made all the more manifest when He returns to earth:

"I saw heaven standing open; and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and wages war. And his eyes are as a flame of fire, and on his head many diadems; he has a name written which no man knows except himself. And he is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. And from his mouth goes forth a sharp sword with which to smite the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God Almighty. And he has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, 'King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19: 11-16).

Jesus is indeed our King. And yes, He rules with a rod of iron. But not as the brutal despot rules. He rules with justice and He is Faithful and True. He is the King of the Universe who defends His people against the rule of Satan, a rule which He overthrows as He destroys the kingdom of Satan on a blood-soaked Cross.

Our King is meekness itself. He defeats the powers of darkness with an iron rod which is called love. Recall that when He stood before Pilate, the Roman governor questioned him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" (Mt 27:11). And He replied, "You say so." This statement from Jesus our King is absolute. And men of every age and place must acknowledge this truth.

Because of the modern democratic mentality, there are many within the Church who believe that they can dissent from (reject) the authoritative teaching of Jesus our King as made known through the Magisterium of His Church. Recall what Pope John Paul II had to say about this:

"While exchanges and conflicts of opinion may constitute normal expressions of public life in a representative democracy, moral teaching certainly cannot depend simply upon respect for a process: indeed, it is in no way established by following the rules and deliberative procedures typical of a democracy. Dissent, in the form of carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media, is opposed to ecclesial communion and to a correct understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the People of God. Opposition to the teaching of the Church's Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit's gifts." (Veritatis Splendor, No. 113).

The Church is hierarchical with Christ our King as the head of His Mystical Body. And our heavenly Father has sent forth His firstborn Son to establish a kingdom for a glorious purpose: "For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for 'he subjected everything under his feet.' But when it says that everything has been subjected, it is clear that it excludes the one who subjected everything to him. When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him [the Father], so that God may be all in all." (1 Corinthians 15: 22-28).

Now that's a Kingship which should appeal to anyone!

As it was in the days of Noah...

They wish to efface even God's memory...

Christopher Ferrara writes:


"In a newly published interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais (the newspaper’s English translation is here), Pope Francis was repeatedly invited by the interviewer’s leading questions to comment negatively on the election of Donald Trump. The first attempt was phrased thus: "Donald Trump has just become the president of the US, and the whole world is tense because of it. What do you think about that?"

Oh come on!  Could you be any more blatant? In response, Francis at first professed a wait-and-see attitude:  “I think that we must wait and see. I don’t like to get ahead of myself nor judge people prematurely. We will see how he acts, what he does, and then I will have an opinion.”

The second attempt to get Francis to bash Trump hit pay dirt, however:

El Pais: “Both in Europe and in America, the repercussions of the crisis that never ends, the growing inequalities, the absence of strong leadership are giving way to political groups that reflect on the citizens’ malaise. Some of them — the so-called anti-system or populists — capitalize on the fears in face of an uncertain future in order to form a message full of xenophobia and hatred towards the foreigner. Trump’s case is the most noteworthy, but there are others such as Austria or Switzerland. Are you worried about this phenomenon?”

This time Francis probably gave the interviewer even more than he was asking for by literally comparing the election of Trump to the rise of Adolf Hitler:

Pope Francis: “…. When I started to hear about populism in Europe I didn’t know what to make of it, I got lost, until I realized that it had different meanings. Crises provoke fear, alarm. In my opinion, the most obvious example of European populism is Germany in 1933. After [Paul von] Hindenburg, after the crisis of 1930, Germany is broken, it needs to get up, to find its identity, a leader, someone capable of restoring its character, and there is a young man named Adolf Hitler who says: ‘I can, I can.’

“And all Germans vote for Hitler. Hitler didn’t steal the power, his people voted for him, and then he destroyed his people. That is the risk. In times of crisis, we lack judgment, and that is a constant reference for me. Let’s look for a savior who gives us back our identity and let’s defend ourselves with walls, barbed-wire, whatever, from other peoples that may rob us of our identity.

“…. But the case of Germany in 1933 is typical, a people that was immersed in a crisis, that looked for its identity until this charismatic leader came and promised to give their identity back, and he gave them a distorted identity, and we all know what happened….”

Here the Roman Pontiff not only calumniates a newly elected President, blithely suggesting that his administration could lead to the same outcome as Hitler’s Third Reich, but also all the Americans who voted for him, implicitly belittling them as frightened, simple-minded people susceptible to the blandishments of a false political savior who will only destroy them for their foolishness.

Worse, Francis generally denounces the rising populist movements, essentially calling them Hitlerian in spirit, thereby demonizing common people who seek to preserve their national identity from a veritable Muslim invasion, detach their nations from corrupt political establishments, and liberate themselves from the tentacles of the New World Order that the current Vatican apparatus seems intent on helping to build.

The likening of Trump to Hitler is just too much to bear.  Even Antonio Socci, writing from Italy, protests that it is “an outrageous allusion, made publicly, that is inconceivable on the lips of the head of the Church who is also a head of state.”  Socci also rightly notes that it is “absurd to say that Hitler was elected democratically” by “all of Germany” — an egregious historical blunder, and not the first that this Pope has made in his reckless public remarks. Hitler lost the Presidential election of 1932, receiving only a plurality of the votes, but was appointed Chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg and then consolidated his dictatorial power by force after Hindenburg’s death.

 This latest Bergoglian scandal raises some troubling questions about a Pope who fawns over Fidel Castro, a mass-murdering dictator who persecuted Catholics for more than half a century before his death, yet denigrates a duly elected American President who has already taken actions that advance the pro-life cause in America, is poised to change the balance on the United States Supreme Court in favor of life in the womb, and has moved quickly to begin withdrawing the U.S. from globalist entanglements in trade and other areas.

How is it that the public comments of this Pope on political affairs always mesh perfectly with the aims of the globalist Left, such that, as Antonio Socci has observed, with the unexpected defeat of Hillary Clinton and the rise of populist movements in both America and Europe, Francis “now remains the only point of reference for the international Left, deprived of a leader”?

Why does Francis have such friendly relations with communist and socialist dictators, but such an adversarial relationship with political conservatives such as Trump in America and Macri in Argentina?

Why does the same Pope who declined to speak in opposition to the legalization of “homosexual unions” in Italy, because “the Pope does not place himself into the concrete politics of a country,” think nothing of likening a duly elected President to Adolf Hitler?*

What about the connections, including monetary connections — revealed in large measure by Wikileaks — between the Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the one hand, and, on the other, George Soros, the UN, the international “climate change” propaganda movement and the Clintons, as summarized here and here?

The increasingly alarming trajectory of this pontificate has prompted me to lend my name to an open letter to President Trump. The letter, which appears here, requests that Trump open an investigation into the extent to which the United States government, the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros and other globalist plutocrats have succeeded in co-opting the leadership of the Catholic Church to bring about what the Wikileaks disclosures of Clinton’s and the DNC’s emails have revealed: a revolutionary “Catholic spring” that would align the Church with the international Left in a manner not seen before.

Our letter does not request an investigation of the Church, but rather of the extent to which government and globalist entities have targeted the Church in recent years.  We ask the following questions:

To what end was the National Security Agency monitoring the conclave that elected Pope Francis?
What other covert operations were carried out by US government operatives concerning the resignation of Pope Benedict or the conclave that elected Pope Francis?
Did US government operatives have contact with the “Cardinal Danneels Mafia”?
International monetary transactions with the Vatican were suspended during the last few days prior to the resignation of Pope Benedict.  Were any U.S. Government agencies involved in this?
Why were international monetary transactions resumed on February 12, 2013, the day after Benedict XVI announced his resignation? Was this pure coincidence?
What actions, if any, were actually taken by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton, and others tied to the Obama administration, who were involved in the discussion proposing the fomenting of a “Catholic Spring”?
What roles were played by George Soros and other international financiers who may be currently residing in United States territory?
Whether or not the investigation we have requested is initiated, the open letter to President Trump may serve the useful purpose of a warning to his administration to be wary of undue influence on Catholic leadership by outside interests inimical to those of the administration, the millions of Americans who voted for an end to Leftist and globalist politics as usual in their country, and indeed the Church herself.

May Our Lady, Patroness of the Americas, protect both Church and State in America at this turning point in Western history.

*  see here.

When he was installed as Pope on April 19, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI requested our prayers. "Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another."

On April 9, 1993, Our Lady told Father Gobbi that Jesus' passion "is being renewed by you, my beloved children.  And so I have called you time and again to enter, by your consecration, into the Gethsemane of my Immaculate Heart.  This is in order to form you for your priestly immolation and to give you the strength to go forward without fear to the Calvary of your martyrdom, close to me, the sorrowful Mother, who has begotten you beneath the Cross upon which my Son Jesus has been put to death.  The time of your painful passion has now arrived.  You too will be persecuted and stricken, rejected and condemned, imprisoned and killed.  But do not let yourselves be seized with apprehension or fear.  I am close to you, as I was beneath the Cross.  I am at your side at the hour of the painful passion which is being renewed by you, my beloved ones, because today also it is beneath the cross that I am fulfilling my role as Mother of the new times, which are coming to birth from your painful suffering."

The Church is approaching Calvary.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.  This persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.  The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (CCC, 675).

We are now in the final hour before the bloody persecution.  The Church finds herself surrounded by many enemies. Even now the Man of Sin readies himself to enter the world stage openly.

Pope St. Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist, while giving an audience for the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order in 1909, fell into a mystical trance and prophesied:

"I have seen one of my successors, of the same name, who was fleeing over the dead bodies of his brethren.  He will take refuge in some hiding place; but after a brief respite, he will die a cruel death.  Respect for God has disappeared from human hearts.  They wish to efface even God's memory.  This perversity is nothing less than the beginning of the last days of the world."

While in a mystical trance, Pope St. Pius X observed a time when many people would desire to "efface even God's memory."  An accurate description of our own time.

And who is this successor on the throne of Peter who will possess the same name as Pius X and who will have to flee Rome, eventually facing "a cruel death"?  Only time will tell.  But it should be noted that Pope St. Pius X was born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto on June 2, 1835.  Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on April 16, 1927.  Giuseppe is Italian for Joseph.

Now is the time for the entire Church to prepare for persecution the likes of which the Church has never seen.  In the words of Father Charles Arminjon: "..this persecution will be the most severe and violent of all because it will be inspired not by superstition or fanaticism, nor by a blind attachment to the worship of idols...It's purpose will not be to assuage pride, or to satisfy an unbridled lust for power...It will be a persecution inspired solely by hatred of God, in which God and His Christ will be directly challenged, and its sole objective will be the extermination of the divine kingdom, the complete annihilation of Christianity and of all positive religion." (The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, pp. 63-64).

As it was in the Days of Noah...

Many believe the Man of Sin is already among us. Even Vatican officials believe that "certain forces" are out to destroy the Catholic Church because the Church alone stands in the way of a demonic World Order. Even within the Church, there are those who are working to scatter.

Bishop George Michael Wittman was given the following prophecy: "Woe is me! Sad days are at hand for the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. The Passion of Jesus will be renewed in the most dolorous manner in the Church and in her Supreme Head. In all parts of the world there will be wars and revolutions, and much blood will be spilled. Distress, disasters, and poverty will everywhere be great, since pestilential maladies, scarcity, and other misfortunes will follow one another. Violent hands will be laid on the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church; bishops and priests will be persecuted, and schisms will be provoked, and confusion reign amid all classes. Times will come, so pre-eminently bad, that it will seem as if the enemies of Christ and of His Holy Church, which He founded with His blood, were about to triumph over her. But the priesthood will remain firm and resolute, and good people will adhere faithfully to that body. A general separation will be made. The wheat shall be winnowed, and the floor swept. Secret societies will work great ruin, and exercise a marvellous monetary power, and through that many will be blinded, and infected with most horrible errors; however, all this shall avail naught. Christ says, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who gathereth not with Me, scattereth. Scandals will be but too rife, and woe to those by whom they come! Although the tempest will be terrible, and will turn many in their passage, nevertheless they cannot shake the rock whereon Christ has founded His Church: 'Portae inferi non prevalebunt.'.. The faithful sheep will gather together, and in unions of prayer will offer potent resistance to the enemies of the Catholic Church. Yes, yes, the flock will become small..."

And so it has become small.  As it was in the says of Noah, says Our Lord, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. Those days were days of violence, sexual immorality and demonism. Noah, a righteous man, and his family, were deemed "crazy" for building an ark on dry land.

So too faithful Christians today are deemed crazy for entering the New Ark, the safe refuge of the Immaculata, in preparation for the coming deluge.  Not one of water, but of fire.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer: "We are seven days away from an unprecedented financial event in this country's history..One that could potentially put us towards a depression."

We live in an age where words like "fidelity" and "submission" have taken on a negative connotation, a world where "the word fidelity seems to have lost all meaning, to have dropped out of human usage. The fickleness of man and woman, their changeableness is the virtue of the age. One must not be too rigid, too dogmatic, too steadfast; maturity indicates the ability to change, even to call back one's promises and vows made to God" (Fr. Vincent Miceli, Permanent Consecration: Anchor of Religious Community).


And yet, we are all - each and every one of us - warned to, "..submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4: 7). This submission to God, and to the Church He founded, is intimately connected with defeating the Devil in our lives. Without such submission, we place ourselves in peril.

Vatican II, in its Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) No. 25, says that: "This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking."

At La Salette, France, on September 19, 1846 - 165 years ago - Our Lady appeared to Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat and warned that, "If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it."

It is very easy to dismiss the relevance of La Salette today. After all, 164 years have come and gone and we are still here. The arm of Our Lord has not fallen on mankind. There is a temptation to succumb to indifference and to replace submission with self-assertion and the spirit of this age. But our first Pope, Saint Peter, has warned: "..do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard 'delay,' but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3: 8, 9).

Various signs are beginning to emerge. Anyone who is still spiritually awake is able to discern that the world is in a state of grave crisis. Soon, the world will collapse into chaos and violence* - a punishment for repeating that ancient rebel cry of Lucifer: Non serviam! - I will not serve! Many in the world today face both spiritual annihilation and eternal damnation because they refuse to submit to the Lord Jesus.

*  And this by design.
 
 
Whether this recent crisis will mark the beginning of such chaos remains to be seen.  But one thing is certain: there are forces behind the scenes which are planning for such an event and to usher in the Man of Sin.