Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 8:08am

PopeWatch: Plots

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Back just prior to the Protestant Reformation a Jewish merchant in Florence was friends with a Catholic merchant.  The Jewish merchant expressed a desire to convert, but decided to go to Rome to observe the workings of the leadership of the Church.  The Catholic merchant was dismayed, assuming the corruption at Rome would convince his friend to have nothing to do with Catholicism.  To the contrary!  A month later the Jewish merchant was back in Florence and told his Catholic friend that he was going to be baptized next Easter.  When his friend cautiously inquired about what he had seen in Rome, his Jewish friend said that what he saw there convinced him to convert.  If he ran his business the way the Church in Rome operated he would be bankrupt and in jail in a week.  Yet the Church had survived for 15 centuries with such villainy at the top!  It must be from God!

Little has apparently changed in 500 years:

 

 

The authorized biography of Cardinal Godfried Danneels, out next week, is even more of a bombshell than expected. Not only do the two authors, Jürgen Mettepenningen and Karim Schelkens, reveal that the Cardinal was a regular member of a secret pressure group of Churchmen that met in the Swiss town of Sankt-Gallen, but the Cardinal himself has publicly and good-humoredly admitted the fact.

Danneels even said that what was officially but discreetly labeled “the Sankt-Gallen group” was referred to by its members as “the Mafia”. Its self-imposed aim was to counter the growing influence of Cardinal Ratzinger under the pontificate of Saint John Paul II, serving as a sort of outlet where handpicked cardinals and bishops could express their impatience at the traditional mindset of the Pope and his closest counsellor.

The Belgian press doesn’t hesitate to say that one of the group’s primary goals was the promotion of Cardinal Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) in view of John Paul II’s nearing death – something the book itself, which is not yet available in bookstores, perhaps clarifies. The Sankt-Gallen group certainly aimed to promote the ideas and preferences for which they had found a champion in Pope Francis.

Said Schelkens in an interview this week: “The election of Bergoglio was prepared in Sankt-Gallen, without doubt. And the main lines of the program the Pope is carrying out are those that Danneels and Co were starting to discuss more than ten years ago.”

“They wanted Church reform, they wanted to bring the Church closer to the hearts of people; they moved forward by stages,” commented Mettepenningen. “At the beginning of the year 2000, when John Paul II’s end was becoming more foreseeable, they thought more strategically about what was going to happen to the Church after John Paul II. When Cardinal Silvestrini joined the group it took on a more tactical and strategic character.”

Go here to read the rest.  In the Catholic Church the laity hope the clergy will prove  honest, competent and devoted to Christ.  More and more evidence is emerging that most of the powers that be at the Vatican currently fail on all three scores.  PopeWatch doubts that the truth is going to come out about the machinations behind the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict and the election of Pope Francis any time soon, but suspects that the facts will not prove very edifying when they do come out.  The True Faith is currently in the hands of men who have little love for Catholicism, as it has been practiced, wish to use it for secular purposes and to transform it into something unrecognizable.

 

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Don L
Don L
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 3:43am

When the Son of Man” comes….will He find any faith in….Rome?

Philip
Philip
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 4:17am

Don. If you wish to remove the past 3 incorrect links please do so.
I find Dr. Kelly B.’S synopsis interesting in light of our time.
For your discernment.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 4:43am

One of my favorite books is Isabel The Catholic Queen by the late Dr. Warren Carroll. In Queen Isabel’ s time the Church in Spain was run by corrupt and in a few cases despicable clergy. King Fernando’s eight year old illegitimate son was made an archbishop of Zaragoza. Borgia became Pope during her reign.

Things look bleak for the Church today. Do not fall into despair about it. We are in a period of chastisement and must endure it.

Philip
Philip
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 4:56am

Penguins Fan and Donald.
Thank you both.
No despair here. The meeting next month will be revealing in itself.
Hope for the best, plan for the worse I suppose.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 6:56am

Mgr Ronald Knox once remarked that those who sail in the barque of Peter who not be edified by what goe son in the engine-room.

Paul W Primavera
Paul W Primavera
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 8:40am

To MPS,
.
Thankfully the engine room of the Barque of Peter isn’t a nuclear reactor. I would hate to think of what would have happened if we had run the engine room of my 688 class Los Angeles Fast Attack in this way.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 10:54am

It seems there are many false prophets and many anti-Christs among us.
I wonder if the book on Daneels will tell how aware / complicit Bergoglio was before taking the Office of Peter.

Franco
Franco
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 1:42pm

The mystery of Pope Benedict’s resignation has been
exposed. A secret society of radical, heretical clergymen
conspired to put pressure on Benedict to resign and to
elect a member of their secret society to the papacy.
If my understanding is correct, all of the members
of this radical society have been condemned by the
Church and they have been ex-communicated, which
leaves one with the impression that Bergoglio has
been ex-communicated, since he most likely was
involved with this society. Further, it appears that
this radical, heretical society controls the election of future
popes. This is diabolical.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, September 28, AD 2015 4:01pm

In the Catholic Church the laity hope the clergy will prove honest, competent and devoted to Christ. More and more evidence is emerging that most of the powers that be at the Vatican currently fail on all three scores.

T’were ever so, as your story of the Jewish Merchant (Boccaccio?) shows.
.

“They wanted Church reform, they wanted to bring the Church closer to the hearts of people;

.
I suppose that’s easier than bringing the hearts of people closer to the Church. Somebody remind me: How’d that whole “the world sets the agenda for the church” thing work out again?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, September 29, AD 2015 2:13am

Good stuff Don. Thanks for bringing it to light which is probably the best that can be done right now. Rest assured God will make His will known at the appropriate time. In the meantime we can all pray to St Michael whose feast day, along with Saints Gabriel and Raphael we celebrate today.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Tuesday, September 29, AD 2015 3:33am

Franco wrote, “Further, it appears that this radical, heretical society controls the election of future popes.”
It is fanciful to suppose that a coterie or clique, however influential, could control the votes of two-thirds of the Sacred College, more especially if there were similar groups opposed to their doctrine or their policies.
Remember Cardinal Begoglio (as he then was) was runner-up in the previous conclave, consisting largely of appointees from St Joh Paul’s long pontificate.

Stilbelieve
Stilbelieve
Tuesday, September 29, AD 2015 9:28am

This book was mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh radio program yesterday after a caller mentioned his suspicion of why a healthy elderly pope would resign so that a healthy elderly Cardinal could become pope. It triggered an article Rush said he read in the NCR some time ago about a book being written by some European cardinal about a group of cardinals who referred to themselves as “the Mafia.” This book will become a best seller if Rush reads it and finds some things in it that he can talk about on his program in the context of current news happenings.

I remember reading sometime soon after Francis was elected pope that he was the next runner-up in the election before when Benedict XV1 was elected. That “group” has been around and working for a while.

Franco
Franco
Tuesday, September 29, AD 2015 7:23pm

MPS

I don’t believe a secret society of radical leftists,
similar to the Masons, who call themselves the Mafia,
who plotted since 1996 to take control of the papacy,
who risked being condemned and excommunicated,
who have no regard for the rules governing the election
of a pope, who demand that the Catholic Church must
submit to the values of the modern world, and who
admit openly of their plot to transform the Church
with laughter, will surrender control of the papacy
to a future Ratzinger. I read that Cardinal Rodriguez
of Honduras, a progressive similar to Bergoglio, was
the runner-up to Bergoglio in 2013, which leads one
to believe that the Vatican Mafia of radical leftist clergymen
have a firm grip on the papacy. However, God is in
charge and the Mafia’s ambitions could come to a
swift end.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Tuesday, September 29, AD 2015 10:27pm

MPS “It is fanciful to suppose that a coterie or clique, however influential, could control the votes of two-thirds of the Sacred College,”
I disagree Michael. except that Perhaps the word “influence” would be better than “control” The anti-Catholics within the Church have been working hard to effect change and they have had a great deal of success influencing the votes of two thirds of the Sacred College.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2015 2:00am

Anzlyne wrote, “Perhaps the word “influence” would be better than “control””
Indeed. But that would be true only if those influenced were in general agreement in doctrine and policy. Now, that I believe to be true, but I do not accept that it is the work of a clique.

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