Your Excellency, I whole heartedly agree with your sentiments and the absolute truth of your words. Thank you for being to us a good shepherd. We need to remember to pray for the conversion of those who follow Islam and political Zionism. Only those truly in the Church have a motive toward the salvation of souls. We must overcome bad religion. We must pray that both the Jews and the Muslims see the Light of Christ. But we must also leave the theology of Vatican Council II with its heretical teaching that all men can be saved via whatever religion they practice. We must also leave behind the Theology presented by the Novus Ordo Seculorum and return to the practice of the theology presented to us via the Roman Mass of the Latin Rite of the Church. So, we ALL must be converted out of bad religion. Then the world has a chance at salvation.
Political Zionism is an evil danger. And you are so right about the Latin Rite. It will bring tremendous grace into the world. Thank you for your statement.
Thank you MaryAnne! We will pray together for the Jews and Muslims. I find it spiritually satisfying to pray for the Jews using the pre-1950 Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the perfidious (unbelieving, faithless) Jews. Father James Mawdsley has a series of books where he discusses this issue. May The King bless you!
With all due respect Dr Chalmers, the Dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ on earth that teaches that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, and that all religions do NOT lead to heaven is the truth. It is a heretical and a demonic lie that all religions are equally good to get you to heaven. That includes nihilistic, atheistic, religious Zionism now in charge of what can be called “Jewish.” You are deceived by what is known as “Christian Zionism.” This is rooted in the speculative eschatology of Dispensationalism, started by J.N. Darby in 1830’s in London, after he visited a renewal of Charismatic prayer meetings in Glasgow Scotland where a 15 year old girl named McDonald gave a “prophecy” that Darby expanded and turned into his speculative eschatology. This speculation pictures the salvation of the Jews being “saved” by returning from the fulfillment by Christ, (who is Himself the new Temple), to Old Testament types and shadows of blood sacrifices offered in a restored Temple. Hogwash!
The truth of the matter is that because the Jews did not acknowledge “the day of their visitation” by their own promised Messiah, Jesus rejected them as their role as the “first born among the Nations,” and pronounced the judgement upon them, “behold, your house is being LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE.” And, “The Kingdom has been removed from you and given to a Nation that will bear the fruit of it.” That Nation, the New Israel, is the (real) Roman Catholic Christian Church, which is the fulfillment of all the prophesies concerning Jesus, His Church, Mary His Queen, Peter His first Vicar, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (ie Passover fulfilled).
This means that the Nation of Israel is a Zionist construct of the Rothchilds, and rabbi Herschel, and has little or nothing to do with the Jews of Jesus’ day. So, all that Zionist Israel, Mossad, and the IDF does can be judged on its own merits according to good moral guidelines. They don’t get a “bye” just because the unbelieving perfidious Zionists presume to use Scripture to claim domination over the world.
-Dr Robert Walker Col. US Army Medical Corps (ret), Catholic Deacon
I am a war baby and have lived through the time of renewal of the fellowship of believers through wonderful growth of the faith being made clear and transparent to the faithful such as the proliferation of excellent translations of Sacred Scripture replacing the Latin Vulgate and the King James versions, such as the official worship in the vernacular combined with the enormous amount of Sacred Scripture included in the three year cycle and through the Second Vatican Council devoting an enormous amount of time and engaging a vast number of the best experts in all studies relevant in completing the unfinished task of the First Vatican Council interrupted by war.
During this time the writings from the apostolic times and the early Church Fathers have also been translated and made available to ever Christian who can read and enormous efforts have been expended in reaching out to the baptised within other denominations working towards unity.
The risen Lord Jesus is a Jew, we are baptised into Him, we are all Jews in Christ as Isaiah prophesied - a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Jesse and we are that shoot, rooted in the faith of the Jews.
The “bride of Christ” does not consist solely of Catholics. Indeed, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox will inherit the kingdom of heaven before many Catholics. Why? Because the Catholic Church is not the focal point of salvation. Jesus Christ is. He even said so himself. Catholics who think like you seem to have forgotten that fact, and have placed the institutional ecclesiastical apparatus in the place where the Holy Spirit belongs.
Jesus himself said that *he* is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the father except through him. Not through a corrupt clerical class that long ago sacrificed it patrimony on the altar of wealth, power, political influence, secular prestige, sexual perversion, intellectual fashion, and institutional arrogance. That class has far more in common with the Pharisees (traditionalists) and the Sadducees (modernists) then it does with anything Christian, unfortunately.
Joseph, “focal point” does not specifically capture the fact that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. The Church has always taught that Christ and the Church in which He dwells INCARNATIONALLY is the objective SOURCE of salvation. It is the “whole Christ” dispensing His Grace through the Sacraments of His Church that reaches people with salvation by faith.
You have accurately described the Church under attack by Modernist and unseen demonic forces that hides the true Church and creates the appearance of a counterfeit. All that you have said about these people is true, and I would have said the same thing. The real Church is still around but you have to know where to find Her. There is no secret about these places and I can give you a publicly available list. Just look for “Latin Mass” and you can find Her. She DOES TEACH and practice all that Jesus commanded His Apostles. I Bible-studied my way into the real Church in spite of the Clergy abuse crisis in 2000.
Don’t be confused by my saying that the Clerics and immoralists have excommunicated themselves. Anyone who pretends to be a Catholic Christian who is living in mortal sin and does not believe and practice ALL that Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles is no longer a Catholic Christian…even though he doesn’t leave. That is the prideful presumption of these people, and lack of Church discipline from the highest levels. Those of us who are aware of true Church teaching simply disregard anything they say. On this we are also agreed. I apologize to you that the witness of the Church is so damaged right now.
If you do wander into a Roman Latin Mass you will discover what my daughter and I have discovered as we have traveled the nation. The Latin Masses are all PACKED! And they are packed with young couples and their many children! There is nothing lacking in the evangelizing efforts of the real Church. The Church exists in the world for only one reason, the salvation of souls. That is also my one “focus!”
Joseph, “focal point” does not specifically capture the fact that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. The Church has always taught that Christ and the Church in which He dwells INCARNATIONALLY is the objective SOURCE of salvation. It is the “whole Christ” dispensing His Grace through the Sacraments of His Church that reaches people with salvation by faith.
You have accurately described the Church under attack by Modernist and unseen demonic forces that hides the true Church and creates the appearance of a counterfeit. All that you have said about these people is true, and I would have said the same thing. The real Church is still around but you have to know where to find Her. There is no secret about these places and I can give you a publicly available list. Just look for “Latin Mass” and you can find Her. She DOES TEACH and practice all that Jesus commanded His Apostles. I Bible-studied my way into the real Church in spite of the Clergy abuse crisis in 2000.
Don’t be confused by my saying that the Clerics and immoralists have excommunicated themselves. Anyone who pretends to be a Catholic Christian who is living in mortal sin and does not believe and practice ALL that Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles is no longer a Catholic Christian…even though he doesn’t leave. That is the prideful presumption of these people, and lack of Church discipline from the highest levels. Those of us who are aware of true Church teaching simply disregard anything they say. On this we are also agreed. I apologize to you that the witness of the Church is so damaged right now.
If you do wander into a Roman Latin Mass you will discover what my daughter and I have discovered as we have traveled the nation. The Latin Masses are all PACKED! And they are packed with young couples and their many children! There is nothing lacking in the evangelizing efforts of the real Church. The Church exists in the world for only one reason, the salvation of souls. That is also my one “focus!”
Joseph, you are using ambiguous words like “focus” as if that had any meaning. Granted many in the hierarchy have broken their vows over the centuries. I would add that today it is especially bad in that regard. Some of this is due to the test, Jesus let the devil “have more control over those who swear allegiance to him.” The serpent’s agents have since 1884 invaded the Church with 1500 false priests (first wave), especially homosexuals, to destroy the Mystical Body of Christ on Earth. There are many saintly Priests and Bishops who have “never bowed the knee to Baal.” This all has to do with individuals,… who are out of the Church because their mortal sin and heresy have excommunicated them from Christ and His Church. (Q: Have you ever noticed that when the serpent attacks the Church he always attacks the Catholic Christian Church?)
The Church, which still exists in the earth, is another story. OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING Christ and His Spirit DWELL (INCARNATIONALLY) WITHIN THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. That is what it is to be the Body of Christ. The Church is more than the sum of its members, Christ and His Body form one “whole Christ” INCARNATIONALLY, and the two cannot be separated. (St Augustine) This is one of the reasons the Church has always taught that “there is no (objective) salvation outside the Catholic Christian Church.” Another reason this is true is that the Catholic Christian Church teaches and practices ALL that Jesus commanded His apostles. No one else does. (Meditate on Matthew 28:18-19. It may surprise you.) Also, there is no other 2,000 year old Church but THE CHURCH.
First of all, I used the phrase “focal point,” not the word “focus.“ “Focal point“ connotes something very specific.
Secondly, I take issue with your assertion that the Catholic Church teaches everything Jesus commanded. You site Matthew 28. That chapter concludes with Jesus telling his followers to “make disciples of all nations.“ The Catholic Church, as an institution, no longer does that. Instead, it not only flirts with syncretism But appeases outright Islam, which is nothing but religious Nazism. Consequently, the church has abandoned Middle Eastern Christians (regardless of whether they’re in communion with Rome) to the not so tender mercies of Muslim political leaders. Iran is a prime example of that.
The failure to preach everything Jesus commanded also includes Pope Francis‘s attempt to normalize homosexuality within the Catholic Church — which Leo, so far, has done nothing to reverse — And the outright rejection of the legitimacy of capital punishment as a proportional punishment for murder, thanks to John Paul II.
Thirdly, I dispute your assertion that those clerics and prelates who habitually practice sin excommunicate themselves from the church. Reality shows that such people are, at best, ignored or, at worst, promoted and celebrated By the ecclesiastical apparatus. Father James Martin is the prime example.
I don’t deny there are many priests and bishops who “have not bowed the knee to Baal.” but I believe they are constituting a decreasing minority that is being abandoned by an ecclesiastical apparatus that no longer believes what it claims to believe.
If you just believe what I say, read the following pieces, I wrote:
When the curtain in the temple split, beneath a darkened sky at 3pm, and, Calvary shook, leaving a large split in the earth which remains today, and many Jews rose from the dead and walked about, I believe God was telling the Jews that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah and to follow Him. What else could it all mean? These are not small miracles. And then we have the name plate on the Cross over Jesus’ head. It reads Jesus King of the Jews. Pilate thought it was a mistake and was about to change it. Jesus told him to leave it and so he did. Jesus is king of the Jews. Dear Jewish brothers and sisters come …………..
[So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”] John 19:22
Pilate knew better than those Jewish leaders, his wife had a dream and shared it with him.
The leaders of the Jews at that time were traitors co-operating with the Roman overlords in occupations with a king not of the line of David and they betrayed their flock.
The vast majority of the followers of Jesus before and after his death were Jews during New Testament times.
A very superficial and darkened analysis good Doctor. The Vatican Council II had no real reason to exist except as a vehicle for infusing the heresy of Modernism into the Mystical Body of Christ. Pope Paul VI admitted after the Council “We have replaced the Religion of Jesus Christ with the cult of man.” (See Gen. 3:1-7)
These were the SAME PEOPLE responsible for the child abuse crisis!…just another arm of the same diabolical action against the Church. Yes, we are all sinners, that is why we need the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to live out its theology..for repentance and merciful cleansing from slavery to sin! Redefining the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from a SACRIFICE to a “SUPPER” only serves to cement us into our sin! Recognizing that the average “Catholic” is among the most poorly catechized and slovenly practicing generation of “Catholics” ever to live on the planet is simply a matter of history. Unless they wake up to the eternal danger they are in, they will suffer the fruit of their own way. It is not love to fail to warn them, it is love to tell them the truth.
Dr Chalmers, Thank you for all your words, which are distantly true but miss the point. You have failed to acknowledge the well documented fact that in spite of all that was intended by the spurious council of Vatican II, it remains a most dangerous reservoir of Modernist heresy. The Novus Ordo Seculorum Mass that came forth from the Freemason Monsignor Bugnini still misrepresents the true theology of the Catholic Church. Only the ONE MASS OF THE CHURCH, the Roman Mass of the Latin Rite of the Church, presents the true Catholic Theology of the Mystical Body of Christ. You also gave no statement of the reality that in spite of the intention of Vatican Council II, masses of people have LEFT the Church, the Protest-ants are unimpressed and maintain their anti-Catholic prejudice, Nuns and Priests have abandoned their vows, vocations to religious life and the Priesthood are in the basement, and very few “Catholics” believe “ALL that Jesus commanded His Apostles” (Matt28:18-19) or even attend Sunday Mass. “Catholic” divorces equal the non-Catholic %, and most “Catholics” do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and they are all using contraception. Welcome to the “springtime of the Church.”
It is because the barque of Peter was dangerously close to running on the rocks that both Councils were called - the first was aborted by the world war and was completed and corrected by the second.
Priests were molesting women and children and practising homosexuals, were alcoholics and lovers of money and failing to minister to the faithful devastated by two world wars and a terrifying Cold war with nuclear Armageddon threatening.
Myself, and fellow Catholics are sinners and that includes every baptised brother and sister. You, with your sinless perfection probably do not need leadership or ministry but your condemnation of so many of the baptised is very ugly
If you worship any trinity is reads as if it is Father, Son and Holy Church - idolatry.
Please recollect that this conflict is between two religious traditions and world views that reject Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Savior, one the tribes of Jacob the other from the tribes of Ishmael locked in mortal combat that may not be resolved prior to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
The religion in which Jesus was raised and operated within and quoted extensively was revealed to the chosen people by God Almighty by deeds and through the prophets.
The other religion is a human invention, counterfeit and contrived by people from Arabia who have only the same connection with the Hebrews as the Chinese or the Slavs.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant of the Jewish religion of his birth establishing a New Covenant open and welcoming first extended to the Jews then expanding His Grace to include the gentiles including the Chinese and the Slavs should they accept the open invitation and desire to pick up their cross and follow Him.
Wake up call, Joseph. This is not nationalism or vengeance.
The chosen people are at continuous threat by minions of the devil.
The very existence of the people adopted by Almighty God and given the unenviable task of learning the way to live properly from the only one true God and to model and teach this to the rest of the human race AND to give the Messiah to the world is perpetually threatened with destruction.
The most persistent of the hordes driven to destroy them do so inspired by a religion - Islam.
Rather, call upon those who listen to you to implore the intercession of the Queen of Warrior Hosts for complete victory over Iran today and Islam soon.
Tell them to preach to the Muslim that there is a better book, and a better man - not Muhammed and the Koran but Jesus and the Bible
Jesus is a jew who rejected jewish theological and political leadership, after God stripped the jewish nation of its title. Thus giving room to become Savior of All. Hence the Pharisee sentencing of Our Savior. To ignore this is to ignore the purpose of the jewish people in this divinly guided narrative and the Truth.
the corrupt Jewish leadership of the day, toadies of the Roman Empire occupying force with a king not of David's line rejected Jesus as the promised one. They rejected Him.
All the Christians of apostolic times with few exceptions were Jews and the apostles preached and prayed and taught in the synagogues.
The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionally synonymous with what is known as the Land of Israel (Zion) or the Promised Land in a biblical or religious context, or as Canaan or Palestine in a secular or geographic context—referring to a region that is mostly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
An intense desire to return to their homeland, while in exile, was voiced by Hebrews as a return to Zion long before John the Baptist was born.
Sure buddy. Resort to the dictionary like a sixth grader and deny a thousand years of Christianity in the Levant never happened. When Israel is done with their Gaza and West Bank problem, that’s exactly what it will be like. Right according to plan.
I am a Catholic Christian in the 2000+ year unbroken apostolic succession.
I am painfully aware of the extent of the territory initially Christian and named in the New Testament which has been invaded and conquered and had Islam imposed upon it.
I am also aware that the land between the river and the sea has been inhabited by Jews for all the time since the birth of the New Covenant while also aware of the vast numbers of Jews in the diaspora as a result of relentless and remorseless persecution.
I am also aware that Islam takes it as a religious duty to kill Jews until they are wiped from the face of the earth. Highly familiar with the Quran, Sira, Hadith and the content of sharia.
My beef, chief, is the near extinction level purge of the indigenous Christians from the Levant since the founding of the nation state called “Israel, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Israel of OT Scripture.
Being at a loss as to what could be thought of as indigenous about Christian anywhere, which just like Muslim is not an ethnic identity but a religious affiliation, I will presume you are referring to Christians of all ethnicities and denominations.
Being unaware of a diminution of such persons in what you designate as the Levant I can still ask for clarification.
What makes you think that the 'nones' of Western Europe, North America & Australia and those of the Levant have different causes?
My husband just told me of something he heard “God isn’t asking you to figure everything out- He’s only asking you to believe He has. Works for me- that and prayer that He leads me where I need to go and that He gives me the strength and grace to follow.
Our faith provides us with the tools needed to bring peace. While mediating within the Church I developed those tools to a new level with a protocol I call Divine Collaboration. Unfortunately, the Church has stepped away from seeking peace internally and thus robbed itself of the ability to be a peacemaker for the world. When I look out upon a world in strife I see the results of this failure of the Church. And yet, observing how Benedict XVI viewed the situation—he realized the futility of the worldly battle and took up the spiritual battle as our Body of Christ prayer leader—I'm given hope. In Benedict's early work he speculated that the true Franciscan Order did not yet exist, but rather would be a Seraphic Order, a contemplative order. I believe that time is near. And a friend of mine, in discussion with Benedict XVI, heard Benedict's view that signs were pointing to end times...which, in my view, are not to be dreaded but rather anticipated as times of transformation. Worldly battles, like all worldly things, are transient, perishable, temporal. But we put our attention on the immortal, the eternal, that which does not perish.
“The apocalypse does not announce the end of the world; it creates hope. If we suddenly see reality, we do not experience the absolute despair of an unthinking modernity, but rediscover a world where things have meaning. Hope is possible only if we dare to think about the danger at hand, but this requires opposing both nihilists, for whom everything is only language, and ‘realists,’ who reject the idea that intelligence can attain truth: heads of state, bankers and soldiers who claim to be saving us when in fact they are plunging us deeper into devastation each day.”
Rene Girard
I’m a new convert to the faith and love Benedict, could you kindly point me to some links/references that refer to some of your statements above about him? So intriguing.
Pope Benedict XVI is already declared a Servant of God, a first step in beatification and canonisation.
His own words will testify to you his faithfulness to the faith passed on to him from the apostles. You will find the list of wonderful books he wrote at Ignatius Press.
He was a true Christian, a valid Pope and wisely resigned active leadership when he discerned his failing health and energy.
Do not follow these stiff-necked, rebellious and disobedient people committing back-biting, calumny and detraction upon him and other recent Popes.
I didn’t know this about Pope Benedict moving towards beatification and it makes me so happy! The little I’ve read changed me. He radiated light imo. Thank you 🙏
As an introduction, I highly recommend The Word Made Love by Collins, which presents an overview of Benedict XVI's theology. Volume 2 of the Jesus of Nazareth series is v. good. A little more dense but still a foundational classic is Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity. The Essential Benedict XVI is good. The classics The Spirit of the Liturgy and Called to Communion are at the top along with Deus Est Caritas (God is Love), his first encyclical. I took a run at his work with my book, Peace Be With You: Peacemaking and the Theology of Benedict XVI. Fides et Ratio is an encyclical by Saint John Paul II but I believe it was co-authored by Ratzinger, who headed The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time. It mirrors your quote from Girard. A beautiful piece that can lead one to appreciate the marriage between Idealism and the early theologians such as Origin and Augustine. Have fun!
You cannot go wrong with the study of Benedict XVI. His observations regarding a Seraphic Order can be found in his Phd thesis, published as a book: The Theology of History In St. Bonaventure. (I do not recommend it as one of your first reads, as it is very dense and academic.) The comments about the end times came from a personal conversation with an Episcopal Priest representing the Messianic Jew movement... Ratzinger's comment was that when that movement grew, it was a major sign of the end times. (Will suggest a few other books in a separate post.)
It is likely that you as a new convert into today's Modernist Church have not yet started to notice heresies in Vatican II and considered any reasonable way to argue that the sudden forced change and its harm to the laity when the Traditional Latin Rite was abandoned to be replaced by the less theologically sound new-Rite.
My inability to view that forced change to be intentionally harmful to the Body of Christ on earth and to the reputation of the Church in general, the new Modernist false Church, this started me on a search that converted me to the True Catholic Church, the Traditional Catholic Church that existed and was not ruled by Satan in the Vatican after 1958 and since.
Which Church do you want to be in, that false worldly 'Ape' modernist version that exists today or the Traditional Catholic Church that uncounted Saints and souls saved were formed through?
There are those, like myself, who disagree vehemently with the point of view that you have expressed. This thread is not the place, however, in which to engage in a firefight, especially when someone new to the faith has expressed the discovery of such a welcoming spiritual home. In short, one might argue that Benedict XVI's efforts to shine a light on the theology of the Patristic Tradition, which pre-dates the so-called Traditional movement (based on the much later Scholasticism and Neo-Scholasticism), are worth attention. There is so much in Benedict XVI's works to feed the soul that one need not detract by bringing up the Trad Wars.
I am a poor Christian, and not even a Catholic. But I welcome the strength and comfort that comes of the plain and rigorous declarations of a man like the Bishop. I cannot help but feel the world needs less of the lukewarm. Less that compromises truth. Agency and empowerment come from what calls us to action, not what encourages our somnambulance and anesthesia.
Bishop Strickland thank you for emphasizing that the “true war is against principalities and powers . . .”
I’m reaching out to all of our Prayer Warriors and all those of Good Will who can appreciate the phrase that “a false peace is no peace at all” and the Beatitude that preaches “Blessed are the true peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God.”
Are you ready for some great resources to help in your spiritual warfare?
Here’s my suggested list, I hope you’ll find something here that makes a difference for your prayer life:
(1) Monsignor Rossetti and the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal. Monsignor Rossetti is a well known and respected exorcist. I put their free app on my iPhone and have been using it constantly for years. It’s a great resource and always as near to you as your smartphone. Plus, you can sign up for very powerful free Deliverance and Healing monthly online sessions. Msgr. Rossetti has recently released a new book too. I believe the St. Michael Center also has a YouTube channel. I’ve also signed up for their very informative emails.
(2) Fr. Chad Ripperger is another awesome exorcist and author. He wrote a book entitled Dominion for, in my opinion, very serious prayer warriors.
About six months ago Fr. Ripperger was interviewed by U. S. Grace Force on YouTube (search title) “Is WWIII Looming”. If you click “more” you will find Fr. Ripperger’s “Prayer of Consecration of those Governing to the Blessed Virgin Mary” This is a very timely prayer for our country, please consider joining in.
I’ve been praying it daily ever since listening to the interview. I believe the prayer may also be available in an audio YouTube short and perhaps on Facebook? I don’t use Facebook so I can’t say for sure.
We all love God and are aware of how quickly situations can escalate or tragically “go wrong” in our highly complicated world. And no doubt you are seeing how deception is becoming more difficult to detect at times.
I’m a bit of a dinosaur and remember watching the disturbing, but thought provoking, original black and white film entitled “Failsafe”.
Let’s all “keep our lamps trimmed” and step up our spiritual awareness/discernment, as well as our prayer lives.
Yes, thank you Bishop for your words keep us on the path of truth. What you have said is so important for us to hear as we try to keep our balance during these days where our balance is tipped by hearing or reading the statements of men who seem to oppose truthfulness, thereby confusing us.
Please leave all your hate behind. The Lord of Lords loves Jews and Muslims as much as anyone who proclaims themselves to be Christians. Jesus brought the message that God’s love includes ALL of our neighbors. We, who call ourselves, “Christians” have the greatest responsibility to live in love and peace. We have perverted the message of Jesus with our judgement upon others who were not brought up in the light of Jesus’ word. We are NOT superior to those others. We have actually fallen down in our mission to bring the light and word of Christ to this world with our endorsement of “just wars”. The earliest Christians would be crying to see how we have failed. Jesus did not endorse violence in any word, thought or deed. Please reread the New Testament and quote chapters and verses if you disagree.
Jesus overturned a table? You can actually, in your mind, use that to justify mass slaughter? I’ve messaged with you before. Please read the Sermon on the Mount. That says all we need to know, unless of course Jesus was kidding with us. If we can justify killing in wars then we can use any perversion of scripture to push abortion, euthanasia, capitol punishment and so on. What makes Christianity different from other religions is that our God IS a God of peace, unlike the Muslim or Jewish God. The very early Christians knew this and were martyred. They never organized an army to kill. Your statement makes every martyr into a fool. If Christians had gone on through the ages teaching about and living the life of the Biblical Jesus then FOR SURE we would be living in a different world. As it is, we tell ourselves and each other that it’s ok to hate and kill! It looks like judgement day is here!
And many false prophets shall rise and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. (St. Matthew 24:11,12).
Bishop Strickland you are a false prophet who is doing the work of the devil for the false church of satan infiltrated inside the peripheries of the Catholic Church [of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. (Apocalypse 3:9); (parable of wheat and cockle)] in these end times to bring in the Antichrist, though being a Bishop of the Catholic Church. You are doing things that are offensive to GOD and are leading souls to hell. You are doing the work of satan by your diabolical teaching that the anti GOD diabolical sspx who have no permission from the Church can offer -sacrilegeous- masses and Catholics can -sacrilegeously- go to them and that they can administer the sacraments -sacrilegeously- and catholics can -sacrilegeously-receive them. This is demonic !!!! These are sins of grave matter. The solutions to the evils permitted by GOD inside His Church are only inside the legal structures of the Catholic Church. It is a hallmark of heretics and schismatics to weaponize the evils taking place inside the Church to try to destroy the Church and to tear the flock apart. You also preach a diabolical false gospel by calling the wicked evil Pope John Paul II a "saint" in heaven. That the deposit of the faith is closed is dogma. One of the conditions for the use of papal infallibility is that it has to be on faith or morals contained in the deposit of faith. Canonizations are not Apostolic. Canonizations can never be infallible. Pope John Paul II who did many, many, many public scandals evidently died unrepented because he did not remove the scandals and make public satisfaction for them which is an absolute condition mandated by GOD through His Holy Word and taught by the magisterium of the Church for him to have received forgiveness from GOD. You have told people that they can accept an anti GOD satanic form of government and vote for it which is a sin of grave matter. The ends do not justify the means. Etc. etc. Please repent and convert to GOD through His Catholic Church through the true teachings of GOD. If you do not repent GOD will destroy you in this life and for all eternity in the lowest part of hell.
You could never have been ordained a Deacon, leave being ordained a Priest and then consecrated a Bishop in the condition you were in.
Stop being a hireling and false prophet of these end times to do things that offend GOD and deceive people. You are part of the controlled fake opposition of the devil.
The time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel (St. Mark 1:15).
We have to thank his Excellency, Bishop Strickland, for enunciating the principles of just war as found in the Catechism. As ever, it’s the application of the principles that makes the real-world problem hard.
As others have pointed out in the comments, Iran has already attacked Israel twice in the last year, so this is not an unprovoked attack. It is a response to act of war already committed by Iran against Israel. In some ways, it is a continuation of a state of war ongoing since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which from its start has stated its goal of the destruction of the state of Israel. I hope this is surely something his Excellency would deplore.
The principles of just war in Catholic theology arise in the work of St Augustine, and were developed by later patristic authors, such as St John of Damascus. The rise of Islam, with its relentless pursuit of conquest as part of its religious goals (under the guide of jihad), raised difficulties that had not been a concern of earlier authors. Islamic conquest was not the type of war that Catholic just war theory had been developed to address. This is why St John of Damascus struggled to understand how God could allow Catholic (Christian) territories to fall to non-Christian rulers. He could only imagine that somehow God was punishing or testing them, since the Saracens (the term Catholic writers of that time used) were clearly less just than Christians.
In response, after much time, the Catholic Church began the Crusades. Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade, making his famous call for the crusade at the Council of Clermont in France on November 27, 1095.
Urban II’s sermon was one of the most influential papal addresses in history. He called upon Catholic knights to take up arms and march to the Holy Land and recapture Jerusalem from Muslim control. It has been always considered a just war from the Church's standpoint.
I recount this history, not to simply pursue antiquity, but to inform our present thinking on just war with the actual tradition of the Church, interpreted it in concrete historical situations. In this light, St John Paul II's remarks on war must be interpreted in the setting of the post-Cold-War years, just as Urban II's remarks are interpreted as coming in the wake of the Islamic conquest. Our present situation has shifted from both these earlier periods.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has tried to bring about the destruction of Israel, and the domination, if not outright conquest, of much of the Middle East (or Umma for Muslims; recall the notion of "the Middle East" is an American one, foreign to Islamic thinking). Without taking these facts into account, it is actually impossible to apply Catholic just war principles in a rational way to the current situation.
Your Excellency, I whole heartedly agree with your sentiments and the absolute truth of your words. Thank you for being to us a good shepherd. We need to remember to pray for the conversion of those who follow Islam and political Zionism. Only those truly in the Church have a motive toward the salvation of souls. We must overcome bad religion. We must pray that both the Jews and the Muslims see the Light of Christ. But we must also leave the theology of Vatican Council II with its heretical teaching that all men can be saved via whatever religion they practice. We must also leave behind the Theology presented by the Novus Ordo Seculorum and return to the practice of the theology presented to us via the Roman Mass of the Latin Rite of the Church. So, we ALL must be converted out of bad religion. Then the world has a chance at salvation.
-Deacon Robert Walker
Political Zionism is an evil danger. And you are so right about the Latin Rite. It will bring tremendous grace into the world. Thank you for your statement.
Thank you MaryAnne! We will pray together for the Jews and Muslims. I find it spiritually satisfying to pray for the Jews using the pre-1950 Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the perfidious (unbelieving, faithless) Jews. Father James Mawdsley has a series of books where he discusses this issue. May The King bless you!
-Deacon Robert Walker
This is you proudly proclaiming the hideous doctrine which underpinned and perpetuated the murderous antisemitism which culminated in the Holocaust.
Almighty God has His plan and purpose for the Chosen People
With all due respect Dr Chalmers, the Dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ on earth that teaches that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, and that all religions do NOT lead to heaven is the truth. It is a heretical and a demonic lie that all religions are equally good to get you to heaven. That includes nihilistic, atheistic, religious Zionism now in charge of what can be called “Jewish.” You are deceived by what is known as “Christian Zionism.” This is rooted in the speculative eschatology of Dispensationalism, started by J.N. Darby in 1830’s in London, after he visited a renewal of Charismatic prayer meetings in Glasgow Scotland where a 15 year old girl named McDonald gave a “prophecy” that Darby expanded and turned into his speculative eschatology. This speculation pictures the salvation of the Jews being “saved” by returning from the fulfillment by Christ, (who is Himself the new Temple), to Old Testament types and shadows of blood sacrifices offered in a restored Temple. Hogwash!
The truth of the matter is that because the Jews did not acknowledge “the day of their visitation” by their own promised Messiah, Jesus rejected them as their role as the “first born among the Nations,” and pronounced the judgement upon them, “behold, your house is being LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE.” And, “The Kingdom has been removed from you and given to a Nation that will bear the fruit of it.” That Nation, the New Israel, is the (real) Roman Catholic Christian Church, which is the fulfillment of all the prophesies concerning Jesus, His Church, Mary His Queen, Peter His first Vicar, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (ie Passover fulfilled).
This means that the Nation of Israel is a Zionist construct of the Rothchilds, and rabbi Herschel, and has little or nothing to do with the Jews of Jesus’ day. So, all that Zionist Israel, Mossad, and the IDF does can be judged on its own merits according to good moral guidelines. They don’t get a “bye” just because the unbelieving perfidious Zionists presume to use Scripture to claim domination over the world.
-Dr Robert Walker Col. US Army Medical Corps (ret), Catholic Deacon
I am a war baby and have lived through the time of renewal of the fellowship of believers through wonderful growth of the faith being made clear and transparent to the faithful such as the proliferation of excellent translations of Sacred Scripture replacing the Latin Vulgate and the King James versions, such as the official worship in the vernacular combined with the enormous amount of Sacred Scripture included in the three year cycle and through the Second Vatican Council devoting an enormous amount of time and engaging a vast number of the best experts in all studies relevant in completing the unfinished task of the First Vatican Council interrupted by war.
During this time the writings from the apostolic times and the early Church Fathers have also been translated and made available to ever Christian who can read and enormous efforts have been expended in reaching out to the baptised within other denominations working towards unity.
The risen Lord Jesus is a Jew, we are baptised into Him, we are all Jews in Christ as Isaiah prophesied - a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Jesse and we are that shoot, rooted in the faith of the Jews.
The “bride of Christ” does not consist solely of Catholics. Indeed, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox will inherit the kingdom of heaven before many Catholics. Why? Because the Catholic Church is not the focal point of salvation. Jesus Christ is. He even said so himself. Catholics who think like you seem to have forgotten that fact, and have placed the institutional ecclesiastical apparatus in the place where the Holy Spirit belongs.
Jesus himself said that *he* is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the father except through him. Not through a corrupt clerical class that long ago sacrificed it patrimony on the altar of wealth, power, political influence, secular prestige, sexual perversion, intellectual fashion, and institutional arrogance. That class has far more in common with the Pharisees (traditionalists) and the Sadducees (modernists) then it does with anything Christian, unfortunately.
Joseph, “focal point” does not specifically capture the fact that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. The Church has always taught that Christ and the Church in which He dwells INCARNATIONALLY is the objective SOURCE of salvation. It is the “whole Christ” dispensing His Grace through the Sacraments of His Church that reaches people with salvation by faith.
You have accurately described the Church under attack by Modernist and unseen demonic forces that hides the true Church and creates the appearance of a counterfeit. All that you have said about these people is true, and I would have said the same thing. The real Church is still around but you have to know where to find Her. There is no secret about these places and I can give you a publicly available list. Just look for “Latin Mass” and you can find Her. She DOES TEACH and practice all that Jesus commanded His Apostles. I Bible-studied my way into the real Church in spite of the Clergy abuse crisis in 2000.
Don’t be confused by my saying that the Clerics and immoralists have excommunicated themselves. Anyone who pretends to be a Catholic Christian who is living in mortal sin and does not believe and practice ALL that Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles is no longer a Catholic Christian…even though he doesn’t leave. That is the prideful presumption of these people, and lack of Church discipline from the highest levels. Those of us who are aware of true Church teaching simply disregard anything they say. On this we are also agreed. I apologize to you that the witness of the Church is so damaged right now.
If you do wander into a Roman Latin Mass you will discover what my daughter and I have discovered as we have traveled the nation. The Latin Masses are all PACKED! And they are packed with young couples and their many children! There is nothing lacking in the evangelizing efforts of the real Church. The Church exists in the world for only one reason, the salvation of souls. That is also my one “focus!”
Joseph, “focal point” does not specifically capture the fact that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. The Church has always taught that Christ and the Church in which He dwells INCARNATIONALLY is the objective SOURCE of salvation. It is the “whole Christ” dispensing His Grace through the Sacraments of His Church that reaches people with salvation by faith.
You have accurately described the Church under attack by Modernist and unseen demonic forces that hides the true Church and creates the appearance of a counterfeit. All that you have said about these people is true, and I would have said the same thing. The real Church is still around but you have to know where to find Her. There is no secret about these places and I can give you a publicly available list. Just look for “Latin Mass” and you can find Her. She DOES TEACH and practice all that Jesus commanded His Apostles. I Bible-studied my way into the real Church in spite of the Clergy abuse crisis in 2000.
Don’t be confused by my saying that the Clerics and immoralists have excommunicated themselves. Anyone who pretends to be a Catholic Christian who is living in mortal sin and does not believe and practice ALL that Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles is no longer a Catholic Christian…even though he doesn’t leave. That is the prideful presumption of these people, and lack of Church discipline from the highest levels. Those of us who are aware of true Church teaching simply disregard anything they say. On this we are also agreed. I apologize to you that the witness of the Church is so damaged right now.
If you do wander into a Roman Latin Mass you will discover what my daughter and I have discovered as we have traveled the nation. The Latin Masses are all PACKED! And they are packed with young couples and their many children! There is nothing lacking in the evangelizing efforts of the real Church. The Church exists in the world for only one reason, the salvation of souls. That is also my one “focus!”
Joseph, you are using ambiguous words like “focus” as if that had any meaning. Granted many in the hierarchy have broken their vows over the centuries. I would add that today it is especially bad in that regard. Some of this is due to the test, Jesus let the devil “have more control over those who swear allegiance to him.” The serpent’s agents have since 1884 invaded the Church with 1500 false priests (first wave), especially homosexuals, to destroy the Mystical Body of Christ on Earth. There are many saintly Priests and Bishops who have “never bowed the knee to Baal.” This all has to do with individuals,… who are out of the Church because their mortal sin and heresy have excommunicated them from Christ and His Church. (Q: Have you ever noticed that when the serpent attacks the Church he always attacks the Catholic Christian Church?)
The Church, which still exists in the earth, is another story. OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING Christ and His Spirit DWELL (INCARNATIONALLY) WITHIN THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. That is what it is to be the Body of Christ. The Church is more than the sum of its members, Christ and His Body form one “whole Christ” INCARNATIONALLY, and the two cannot be separated. (St Augustine) This is one of the reasons the Church has always taught that “there is no (objective) salvation outside the Catholic Christian Church.” Another reason this is true is that the Catholic Christian Church teaches and practices ALL that Jesus commanded His apostles. No one else does. (Meditate on Matthew 28:18-19. It may surprise you.) Also, there is no other 2,000 year old Church but THE CHURCH.
First of all, I used the phrase “focal point,” not the word “focus.“ “Focal point“ connotes something very specific.
Secondly, I take issue with your assertion that the Catholic Church teaches everything Jesus commanded. You site Matthew 28. That chapter concludes with Jesus telling his followers to “make disciples of all nations.“ The Catholic Church, as an institution, no longer does that. Instead, it not only flirts with syncretism But appeases outright Islam, which is nothing but religious Nazism. Consequently, the church has abandoned Middle Eastern Christians (regardless of whether they’re in communion with Rome) to the not so tender mercies of Muslim political leaders. Iran is a prime example of that.
The failure to preach everything Jesus commanded also includes Pope Francis‘s attempt to normalize homosexuality within the Catholic Church — which Leo, so far, has done nothing to reverse — And the outright rejection of the legitimacy of capital punishment as a proportional punishment for murder, thanks to John Paul II.
Thirdly, I dispute your assertion that those clerics and prelates who habitually practice sin excommunicate themselves from the church. Reality shows that such people are, at best, ignored or, at worst, promoted and celebrated By the ecclesiastical apparatus. Father James Martin is the prime example.
I don’t deny there are many priests and bishops who “have not bowed the knee to Baal.” but I believe they are constituting a decreasing minority that is being abandoned by an ecclesiastical apparatus that no longer believes what it claims to believe.
If you just believe what I say, read the following pieces, I wrote:
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/3460-killing-capital-punishment-how-pope-john-paul-set-precedent-for-pope-francis
https://www.frontpagemag.com/crossing-the-tiber-to-mecca/
https://stream.org/queering-the-catholic-church
Love your words good Sir and your courage in speaking them.
Blessings and appreciation from Sydney Australia.
When the curtain in the temple split, beneath a darkened sky at 3pm, and, Calvary shook, leaving a large split in the earth which remains today, and many Jews rose from the dead and walked about, I believe God was telling the Jews that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah and to follow Him. What else could it all mean? These are not small miracles. And then we have the name plate on the Cross over Jesus’ head. It reads Jesus King of the Jews. Pilate thought it was a mistake and was about to change it. Jesus told him to leave it and so he did. Jesus is king of the Jews. Dear Jewish brothers and sisters come …………..
[So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”] John 19:22
Pilate knew better than those Jewish leaders, his wife had a dream and shared it with him.
The leaders of the Jews at that time were traitors co-operating with the Roman overlords in occupations with a king not of the line of David and they betrayed their flock.
The vast majority of the followers of Jesus before and after his death were Jews during New Testament times.
Amen .
A very superficial and darkened analysis good Doctor. The Vatican Council II had no real reason to exist except as a vehicle for infusing the heresy of Modernism into the Mystical Body of Christ. Pope Paul VI admitted after the Council “We have replaced the Religion of Jesus Christ with the cult of man.” (See Gen. 3:1-7)
These were the SAME PEOPLE responsible for the child abuse crisis!…just another arm of the same diabolical action against the Church. Yes, we are all sinners, that is why we need the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to live out its theology..for repentance and merciful cleansing from slavery to sin! Redefining the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from a SACRIFICE to a “SUPPER” only serves to cement us into our sin! Recognizing that the average “Catholic” is among the most poorly catechized and slovenly practicing generation of “Catholics” ever to live on the planet is simply a matter of history. Unless they wake up to the eternal danger they are in, they will suffer the fruit of their own way. It is not love to fail to warn them, it is love to tell them the truth.
Dr Chalmers, Thank you for all your words, which are distantly true but miss the point. You have failed to acknowledge the well documented fact that in spite of all that was intended by the spurious council of Vatican II, it remains a most dangerous reservoir of Modernist heresy. The Novus Ordo Seculorum Mass that came forth from the Freemason Monsignor Bugnini still misrepresents the true theology of the Catholic Church. Only the ONE MASS OF THE CHURCH, the Roman Mass of the Latin Rite of the Church, presents the true Catholic Theology of the Mystical Body of Christ. You also gave no statement of the reality that in spite of the intention of Vatican Council II, masses of people have LEFT the Church, the Protest-ants are unimpressed and maintain their anti-Catholic prejudice, Nuns and Priests have abandoned their vows, vocations to religious life and the Priesthood are in the basement, and very few “Catholics” believe “ALL that Jesus commanded His Apostles” (Matt28:18-19) or even attend Sunday Mass. “Catholic” divorces equal the non-Catholic %, and most “Catholics” do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and they are all using contraception. Welcome to the “springtime of the Church.”
It is because the barque of Peter was dangerously close to running on the rocks that both Councils were called - the first was aborted by the world war and was completed and corrected by the second.
Priests were molesting women and children and practising homosexuals, were alcoholics and lovers of money and failing to minister to the faithful devastated by two world wars and a terrifying Cold war with nuclear Armageddon threatening.
Myself, and fellow Catholics are sinners and that includes every baptised brother and sister. You, with your sinless perfection probably do not need leadership or ministry but your condemnation of so many of the baptised is very ugly
If you worship any trinity is reads as if it is Father, Son and Holy Church - idolatry.
Thank You Bishop, you help us all put it in perspective. God Bless Us All!
Please recollect that this conflict is between two religious traditions and world views that reject Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Savior, one the tribes of Jacob the other from the tribes of Ishmael locked in mortal combat that may not be resolved prior to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
The religion in which Jesus was raised and operated within and quoted extensively was revealed to the chosen people by God Almighty by deeds and through the prophets.
The other religion is a human invention, counterfeit and contrived by people from Arabia who have only the same connection with the Hebrews as the Chinese or the Slavs.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant of the Jewish religion of his birth establishing a New Covenant open and welcoming first extended to the Jews then expanding His Grace to include the gentiles including the Chinese and the Slavs should they accept the open invitation and desire to pick up their cross and follow Him.
Smiling out loud now …
Wake up call, Joseph. This is not nationalism or vengeance.
The chosen people are at continuous threat by minions of the devil.
The very existence of the people adopted by Almighty God and given the unenviable task of learning the way to live properly from the only one true God and to model and teach this to the rest of the human race AND to give the Messiah to the world is perpetually threatened with destruction.
The most persistent of the hordes driven to destroy them do so inspired by a religion - Islam.
Rather, call upon those who listen to you to implore the intercession of the Queen of Warrior Hosts for complete victory over Iran today and Islam soon.
Tell them to preach to the Muslim that there is a better book, and a better man - not Muhammed and the Koran but Jesus and the Bible
Christians are the chosen people of God.
Have you never had drawn to your attention - a shoot from the stump of Jesse?
Jesus is a Jew, we are baptised into Jesus, draw your own conclusions.
Jesus is a jew who rejected jewish theological and political leadership, after God stripped the jewish nation of its title. Thus giving room to become Savior of All. Hence the Pharisee sentencing of Our Savior. To ignore this is to ignore the purpose of the jewish people in this divinly guided narrative and the Truth.
the corrupt Jewish leadership of the day, toadies of the Roman Empire occupying force with a king not of David's line rejected Jesus as the promised one. They rejected Him.
All the Christians of apostolic times with few exceptions were Jews and the apostles preached and prayed and taught in the synagogues.
We call it the Holy Land because our Lord Jesus Christ walked there. To deny Christ is to deny God. Zionism is political, not theological.
You betta believe it is !
Wrong - fact check.
The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionally synonymous with what is known as the Land of Israel (Zion) or the Promised Land in a biblical or religious context, or as Canaan or Palestine in a secular or geographic context—referring to a region that is mostly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
An intense desire to return to their homeland, while in exile, was voiced by Hebrews as a return to Zion long before John the Baptist was born.
Sure buddy. Resort to the dictionary like a sixth grader and deny a thousand years of Christianity in the Levant never happened. When Israel is done with their Gaza and West Bank problem, that’s exactly what it will be like. Right according to plan.
I am a Catholic Christian in the 2000+ year unbroken apostolic succession.
I am painfully aware of the extent of the territory initially Christian and named in the New Testament which has been invaded and conquered and had Islam imposed upon it.
I am also aware that the land between the river and the sea has been inhabited by Jews for all the time since the birth of the New Covenant while also aware of the vast numbers of Jews in the diaspora as a result of relentless and remorseless persecution.
I am also aware that Islam takes it as a religious duty to kill Jews until they are wiped from the face of the earth. Highly familiar with the Quran, Sira, Hadith and the content of sharia.
What the hell is your beef with facts?
My beef, chief, is the near extinction level purge of the indigenous Christians from the Levant since the founding of the nation state called “Israel, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Israel of OT Scripture.
Being at a loss as to what could be thought of as indigenous about Christian anywhere, which just like Muslim is not an ethnic identity but a religious affiliation, I will presume you are referring to Christians of all ethnicities and denominations.
Being unaware of a diminution of such persons in what you designate as the Levant I can still ask for clarification.
What makes you think that the 'nones' of Western Europe, North America & Australia and those of the Levant have different causes?
My husband just told me of something he heard “God isn’t asking you to figure everything out- He’s only asking you to believe He has. Works for me- that and prayer that He leads me where I need to go and that He gives me the strength and grace to follow.
Our faith provides us with the tools needed to bring peace. While mediating within the Church I developed those tools to a new level with a protocol I call Divine Collaboration. Unfortunately, the Church has stepped away from seeking peace internally and thus robbed itself of the ability to be a peacemaker for the world. When I look out upon a world in strife I see the results of this failure of the Church. And yet, observing how Benedict XVI viewed the situation—he realized the futility of the worldly battle and took up the spiritual battle as our Body of Christ prayer leader—I'm given hope. In Benedict's early work he speculated that the true Franciscan Order did not yet exist, but rather would be a Seraphic Order, a contemplative order. I believe that time is near. And a friend of mine, in discussion with Benedict XVI, heard Benedict's view that signs were pointing to end times...which, in my view, are not to be dreaded but rather anticipated as times of transformation. Worldly battles, like all worldly things, are transient, perishable, temporal. But we put our attention on the immortal, the eternal, that which does not perish.
Jesus contradicts the idea that peace is a single reality.
He was clear, He did not come to bring peace but a sword and illustrated it by naming the most intimate relationships as being disturbed.
We are to share the faith, and those who accept our witness will share the peace of Christ, the peace that the world cannot give.
Scripture is sovereign and relevant to life lived now both by ourselves and our neighbours and our enemies.
“The apocalypse does not announce the end of the world; it creates hope. If we suddenly see reality, we do not experience the absolute despair of an unthinking modernity, but rediscover a world where things have meaning. Hope is possible only if we dare to think about the danger at hand, but this requires opposing both nihilists, for whom everything is only language, and ‘realists,’ who reject the idea that intelligence can attain truth: heads of state, bankers and soldiers who claim to be saving us when in fact they are plunging us deeper into devastation each day.”
Rene Girard
I’m a new convert to the faith and love Benedict, could you kindly point me to some links/references that refer to some of your statements above about him? So intriguing.
Thanks much.
Pope Benedict XVI is already declared a Servant of God, a first step in beatification and canonisation.
His own words will testify to you his faithfulness to the faith passed on to him from the apostles. You will find the list of wonderful books he wrote at Ignatius Press.
He was a true Christian, a valid Pope and wisely resigned active leadership when he discerned his failing health and energy.
Do not follow these stiff-necked, rebellious and disobedient people committing back-biting, calumny and detraction upon him and other recent Popes.
I didn’t know this about Pope Benedict moving towards beatification and it makes me so happy! The little I’ve read changed me. He radiated light imo. Thank you 🙏
As an introduction, I highly recommend The Word Made Love by Collins, which presents an overview of Benedict XVI's theology. Volume 2 of the Jesus of Nazareth series is v. good. A little more dense but still a foundational classic is Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity. The Essential Benedict XVI is good. The classics The Spirit of the Liturgy and Called to Communion are at the top along with Deus Est Caritas (God is Love), his first encyclical. I took a run at his work with my book, Peace Be With You: Peacemaking and the Theology of Benedict XVI. Fides et Ratio is an encyclical by Saint John Paul II but I believe it was co-authored by Ratzinger, who headed The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time. It mirrors your quote from Girard. A beautiful piece that can lead one to appreciate the marriage between Idealism and the early theologians such as Origin and Augustine. Have fun!
I didn’t see this til now-didn’t get a notification. I’ve made notes on all you’ve so generously shared. Can hardly wait to get started.
It was Girard (and Italy) actually who was instrumental in my conversion and then Girard led me to Benedict peripherally.
Many thanks for your time and reply!
You cannot go wrong with the study of Benedict XVI. His observations regarding a Seraphic Order can be found in his Phd thesis, published as a book: The Theology of History In St. Bonaventure. (I do not recommend it as one of your first reads, as it is very dense and academic.) The comments about the end times came from a personal conversation with an Episcopal Priest representing the Messianic Jew movement... Ratzinger's comment was that when that movement grew, it was a major sign of the end times. (Will suggest a few other books in a separate post.)
It is likely that you as a new convert into today's Modernist Church have not yet started to notice heresies in Vatican II and considered any reasonable way to argue that the sudden forced change and its harm to the laity when the Traditional Latin Rite was abandoned to be replaced by the less theologically sound new-Rite.
My inability to view that forced change to be intentionally harmful to the Body of Christ on earth and to the reputation of the Church in general, the new Modernist false Church, this started me on a search that converted me to the True Catholic Church, the Traditional Catholic Church that existed and was not ruled by Satan in the Vatican after 1958 and since.
Which Church do you want to be in, that false worldly 'Ape' modernist version that exists today or the Traditional Catholic Church that uncounted Saints and souls saved were formed through?
There are those, like myself, who disagree vehemently with the point of view that you have expressed. This thread is not the place, however, in which to engage in a firefight, especially when someone new to the faith has expressed the discovery of such a welcoming spiritual home. In short, one might argue that Benedict XVI's efforts to shine a light on the theology of the Patristic Tradition, which pre-dates the so-called Traditional movement (based on the much later Scholasticism and Neo-Scholasticism), are worth attention. There is so much in Benedict XVI's works to feed the soul that one need not detract by bringing up the Trad Wars.
TY 🙏🕊️
I am a poor Christian, and not even a Catholic. But I welcome the strength and comfort that comes of the plain and rigorous declarations of a man like the Bishop. I cannot help but feel the world needs less of the lukewarm. Less that compromises truth. Agency and empowerment come from what calls us to action, not what encourages our somnambulance and anesthesia.
Bishop Strickland thank you for emphasizing that the “true war is against principalities and powers . . .”
I’m reaching out to all of our Prayer Warriors and all those of Good Will who can appreciate the phrase that “a false peace is no peace at all” and the Beatitude that preaches “Blessed are the true peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God.”
Are you ready for some great resources to help in your spiritual warfare?
Here’s my suggested list, I hope you’ll find something here that makes a difference for your prayer life:
(1) Monsignor Rossetti and the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal. Monsignor Rossetti is a well known and respected exorcist. I put their free app on my iPhone and have been using it constantly for years. It’s a great resource and always as near to you as your smartphone. Plus, you can sign up for very powerful free Deliverance and Healing monthly online sessions. Msgr. Rossetti has recently released a new book too. I believe the St. Michael Center also has a YouTube channel. I’ve also signed up for their very informative emails.
(2) Fr. Chad Ripperger is another awesome exorcist and author. He wrote a book entitled Dominion for, in my opinion, very serious prayer warriors.
About six months ago Fr. Ripperger was interviewed by U. S. Grace Force on YouTube (search title) “Is WWIII Looming”. If you click “more” you will find Fr. Ripperger’s “Prayer of Consecration of those Governing to the Blessed Virgin Mary” This is a very timely prayer for our country, please consider joining in.
I’ve been praying it daily ever since listening to the interview. I believe the prayer may also be available in an audio YouTube short and perhaps on Facebook? I don’t use Facebook so I can’t say for sure.
We all love God and are aware of how quickly situations can escalate or tragically “go wrong” in our highly complicated world. And no doubt you are seeing how deception is becoming more difficult to detect at times.
I’m a bit of a dinosaur and remember watching the disturbing, but thought provoking, original black and white film entitled “Failsafe”.
Let’s all “keep our lamps trimmed” and step up our spiritual awareness/discernment, as well as our prayer lives.
Virgo Potens Ora Pro Nobis!
This is a battle by Good against Evil. We call on St. Michael and all of the Angels to help Israel and her allies to cast the Enemy into Hell.
Yes, thank you Bishop for your words keep us on the path of truth. What you have said is so important for us to hear as we try to keep our balance during these days where our balance is tipped by hearing or reading the statements of men who seem to oppose truthfulness, thereby confusing us.
Thank you, Bishop.
Please leave all your hate behind. The Lord of Lords loves Jews and Muslims as much as anyone who proclaims themselves to be Christians. Jesus brought the message that God’s love includes ALL of our neighbors. We, who call ourselves, “Christians” have the greatest responsibility to live in love and peace. We have perverted the message of Jesus with our judgement upon others who were not brought up in the light of Jesus’ word. We are NOT superior to those others. We have actually fallen down in our mission to bring the light and word of Christ to this world with our endorsement of “just wars”. The earliest Christians would be crying to see how we have failed. Jesus did not endorse violence in any word, thought or deed. Please reread the New Testament and quote chapters and verses if you disagree.
Reread the cleansing of the temple.
Matthew 21:12–17
Mark 11:15–19
Luke 19:45–48
John 2:13–16
Christianity has never been pacifist and the doctrine of just war is well established.
Jesus overturned a table? You can actually, in your mind, use that to justify mass slaughter? I’ve messaged with you before. Please read the Sermon on the Mount. That says all we need to know, unless of course Jesus was kidding with us. If we can justify killing in wars then we can use any perversion of scripture to push abortion, euthanasia, capitol punishment and so on. What makes Christianity different from other religions is that our God IS a God of peace, unlike the Muslim or Jewish God. The very early Christians knew this and were martyred. They never organized an army to kill. Your statement makes every martyr into a fool. If Christians had gone on through the ages teaching about and living the life of the Biblical Jesus then FOR SURE we would be living in a different world. As it is, we tell ourselves and each other that it’s ok to hate and kill! It looks like judgement day is here!
Violence. Jesus whipped men and beasts.
Execution. Ananias and Sapphira - God executes the sentence of punishment passed by the Apostle by causing the sudden death of the two guilty parties
Warfare.
Crusades
Christendom - Christian kings did war thereby protecting the women and children against rape and murder or death by privation and starvation.
The law of Moses says: 'Do no MURDER' in Hebrew not 'Do no KILLING'
Thank you dear Bishop!! You have said very true words.
Thank you Bishop Strickland
And many false prophets shall rise and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. (St. Matthew 24:11,12).
Bishop Strickland you are a false prophet who is doing the work of the devil for the false church of satan infiltrated inside the peripheries of the Catholic Church [of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. (Apocalypse 3:9); (parable of wheat and cockle)] in these end times to bring in the Antichrist, though being a Bishop of the Catholic Church. You are doing things that are offensive to GOD and are leading souls to hell. You are doing the work of satan by your diabolical teaching that the anti GOD diabolical sspx who have no permission from the Church can offer -sacrilegeous- masses and Catholics can -sacrilegeously- go to them and that they can administer the sacraments -sacrilegeously- and catholics can -sacrilegeously-receive them. This is demonic !!!! These are sins of grave matter. The solutions to the evils permitted by GOD inside His Church are only inside the legal structures of the Catholic Church. It is a hallmark of heretics and schismatics to weaponize the evils taking place inside the Church to try to destroy the Church and to tear the flock apart. You also preach a diabolical false gospel by calling the wicked evil Pope John Paul II a "saint" in heaven. That the deposit of the faith is closed is dogma. One of the conditions for the use of papal infallibility is that it has to be on faith or morals contained in the deposit of faith. Canonizations are not Apostolic. Canonizations can never be infallible. Pope John Paul II who did many, many, many public scandals evidently died unrepented because he did not remove the scandals and make public satisfaction for them which is an absolute condition mandated by GOD through His Holy Word and taught by the magisterium of the Church for him to have received forgiveness from GOD. You have told people that they can accept an anti GOD satanic form of government and vote for it which is a sin of grave matter. The ends do not justify the means. Etc. etc. Please repent and convert to GOD through His Catholic Church through the true teachings of GOD. If you do not repent GOD will destroy you in this life and for all eternity in the lowest part of hell.
You could never have been ordained a Deacon, leave being ordained a Priest and then consecrated a Bishop in the condition you were in.
Stop being a hireling and false prophet of these end times to do things that offend GOD and deceive people. You are part of the controlled fake opposition of the devil.
The time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel (St. Mark 1:15).
We have to thank his Excellency, Bishop Strickland, for enunciating the principles of just war as found in the Catechism. As ever, it’s the application of the principles that makes the real-world problem hard.
As others have pointed out in the comments, Iran has already attacked Israel twice in the last year, so this is not an unprovoked attack. It is a response to act of war already committed by Iran against Israel. In some ways, it is a continuation of a state of war ongoing since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which from its start has stated its goal of the destruction of the state of Israel. I hope this is surely something his Excellency would deplore.
The principles of just war in Catholic theology arise in the work of St Augustine, and were developed by later patristic authors, such as St John of Damascus. The rise of Islam, with its relentless pursuit of conquest as part of its religious goals (under the guide of jihad), raised difficulties that had not been a concern of earlier authors. Islamic conquest was not the type of war that Catholic just war theory had been developed to address. This is why St John of Damascus struggled to understand how God could allow Catholic (Christian) territories to fall to non-Christian rulers. He could only imagine that somehow God was punishing or testing them, since the Saracens (the term Catholic writers of that time used) were clearly less just than Christians.
In response, after much time, the Catholic Church began the Crusades. Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade, making his famous call for the crusade at the Council of Clermont in France on November 27, 1095.
Urban II’s sermon was one of the most influential papal addresses in history. He called upon Catholic knights to take up arms and march to the Holy Land and recapture Jerusalem from Muslim control. It has been always considered a just war from the Church's standpoint.
I recount this history, not to simply pursue antiquity, but to inform our present thinking on just war with the actual tradition of the Church, interpreted it in concrete historical situations. In this light, St John Paul II's remarks on war must be interpreted in the setting of the post-Cold-War years, just as Urban II's remarks are interpreted as coming in the wake of the Islamic conquest. Our present situation has shifted from both these earlier periods.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has tried to bring about the destruction of Israel, and the domination, if not outright conquest, of much of the Middle East (or Umma for Muslims; recall the notion of "the Middle East" is an American one, foreign to Islamic thinking). Without taking these facts into account, it is actually impossible to apply Catholic just war principles in a rational way to the current situation.