Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio History, Facts, Meaning and Consequences
Cum ex Apostolatus Officio is the name of a papal bull issued by Pope Paul IV on February 15, 1559, as a codification or explicitation of the ancient Catholic law that only Catholics can be elected Popes, to the exclusion of non-Catholics, including former Catholics who have become public and manifest heretics. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains this ancient, dogmatic and Catholic Law:
The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Papal Elections,” 1911, Vol. 11, p. 456: “Of course, the election of a heretic, schismatic, or female [as Pope] would be null and void.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Heresy,” 1910, Vol. 7, p. 261: “The pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church.”
Heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt by a baptized person of an article of divine and Catholic Faith. In other words, a baptized person who deliberately denies an authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church is a heretic.
At the time that Paul IV issued the Bull (quoted in its entirety below) there were rumors that one of the cardinals was a secret Protestant. In order to prevent the election of such a heretic to the Papacy, Pope Paul IV solemnly declared that a heretic cannot be validly elected pope. Below are the pertinent portions of the Bull and the consequences of this Catholic teaching. For the entire Bull, see further down.
Pope Paul IV, Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, Feb. 15, 1559: “1… Remembering also that, where danger is greater, it must more fully and more diligently be counteracted, We have been concerned lest false prophets or others, even if they have only secular jurisdiction, should wretchedly ensnare the souls of the simple, and drag with them into perdition, destruction and damnation countless peoples committed to their care and rule, either in spiritual or in temporal matters; and We have been concerned also lest it may befall Us to see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel, in the holy place. In view of this, Our desire has been to fulfill our Pastoral duty, insofar as, with the help of God, We are able, so as to arrest the foxes who are occupying themselves in the destruction of the vineyard of the Lord and to keep the wolves from the sheepfolds, lest We seem to be dumb watchdogs that cannot bark and lest We perish with the wicked husbandman and be compared with the hireling…
“6. In addition, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define:-] that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy:
“(i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
“(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
“(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way…
“(vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power…
“10. No one at all, therefore, may infringe this document of our approbation, re-introduction, sanction, statute and derogation of wills and decrees, or by rash presumption contradict it. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, let him know that he is destined to incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
“Given in Rome at Saint Peter’s in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1559, 15th February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.
“+ I, Paul, Bishop of the Catholic Church…”
With the fullness of his papal authority, Pope Paul IV declared that the election of a heretic is invalid, even if it takes place with the unanimous consent of the cardinals and is accepted by all.
Pope Paul IV also declared that he was making this declaration in order to combat the arrival of the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, in the holy place. This is astounding, and it seems to indicate that the Magisterium itself is connecting the eventual arrival of the abomination of desolation in the holy place (Matthew 24:15) with a heretic posing as the pope – perhaps because the heretic posing as the pope will give us the abomination of desolation in the holy place (the New Mass), as we believe is the case, or because the heretical antipope will himself constitute the abomination of desolation in the holy place.
See Why the New Mass & New Rite of Ordination are Invalid
The Catholic Encyclopedia repeats this truth declared by Pope Paul IV by asserting that the election of a heretic as pope would, of course, be completely null and void.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Papal Elections,” 1911, Vol. 11, p. 456: “Of course, the election of a heretic, schismatic, or female [as Pope] would be null and void.”
Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio Meaning and Consequences
Putative Officeholders and Laws
Putative or purported officeholders and putative laws are not real officeholders and not real laws. They hold no offices and thus their laws and judgments are invalid (null and void) even if everyone wrongly thinks they are real officeholders.
Because an antipope is not a true pope, all the laws he makes, the judgments he passes, and the offices he bestows are invalid, null and void. For example, Pope Innocent II declared all the ordinances of Antipope Anacletus II (Peter Pierleone) invalid, null and void:
Pope Innocent II, Second Lateran Council, 1139: “30. We render void the ordinances enacted by Peter Pierleone [Antipope Anacletus II] and other schismatics and heretics, and deem them null.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia explains:
“The death of Pope Honorius II (February, 1130) was followed by a schism. Petrus Leonis (Pierleoni), under the name of Anacletus II, for a long time held in check the legitimate pope, Innocent II, who was supported by St. Bernard and St. Norbert. In 1135 Innocent II celebrated a Council at Pisa, and his cause gained steadily until, in January, 1138, the death of Anacletus helped largely to solve the difficulty. Nevertheless, to efface the last vestiges of the schism, to condemn various errors and reform abuses among clergy and people, Innocent, in the month of April, 1139, convoked, at the Lateran, the tenth ecumenical council. Nearly a thousand prelates, from most of the Christian nations, assisted. The pope opened the council with a discourse, and deposed from their offices those who had been ordained and instituted by the antipope and by his chief partisans, Ægidius of Tusculum and Gerard of Angouleme.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Second Lateran Council”, 1910, Vol. 9)
In 1559 Paul IV in his Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio infallibly teaches that a so-called officeholder who is a formal heretic does not actually hold the office and thus all his acts are null and void even if everyone thinks he is an officeholder.
Pope Paul IV, Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, Feb. 15, 1559: “6. Further, if ever at any time it becomes clear that any Bishop… or likewise any Roman Pontiff before his promotion or elevation as a Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has strayed from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy, or has incurred schism, then his promotion or elevation shall be null, invalid and void… And it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity… through the putative enthronement of the Roman Pontiff… And, every one of their statements, deeds, enactments, and administrative acts, of any kind, and any result thereof whatsoever, shall be without force and shall confer no legality or right on anyone.”
Thus, an antipope’s laws are putative laws, and the men given offices by him are putative officeholders, which means that they are not real laws or not real officeholder even if everyone thinks they are. For example, every person that is made a Cardinal by an antipope is not a real Cardinal. This was the case during the Western Schism when many followed and obeyed a putative pope (an antipope) and his putative laws and putative officeholders for forty years. It is exactly the same now during the Great Apostasy. As will be shown, the so-called Vatican II “popes” are not real popes but are heretics, non-Catholics and antipopes and hence they hold no offices and thus their laws and judgments are invalid (null and void).
See: The Truth about What Really Happened to the Catholic Church after Vatican II
See: Anti Pope Francis’ Heresies, The Apocalypse & The End of the World
CATHOLICS WHO HAD NO ACCESS TO CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND AVOIDED NON-CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND NON-CATHOLIC CHURCHES
There were times in the history of the Church when Catholics could not attend Mass or receive the other sacraments for extended periods of time because no Catholic priests were available to them. In the case where only non-Catholic priests were available, Catholics were nevertheless dogmatically banned from any religious communion with them. Hence in the history of the Catholic Church there were extended periods of time in which Catholics were deprived of the Holy Mass and the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, confirmation, and orders. This is empirical proof that the Catholic faith comes before the Mass and the sacraments and that Catholics can be saved without being able to attend Mass or receive the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, confirmation, and orders. Hence a man can be saved without these good things, but he cannot be saved without the Catholic faith.
There is only one sacrament that is absolutely necessary for all people to receive for salvation, and that is the sacrament of Baptism.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part, Q. 64, Art. 6: “However, in a case of necessity when even a lay person might baptize, he would not sin in baptizing. For it is clear that then he does not exercise the ministry of the Church, but comes to the aid of one who is in need of his services. It is not so with the other sacraments, which are not so necessary as baptism, as we shall show further on (65, 3,4; 62, 3).”
Now we want to present some remarkable stories of saints and ordinary people who lived without the sacraments for extended periods of times throughout Church history in order to show people that many Catholics who had been deprived of the sacraments still managed to go on with their spiritual life, and some even reached perfection.
St. Paul the Hermit
During the Decian persecution of Christians, St. Paul the Hermit fled to the desert when he was 16 years old. He then lived alone in the desert for nearly 100 years without a Mass and the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist, penance, and extreme unction. Yet when he died, St. Anthony the Great saw St. Paul’s soul fly straight to heaven.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Paul the Hermit: “When a young man of sixteen Paul fled into the desert of the Thebaid during the Decian persecution. He lived in a cave in the mountain-side till he was one hundred and thirteen. The mountain, adds St. Jerome, was honeycombed with caves.”
The Life of Paulus the First Hermit, by St. Jerome, 374 or 375: “2. During the persecutions of Decius and Valerian, when Cornelius at Rome and Cyprian at Carthage shed their blood in blessed martyrdom, many churches in Egypt and the Thebaid were laid waste by the fury of the storm… 4. While such enormities were being perpetrated in the lower part of the Thebaid, Paul and his newly married sister were bereaved of both their parents, he being about sixteen years of age. He was heir to a rich inheritance, highly skilled in both Greek and Egyptian learning, gifted with a gentle disposition and a deep love for God. Amid the thunders of persecution he…fled to the mountain wilds to wait for the end of the persecution. He began with easy stages, and repeated halts, to advance into the desert. At length he found a rocky mountain, at the foot of which, closed by a stone, was a cave of no great size… 6. Accordingly, regarding his abode as a gift from God, he fell in love with it, and there in prayer and solitude spent all the rest of his life… 7. …The blessed Paul had already lived on earth the life of heaven for a hundred and thirteen years, and Antony at the age of ninety was dwelling in another place of solitude (as he himself was wont to declare), when the thought occurred to the latter, that no monk more perfect than himself had settled in the desert. However, in the stillness of the night it was revealed to him that there was farther in the desert a much better man than he, and that he ought to go and visit him… 14. …And now another day had dawned [for him to visit him] and a three hours’ journey still remained, when he saw Paul in robes of snowy white ascending on high among the bands of angels, and the choirs of prophets and apostles…”
St. Benedict
When St. Benedict was 14 or 15 years of age, he fled from the world to live in a cave. He lived there for three years, and a priest visited him only once during that time. Butler’s Lives of the Saints does not mention that the priest offered him Mass or the Holy Eucharist; hence, at most, St. Benedict only attended Mass and received the Holy Eucharist once in three years.
St. Mary of Egypt
St. Mary of Egypt fled to the desert to do penance and lived in total isolation for nearly forty-seven years until Abbot Zosimus crossed her path. “Zosimus asked how long she had lived in that desert. ‘It is,’ she said, ‘as near as I can judge, forty-seven years.’” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Husenbeth Edition, v. I, April 9, St. Mary of Egypt, p. 436.)
During these forty-seven years St. Mary did not attend Mass, receive the Holy Eucharist, or have the sacrament of penance. Yet God was so pleased with her that He gave her the power of prophecy and miracles during her self-imposed exile.
Catholics during the Arian crisis
During the Arian crisis in the 4th century, Arian heretics took over many Catholic churches. Catholics were forbidden to attend Masses offered by Arian priests or receive any sacrament from them or be in any other kind of religious communion with the Arians; and therefore for an extended period of time, many Catholics could not attend Mass, receive the Holy Eucharist, go to confession, etc. St. Hermenegild was one such faithful Catholic.
St. Hermenegild, Martyr: “On Easter night a heretical Arian bishop was sent to him with Holy Communion, but he refused to receive even the Easter Communion from the hands of a heretic, and his father then put him to death.” (The New Roman Missal, Fr. Lasance, 1945, April 13, p. 1687.)
We read that Saint Anthony the Great would have nothing to do with the Meletian schismatics and Arian heretics other than to warn them and try to convert them.
St. Athanasius, Life of Anthony: “68. And he [St. Antony] was altogether wonderful in faith and religious, for he never held communion with the Meletian schismatics, knowing their wickedness and apostasy from the beginning; nor had he friendly dealings with the Manichaeans or any other heretics; or, if he had, only as far as advice that they should change to piety. For he thought and asserted that intercourse with these was harmful and destructive to the soul. In the same manner also he loathed the heresy of the Arians, and exhorted all neither to approach them nor to hold their erroneous belief. And once when certain Arian madmen came to him, when he had questioned them and learned their impiety, he drove them from the mountain, saying that their words were worse than the poison of serpents… 69. …Wherefore have no fellowship with the most impious Arians. For there is no communion between light and darkness.” (Life of Anthony [Vita S. Antoni], by St. Athanasius, n. 68, 69.)
St. Athanasius also teaches the dogma that Catholics are forbidden to attend Mass or any other religious service in non-Catholic churches, which includes the Arian churches even though the Arians still called them Catholic churches. He also teaches the dogma that the Catholic faith must come before churches and other buildings and before the Mass and sacraments.
Letter of Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, to his flock: “May God console you! What saddens you is the fact that others have occupied the churches [Catholic churches that became Arian churches; a similar situation to what has happened today] by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises—but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider what is more important, the place or the Faith? - The true faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle—the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way… You are the ones who are happy: you who remain within the Church by your faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your faith, beloved brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.” (Coll. selecta SS. Eccl. Patrum, Caillau and Guillou Vol. 32, pp. 411-412)
St Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, to the Solitaries, Second letter to Monks, Letter 53: “Athanasius to those who practise a solitary life, and are settled in faith in God, most beloved brethren, greeting in the Lord. I thank the Lord who hath given to you to believe in Him, that ye too may have with the saints eternal life. But because there are certain persons who hold with Arius and go about the monasteries with no other object save that under colour of visiting you, and returning from us they may deceive the simple; whereas there are certain who, while they affirm that they do not hold with Arius, yet compromise themselves and worship with his party; I have been compelled, at the instance of certain most sincere brethren, to write at once in order that keeping faithfully and without guile the pious faith which God’s grace works in you, you may not give occasion of scandal to the brethren. For when any sees you, the faithful in Christ, associate and communicate with such people, [or worshipping along with them], certainly they will think it a matter of indifference and will fall into the mire of irreligion. Lest, then, this should happen, be pleased, beloved, to shun those who hold the impiety of Arius, and moreover to avoid those who, while they pretend not to hold with Arius, yet worship with the impious. And we are specially bound to fly from the communion of men whose opinions we hold in execration. If then any come to you, and, as blessed John says, brings with him right doctrine, say to him, All hail, and receive such an one as a brother. But if any pretend that he confesses the right faith, but appear to communicate with those others [the heretics], exhort him to abstain from such communion, and if he promise to do so, treat him as a brother, but if he persist in a contentious spirit [and obstinately continues to have religious communion with the heretics], him avoid. I might greatly lengthen my letter, adding from the divine Scriptures the outline of this teaching. But since, being wise men, you can anticipate those who write, and rather, being intent upon self-denial, are fit to instruct others also, I have dictated a short letter, as from one loving friend to others, in the confidence that living as you do you will preserve a pure and sincere faith, and that those persons, seeing that you do not join with them [the heretics] in worship, will derive benefit, fearing lest they be accounted as impious, and as those who hold with them.”
Catholics in Anglican England
When the Catholic churches in England became Anglican churches, Catholics were forbidden to attend Masses offered by Anglican priests, who at that time consecrated the Holy Eucharist because they were valid priests. Hence for an extended period of time, most English Catholics could not attend Mass, receive the Holy Eucharist, go to confession, etc., because they did not have access to a Catholic priest.
In 1580 Blessed Edward Campion, a convert from the Anglican religion, worked zealously in England to convert Anglicans and to edify Catholics. He forbade Catholics to attend the Masses of the Anglicans who inhabited the once Catholic churches. At that time in the Anglican Church, 46 years after its creation in 1534 by King Henry VIII, there was still a valid priesthood and therefore they consecrated the Holy Eucharist.
Wings of Eagles: “Before Campion and his associates began to preach, Catholics had often compromised with Protestantism to the extent of attending the official church services. But Campion preached recusancy, bold and uncompromising. Catholics could not attend the Protestant services and retain their faith.” (Wings of Eagles, Corley and Williams, p. 40, Imprimatur: +Moses E. Kiley, Jan. 11, 1944, Archiepiscopus Milwvkiensis.)
Catholics in schismatic France
When most of the Catholic priests in France became schismatics by joining the French Constitutional Church, Catholics were forbidden to attend Masses offered by these priests even though they consecrated the Holy Eucharist because they were valid priests. Hence for an extended period of time, many French Catholics could not attend Mass, receive the Holy Eucharist, go to confession, etc.
Fr. Demaris, a Missionary of St. Joseph and professor of theology in Lyon, France, remained faithful during the upheaval caused by the French Revolution, when many priests had apostatized by joining the French Constitutional Church. Although there were no Catholic priests for the bulk of French Catholics, there were many non-Catholic priests available. In 1801 Fr. Demaris wrote a consoling letter titled ‘They Have Taken Away My Lord’ addressed to the Catholics who, instinctively obeying the divine laws that can never change, refused to go to non-Catholic churches and to attend Masses that were presided over by these ex-Catholic priests who were now non-Catholic schismatics. He speaks to Catholics of how God will remit their sins if they make a sincere confession to God along with the promise to confess to a Catholic priest when one becomes available. He speaks of making a good confession, just as they would if a Catholic priest were available.
Fr. Demaris: “Removed from the resources of the sanctuary and deprived of all exercise of the Priesthood, there remains no mediator for us save Jesus Christ. It is to Him we must go for our needs. Before His supreme Majesty we must bluntly tear the veil off our consciences and in search of the good and bad we have done, thank Him for His graces, confess our sins and ask pardon and to show us the direction of His Holy Will, having in our hearts the sincere desire to confess to His minister whenever we are able to do so. There, my children, is what I call confessing to God! In such a confession well made, God himself will absolve us. It is thus in all painful situations that deprive us of the Sacraments. The carrying of the Cross like a Christian is the source of the remission of our sins… What the world does to drive us away from God only brings us closer… We are now to repair those faults which came from too great a trust in absolution and not examining one’s weaknesses thoroughly enough. Obliged to wail now before God, the faithful should consider all its deformities… Let this confession to God be for you a short daily practice, but fervent… The first fruit that you will draw from it apart from the remission of your sins, will be to learn to know yourself and to know God, and the second will be to be ever ready to present yourself to a priest if you are able, enriched in character by the mercy of the Lord. “…Console yourselves, my children, in the trust you have in God. This tender Father will pour on you His graces, His blessings and His mercies in these awful moments that you fear, in more abundance than if you were being assisted by His ministers, of whom you have been deprived only because you wouldn’t abandon Him. The abandonment and forsakenness that we fear for ourselves resembles that of the Savior on the Cross when He said to His Father, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’…Your pains and abandonment lead you to your glorious destiny in ending your life like Jesus ended His! …Don’t be surprised at the great number who quit! Truth wins, no matter how small the number of those who love and remain attached to God. God watches over us, our hope is justified. It tells us that either the persecution stops or the persecution will be our crown. In the alternative of one or the other, I see the accomplishment of our destiny. Let God’s will be done, since in whatever manner He delivers us, His eternal mercies pour into us.”
Fr. Demaris consoles the French Catholics who were deprived of extreme unction:
Fr. Demaris: “God, who loves and protects us, wishes to give us His Body at the approach of death—to take away our fear on this last journey. When you look to the future and see yourself on your deathbed, without the last sacrament, without Extreme Unction and without any help on the part of the ministers of the Lord, you see yourself abandoned in the most sad and terrible way. Console yourselves, my children, in the trust you have in God. This tender Father will pour on you His graces, His blessings and His mercies, in these awful moments that you fear, in more abundance than if you were being assisted by his ministers of whom you have been deprived only because you wouldn’t abandon Him Yourself. The abandonment and forsakenness that we fear for ourselves resembles that of the Savior on the Cross when He said to His Father: ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27: 46) Ah! How constructive and consoling are these words! Your pains and abandonment lead you to your glorious destiny in ending your life like Jesus ended His. Jesus, in His sufferings, His abandonment and His death, was in most intimate union with His Father. In your pains and abandonment, be to Him likewise united, and let your last sigh be like His, that God’s Will be done. Being deprived of Extreme Unction, and in the hands of persons, who not only do not help, but insult me, I shall be much happier that my death shall have more conformity with that of Jesus who was a spectacle of opprobrium to all the world. Crucified by the hand of His enemies, He was treated like a thief and died between two thieves. He was Wisdom itself and was taken for an idiot; He was Truth, and He was taken for a cheat and deceiver. The Pharisees and Scribes triumphed over Him and in His Presence. They were finally sated with His Blood. Christ died in the most shameful infamy of torture and excruciating pains of the Cross. Christians, if your last moments and death are an occasion for your enemies to treat you with insults and disgrace, what were those of Jesus? I am not sure that the angel who was sent to make up for the hardheartedness and callousness of men was not to teach us, that in similar circumstances, we receive the consolation of Heaven when that of men is missing. It was not without a special plan of God, that the Apostles who ought to have consoled Jesus, remained in a deep sleep. So the Faithful should not be surprised to find himself without a priest in his last moments. Jesus reproached His Apostles that they slept, but He did not say that they left Him without consolation, to teach us, that if we go into the Garden of Olives, if we climb up to Calvary, if we die alone and without human help, God watches over us, consoles us, and for us that suffices. Faithful, you are afraid of what follows the present time. Lift your eyes up to Jesus, keep them on Him, contemplate Him—He is your model.”
Fr. Demaris consoles the French Catholics who were deprived of the Holy Eucharist:
Fr. Demaris: “The Holy Eucharist had for you many joys and advantages when you were able to participate in this Sacrament of love, but now you are deprived of it for being defenders of truth and justice. …We sacrifice our own life as much as it is in us to do renewing itself every day, every time that we adore with submission the hand of God that drives us away from His altars… It is to be advantageously deprived of the Eucharist, to raise the standard of the Cross for the cause of Christ and the glory of the Church… Yes, I have no fear in saying it. When the storm of the malice of men roars against truth and justice, it is more advantageous to the faithful to suffer for Christ than to participate in His Body by Communion. I seem to hear the Saviour saying to us ‘Repair by this humiliating deprivation that glorifies Me, all the Communions which dishonor Me.’”
In all of these above cases, Catholics could not attend Mass or receive the Holy Eucharist or be confirmed or go to confession or receive the last rites (extreme unction) for extended periods of time. Who would dare say that these Catholics could not save their souls for want of a Catholic priest to offer Mass and dispense the sacraments? Who would dare say that these Catholics were not exempted from the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday? Only heretics who put the Mass and the sacraments before the Catholic Faith would say or even think such a thing!
Read more: About Receiving the Sacraments From Heretics and Prayer in Communion With Heretics
"Cum ex Apostolatus Officio"
Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul IV, 15th
February 1559
(Roman
Bullarium Vol. IV. Sec. I, pp. 354-357)
During
the time of the Council of Trent Pope Paul IV issued his Apostolic
Constitution Cum Ex Apostolic Officio
of February 15, 1559. This 223rd Successor of Peter would die six
months later on August 18th. His four year pontificate was
highlighted by his promotion of moral reforms. This Papal Bull below
also focused on the validity of a prelate or Pope in the event they
were in heresy or apostasy. Because it deals with faith and morals
and was issued ex cathedra
(from the Chair of Peter) and therefore is considered not only
infallible, but to be held in perpetuity.
Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio (English Translation)
Paul, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, for a perpetual remembrance hereof.
By virtue of the Apostolic office which, despite our unworthiness, has been entrusted to Us by God, We are responsible for the general care of the flock of the Lord. Because of this, in order that the flock may be faithfully guarded and beneficially directed, We are bound to be diligently watchful after the manner of a vigilant Shepherd and to ensure most carefully that certain people who consider the study of the truth beneath them should be driven out of the sheepfold of Christ and no longer continue to disseminate error from positions of authority. We refer in particular to those who in this age, impelled by their sinfulness and supported by their cunning, are attacking with unusual learning and malice the discipline of the orthodox Faith, and who, moreover, by perverting the import of Holy Scripture, are striving to rend the unity of the Catholic Church and the seamless tunic of the Lord.
1. In assessing Our duty and the situation now prevailing, We have been weighed upon by the thought that a matter of this kind [i.e. error in respect of the Faith] is so grave and so dangerous that the Roman Pontiff, who is the representative upon earth of God and our God and Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the fulness of power over peoples and kingdoms, who may judge all and be judged by none in this world, may nonetheless be contradicted if he be found to have deviated from the Faith. Remembering also that, where danger is greater, it must more fully and more diligently be counteracted, We have been concerned lest false prophets or others, even if they have only secular jurisdiction, should wretchedly ensnare the souls of the simple, and drag with them into perdition, destruction and damnation countless peoples committed to their care and rule, either in spiritual or in temporal matters; and We have been concerned also lest it may befall Us to see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel, in the holy place. In view of this, Our desire has been to fulfill our Pastoral duty, insofar as, with the help of God, We are able, so as to arrest the foxes who are occupying themselves in the destruction of the vineyard of the Lord and to keep the wolves from the sheepfolds, lest We seem to be dumb watchdogs that cannot bark and lest We perish with the wicked husbandman and be compared with the hireling.
2. Hence, concerning these matters, We have held mature deliberation with our venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; and, upon their advice and with their unanimous agreement, we now enact as follows: In respect of each and every sentence of excommunication, suspension, interdict and privation and any other sentences, censures and penalties against heretics or schismatics, enforced and promulgated in any way whatsoever by any of Our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, or by any who were held to be such (even by their "litterae extravagantes" i.e. private letters), or by the sacred Councils received by the Church of God, or by decrees of the Holy Fathers and the statutes, or by the sacred Canons and the Constitutions and Apostolic Ordinations - all these measures, by Apostolic authority, We approve and renew, that they may and must be observed in perpetuity and, if perchance they be no longer in lively observance, that they be restored to it. Thus We will and decree that the aforementioned sentences, censures and penalties be incurred without exception by all members of the following categories:
(i) Anysoever who, before this date, shall have been detected to have deviated from the Catholic Faith, or fallen into any heresy, or incurred schism, or provoked or committed either or both of these, or who have confessed to have done any of these things, or who have been convicted of having done any of these things.
(ii) Anysoever who (which may God, in His clemency and goodness to all, deign to avert) shall in the future so deviate or fall into heresy, or incur schism, or shall provoke or commit either or both of these.
(iii) Anysoever who shall be detected to have so deviated, fallen, incurred, provoked or committed, or who shall confess to have done any of these things, or who shall be convicted of having done any of these things.
These sanctions, moreover, shall be incurred by all members of these categories, of whatever status, grace, order, condition and pre-eminence they may be, even if they be endowed with the Episcopal, Archiepiscopal, Patriarchal, Primatial or some other greater Ecclesiastical dignity, or with the honour of the Cardinalate and of the Universal Apostolic See by the office of Legate, whether temporary or permanent, or if they be endowed with even worldly authority or excellence, as Count, Baron, Marquis, Duke, King or Emperor.
All this We will and decree.
3. Nonetheless, We also consider it proper that those who do not abandon evil deeds through love of virtue should be deterred therefrom by fear of punishment; and We are aware that Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Legates, Counts, Barons, Marquises, Dukes, Kings and Emperors (who ought to teach others and offer them a good example in order to preserve them in the Catholic Faith), by failing in their duty sin more gravely than others; since they not only damn themselves, but also drag with them into perdition and into the pit of death countless other people entrusted to their care or rule, or otherwise subject to them, by their like counsel and agreement.
Hence, by this Our Constitution which is to remain valid in perpetuity, in abomination of so great a crime (than which none in the Church of God can be greater or more pernicious) by the fulness of our Apostolic Power, We enact, determine, decree and define (since the aforesaid sentences, censures and penalties are to remain in efficacious force and strike all those whom they are intended to strike) that:
(i) each and every member of the following categories - Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals, Legates, Counts, Barons, Marquises, Dukes, Kings and Emperors - who:
(a)hitherto (as We have already said) have been detected, or have confessed to have, or have been convicted of having, deviated [i.e. from the Catholic Faith], or fallen into heresy or incurred schism or provoked or committed either or both of these;
(b) in the future also shall [so] deviate, or fall into heresy, or incur schism, or provoke or commit either or both of these, or shall be detected or shall confess to have, or shall be convicted of having [so] deviated, or fallen into heresy, or incurred schism, or provoked or committed either or both of these;
(c) since in this they are rendered more inexcusable than the rest in addition to the aforementioned sentences, censures and penalties, shall also automatically, without any exercise of law or application of fact, be thoroughly, entirely and perpetually deprived of:- their Orders and Cathedrals, even Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, the honour of the Cardinalate and the office of any embassy whatsoever, not to mention both active and passive voting rights, all authority, Monasteries, benefices and Ecclesiastical offices, be they functional or sinecures, secular or religious of whatsoever Order, which they may have obtained by any concessions whatsoever, or by Apostolic Dispensations to title, charge and administration or otherwise howsoever, and in which or to which they may have any right whatsoever, likewise any whatsoever fruits, returns or annual revenues from like fruits, returns and revenues reserved for and assigned to them, as well as Countships, Baronies, Marquisates, Dukedoms, Kingships and Imperial Power;
(ii) that, moreover, they shall be unfit and incapable in respect of these things and that they shall be held to be backsliders and subverted in every way, just as if they had previously abjured heresy of this kind in public trial; that they shall never at any time be able to be restored, returned, reinstated or rehabilitated to their former status or Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, or the Cardinalate, or other honour, any other dignity, greater or lesser, any right to vote, active or passive, or authority, or Monasteries and benefices, or Countships, Baronies, Marquisates, Dukedoms, Kingships and positions of Imperial power; but rather that they shall be abandoned to the judgement of the secular power to be punished after due consideration, unless there should appear in them signs of true penitence and the fruits of worthy repentance, and, by the kindness and clemency of the See itself, they shall have been sentenced to sequestration in any Monastery or other religious house in order to perform perpetual penance upon the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction;
(iii) that all such individuals also shall be held, treated and reputed as such by everyone, of whatsoever status, grade, order, condition or pre-eminence he may be and whatsoever excellence may be his, even Episcopal, Archiepiscopal, Patriarchal and Primatial or other greater Ecclesiastical dignity and even the honour of the Cardinalate, or secular, even the authority of Count, Baron, Marquis, Duke, King or Emperor, and as such must be avoided and must be deprived of the sympathy of all natural kindess.
4. [By this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We] further enact, determine, decree and define:] that those who shall have claimed to have the right of patronage or of nominating suitable persons to Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, or to Monasteries or other Ecclesiastical benefices which may be vacant by privation of this kind (in order that those which shall have been vacant for a long time may not be exposed to the unfit, but, having been rescued from enslavement to heretics, may be granted to suitable persons who would faithfully direct their people in the paths of justice), shall be bound to present other persons suitable to Churches, Monasteries and benefices of this kind, to Us, or to the Roman Pontiff at that time existing, within the time determined by law, or by their concordats, or by compacts entered into with the said See; and that, if they shall not have done so when the said period shall have elapsed, the full and free disposition of the aforesaid Churches, Monasteries and benefices shall by the fulness of the law itself devolve upon Us or upon the aforesaid Roman Pontiff.
5. [By this Our Constitution,] moreover, [which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We] also [enact, determine, decree and define:] as follows concerning those who shall have presumed in any way knowingly to receive, defend, favour, believe or teach the teaching of those so apprehended, confessed or convicted:
(i) they shall automatically incur sentence of excommunication;
(ii) they shall be rendered infamous;
(iii) they shall be excluded on pain of invalidity from any public or private office, deliberation, Synod, general or provincial Council and any conclave of Cardinals or other congregation of the faithful, and from any election or function of witness, so that they cannot take part in any of these by vote, in person, by writings, representative or by any agent;
(iv) they shall be incapable of making a will;
(v) they shall not accede to the succession of heredity;
(vi) no one shall be forced to respond to them concerning any business;
(vii) if perchance they shall have been Judges, their judgements shall have no force, nor shall any cases be brought to their hearing;
(viii) if they shall have been Advocates, their pleading shall nowise be received;
(ix) if they shall have been Notaries, documents drafted by them shall be entirely without strength or weight;
(x) clerics shall be automatically deprived of each and every Church, even Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal, Primatial, and likewise of dignities, Monasteries, benefices and Ecclesiastical offices, and even, as has been already mentioned, of qualifications, howsoever obtained by them;
(xi) laymen, moreover, in the same way - even if they be qualified, as already described, or endowed with the aforesaid dignities or anysoever Kingdoms, Duchies, Dominions, Fiefs and temporal goods possessed by them;
(xii) finally, all Kingdoms, Duchies, Dominions, Fiefs and goods of this kind shall be confiscated, made public and shall remain so, and shall be made the rightful property of those who shall first occupy them if these shall be sincere in faith, in the unity of the Holy Roman Church and under obedience to Us and to Our successors the Roman Pontiffs canonically entering office.
6. In addition, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define:] that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy:
(i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way;
(iv) to any so promoted to be Bishops, or Archbishops, or Patriarchs, or Primates or elevated as Cardinals, or as Roman Pontiff, no authority shall have been granted, nor shall it be considered to have been so granted either in the spiritual or the temporal domain;
(v) each and all of their words, deeds, actions and enactments, howsoever made, and anything whatsoever to which these may give rise, shall be without force and shall grant no stability whatsoever nor any right to anyone;
(vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power.
7. Finally, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We] also [enact, determine, define and decree]: that any and all persons who would have been subject to those thus promoted or elevated if they had not previously deviated from the Faith, become heretics, incurred schism or provoked or committed any or all of these, be they members of anysoever of the following categories:
(i) the clergy, secular and religious;
(ii) the laity;
(iii) the Cardinals, even those who shall have taken part in the election of this very Pontiff previously deviating from the Faith or heretical or schismatical, or shall otherwise have consented and vouchsafed obedience to him and shall have venerated him;
(iv) Castellans, Prefects, Captains and Officials, even of Our Beloved City and of the entire Ecclesiastical State, even if they shall be obliged and beholden to those thus promoted or elevated by homage, oath or security; shall be permitted at any time to withdraw with impunity from obedience and devotion to those thus promoted or elevated and to avoid them as warlocks, heathens, publicans, and heresiarchs (the same subject persons, nevertheless, remaining bound by the duty of fidelity and obedience to any future Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Roman Pontiff canonically entering).
To the greater confusion, moreover, of those thus promoted or elevated, if these shall have wished to prolong their government and authority, they shall be permitted to request the assistance of the secular arm against these same individuals thus promoted or elevated; nor shall those who withdraw on this account, in the aforementioned circumstances, from fidelity and obedience to those thus promoted and elevated, be subject, as are those who tear the tunic of the Lord, to the retribution of any censures or penalties.
8. [The provisions of this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity are to take effect] notwithstanding any Constitutions, Apostolic Ordinations, privileges, indults or Apostolic Letters, whether they be to these same Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates and Cardinals or to any others, and whatsoever may be their import and form, and with whatsoever sub-clauses or decrees they may have been granted, even "motu proprio" and by certain knowledge, from the fulness of the Apostolic power or even consistorially or otherwise howsoever; and even if they have been repeatedly approved and renewed, have been included in the corpus of the Law or strengthened by any capital conclaves whatsoever (even by oath) or by Apostolic confirmation or by anysoever other endorsements or if they were legislated by ourself. By this present document instead of by express mention, We specially and expressly derogate the provisions of all these by appropriate deletion and word-for-word substitution, so that these may otherwise remain in force.
9. In order, however, that this document may be brought to the notice of all whom it concerns, We wish it or a transcription of it (to which, when made by the hand of the undersigned Public Notary and fortified by the seal of any person established in ecclesiastical dignity, We decree that complete trust must be accorded) to be published and affixed in the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles in this City and on the doors of the Apostolic Chancery and in the pavilion of the Campus Florae by some of our couriers; [we] will [further] that a quantity of copies affixed in this place should be distributed, and that publication and affixing of this kind should suffice and be held as right, solemn and legitimate, and that no other publication should be required or awaited.
10. No one at all, therefore, may infringe this document of our approbation, re-introduction, sanction, statute and derogation of wills and decrees, or by rash presumption contradict it. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, let him know that he is destined to incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
Given in Rome at Saint Peter’s in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1559, 15th February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.
+ I, Paul, Bishop of the Catholic Church of Rome
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Note: This Constitution was reinforced in his Papal Bull Inter multiplices [December 21, 1566] by Pope St. Pius V
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Note: Those words in brackets signify the Latin significance of the full authority of this Constitution above.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF CUM EX APOSTOLATUS OFFICIO IN RELATION TO JORGE BERGOGLIO OR FRANCIS
This section contains content used from authors: Brother Peter Dimond and Brother Michael Dimond of Most Holy Family Monastery / mostholyfamilymonastery.com
As the infallible bull Cum ex apostolatus officio quoted above absolutely proves: someone who calls himself the “Pope”, even if unanimously elected by all the cardinals, but who is a heretic: must be rejected by us as an antipope. Therefore, this also proves that we must reject Francis as an antipope since he rejects many Catholic dogmas and the Natural law (such as Francis’ heresy on atheism and homosexuality) which no one can reject and be a ‘material heretic’ or in material heresy or ignorant about.
The natural law is written on the heart of all men, so that all men know that certain things are against God’s law and that certain things are in accordance with the natural law of charity, etc.
The natural law is the law that every person knows by instinct from birth. It is planted by the Creator in our heart, and everyone – even pagans who have never heard about God or the true Catholic religion – receive this gift from God. Examples of sins that break the natural law and that are easy to recognize are abortion, murder, rape, theft, pedophilia, homosexuality, slander, and lying. The conscience always convicts a person who does these things and thus there can never be an excuse for people who commit such sins.
Romans 2:14-16: “For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these having not the law are a law to themselves: Who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another, In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
As the Haydock Bible and Commentary correctly explains about Romans 2:14-16:
“these men are a law to themselves, and have it written in their hearts, as to the existence of a God, and their reason tells them, that many sins are unlawful...”
Francis’ Heresies on Atheism and Atheists
It is infallibly taught in Sacred Scripture that everyone above the age of reason can know with certainty that there is a God. They know this by the things that are made: the trees, the grass, the sun, the moon, the stars, etc. Anyone who is an atheist or agnostic (who believes that God does not exist or is unknowable) is without excuse. The natural law convicts him. This is a revealed truth of Sacred Scripture.
Creation itself bears witness that there is a God, that is, a living, omnipotent and intelligent Being who created it. The apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Rome that since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and Godhead – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made (Romans 1:20); and David said that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). Therefore, since the existence of God is so clearly witnessed by His works, those who deny His existence are without excuse. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’” (Psalm 53:1).
God defined infallibly, based on Romans 1, that the one true God can be known with certitude by the things which have been made, and by the natural light of human reason.
Romans 1:19-21: “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity: SO THAT THEY ARE INEXCUSABLE.”
The Catholic Church has dogmatically defined the principle set forth in Romans 1 – which directly contradicts the teaching of atheism and agnosticism (and the Vatican II sect).
Pope Pius IX, First Vatican Council, Session 3, On Revelation, Can. 1: “If anyone shall have said that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be known with certitude by those things which have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema.”
Pope Pius IX, First Vatican Council, Session 3, On God the Creator, Can. 1: “If anyone shall have denied the one true God, Creator and Lord of visible and invisible things: let him be anathema.”
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Yet despite this dogmatic teaching based on Romans 1, in On Heaven and Earth, pp. 12-13 Francis says he respects atheists and doesn’t try to convert them. He also says that their “life is not condemned”:
“I do not approach the relationship in order to proselytize, or convert the atheist; I respect him… nor would I say that his life is condemned, because I am convinced that I do not have the right to make a judgment about the honesty of that person… every man is the image of God, whether he is a believer or not. For that reason alone everyone has a series of virtues, qualities, and a greatness of his own.” (Francis, On Heaven and Earth, pp. 12-13)
An atheists interviewed Francis for the Italian newspaper The Republic. The interview was published on October 1, 2013. Francis directly told the atheist that he has no intention of trying to convert him. Francis rejects proselytism four different times in this interview. Francis declared: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.”
The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that atheists are condemned and that they must be converted to the Catholic faith for salvation.
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Bull Cantate Domino, 1442, ex cathedra: “… it [the Holy Roman Church] condemns, rejects, anathematizes and declares to be outside the Body of Christ, which is the Church, whoever holds opposing or contrary views.”
Pope Pius IV, profession of faith, Council of Trent, ex cathedra: “This true Catholic faith, outside of which no one can be saved… I now profess and truly hold…”
Yet, Antipope Francis is dominating the headlines around the world with his assertion that people don’t need to believe in God to get to heaven.
Antipope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (# 254), Nov. 24, 2013: “Non-Christians [such as atheists], by God’s gracious initiative, when they are faithful to their own consciences, can live “justified by the grace of God”, and thus be “associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ”… to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace... to live our own beliefs.”
Some may argue that when Francis continued in his Evangelii Gaudium, saying: “they [false religions, practices and beliefs] can be channels which the Holy Spirit raises up in order to liberate non-Christians from atheistic immanentism or from purely individual religious experiences” – that this means they will be converted. But we already know he doesn’t believe the Catholic Faith is necessary for salvation, and that he rejects proselytizing atheists; so that is not what he means. He is just saying it could happen - “they can” - not that it will, which is why he said: they can be justified if they follow their conscience. And then he ended saying: “which can help us better to live our own beliefs.” (Evangelii Gaudium, # 254)
His position is of course, heresy and apostasy. He made a similar statement in an open letter to the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica.
Statements like this only confirm what we’ve documented about the Vatican II antipopes, and what was proven in the video “What Francis Really Believes.” I’ve read Francis’ entire letter. The headlines accurately reflect what Antipope Francis wrote in his Evangelii Gaudium.
Concerning atheists, Francis wrote:
“First of all, you ask if the God of Christians forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith. Given that - and this is fundamental - God’s mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart, the issue for those who do not believe in God is in obeying their own conscience. In fact, listening and obeying it, means deciding about what is perceived to be good or to be evil. The goodness or the wickedness of our behavior depends on this decision.” (“Pope” Francisco writes to La Repubblica: “An open dialogue with non-believers”, 2013/09/11/)
Here Francis clearly indicates that people who don’t believe in God can be forgiven and saved if they obey their own conscience and follow what they perceive to be good; and later in his “Evangelii Gaudium” (254) he confirmed that this indeed was what he meant. So don’t allow any liar to claim that Francis’ statement has been misrepresented. It has not been misrepresented as Antipope Francis himself confirmed.
That’s an astounding heresy because it’s a basic dogma of Catholicism that faith is necessary for salvation. This is a fundamental issue. As Hebrews 11:6 says, “…without faith it is impossible to please God.”
The dogma of the Church, that no one can be justified, saved or pleasing to God without faith was taught throughout history and solemnly declared by the Council of Trent and Vatican I. Both Councils repeated the truth of Hebrews 11:6. Of course, it’s also a dogma that one must have the Catholic faith to be saved, and that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church. These truths have been defined by many popes.
Francis’ heresy trashes and denies all of those proclamations, but it gets even worse, because there are specific dogmatic definitions against the notion that atheists can be excused or saved.
Based on Romans 1:20, which teaches that all who deny the existence of God are inexcusable, Vatican I solemnly declared in Canon 1, On Revelation, “If anyone shall have said that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be known with certitude by those things which have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema.”
Therefore, the position that atheists can be excused for not recognizing what is clear from the natural light of human reason, namely, that there is a God, is an anathematized heresy.
In Canon 1, On God the Creator, Vatican I also declared, “If anyone shall have denied the one true God, Creator and Lord of visible and invisible things, let him be anathema.”
That means that anyone who denies God or His existence, is specifically anathematized.
Francis’ statements rejects these dogmatic definitions, in addition to all the others previously mentioned. People need to recognize the significance of this heresy.
The truth that one must have faith is a basic and fundamental teaching of Christianity. His statement that people can be saved without faith is equivalent to denying Jesus is God, that Mary is the Mother of God, or that Jesus rose again. They are all basic dogmas.
He has openly repudiated the teaching of Christianity, the necessity of faith. He is a complete heretic, not that more proof was required, but Francis’ statement in the interview, and later confirmed in his “Apostolic Exhortation” addressed to the “universal Church,” is another proof that he is not the pope, but a heretical non-Catholic antipope.
The organization he represents, the Vatican II sect, is not the Catholic Church, but the End Times Counter Church.
Francis’ Heretical Teaching on Homosexual “Civil Unions” and Homosexuality
Francis says he respects those who favor the abomination of same sex “marriage”, and says he never was disrespectful to sodomites and perverts. Francis also says he does not “judge” homosexuals and that a person who is gay can have “good will”. Discussing homosexuals (people in general and clergy), Francis said in July 2013:
“If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge them?”
Francis claims to be the first Judge in the Catholic Church, a pope, and yet says “who am I to judge” homosexuals. It is shocking and a total inversion of Catholic morals… It is not surprising that Francis believes such horrible things when he idolizes man.
Also notice the following interesting statements Francis makes about gay “marriage” and homosexuals.
Francis, On Heaven and Earth, p. 117: “When the head of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, did not appeal the judge’s opinion right away authorizing a [same-sex] wedding, I felt that I had something to say, to inform; I saw myself with an obligation to state my opinion. It was the first time in eighteen years as bishop that I criticized a government official. If you analyze the two declarations that I formulated, at no time did I speak about homosexuals nor did I make any derogatory reference toward them… Macri told me that these were his convictions; I respected him for that, but the head of the Government does not have to transfer his personal convictions to law. In no moment did I speak disrespectfully about homosexuals…”
Here we see that Francis says he respects those who favor the abomination of same sex “marriage”, and that he never was disrespectful to sodomites and perverts.
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Francis also mentions how he allowed the pro-gay “marriage” supporting president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, to preside over a “Catholic” memorial service to honor deceased “Catholic priests” and seminarians:
Francis, Conversations, p. 145: “I even asked him to preside over the ceremony when he arrived at the church…”
Later when the apostate president died, Francis immediately offered a public “requiem mass” for him.
Francis also allowed politicians who are vocal pro-abortion and gay “marriage” supporters to receive “communion” at his installation “mass”.
LifeNews, Mars 20, 2013: “Pro-abortion Biden and Pelosi Received Communion at Mass for Antipope Francis - The communion issue was exacerbated when, despite their pro-abortion views, Vice President Joe Biden and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi both received communion at the Mass to celebrate Pope Francis’ inauguration. Biden’s office confirmed to the Washington Times that he had received communion and reporters in the White House presidential reporting pool confirmed in an email to LifeNews that Pelosi had received it as well. … “At a Mass during which our new Pope emphasized the duty public officials – and all the rest of us – have to protect the weakest among us, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have the audacity to receive Communion while publicly renouncing their responsibility to protect the weakest among us.”
It has now also been documented and confirmed by credible witnesses that Francis favored homosexual civil unions when he was in Argentina. He just didn’t want a homosexual civil union to be called a marriage.
CNN, March 21, 2013: “Behind closed doors, pope supported civil unions in Argentina, activist says - Less than an hour after he fired off an angry letter to Catholic Church leaders about their handling of Argentina’s same-sex marriage debate, Marcelo Marquez says his phone rang. … "He [Francis, then the “archbishop” of Buenos Aires] told me. … ‘I’m in favor of gay rights and in any case, I also favor civil unions for homosexuals, but I believe that Argentina is not yet ready for a gay marriage law," said Marquez, a gay rights activist, a self-described devout Catholic and a former theology professor at a Catholic seminary.”
HuffingtonPost, March 20, 2013: “Pope Francis Advocated For Civil Unions For Gay Couples In 2010 As Argentina’s Cardinal Bergoglio - Pope Francis supported civil unions for gay couples as recently as 2010. … As Argentina’s legislature debated President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s bill to allow gay marriage, Francis -- then known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio -- suggested to his bishops that the Church support civil unions as a compromise of sorts. At the time, civil unions were already legal in parts of Argentina ABC noted. Civil unions were the “lesser of two evils,” said Sergio Rubin, authorized biographer for then-Cardinal Bergoglio, according to The New York Times. “He [Bergoglio] wagered on a position of greater dialogue with society.”
It has also been reported that Francis still favors homosexual civil unions as “Pope”.
DailyMail, March 10, 2014: “Pope to stop condemning same-sex civil partnerships hints leading cardinal in move which could be step towards Catholic gay marriage - Pope Francis has suggested that the Vatican could support gay civil unions in the future, according to one of the church’s most senior cardinals. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that the pontiff wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex unions, ‘rather than condemn them’. Cardinal Dolan told American television that Francis wants church leaders to ‘look into it and see the reasons that have driven them.’ … In an interview to mark his first year in the church’s top job, Pope Francis last week reaffirmed the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage but indicated that some types of civil unions could be acceptable to the church. The Pope restated the church’s teaching that ‘marriage is between a man and a woman,’ but added ‘We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety.’ Some countries justify civil unions as a way to provide the same economic and legal rights to cohabitating couples as those who are married, the Pope said in the interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. … Francis’ comments are the first time that a Pope has indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions, according to Vatican watchers. … In recognition for the perceived change in stance Francis appeared on the cover of gay magazine The Advocate as their person of the year.”
Sergio Rubin is an Argentine journalist and authorized biographer of Francis. He wrote (in 2010) the only biography of Jorge Bergoglio (now Antipope Francis) available at the time of his election. Rubin testified that while taking a strong stand against same-sex marriage, Bergoglio raised the possibility in 2010 with his bishops in Argentina that they support the idea of civil unions as a compromise position. On Gay Unions, a Pragmatist Before He Was a Pope. The article went on to say that “a majority of the bishops voted to overrule him”.
In addition to Marquez and Rubin’s testimonies, two other Argentine journalists and two senior officials of the Argentine “bishops conference”, supported Rubin’s account:
NCR Online, Apr. 12, 2013: “On March 19, The New York Times reported that when Argentina was gearing up for a bitter national debate on gay marriage in 2009 and 2010, Bergoglio quietly favored a compromise solution that would have included civil unions for same-sex couples. … On this score, I was told by three sources in Argentina that the Times basically got it right: Bergoglio did, in fact, favor civil unions. That was confirmed on background by two senior officials of the bishops’ conference in Argentina, both of whom worked with Bergoglio and took part in the behind-the-scenes discussions as the conference tried to shape its position. "Bergoglio supported civil unions," one of those officials told me. Mariano de Vedia, a veteran journalist for La Nación, has covered church/state issues in Argentina for years and said he could confirm Bergoglio’s position had been correctly described in the Times account. Guillermo Villarreal, a Catholic journalist in Argentina, said it was well known at the time that Bergoglio’s moderate position was opposed by Archbishop Héctor Rubén Aguer of La Plata, the leader of the hawks.”
This is heresy. It means that Francis approved perverted and abominable sexual behavior that is condemned in Scripture and Catholic teaching. His stance is no different at all from endorsing abortion under the condition that the state does not give abortion special or privileged status by using state funds for it.
All of this without a doubt proves that Francis is certainly not a Catholic. He’s not a pope, he’s not a lover of truth and of the true God, he’s not honest, he’s not seeking to convert souls to the one true faith, etc. As he cannot defend openly gay pseudo-marriage, he uses relativism to defend the “gay agenda”, reducing the issue of homosexuality to the mere political lobby. “If a person is gay and seeking God, who am I to judge her?”, says Antipope Francis.
Since Francis idolizes man, it’s no wonder he endorses such blasphemies and perversions. One hear the “You can’t judge!” heresy so many times it makes one sick. Heretics love this evil phrase and will recite it every time someone charitably rebukes their sinful lifestyle. They don’t seem to grasp the fact that God has already judged (Leviticus 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9).
More on Francis’ Heresies on Homosexuals and Homosexuality
Antipope Francis recently gave a shocking interview to the editor of the so-called Jesuit journal, La Civilta Cattolica. He was interviewed by Antonio Spadaro on behalf of La Civilta Cattolica, Thinking Faith, America and several other major Jesuit journals around the world. The interview was conducted in Italian. After the Italian text was officially approved, a team of five independent experts were commissioned to produce the English translation, which is also published by America.
We will be quoting from the English pdf translation found in the Jesuit journal Thinking Faith, Sept. 19, 2013.
The Antonio Spadaro Interview
On p. 7 of the interview, Francis is talking about homosexuals. He says:
“In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexuals persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this. During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge.” He goes on to say, “it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.” Thinking Faith, Sept. 19, 2013, p. 7.
He then re-quotes something he said previously about homosexuals:
“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: “‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.” Thinking Faith, Sept. 19, 2013, p. 8.
This is wicked heresy! First he says, he’s “no one to judge” and that “the church does not want to do this [that is, condemn the homosexuals].” That’s interesting because the First Vatican Council declared that a Pope (a true Pope) is the supreme judge of the faithful. Francis doesn’t judge or condemn anyone because he’s not a Catholic and he’s not the Pope. Also, to say that the Church does not condemn homosexuals is equivalent to saying that God does not condemn homosexuals. There is no difference between the two.
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Second, he’s discussing homosexuals. He says he’s no one to judge, and he teaches that God and the Church doesn’t condemn them or reject them. That indicates quite clearly, that homosexuals could be justified despite their wickedness and abominable behavior. And, we know Francis is including active homosexuals in his comments, because he makes no distinction between people who merely consider themselves to have a homosexual orientation, and those who engage in homosexual behavior.
Indeed, we know he’s talking about those who engage in homosexual acts because Francis refers to homosexuals who have claimed to him that they feel excluded. That obviously includes active homosexuals. In fact, in this very context Francis speaks of confession. “This is also the great benefit of confession as a sacrament: evaluating case by case and discerning what is the best thing to do for a person who seeks God and grace.” Thinking Faith, Sept. 19, 2013, p. 8.
The Vatican II sect would only consider homosexual acts, not the homosexual orientation, matters for confession. (both are equally wrong, however).
Antipope John Paul II, New Catechism, #2357: “Homosexuality… Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained.”
And Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) and John Paul II both approved of the following statement concerning homosexuality:
“Sacred Scripture condemns homosexual acts “as a serious depravity... (cf. Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10). This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly [homosexuality] are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered”. …
The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, in the Audience of March 28, 2003, approved the present Considerations, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this Congregation, and ordered their publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 3, 2003, Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and his Companions, Martyrs.
Joseph Card. Ratzinger
Prefect”
(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal Recognition To Unions Between Homosexual Persons, nr. 4, 2003)
By the way, Scripture is quite clear that the homosexual orientation is unnatural and results from mortal sin, idolatry and apostasy. See Romans chapter 1.
Romans 1:26-27: “For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
People can be delivered from it by the grace of God. See Overcoming Homosexuality.
Francis then speaks in the very same context of gay “marriage”. That obviously refers to, and includes practicing homosexuals. Francis also says in this very context, “that we must consider their situation” and look upon things with “mercy” which come in the context of his reference to confession, and which can only have meaning if he’s referring to practicing homosexuals, since the Vatican II sect would only consider homosexual acts, not the homosexual orientation, matters for confession.
Francis also applied his comments to both “homosexual persons” and to “homosexuality.”
Read carefully in context, there is no doubt that Francis’ teaching that he does not judge, condemn or reject homosexuals or homosexuality including practicing homosexuals. That is totally evil and it is heresy.
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Based upon Sacred Scripture, the Church has always taught that those who practice homosexuality, and have a homosexual orientation are condemned, judged and rejected.
1 Corinthians 6:9 explicitly teaches that homosexuals are rejected from the Kingdom of God and Romans 1:32 teaches that “not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them… are worthy of death.” That means they are rejected and condemned, the opposite of what Francis teaches.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor sodomites [homosexuals], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.”
Romans 1:32: “Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.”
So not only the people who are homosexuals are worthy of death, but also those who promote this sinful lifestyle! So this is a clear warning that homosexuals are judged and that they will be judged.
Pope St. Pius V, Horrendum Illud Scelus, August 30, 1568: “We establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss.” (In Bullarium Romanum, Rome: Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Mainardi, 1738, chap. 3, p. 33)
Francis’ position is heretical. It constitutes a new false Gospel.
The Church calls homosexuals out of their wickedness and out of their perversion. It calls them to convert. But as they are, they are in a state of condemnation.
Francis’ Heresies on the Jews
Jews reject that Jesus Christ is God, but Jesus says in John 8:24: “For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin.”
The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that you must believe in Jesus Christ and have the Catholic faith for salvation.
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, The Athanasian Creed, Sess. 8, Nov. 22, 1439, ex cathedra: “Whoever wishes to be saved, needs above all to hold the Catholic faith; unless each one preserves this whole and inviolate, he will without a doubt perish in eternity.”
It teaches that it’s a mortal sin to observe or practice Judaism. Jews practice the Old Law and reject the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ in addition to calling Christ a deceiver or a complete myth invented by the Christians – yet, despite this, many so-called Christians actually claim that the Jews are “good”, or that they can be saved or that they remain “God’s chosen” people.
The Catholic Church teaches the following about the cessation of the Old Law and about all who continue to observe it:
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments… after our Lord’s coming… ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began, and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. All, therefore, who after that time (the promulgation of the Gospel) observe circumcision and the Sabbath (not to be mistaken with the Christian Sabbath) and the other requirements of the law [that is, practicing Jews], the holy Roman Church declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation.”
But in his astounding Apostolic Exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” which Francis, by the way addressed to the universal Church, he professes that the Jews have a valid covenant with God (247), contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church in the dogmatic Council of Florence, as we just saw above.
Antipope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (# 247), Nov. 24, 2013: “We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked...”
Francis went on to say: “As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols [false gods] and to serve the true God [i.e., Francis says Jews are not to be considered to be as those who turn from false gods in order to serve the true God Jesus Christ and the Trinity since he already believes they serve the true God!]... With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.” (Evangelii Gaudium, # 247)
This is apostasy; it is a denial of Christ. It alone proves that Francis is not the Pope since he totally denies, rejects, and spits upon the Council of Florence.
Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (# 13), Aug. 15, 1832: “With the admonition of the apostle that ‘there is one God, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph. 4:5) may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that ‘those who are not with Christ are against Him,’ (Lk. 11:23) and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore, ‘without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate’ (Athanasian Creed).”
It is true that some aspects of the Old Covenant are still valid because they are included in the New and Eternal Covenant of Jesus Christ, such as the ten commandments, but the Old Covenant itself (the agreement between God and the Jewish people) ceased with the coming of the Messiah. Therefore, to say that the Old Covenant is still valid is to assert that Judaism is a true religion and that Jesus Christ is not really the Messiah. It is also, as has been noted, to deny defined Catholic dogma, such as the teaching of The Council of Florence, which defined ex cathedra that the Old Law is now dead and that those who practice it (namely, the Jews) cannot be saved.
Pope Benedict XIV reiterated this dogma in his encyclical Ex Quo Primum.
Pope Benedict XIV, Ex Quo Primum (# 61): “The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and that they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.”
The destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans, leaving only the Western Wall, has always been understood by Catholics to signify God’s judgment on the Jews. The Jews pray at the Western Wall as the holiest site in Judaism. The destruction of the Temple prohibited Jews from being able to offer sacrifice, which meant that their religion had come to an end. The destruction of the Temple was God’s powerful sign to the Jews that the Messiah had come, that the Old Covenant had ceased, and that the Temple had been replaced by the Catholic Church. So when a Jew prays at the Western Wall, or leaves a prayer there, or participates in Jewish religious services, it is a denial that Jesus is the Messiah; it is an affirmation that he holds that the Old Covenant is still in force; and it is a pitiful and sad attempt to ignore God’s very obvious sign that the Jews must abandon the destroyed Temple (the obsolete faith) and enter the Catholic Church.
John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis praying at the Wailing or Western Wall in Jerusalem
But even though, as we have seen, “the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments… after our Lord’s coming… ceased,” Antipope Francis endorses the false religion of Judaism and prays in Jewish synagogues:
Francis, Conversations With Jorge Bergoglio, p. 208: “Not long ago I was in a synagogue taking part in a ceremony. I prayed a lot and, while praying, I heard a phrase from one of the books of wisdom that had slipped my mind: ‘Lord, may I bear mockery in silence.’ It gave me much peace and joy.”
Contrary to Francis’ apostasy, the Catholic Church forbids Catholics to enter Jewish synagogues or the meetinghouses of the heretics “to join in prayer with them”.
Third Council of Constantinople, 680-681: “If any ecclesiastic or layman shall go into the synagogue of the Jews or the meetinghouses of the heretics to join in prayer with them, let them be deposed and deprived of communion. If any bishop or priest or deacon shall join in prayer with heretics, let him be suspended from communion.”
Council of Carthage: “One must neither pray nor sing psalms with heretics, and whoever shall communicate with those who are cut off from the communion of the Church, [i.e., heretics and schismatics such as Jews, Muslims, Protestants etc.] whether clergy or layman: let him be excommunicated.”
Francis also teaches that the people of Israel continue to be the “Chosen People” of God.
Francis, On Heaven and Earth, p. 188: “The [Vatican II] Church officially recognizes that the People of Israel continue to be the Chosen People. Nowhere does it say: ‘You lost the game, now it is our turn.’ It is a recognition of the People of Israel.”
This clearly means that Francis holds that people who reject Jesus Christ are the chosen people in God’s sight. This is a blasphemy against God.
This heresy on the Jews was also taught in Vatican II itself and by the other previous Vatican II antipopes.
Antipope Paul VI, Vatican II Declaration, Nostra Aetate (#4): “Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the holy scriptures.”
For instance, Antipope John Paul II has repeatedly repudiated this dogma, a dogma taught by the Catholic Church for 2000 years, defined infallibly by the Council of Florence, and affirmed clearly by Pope Benedict XIV.
In an address to Jews in West Germany, Nov. 17, 1980, Antipope John Paul II spoke of quote, “the Old Covenant, never revoked by God…”
Antipope John Paul II, New Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 121: “… for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.”
In 2001, the Pontifical Biblical Commission released a book entitled The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible. This book rejects the dogma that the Old Covenant has ceased. It teaches that the Old Covenant is still valid, and that the Jews’ wait for the Coming of the Messiah (which was part of the Old Covenant) is also still valid. It teaches that Jesus doesn’t have to be seen as the prophesied Messiah; it is possible to see Him, as the Jews do, as not the Messiah and not the Son of God.
In section II, A, 5, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible states:
“Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain...”
In section II, A, 7, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible states:
“…to read the Bible as Judaism does necessarily involves an implicit acceptance of all its presuppositions, that is, the full acceptance of what Judaism is, in particular, the authority of its writings and rabbinic traditions, which exclude faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God… Christians can and ought to admit that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one…”
So, according to this Vatican book, Christians can and ought to admit that the Jewish position that Jesus is not the Son of God and the prophesied Messiah is a possible one! The preface for this totally heretical book was written by none other than Joseph Ratzinger, the now Benedict XVI.
This is antichrist!
1 John 2:22: “… he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist…”
Heresy is a rejection of a dogma of the Catholic Faith; apostasy is a rejection of the entire Christian Faith. This book contains both heresy and apostasy, fully endorsed by Benedict XVI.
When Vatican II teaches that Jews, despite not belonging to the Church, are not to be considered as rejected by God, that means they remain in a valid covenant with God and can be saved. That’s also how the apostates in the Vatican II sect understood and implemented Nostra Aetate. Francis’ heresy on the Old Covenant is simply a reiteration of the doctrine of Nostra Aetate and the statements of the previous antipopes. It is also a further formalization of that heresy as the official doctrine of the Counter Church, for Francis teaches it openly in an Apostolic Exhortation addressed to the entire Church.
In contrast to Francis’ and Vatican II’s official and heretical teaching that the Jewish people are “not rejected by God” as His “Chosen People” after the promulgation of the gospel, the Catholic Church rejects, condemns, anathematizes and repudiates the Jews as alienated from God and salvation “unless they are joined to the Church [and believe in Jesus Christ] before the end of their lives.” (Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, 1441, ex cathedra)
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Bull Cantate Domino, 1442, ex cathedra: “… the holy Roman Church, founded on the words of our Lord and Savior, firmly believes, professes and preaches one true God, almighty, immutable and eternal, Father, Son and Holy Spirit… Therefore it [the Church] condemns, rejects, anathematizes and declares to be outside the Body of Christ [and of God], which is the Church, whoever holds opposing or contrary views.”
Without even going into details, it should be obvious to all that the statement of Nostra Aetate (#4) and of Francis in On Heaven and Earth, p. 188 is heretical. Jews are rejected by God, because all who reject Jesus Christ are denied by God. This is a truth that Our Lord specifically revealed in Sacred Scripture.
Matthew 10:33: “But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
The word “deny” means to reject or to repudiate. Look it up in the dictionary. Therefore, Antipope Francis and the Vatican II sect and its antipopes are denying the divinely revealed truth of Matthew 10:33: he who denies Our Lord is rejected by Him. Thus, without even going farther into detail, one should easily see that Francis and Vatican II teaches blatant heresy. But it gets even worse when one considers this in more detail.
Consider the following. Council of Florence Bull Cantate Domino (quoted above) is a dogmatic definition on individuals who have a view on Our Lord Jesus Christ or the Holy Trinity that is contrary to that of the Church (e.g., Jews, etc.). The Council of Florence solemnly defines that whoever has a view contrary to the Church’s teaching on Our Lord and the Trinity (e.g., the Jews) is condemned and rejected. Note: the Council is not merely saying that the view contrary to Our Lord is rejected and condemned, but that the individual (e.g., the Jew) is condemned and rejected!
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Francis’ Other Heresies on the Jews
Francis, On Heaven and Earth, p. 37: “There also exists the ministerial intercession of a rabbi or a priest who prays or asks for the health of another and it is granted. What gives credibility to a person who is healing according to the law of God is simplicity, humility and the absence of a spectacle.”
So Francis believes that Jewish rabbis who are rejected by God have a true spiritual ministry of intercession “according to the law of God”.
Francis, On Heaven and Earth, p. 220: Francis says to Jewish Rabbi Skorka: “I did not forget how you invited me twice to pray and to speak in the synagogue, and I invited you to speak to my seminarians about values.”
So Francis happily explains how he invited the Christ rejecting Jewish Rabbi Skorka to speak of values to his seminarians.
On the same page Francis also mentioned his interrreligious apostasy and explains how he, as “Archbishop” of Buenos Aires, brought about “changes” that recognized and benefited Christ rejecting false religions:
Francis, Francis, On Heaven and Earth, p. 220: “I do not know if you remember, when I began the Te Deum Masses as Archbishop, I came down with the nuncio accompanying the president and we walked him to the door. All of you, representatives from other faiths, would remain in your place, like puppets in an exhibition. I changed that: now the president goes up and greets all of the representatives of the other faiths. … but the representatives of other faiths also present their own prayers [at his interreligious prayer meetings]. Now there is greater participation.”
Here we clearly see that Antipope Francis directly approves of that members of all kinds of false religions are allowed to pray to the Devil in his own Church, which is total apostasy, and a mortal sin, and as if this is not evil enough, he is also directly instrumental in getting them there to pray to the Devil.
It would be laudable if this was done with an intention of converting them to Christ. However, as we have seen, Francis doesn’t believe in proselyting or converting anyone. For as Francis recently said in an interview to Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist, when being asked at one point if he was trying to convert him, Francis replied:
“Convert you?” “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.” The Repubblica, October 1, 2013
Thus all of Francis’ words and actions are merely concerned about “respecting” man and “respecting” their false religions – and trashing all about God’s true religion in the process. This is apostasy.
In the cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 15, 1998 Francis held an interreligious service to honor deceased Jews. During this meeting, Francis said to the Jews: “we are all brothers, because we have the seal of God in our hearts”. The seal of God is baptism – which Jews reject.
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In September 2004, Francis participated in a Jewish service inside a synagogue and on November 9, 2005 Francis had another service in a Basilica commemorating deceased Jews. This included Francis lighting a candle in “honor” of them – i.e., the deceased condemned Jews.
The Catholic Church since the beginning has rejected the idea that an unbeliever in Christ could be saved. This is why, throughout the whole history of the Church, prayer, sacrifice and Christian burial were not allowed for unbelievers (and even catechumens) who died without faith and baptism.
Fr. William Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3, pp. 14-15: “If there were not a constant tradition in the Fathers that the Gospel message of ‘Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost [baptism] he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ is to be taken absolutely… the tradition in fact is there; and it is likely enough to be found so constant as to constitute revelation.”
Therefore, one cannot attend non-Catholic services, funerals or weddings, let alone to pacify friends, relatives or co-workers and give non-Catholics the false impression that non-Catholic lives can lead to salvation or that non-Catholic weddings or religious services are pleasing to God.
Also, one definitely cannot go to the wedding reception or the funeral events after the services. To do so is to give the non-Catholics the same false impression: that their marriage is pleasing to God or that people can be saved as non-Catholics. A true Catholic must completely shun all events associated with non-Catholic funerals and weddings, including the reception events afterward.
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (# 9), Jan. 6, 1928: “Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment ‘Love one another,’ altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt form of Christ’s teaching: ‘If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you’ (II John 10).”
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In 2007, Francis attended Jewish Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) services at a synagogue in Argentina. He told the Jewish congregation during his visit that he went to the synagogue to examine his heart, “like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder brothers”.
On July 7, 2008 Francis endorsed Rabbi Sergio Bergman’s books. Francis called him a “believer” and said: “his job is the one of a rabbi who as our master helps us”.
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On June 7, 2010: Francis visited the Jewish Center in Argentina and called Jews “our elder brothers” and “the chosen people of God”. He also prayed in front of list of deceased Jews in order to “honor” them. Francis said: “That reminder is another link of pain, persecution and blood that the chosen people of God have suffered in history. I thank the Lord that on this day I am allowed to share part of the way with our elder brothers...” Again, Jews are no longer God’s chosen people since they reject Christ: “after our Lord’s coming [the old law, i.e., the Jewish religion]… ceased” (Dogmatic Council of Florence).
On October 11, 2012 Francis gave Rabbi Abraham Skorka – who is a Christ denier and a well-known supporter of homosexuality – an honorary degree at a “Catholic” university. After the rabbi received the degree, he said: “We are waiting for the Messiah [that is, they are still waiting for him to come whereas Christ the Messiah has already come], but in order for him to come we have to prepare the land…”
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So the Rabbi explicitly rejected the Messiah Jesus Christ right in front of Francis.
On November 12, 2012 Francis was the keynote speaker and took active part in another Jewish religious ceremony in the cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This Jewish religious ceremony was again dedicated to honor deceased Jews. The final candle commemorating deceased Jews was jointly lit by a rabbi and Francis.
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Under Francis’ direction, memorial services honoring deceased Jews have been celebrated in so-called Catholic churches in Argentina every year since 1998.
To take part in a Jewish religious ceremony for deceased, condemned Jews who died as enemies of Jesus Christ and of His Church is complete apostasy from the Catholic faith.
Apostolic Constitutions, Canon 65: “If any one, either of the clergy or laity, enters into a synagogue of the Jews or heretics to pray, let him be deprived and suspended.”
Council of Laodicea, Canon 33 (A.D. 364): “No one shall join in prayers with heretics or schismatics.”
Apostolic Constitutions, Canon 45: “Let a bishop, presbyter, or deacon, who has only prayed with heretics, be excommunicated: but if he has permitted them to perform any clerical office, let him be deposed.”
On March 13, 2013 just a few hours after Francis was elected Antipope, he sent out a greeting letter to the Christ-rejecting Chief Rabbi of Rome.
On March 25, 2013 Francis sent a telegram to Rome’s chief rabbi for Passover. This message constituted heresy and apostasy, because in it Antipope Francis endorsed the false religion of Judaism, and he encouraged the Jews to observe their rites. Francis said that he esteems Jews and asked them to pray for him. He also asked that God “continue to deliver you from all evil” even though the Rabbi rejects Jesus – the only One who can deliver us from evil (cf. Matthew 6:13). L’ Osservatore Romano, March 27, 2013, p. 4.
In his June 24, 2013 address to members of the International Jewish committee, Francis called Jews “believers”, and asked Jews to pray for him.
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Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 5), June 29, 1896: “Whoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ.”
Antipope Francis Practices Judaism
Over the last few days Antipope Francis hosted his friend, Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Skorka at the Vatican.
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Skorka recently gave an interview about his stay with Francis. The incredible interview reveals more of Francis’ astounding apostasy and full acceptance of Judaism.
Skorka explains that during his stay with Francis at the Vatican, which began on September 25th 2013, Francis helped him practice Judaism and observed ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. Francis also responded to Skorka’s Jewish prayers and Francis rejected proselytizing him, that is, trying to convert Skorka to Catholicism.
The article is called “Francis and Rabbi Skorka make history in the Vatican. Skorka says:
“‘I eat with him at breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. He cares for me, and controls everything regarding my food to make sure it is all kosher [foods that conform to the Jewish dietary law], and according to my religious tradition. These are festive days, and I have to say certain prayers at meals, and, I expand the last prayer and translate it. He accompanies me together with the others at the table – his secretaries and a bishop, and they all say ‘Amen’ at the end,’ the Rabbi said. ‘We come together without burying our identities. I spoke to him about evangelization, and he stated emphatically, that the Catholic Church cannot engage in proselytism, he said.’”
Francis’ actions clearly constitute heresy and apostasy, a total rejection of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Faith, because the Catholic Church dogmatically teaches that observance of the Old Law is forbidden under pain of mortal sin and the loss of salvation, and that Judaism is a false religion from which people must be converted to be saved. Antipope Francis’ message denies those truths and the necessity of Christ, Himself.
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Who will dare to deny Jesus Christ and call this wicked apostate, Francis, who totally rejects Jesus Christ and His necessity, a representative, nay, the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ?
Francis is a heretic; he’s not a Catholic – according to Catholic teaching, heretics cannot be valid Popes.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Heresy,” 1914, Vol. 7, p. 261: “The pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church.”
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Francis is nothing more than a non-Catholic antipope, falsely posing as the leader of the Catholic Church.
As was noted earlier, the Council of Florence defined as a dogma that it’s a mortal sin to observe Judaism or the Mosaic Law after the promulgation of the Gospel. The Council also stated Judaism and the Mosaic Law cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation.
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That’s a solemnly defined teaching of the Catholic Church. By helping Skorka practice Judaism and observe ceremonies of the Old Law, Francis blatantly denies the dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church. Francis encourages Skorka to commit mortal sin and practice a non-Christian religion which rejects Jesus.
Francis’ action in this regard are heresy and apostasy because his deeds as well as words manifest his position, that it’s acceptable to practice Judaism, observe the Old Law and reject Jesus. And that position is a denial of Catholic dogma, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “Now man can make profession of his inward faith, by deeds as well as by words: and in either profession, if he makes a false declaration he sins mortally.” (Summa Theologica, I-II; Q. 103, A. 4).
Concerning Francis’ profession of faith in deed, he takes part in condemned Jewish worship, contrary to Catholic teaching, he takes part in non-Catholic worship. He even uses his “authority” to organize kosher meals and other aspects of condemned Jewish worship, so the Jews can observe the Mosaic laws contrary to the profession of the true faith.
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In one such meeting in January 2014, Francis hosted Argentine Jewish leaders for a kosher lunch and joint prayer. Together Francis and the Jewish leaders intoned Psalm 133 in Hebrew, which says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
Francis thus professes in word and deed that Jews who reject the Son have unity with God the Father. The profession of the true faith is precisely the opposite. No one who denies the Son has salvation or unity with the Father. “No one who denies the Son has the Father.” (1 John 2:23)
“... whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12)
So the answer to our question: “Does Francis profess the true faith?” - could not be more clear.
It’s a fact that Francis does not profess, state and display the true faith, but a false non-Catholic faith.
In his 1943 encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christii, Pope Pius XII taught, “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have received the laver of regeneration and profess the true faith...” It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that you can only consider as members of the Catholic Church those who have received the laver of regeneration (that is, water baptism) and profess the true faith.
According to Catholic teaching, therefore, Francis cannot be counted among the members of the Church, for only those who are baptized and profess the true faith are to be considered members of the Church.
That’s precisely why Pope Leo XIII declared in the encyclical “Satis Cognitum,” #13, June 29, 1896: “You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held.”
Skorka’s revelation that Francis also rejects trying to evangelize/proselytize/convert him, further proves that Francis rejects the defined Catholic dogma, ‘Outside the Church There is No Salvation,’ and the dogma that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation.
Francis is not just a complete apostate who endorses Judaism and repudiates Catholic teaching, but it’s true to say that Francis is actually a practicing Jew. That’s because Francis celebrates Jewish holidays and has repeatedly participated in Jewish ceremonies and worship.
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On December 14, 2012, just a few months before his election as antipope – Francis celebrated Hanukkah with Jews in the synagogue which included Francis lighting a menorah, and as Rabbi Skorka noted, when Skorka said his prayers and conducted Judaic ceremonies in observance of the Old Law and on the festival days of Judaism, Francis helped and even participated by saying ‘Amen.’ Francis has thus repeatedly engaged in active participation in Judaism.
That means that in addition to being a heretical antipope, who falsely claims to be a Catholic, Francis is a practicing Jew!
Read more of Francis’ heresies in this article: Anti Pope Francis’ Heresies, The Apocalypse & The End of the World
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