Stay Faithful

There are people out there that say that Pope Francis is a heretic. There are videos out there that declare that he is not the Pope. There are some who are saying that he "might not" be the Pope. There is also an article that says Francis is actually an alien from another planet who was sent to here to deceive the whole world into joining a new false religion and thus take over the world. Yes, really.

So then, what if Francis is not the Pope? Whenever I am asked this, I tell the questioner what Bishop Lopes has said about this for a long time: "stay faithful". We know the Roman Catechism, we know the teachings of the Scriptures, we know our Traditions as they have always been practiced, and we know what the Church has said for the first 1900 years. It is not hard to find what the Church has always said; we just have to say no to the lies. If you stay faithful to the unchanged teachings of the Church you will be fine (and find salvation for your soul).

Yes, I know that doing that does not seem to have any impact on the situation if Francis is not actually the Pope. That is actually the point I am trying to make. In other words, if he is not the Pope, none of us can make that determination (even if we are convinced about it by something we heard or read). It is not ours to decide; that is the responsibility of the Bishops and Cardinals (no matter how convincing an argument might be). And if they refuse to do their duty, Jesus will step in to correct things (as He has always done in the past).

So we may be convinced, we may be upset, and we may be worried (though you should not be!), but we may not make a "declaration" that Francis is not the Pope until the Church (i.e. Bishops and Cardinals) does so. Remember, it was Martin Luther (a Catholic priest) who tried to do that 500 years ago; and we all know where he ended up. St. Catherine of Siena, on the other hand, helped fix a problem similar to this in her day--so pray to her, she understands what we are going through.

What do we do then? We stay faithful. In every prophecy about the end of history (as well as those about the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century) the faithful are told the same thing: persevere. In our endurance we will find salvation. In staying true to the actual teachings of the Catholic faith (and rejecting the errors of modernism that are thrown at us) we testify to the truth; this is what it means to live out our evangelism. We are to pray that God will "make speed to save us" and "make haste to help us". We must acknowledge that we are called to suffer for the sake of our Lord, and also pray that our gracious Lord will deliver us from these difficult and confusing days.