TrapCast Express
TrapCast Express, it's Wednesday, April 11th, 2018.
Father Rene Gracida is the retired Novos Ordo Bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Last September, he had already opined that Francis may not be the legitimate Pope.
And this past Saturday, he upped the ante just a bit.
On his blog Abyssus Abyssum Invocat, the 94-year-old Benedictine has called for a new conclave.
Yes, you heard that right.
Gracida is the first member of the Novos Ordo hierarchy who has openly called for a new conclave to elect a Pope,
because Francis is obviously not it.
And while he sees the cause of Francis' invalidity in a violation of faith,
of conclave rules established by John Paul II in 1996,
he says the heresies and other errors Francis spouts show that he cannot be the legitimate Roman pontiff.
There's no time, unfortunately, to get into all this here and now,
but you can read all about it on our blog.
Just look for the post dated April 10th, entitled,
CISM Ahead, Retired Novos Ordo Bishop Rene Gracida Calls for New Conclave.
So, what else is there to talk about?
Well, the big new document, of course, that Francis released this past Monday,
another so-called apostolic exhortation,
the third one after Evangelii Gaudium and Amoris Laetitia.
It is entitled Gaudete et Exsultate, Rejoice and Be Glad,
and the topic is, at least supposedly, holiness in the modern world.
Now, I took one for the team here on Monday and read,
the entire document, just over 22,000 words.
Yep, I did.
And you're welcome.
And we'll talk about the content in just a minute.
First, I want to say something about the timing of the release of this document.
It was perfect.
You see, Francis is clueless when it comes to Catholicism,
but he's very clever in how to deal with his enemies.
So, he released this thing on Monday, April 9th,
which was exactly the...
the first working day after the big church crisis conference
that took place in Rome with cardinals,
Brandtmuller, Burke, and Zen,
and Bishop Athanasius Schneider,
which was basically a what-we-can-do-about-Francis-without-saying-he's-not-the-Pope meeting,
and it was very well attended.
So, by releasing the exhortation on April 9th,
Francis ensured that no one would be talking about this anti-Francis conference,
and instead,
everyone would be reading, commenting on,
and talking about his latest exhortation.
Well played.
So, what about this new document?
Well, as you can probably imagine,
in typical modernist fashion,
it contains a good mix of true things with false things,
genuinely Catholic ideas mixed together with modernist concepts
so as to mislead souls as much as possible,
while always having passages to point to
that are perfectly orthodox,
as Pope St. Pius X wrote in his encyclical against modernism,
quote,
And that's from the encyclical Paschendi, number 18.
In Gaudete et Exsultate,
Bergoglio uses countless words
to express a lot of apparently nobly-like things,
but also to express a lot of apparently nobly-like things,
and to express a lot of apparently nobly-like things,
and to express a lot of apparently noble and lofty ideas.
But don't let that fool you.
These novel sort of modernists love to talk about,
for example, how the Mass, the Holy Eucharist,
is the source and summit of the Christian life.
And they use other very high-sounding,
beautiful expressions.
And then you look at how they celebrate their liturgy,
how they conduct what they claim
is the highest and most profound act of divine worship.
And what you see is the pathetic and absurd modernist mess
that they're having.
They're having what they call Eucharistic celebration.
And with Bergoglio, it's particularly bad.
I mean, he's even had tango dancing
during one of his supposed Masses in Argentina.
There's plenty of pictures and video you can find online
about how that man engaged in what he claims
is the most profound act of Christian worship.
Or take another example, Amoris Laetitia.
There, Bergoglio writes over 57,000 words
about love and the faith of God.
And in the end, he tells you
that sometimes God wants you to commit adultery.
So don't be fooled when you find
some beautifully written passages
in these modernist documents.
They are there to make the spiritual poison
contained elsewhere in the document digestible,
just like someone who wants to poison you physically
would mix the poison into a stew or a cocktail
rather than give it to you straight
because then you'd refuse it.
And what did Pope Leo III say?
What did Pope Leo XIII say about that?
He said, quote,
There can be nothing more dangerous
than those heretics who admit nearly
the whole cycle of doctrine
and yet by one word,
as with a drop of poison,
infect the real and simple faith
taught by our Lord
and handed down by apostolic tradition.
Unquote.
And that's from the encyclical
Satis Cognitum, number nine.
All right, let's finally get to the content
of Gaudete et Exsultate,
the title means Be Glad and Rejoice
and is taken from the Beatitudes
in Matthew 5, 12.
Presumably, there won't be a follow-up exhortation
to warn people of the reality of eternal punishment
if they don't die in sanctifying grace.
Perhaps entitled
Discerite Maledicti,
Depart, Ye Accursed,
from Matthew 25, 41.
In fact, hell isn't mentioned at all
in Gaudete et Exsultate except once
in paragraph number 118,
though of course not as the place
of eternal punishment for the damned,
but as the origin of what Francis denounces
as, quote,
verbal violence through the internet
and the various forms of digital communication.
Unquote.
Funny how he remembers hell when it suits him.
And there's nothing really new in this exhortation.
It's basically a document
in which many of Francis' favorite friends
make another appearance.
Encounter, tenderness,
the church as museum or as NGO.
Then he mentions masochism,
the god of surprises,
corruption, Pelagianism,
rigidity, rules and laws.
It's all in there.
And one thing I can say
after reading the entire pseudo-apostolic exhortation is,
boy, he sure loves quoting
and referring back to himself.
Although Francis does mention
supernatural grace,
at times the main focus of the document
is very horizontal, of course,
with heavy emphasis on helping our neighbor
as though that were the be-all and end-all
of Catholic existence.
But hey, let's not just criticize.
The Holy Rosary does get a mention.
Yes, a mention.
Exactly once in paragraph 16
as an example of a path to holiness
on a par with not gossiping,
listening with patience and love
to a child while being tired,
and saying something nice
to a poor person on the street.
As is typical for the new theology
of Vatican II,
the document also contains
a number of statements
that just make you scratch your head
because it's not clear exactly
what they're supposed to mean.
For example, in paragraph 34,
he says, quote,
holiness is an encounter
between your weakness
and the power of God's grace.
Unquote.
Now, what in the world,
does that actually mean?
You can see here once again
the heavy emphasis on experience, right?
Everything is an encounter,
an experience,
some kind of an empirical event.
Now, if he had said that holiness
consists in or is reflected in
overcoming your weaknesses
with the help of God's grace,
then that would have been a clear statement
and perfectly comprehensible.
You would know what he's saying.
But to say that holiness
is an encounter between your weakness
and the power of God's grace,
that has no clear meaning.
And of course, that's by design.
Let's look at another example.
Paragraph 42, quote,
even when someone's life
appears completely wrecked,
even when we see it devastated
by vices or addictions,
God is present there.
Unquote.
What the heck is that supposed to mean?
God is present there.
Well, God is present everywhere,
so I'm not sure this tells us
anything of significance.
So what's it mean?
What is being said here?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Now, of course, we all know
how concerned Francis is
about the spread of heresy
in our day, right?
And so it is a given that
in this exhortation,
he wastes no time in denouncing
the two great heresies of our day.
And they are, you guessed it,
Gnosticism and Pelagianism.
Now, what he really does with that
is he hijacks those two notions
and puts a very heavy spin on them
so that he can use them
to slap his opponents.
Here's what he says
in paragraphs 40 and 41.
Quote,
Gnosticism is one of the most
sinister ideologies because
while unduly exalting knowledge
or a specific experience,
it considers its own vision
of reality to be perfect.
When somebody has an answer
for every question,
it is a sign that they are not
on the right road.
They may well be false prophets
who use religion for their own purposes
to promote their own psychological
or intellectual theories.
Unquote.
Now, I don't know about you,
but that sounds just like Francis to me.
He's the man who always has an answer,
to every question,
constantly wants to offer his advice,
and always has something to say
about everything.
And he constantly uses his own
psychological and intellectual theories,
like all the tenderness and encounter jazz,
that have nothing to do with Catholicism,
and pushes them on people
who think that these must be Catholic ideas.
Aside from that,
the idea that if someone has an answer
to every question,
he is not on the right road
is entirely wrong.
So,
it's completely arbitrary.
It's gratuitous.
Precisely how should having an answer
to everything be a sign
of being on the wrong road?
He doesn't give a reason, of course.
He simply declares it to be so.
But the Catholic Church
does have an answer to every question
on faith and morals.
At least potentially.
And that's not surprising.
Christ promised his apostles,
quote,
but when he, the spirit of truth,
is come,
he will teach you all truth.
Unquote.
That's from,
John 16, 13.
And in 1 Timothy 3, 15,
St. Paul refers to the church
as the, quote,
pillar and ground of the truth.
Unquote.
But here we go again
with our answers for every question.
And we've got to stop here for today.
Otherwise, this podcast will go on for too long.
But we'll pick up here
and talk about Gaudete et Exsultate
some more
in the next Tratcast Express
in just a few days.
Stay tuned.
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