TrapCast Express
TrapCast Express, it's Wednesday, October 5th, 2022.
Last weekend, from September 30th through October 2nd,
an event was hosted at a hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
called the Catholic Identity Conference.
It was heavily promoted by The Remnant,
and judging by in-person attendance, the event was quite popular.
It was sold out.
Now, I don't know how many people that was in total,
but based on pictures I've seen, I'm guessing around 300.
The lineup of speakers included some familiar, recognize-and-resist personalities,
including a few clerics.
Let me name just a few.
Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant,
who was the master of ceremonies at the event,
John Henry Weston, editor and co-founder of LifeSite,
Christopher Ferrara, lawyer and Remnant columnist,
historian John Rao, and others.
As for clerics, I counted four traditionalist priests and three bishops,
Core Bishop Anthony Spinoza of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon,
and then,
the more elusive Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,
and, of course, everybody's favorite,
the Kazakh auxiliary Athanasius Schneider,
who just recently concelebrated the Novus Ordo Missae with Francis
when he visited Kazakhstan in September.
Before the very next day, after Francis had left,
Schneider accused him of heresy.
But that's not our topic now.
Speaking of Catholic identity,
traditionally, the proper way to establish your Catholic credentials
would be to point out that you have the approval of your local bishop,
who, in turn, is in communion with the Holy See.
And, of course, we all know how insistent these recognize-and-resist
traditionalists are when it comes to, well,
recognizing the supposed legitimacy of the Novus Ordo shepherds
whom they resist.
Well, it turns out,
not surprisingly,
that the local Novus Ordo bishop in Pittsburgh,
David Zubik,
distanced himself from the conference,
making clear that this event was not approved by the diocese.
In a news article dated September 28th,
The Pillar reported,
quote,
The Diocese of Pittsburgh says it does not encourage Catholics
to attend a Pittsburgh conference Saturday,
which is slated to urge Catholics to,
quote,
formal resistance of Pope Francis.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh is in no way affiliated with this event.
The Diocese does not support, endorse, or encourage people to attend this event.
Diocesan spokesperson Jennifer Ann Kowiak told The Pillar, unquote.
Ultimately, of course, the Roman Catholic identity
is established by communion with the Roman pontiff.
In his 1860s,
73 encyclical letter Quartus Supra,
Pope Pius IX wrote,
quote,
For any man to be able to prove his Catholic faith
and affirm that he is truly a Catholic,
he must be able to convince the apostolic see of this.
For this see is predominant,
and with it the faithful of the whole church should agree.
And the man who abandons the see of Peter
can only be falsely confident that he is in the church.
As a result, that man is already a schismatic and a sinner
who establishes a see in opposition to the unique see of the blessed Peter
from which the rites of sacred communion derive for all men.
And then the Pope quotes some historical testimony and concludes,
All these traditions dictate that whoever the Roman pontiff judges to be a schismatic
for not expressly admitting and reverencing his power,
must stop calling himself Catholic.
Unquote.
That's the encyclical Quartus Supra of Pius IX, paragraph 9.
So, the very idea of a Catholic identity conference against the Pope
is already impossible,
because submission to him,
not simply the idea of submission in the abstract,
but actual submission in the concrete,
is the ultimate,
ultimate criterion of Catholicism.
It is what guarantees your orthodoxy
and your proper integration into the mystical body.
That is the point of the papacy
as a visible divine institution.
That is why Christ established it.
God has attached to the papacy certain divine gifts and prerogatives
that cannot be thwarted by human effort.
If it were possible,
for the papacy to be overcome,
it would have failed a long time ago.
And that is why the enemies of the Church
had to install false popes,
after Pius XII,
to accomplish their nefarious deeds,
because it would have been impossible to do with true popes.
So, the idea of a Catholic identity
that rejects genuine submission to the Pope
is an inherent contradiction.
How, then, do the remnant
and the other semi-trade organizations
claim to have an authentic Catholic identity?
Why, adherence to tradition, of course.
But, tradition itself refutes them,
because it is tradition,
as Pius IX himself points out,
that requires the submission to the Pope,
which they're refusing to the man they recognize as the Pope.
And, in any case,
the final arbiter of tradition is the Pope,
not each individual believer.
You can't simply set yourself up as the final arbiter
against the Pope,
effectively overruling him.
But that, of course, is exactly what they're doing,
since they refuse to say that he's not a valid Pope.
Well, then, the following words of Pope St. Pius X
apply to them,
who warned against,
quote,
unquote.
Now, of course, one can certainly sympathize
with these recognize-and-resist traditionalists,
because, obviously, what Francis is doing is extremely bad.
It is harmful to souls.
It is anti-Catholic.
It is disgusting, blasphemous, heretical, and so on.
In short, it undermines faith, hope, and charity,
and leads people to eternal damnation.
So, of course, they're right,
to criticize him for all that.
The problem is not their disagreement
with what Jorge Bergoglio is teaching and doing.
The problem is that, in spite of it all,
they still cling to the absurd idea
that he is a true and valid Pope.
That totally undercuts their entire resistance
and puts them in a situation of doing precisely
what Catholic theology does not permit a Catholic to do.
And what the theologians,
what the theology of the papacy assures us
will never have to be done.
Withdraw yourself from submission to the Pope
in order to protect your soul from heresy
and other dangerous errors.
God himself guarantees that you will never have to become a schismatic
in order to keep from becoming a heretic.
Now, even though there were three bishops in attendance,
one of them, by the way, was a bishop,
one of them via video connection,
none of them is nor has ever been
a local ordinary governing a diocese.
Carlo Viganò was a nuncio,
a Vatican ambassador, before his retirement.
Anthony Spinoza, the core bishop,
is a kind of auxiliary in a Maronite eparchy
and currently rector of a basilica and shrine.
And he himself says that he has no jurisdiction.
And in fact, he's not even listed
at the Catholic Hierarchy website.
And Athanasius Schneider is likewise
only an auxiliary bishop.
So, out of the three, one is a retired diplomat,
another is a basilica and shrine rector,
and the third is an auxiliary in an almost irrelevant diocese.
I mean, compared to the global church at large.
The Archdiocese of Maria Santissima in Astana,
as it's called,
is only responsible for roughly 60,000 novus ordos.
That's 1.6%,
1.6% of the total population
in the diocesan territory.
Now, why am I bringing this up?
It shouldn't matter what status a particular cleric has,
since that doesn't make him right or wrong
in his argumentation, right?
Of course, that is true.
But I'm raising this matter
in order to bring some much-needed perspective
to this event.
See, these resistance conferences look quite impressive
when there are several bishops listed as speakers, right?
That gives the whole event a certain additional layer
of perceived authority and legitimacy.
But in reality, when you look at this
from the perspective of the universal Vatican II Church,
these people are nobodies.
A retired nuncio,
an Eastern Rite shrine rector,
and an auxiliary bishop from a tiny diocese,
tiny in terms of the number of people being shepherded,
in the midst of the steppes of Central Asia.
Folks, in the entire Vatican II Church,
there are 5,610 bishops alive today.
Now, that includes all of them,
active, retired,
diocesan ordinaries, auxiliaries,
Latin Rite, Eastern Rite,
curial, post-librarian,
whatever you name it.
All of them.
And out of those 5,610,
they got three.
And not a single one of them
is an active or retired diocesan ordinary.
Yes, sometimes they get support from Joseph Strickland,
who actually is an active ordinary,
novus ordo bishop in Tyler, Texas.
But he's the only one.
And then there's Cardinal Raymond Burke,
but he's been retired since 2014.
And frankly, I don't know what his stance is anymore,
as far as resistance and all that.
Ever since he made a big deal about that fraternal correction
that he announced he was going to issue against Francis,
and then didn't follow through with,
he seems to have pretty much disappeared,
from everybody's radar.
On August 7th this year,
Burke preached a homily in Wisconsin,
in which he warned of an advancing apostasy in the church.
He just seemed to have some trouble identifying
the advanced apostate directing the whole thing.
It's unfortunate.
In any case, my point is that
what may look like this huge and significant resistance event
is,
in the end,
if you look at the total absolute numbers,
little more than chicken dust.
What is branded as some big Catholic identity conference
with tough resistance,
and, you know,
now we're going to show him and all that.
In the end,
it's little more than a pep rally
in which all the people in attendance
basically reassure each other
with various arguments and anecdotes and stunts
that they're on the right track,
no matter what Rome says.
Or what Sedevacantists say.
They're pretty much just preaching to the choir, though.
And the only media outlets even covering the conference
are their own,
and those that already agree with them.
You know,
Catholic Family News,
One Peter Five,
The Remnant,
LifeSite.
Oh, with one exception.
Ladies and gentlemen,
there was one exception to that.
Well, one that I'm aware of, that is.
And that is
The Pillar
at PillarCatholic.com
The same Pillar
that I quoted from earlier.
On September 30th,
the first day of the conference,
The Pillar published a news article
entitled
Papal Resistance Not Meant to Be a Protestant Revolution
Conference Organizer Claims.
Now, that article is absolutely worth a complete read.
And I've put the link in the show notes
for this Express Trapcast
because it is hilarious.
I'm going to quote from it some
because it is quite revealing.
See, The Pillar is a fairly new website
founded by two Novus Ordo canon lawyers,
J.D. Flynn and Ed Condon,
who are also journalists.
And they're definitely on the more conservative side of things,
but they're not traditionalists.
And they're very professional
in what they do.
Their reporting isn't biased
in favor of or against some agenda.
And so they approached
the Catholic Identity Conference
with the proper neutral journalistic attitude,
but of course asked some challenging questions.
And you'll see how that went
in just a moment.
But first, let me point out
that the Catholic Identity Conference
had published a press release
on September 22nd
in order to get the word out
and get some media attention.
Here is what that press release said.
Quote,
At 4.30 p.m. on Saturday, October 1st,
a press conference will take place
at the Catholic Identity Conference
in the Grand Ballroom of the Doubletree
by Hilton Hotel, Pittsburgh,
Greentree, 500 Mansfield Avenue.
Three prominent lay Catholic spokesmen
will present articles of charitable resistance
against the Vatican
and the pontificate of Pope Francis.
There will be three five-minute interventions,
each covering a different and separate aspect
of formal resistance
on behalf of practicing American Catholics.
Intervention one,
resistance to Pope Francis'
recent violation of natural justice,
Tradiciones Custodes,
which constitutes religious discrimination
against practicing Catholics.
Intervention two,
resistance based on
Francis' undermining of the Church's
established moral theology
on contraception and divorce,
Amoris Laetitia.
Intervention three,
resistance based on the Vatican endorsement
of the World Economic Forum agenda,
including climate change hysteria,
as laid out in Laudato Si',
as well as the worldwide lockdown,
including of churches,
all of which constitute crimes
against God and humanity.
After the interventions,
there will be a 30-minute session
in which presenters will take questions
from members of the press.
CIC press credentials will be required.
Contact Tess Mullins to apply.
Unquote.
So, clearly,
they're making it sound pretty serious.
A press conference is going to put the world on notice
that this nonsense the Pope has been doing
will now be formally resisted.
Like, whatever that means.
So, the Pillar took this press release
at face value and decided to ask
some uncomfortable questions.
Let me read from their September 30th article,
which is pretty long,
so I can only pick out a few things,
and I'll be skipping around
to make this easier.
Listen to this.
Quote,
The director of an upcoming conference
of Catholic traditionalists said Thursday
that a plan to issue articles of resistance
against the Vatican and the Vatican itself
to Pope Francis is not meant to oppose
the pontiff directly,
while conceding that the provocative talk titles
used at the Catholic Identity Conference
help boost conference attendance.
So, it's not intended to be as combative
as it sounds.
Is it opposition to some of the Pope's policies?
I mean, absolutely,
but not to him as a person,
Frankovich, a West Virginia attorney,
told the Pillar.
While the Pillar is not intended to be
While the lawyer insisted that attendees
at the Catholic Identity Conference
are faithful Catholics,
he conceded that the idea of formal resistance
to the Pope,
as expressed by conference organizers
in a press release,
could seem to run counter to that idea.
And that's not the intention, he said.
I mean, I didn't write the press release,
but maybe it could have been worded better.
Maybe it should have been something like
opposition of the Pope's policies.
Unquote.
Okay, so we note that right off the bat,
the organizer is already dampening the tone,
saying he didn't write the press release.
Alrighty, but it gets better.
Quote,
Asked about a section of the press release
which accused the Pope of endorsing
crimes against God and humanity,
Frankovich distanced himself,
telling the Pillar,
I can't speak to that.
That's not.
That's not what I'll be talking about.
Unquote.
Okay, I guess we can just leave it at that.
Now, as regards the question
what the formal resistance
on behalf of practicing American Catholics
actually means,
the Pillar decided to ask the person
whose name appears on the press release
as the official contact person for the conference,
Ms. Tess Mullins.
Quote,
She said,
The articles of resistance
were meant to encourage bishops and the Pope
to continue allowing traditionalist Catholics
to worship using the extraordinary form of the Mass.
We're not advocating that anyone disobey or act out.
Definitely nothing aggressive.
We're not violent or anything like that.
Resistance just means, in this case,
that they're seeking to preserve
what's been handed down in the Church
to believe and protect
all the dogmas of faith
that we were taught to protect and defend.
That's pretty much it.
We just hope the extraordinary form can keep going.
We're hoping that the Vatican will hear us
and that the arguments are logical enough
to make them rethink Tradiciones Custodes,
Mullins told the Pillar.
Unquote.
All right, so apparently this formal resistance thing
is just them basically doing their own thing,
and hoping the Vatican will give them back
the traditional Mass
and listen to what they have to say.
Mm-hmm.
But it gets better still.
Quote,
After the press conference was announced,
organizers of the Catholic Identity Conference
seemed to have made some effort
to distance themselves from the formal resistance plan.
Mullins told the Pillar
that while the press conference would take place
during the Catholic Identity Conference,
appeared on the conference schedule
and had been announced on conference letterhead,
it was not actually a part of the conference.
And while Mullins used
a Catholic Identity Conference email address
offered to supply conference press credentials
and was identified to the Pillar
by the Catholic Identity Conference
as a conference spokesperson,
she insisted that she was not formally affiliated
with the conference,
and neither was she.
Neither was the
Articles of Resistance press conference.
Unquote.
I'm starting to get dizzy here, honestly.
Maybe we can go back to Eric Frankovich for a moment.
And I'm still reading from the same Pillar article.
Quote,
Frankovich said he thought the idea of resisting the Pope
had been largely misunderstood.
I want to tell you,
I think some of these terms get kind of misconstrued
and unintentionally stated,
so, the director explained.
Evoking Galatians 2,
Frankovich explained that St. Paul resisted St. Peter,
the first Pope, to his face
because he was clearly wrong.
Unquote.
Yeah, but St. Paul resisted St. Peter personally,
to his face.
And just moments ago,
Frankovich had said
that they're not resisting Francis as a person,
just some of his policies.
Oh, and as far as the question of heresy goes,
Frankovich also had some interesting comments on that.
Quote,
The lawyer said that while some speakers
at the Catholic Identity Conference
have said Pope Francis is not Catholic
or have accused the Pope of heresy,
that's not the attitude at all
in most diocesan and traditional order parishes.
Those,
who are accusing the Pope of heresy,
do not speak for most traditionalist Catholics,
Frankovich said,
even if they do speak
at the Catholic Identity Conference.
Unquote.
Ha ha.
And speak at the conference they do,
such as Athanasius Schneider
and John Henry Weston,
who both signed the September 16th
formal accusation of heresy
against Francis,
in which they rightly charge him
with denouncing,
and denying dogma
defined at the Council of Trent.
So,
this is all very puzzling,
if you ask me.
Resistance, yes,
but not against the Pope himself,
only against his policies.
And then only some of them,
just like St. Paul resisted St. Peter to his face.
And that resistance language
is kind of hyped up anyway
to get the Vatican's attention.
They don't quite mean it.
And although some of the conference speakers
accuse the Pope of heresy,
most other people
don't even agree with that.
And then each speaker
only speaks for himself anyway,
which is why the press conference,
that big, boldly announced highlight,
isn't even part of the event.
And the official press spokeswoman
isn't really affiliated
with the conference either.
She's just got a conference email address.
But in any case,
Frankovich clarified,
everyone there agrees
that,
Francis is the Pope.
So, let's not sweat it, folks.
We wouldn't want to be crazy
Sedevacanis now, would we?
I mean, why would anyone think
that the chaplain of the New World Order,
who outlaws the traditional Latin mass,
helps to push the globalist Great Reset,
encourages sodomites in their identity,
denies infallible Catholic dogma,
has repeatedly praised
an Italian abortion icon,
says that continual cohabitation
with one and the same person
is a real marriage,
teaches that God wills
a diversity of religions,
and so much more,
why would anyone think
that that man is perhaps not
the vicar of Christ
who keeps the gates of hell
from prevailing?
I mean, that would obviously be outrageous.
Now, I have to say
that my favorite part
in that whole thing is that I think it's a great part of the book.
That whole Pillar article is the following.
The Pillar asks Frankovich regarding
some of the talks that have rather provocative titles,
such as France's missionary genocide.
And his response is that,
yeah, these could have been phrased
a little bit more smoothly,
but that it's human nature
when people are frustrated.
They lash out, you know?
And then he says this, quote,
and I'll grant you,
maybe we should be a little more cautious
with some of the titles that we're doing.
I would grant you that some of it,
I hate to say this,
but, you know, some of it does generate
enthusiasm and attendance
of people, unquote.
Ah, so
that tough resistance talk
is more bark than bite.
It gets people fired up
and more conference tickets sold.
Good to know.
In any case, this article,
by the Pillar, was most enlightening
and I really encourage everyone
to read it in full.
On Facebook, Michael Matt called it
an attack piece,
but it's really not.
It's just coverage from journalists
who don't have a bias
in favor of what they're doing.
They asked some critical questions
and look at how quickly
the interlocutors started
backpedaling, relativizing.
Clearly, they were not prepared
for even the slightest,
challenge to their resistance
position.
Now, these three prominent
lay Catholic spokesmen
at that press conference were
Eric Frankovich, John Henry Weston,
and Michael Matt.
But honestly, folks,
outside of the choir to which they're
preaching, almost nobody
would know who these people
are. Now, you may
be familiar with them.
If you're into these topics and you frequent
conservative Novus Ordo or
semi-trad websites or even just
Novus Ordo watch, since we do talk about
them, but most
of the pew sitters in the Vatican
II Church wouldn't have a clue
as to who these three laymen are,
especially not Eric Frankovich,
whom even I had never heard of
before.
And I'm not trying to fault
them for this.
I'm really just trying to put things
into perspective by stating
a fact, a fact which
perhaps they are not quite so aware
of because they're always operating
within their bubbles.
What this press conference
ultimately amounted to
was three people who are
virtually unknown in the Novus Ordo
world, listing
some of Francis' outrageous
teachings and deeds, condemning
them, and announcing that
they won't follow him in those things.
Well, whoop-dee-doo.
What else is new?
On Facebook,
Michael Matt is
saying that this press conference was a
great success. Now, I have
no idea how he would
measure that. Obviously,
the people in attendance were
going to applaud because they already
agree with them anyway,
right? So else they wouldn't be
attending in the first place.
Now, just for comparison's
sake, to put some more perspective
into this, the cringy
Los Angeles Religious Education
Congress draws approximately
40,000
people every year.
Okay? I mean, that
event is uber-modernist
utopia, with crazy
inculturated liturgies and
speakers like James Martin
and Richard Rohr.
Okay? So just for comparison's sake,
I really don't know
what they think they'll accomplish with their
identity crisis conferences
other than provide mutual
comfort and support, basically.
At the same time,
let's not be too hard on them,
either. There is nothing they can
do. Not for as long
as they insist on recognizing
Francis as a true pope.
That is all the
recognition he needs, because
that is what gives him all his
perceived authority.
Whether they resist him or not,
or issue some declaration
defying his errors, even
to his face, folks, it simply
doesn't matter.
Bergoglio is not
going to lose any sleep over
it. If he's the
pope, he wins.
It's as simple as that.
That is how our blessed Lord
set up the Catholic Church.
And so that is actually
a good thing.
The problem is not
how the papacy works.
The problem is that
there is a usurper in Rome,
a man claiming to be
pope who isn't.
There is no way around
that conclusion.
And it is a necessary one
if you want to safeguard
your Catholic identity.
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