SPOKANE, Wash. — Sister Mary Eucharista, 51, a member of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, has vivid memories of the day Pope Benedict XVI was announced to the world in 2005.
As the media broadcast images of Pope Benedict to the world, including to her community’s home in Spokane, she was excited and moved to tears. She thought I can’t believe it; he’s the Pope.
While the enthusiasm for the Holy Father might seem commonplace for a religious, it wasn’t for the nuns in Sister Mary Eucharista’s community. At the time, she was a member of the Religious Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (Congregatio Mariae Reginae Immaculatae), a 50-member group of nuns that does not accept the legitimacy of the Popes since the close of the Second Vatican Council: Popes Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Some do not accept John XXIII, who called the Council, either.
Sister Mary Eucharista’s acceptance of Benedict as the true Pope caused an irreparable split in her community and would ultimately lead her and 14 other nuns to leave a place they had come to love.
It’s not that Sister Mary Eucharista rejected Tradition in the Church. She was born in southern California into a pious Catholic family with five children. The family prayed the Rosary together and often went to daily Mass.
But after the close of Vatican II, her parish of St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa experienced an upheaval that was typical of the fallout caused in many parts of the Church by misinterpretations of the Council.
“My parents saw guitars and bongo drums suddenly appearing at Mass, altar rails and statues removed, and catechism teachers denying Catholic teachings such as the existence of purgatory and the Assumption,” Sister Mary Eucharista recalled. Her mother one day noticed that a holy water font was empty and informed the parish priest. He responded, “Fill it up with water and bless it yourself.”
Cult-Like Practices
In 1969, Sister Mary Eucharista’s parents learned of a new traditional Catholic school being founded in Coeur d’Alene, a northern Idaho resort area that has long been a draw for traditionalist Catholics. Its head was the charismatic Francis Schuckardt (1937-2006), who was originally part of the Blue Army apostolate spreading the message of Our Lady of Fatima. He founded a community of priests, nuns and religious brothers, the Religious Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, which would eventually make their headquarters at Mount St. Michael, a former Jesuit seminary in Spokane they had purchased. Sister Mary Eucharista taught at Mount St. Michael for 23 years.
Although the congregation was initially a traditionalist community founded with approval of Church authorities, its founder and members embraced sedevacantism, criticized the papacy and the Church hierarchy and broke away from the Church.
Members reject the changes in the Church that occurred after the Second Vatican Council, particularly in the areas of liturgy, ecumenism, religious liberty and collegiality among bishops. They celebrate the sacraments in the pre-Vatican II manner, most notably the old Latin (Tridentine) Mass. They argue that the Popes since John XXIII have espoused modernist doctrines over traditional Catholic teachings, hence are not really true popes.
According to William Marshner, professor of theology at Christendom College in Virginia, sedevacantists base their argument on an obscure bull issued in the 1550s by Pope Paul IV which pronounced excommunication against anyone who secretly held any sort of heresy. Anyone in the hierarchy who was even suspected of heresy was deprived of office.
“It was a very weird document,” Marshner said, noting that it was issued during the very tumultuous time of the Reformation. “No reputable theologian today thinks that it was anything but canonical legislation — a disciplinary thing.”
But the sedevacantists today “try to inflate it to a doctrinal level so that it can’t be canceled by later pontiffs,” Marshner said. “They’ll go through statements of Pope John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II. Their current target is Benedict XVI. They will decide what is heretical in those statements and use their findings to claim that this person should be deprived of all ecclesiastical office and therefore can’t be pope.
“They seem be unaware,” he continued, “of an important canon from the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, which says that you can’t accuse your ecclesiastical superior of heresy or of a crime without a canonical process. You can’t set yourself up as judge and jury.”
Mother Kathryn Joseph, mother general of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, who left the schismatic congregation along with Sister Mary Eucharista, explained, “We came to believe the new Mass and sacraments were invalid, so we thought, How could Paul VI be the true Pope? He must be an invalid Pope, too.”
Sister Mary Eucharista’s family relocated to northern Idaho and joined Schuckardt’s community. While many radical changes were occurring in the Church in the outside world, her family was content with the celebration of the extraordinary form of the Mass, teaching of children with the Baltimore Catechism and religious in traditional habits. But, Sister Mary Eucharista recalled, “The traditional environment kept us from being concerned about the cult-like practices of the group.”
Women, for example, were required to wear long dresses and keep their heads covered; parishioners were encouraged to pray with arms outstretched and walk backwards out of church (so as not to turn their backs on the Blessed Sacrament); reading newspapers and watching TV was discouraged; smoking was a mortal sin; and pursuing a religious vocation was stressed to the point of disparaging marriage.
‘We Were Becoming Our Own Magisterium’
Mother Kathryn Joseph added, “It seemed like an oasis of Catholic culture. We never saw ourselves as separate from the Catholic Church. In fact, we thought the Catholic Church left us. We didn’t realize that we were becoming our own magisterium.”
Schuckardt led the community until 1984. He had himself ordained a priest and bishop through a Vietnamese bishop living in France, Ngo Dinh Thuc, giving him valid but illicit orders. However, he was publicly accused by a fellow sedevacantist clergyman, Denis Chicoine, of being involved in homosexual relationships with underage associates, irresponsible fiscal management, drug abuse and even declaring himself to be pope. Schuckardt denied the charges but left the community immediately after he was accused of wrongdoing.
Today, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen is led by Superior General Mark Pivarunas, who also had himself ordained a priest and bishop without approval of Church authorities. He lives at a congregation seminary in Omaha and oversees dozens of churches in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand.
In the final years of Schuckardt’s reign, Sister Mary Eucharista entered the Mary Immaculate convent at age 21. Her older sister was a Mary Immaculate nun, and she thought she might have a vocation as well. She said, “I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to raise horses, and I wanted to get married. But, in the end, I thought God was calling me to religious life.”
She became a teacher at St. Michael’s Academy, teaching a variety of subjects, including theology. She was also involved in a variety of Mary Immaculate apostolates. Some of the more extreme practices of the community subsided after Schuckardt’s abrupt departure, and Sister Mary Eucharista was pleased: “I was absolutely blissful. The kids that I taught always told me, ‘Sister, you’re always so happy.’ I told them, ‘Happiness is a choice, and I choose to bloom where I’m planted.’”
But she began having doubts about sedevacantism as early as 1993. She prayed for guidance, and increasingly began talking with Catholics in the “mainstream” Church.
Mother Kathryn Joseph’s sedevacantist views, meanwhile, began to soften in 2000. She took part in a pilgrimage to Rome and saw rank-and-file Catholics going to confession, praying the Rosary and being reverent in Church. She even did the unthinkable: She participated in a Holy Hour devotion in an adoration chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica. (Because she did not believe in the validity of Mass or sacraments, her official position was that those in the Vatican chapel “were worshipping a piece of bread.”)
Mother left Rome hopeful of a possible reconciliation with Rome.
Radio-Free Catholic
Another development that had a powerful effect on the Mary Immaculate community was the coming of EWTN Global Catholic Radio to Spokane around 2005. The community heard orthodox Catholicism brought to them through the airwaves daily. Some of the sisters objected and insisted the radio be turned off, others were confused, and some were pleased to discover that orthodoxy existed outside their community.
A visit from nuns of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity — women who were considered to be part of a false Church — also made an impact. Sister Mary Eucharista remarked, “We were taken with them. They modeled religious life to us in a positive way.”
By 2005, things reached a boiling point in the community. Sister Mary Eucharista had spent much time in prayer and conversations with Catholics in communion with the Church, culminating with her acceptance of Pope Benedict upon his election. She spoke of her views with her fellow sisters, and her Mother Superior ordered her to remain silent. That didn’t sit well with Sister Mary Eucharista: “I can’t speak openly in my own house?”
She was also no longer allowed to teach theology.
For Mother Kathryn Joseph, it was a conversation she had with her brother that changed her mind. He was a former seminarian who taught philosophy at St. Michael’s Academy. He had made the journey from ardent sedevacantist to full communion with the Church but kept quiet about his views so he could continue teaching. (He was later fired anyway.)
Mother Kathryn Joseph sat down to have it out with him on the whole sedevacantism issue. She recalled, “I had an epiphany in one sitting. I realized that I had been wrong for 35 years. But I was happy to have been proven wrong.”
In 2006, some of the nuns went to the bishop of Spokane, William Skylstad, seeking to be regularized. The bishop recalled meeting some of the CMRI nuns previously at the Spokane airport, when both had coincidentally been taking the same flight. Bishop Skylstad recalled the airport meeting: “It was cordial, but distant, considering their status in the Church.”
The bishop was pleased to be meeting the nuns under better circumstances. Over the course of several meetings, he suggested they stay with the Mary Immaculate community awhile longer, however, in an effort to change the minds and hearts of the other sisters. They did, but not for long.
Under the Bishop’s Wings
Some of the Mary Immaculate nuns contacted Mark Pivarunas, the superior general of the entire organization, to ask him to do something about the division in their community. Pivarunas, in turn, wrote each of the dissident sisters telling them to keep quiet about anti-sedevacantist positions or leave the community. So, in June 2007, 15 of the nuns left.
Sister Mary Eucharista recalled, “We were laughing in relief. We knew we needed to go. But it wasn’t easy. We had to leave the other sisters and a home we loved — a place many of us had been part of since we were kids. In the minds of the sisters we had left behind, we had become part of the ‘enemy’ Church.”
Those choosing to stay behind included Mary Eucharista’s own older sister.
With the blessing of Bishop Skylstad, the sisters formed the public association Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church. Their chief apostolates include teaching and working at Immaculate Heart Retreat Center in Spokane. It is still a period of discernment for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church; some have already left to found new religious communities. Two new women are novices for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church.
Bishop Skylstad is pleased with the outcome of the sisters’ journey. “It is with profound gratitude and appreciation of their courage that we received them into full communion with the Church,” he said. “Our prayers for unity were answered. It shows that with the power of the Holy Spirit, miracles can happen. It’s wonderful.”
The Mary Immaculate community has not been open to communication or dialogue with the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church. Mother Kathryn Joseph believes fear and a belief that the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church are apostates has caused the separation. She concluded, “I hope they will one day be able to share in the joy I have. It is a delight and a great comfort to live religious life in the Church.”
Register correspondent Jim Graves writes from Newport Beach, California.
Matthew Warner: Why the world doesn't take Catholicism seriously
Edward Pentin: Improving Communication of Pope's Early Morning Homilies
Comments
Post a Comment
WELCOME HOME, SISTERS! We have missed you and we need you!
Welcome home sisters!
This is wonderful. Very refreshing. I also hope they continue to wear their habits. I had never heard of the Mary Immaculate community. They sound like a “Catholic” version of the Protestant United Penticostol Church. I wish these Sisters the best.
Such a beautiful story! I think we often forget that when we pray for the unity of all Christians, we’re also praying for a reunion with sedevacantists. I do hope more of them will come back into the Church, as they would be wonderful, orthodox additions, if they did.
A well done article.
This might be an irrelevant question, but what is the title of this document the sedevacantists use to judge the Popes?
Since those “more Catholic than the Pope” groups tend to cite Church documents out of context to justify their stance, it might be helpful for us to be prepared in knowing the contents.
The URL to this article is fantastic…the piece itself isn’t too shabby either! Well done.
Wonderful story! Would that all sedevacantists return to Holy Mother Church to promote the Traditional Latin Mass and thereby strengthen Her against the modernists.
Awesome…I believe these were some of the “Blue Nuns” who would sing at Irish festivals. Welcome home sisters!
This is wonderful to hear, Welcome home!
We need our Sisters. So happy you have come back. We must not abandon our ship when things seem wrong, but persevere through trials and tribulations, trusting Our Savior Jesus Christ to heal us and bring us all back to Him. Our Church needs to listen and take a lesson from these nuns who felt so helpless with the deplorable things which have taken place in our parishes over the years. Our priests and bishops need our prayers and need to be faithful to the Magisterium and not scandalize the faithful. We have all been hurt by scandal since the 60’s. Let us faithfully follow Our Holy Father, the Rock upon which the Church stands today and always. How I love our traditions, and orthodoxy. Bring back the altar rail, receive Communion on the tongue, sing praise to God in Latin and Chant, and above all teach Truth, Jesus Christ Himself!!
“CUM EX APOSTOLATUS OFFICIO” is the name of the document.
There is also an error in this story. Francis Schuckardt was not ordained and made a bishop by Thuc or any Thuc-line bishop. It was an Old Catholic “bishop”.
Thanks for a wonderful article about our dear Sisters here in Spokane, I have had the pleasure of getting to know several of the nuns and they are a huge inspiration to us. I love seeing them in their traditional habits, which, yes, they are committed to wearing. At midnight mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral this past winter, the nuns were all in a row in one of the pews and I heard a visitor ask, “are those real nuns?”. It made me chuckle but also was a reminder that we really need those visible signs of our faith out in the world. Please pray for the Sisters, that they continue to draw vocations, they do have a beautiful spirituality and radiate the joy of Christ.
I accept the Second Vatican Council. I have read the documents and, although being just a layman, find they are very good. There have been some fantastic things that have come about because of the Council..
There have also been some very terrible things, although they were not CAUSED by the council itself.
I still think that the good that was brought will outweigh the bad. I just hope that comes very soon.
Welcome Home Sisters! May you all be filled with the joy of the Risen Christ and may Our Holy Mother wrap her arms around you and never let you go.
Alleluia!
AWESOME
Praise be to Jesus Christ! =D
It is too bad the Sisters soldout to the Counterfeit Church…..really too bad. They had it right but the pressure must have been to great. A really sad situation for their souls.
Welcome back home sisters!!! We are very joyful for your return to full communion!!
What kind of journalism is this? A PR puff-piece? This “news” is a couple of years old. It’s written as a current story, and a story with a happy ending. An update of facts would include the sad reality that this community split up, kicked out the more traditional nuns, and is headed toward the LWCR. A simple phone call can be a useful tool in journalsim.
I have been a sedevacantist Roman Catholic ever since I was baptized into the Church in 1978. I will never change, because I have seen the novus ordo church for what it really is. I know true Catholicism when I see it. What a shame these sisters don’t.
Deo Gratias!
Move over Vuitton, Lagerfeld and Chanel, religious sisters in full habit are beautiful to see - a fashion that lasts for eternity. The sisters’ reunification with Rome is a true blessing for Spokane and the entire Church.
Hey! stop telling everyone that Coeur d’Alene is a resort town! It’s already crowded! Good news about the nuns however.
The sisters are a treasure to the Diocese of Spokane. They have endured much sacrifice and are beloved throughout Spokane. God Bless the Sisters for their courage and their encouragement. @Fred-I know these sisters and your accusations are completely false.
I, too, was raised in the same group as Sr. Eucharista. I met & married a wonderful man in that church, who also was moved to Idaho by his mother to be raised as a “true Catholic”. Shortly before these sisters saw the light, I, too, came to realized I was outside the church. I cautiously returned, because since I was 9 years old I had been told it was the false church. By God’s holy grace, I returned to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church - & my wonderful husband soon followed. We wonder how we could have been wrong for so many years - but we were kids when we were brainwashed. Sadly, I still have a mother & 3 siblings who subscribe to the beliefs of Mt. St. Michael’s & Mark Pivarunas. I pray daily that they will return some day to the Roman Catholic Church. In short, “Been there. Done that.” Glad to be back in the boat!
Welcome home - & thanks be to God!!however
It is so awesome that you are back in Christ’s fold! Keep up the good work.
Francie, how long did it take you before your doubts were gone when you returned to the Church? What I am trying to ask is how long did it take before you could trust the Church again and not think that maybe you made a mistake in leaving the Mount? It must have been a powerful grace you received having been practically raised in the CMRI.
ya, too bad the sisters buckled under the auspices of the modernist church, novus ordo. even though i could accept everything of the novus ordo mass, no one can can convince me, with a reasonable argument, that the consecration of the wine is valid in novus ordo. the wording has been changed from “many” (the word used by Christ) to “all”. that changes the prayer, changing the meaning, changes the “form”, and thus creates doubt in the confect of the sacrament.
the council of trent even address this issue WAY back when.
BTW….
what did her brother say??!!
I would very much like to here it; since i recently left novus ordo to be a traditionalist.
It took awhile - I’m not sure, weeks for sure…maybe a couple months or more. The first time I attended Mass @ Mary Queen, I walked in KNOWING WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN - because since I was 9, I’d been told what a mockery “their service” was. I sat down, showing no respect whatsoever - had my arms crossed, etc…. & after Mass began, I slowly realized - everything I had been told was not true. The priest gave an incredibly beautiful sermon about the spiritual life. I was so amazed & shocked - and yes, I was angry! I was also afraid - it took awhile before I went to confession & holy communion. (I had been told confession no longer existed. It does. They might call it the Sacrament of reconciliation, but it’s still confession.)
I could go on & on… but I won’t bore you.
One thing that helped me was to think of the sedes as the Jews of old, who were all hung up on ritual, & Jesus Christ Himself came to abolish that - and to teach us that the spirit is much more important than the letter. Being a sedevacantist is a very self-righteous & proud position to take. It felt good all those years to know that I was one of the chosen few - Now, it makes me sad to think of how arrogant I was in my beliefs, and yes, I thank God for leading me back to the true Church. Thanks for listening.
Jesus said, The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his church. During our lives we all have thoughts of whether or not we are following the right church. We all see something not quite right with the church we attend. Satan puts doubts into our minds. We are all human. We stray. Some die. However in the end most of us seem to find our ways back to Jesus’ Church, the one Holy Catholic Church and that’s what counts. As long as we are true to our selves and to God, we will find our ways back to Jesus. Keep praying and keep your eyes on God. Your rewards will be great.
How do you deal with your former friends who find fault with every jot and tittle that the Holy Father writes or with everything that he says? What do you say to them without enflaming them?
As has been stated above this story is very old hat along with an old picture. This is a total piece of fluff with incorrect information. The journalist needs to talk to the other side for the truth. Fred from above is correct that they are destroying themselves. Nobody mentions the Vatican II priest who left the Novus Ordo and was ordained at Mt. St. Michael on June 29. Oh, no lets just reprint this story about a group of women who just got tired of living their religious vocation. Also, tell me this…how can something that has been right for 2,000 years suddenly be so wrong? If it is ok to be a Buddist, a Hindu, a whatever, how is it wrong to be a Traditional Catholic? According to Vatican II “theology” all religions have the truth in them some more than others. If you want to learn why Sedevacantists do what they do visit http://www.cmri.org and find out the truth for yourselves. By their fruits you will know them.
As someone above stated, Schukardt was not ordained and consecrated by Ngo Thuc, but by Old Catholic bishop Daniel Brown. It is all over the internet if you just look. The arguements for sedevacantism are also logically presented in several places- http://www.traditionalmass.org http://www.christorchaos.org http://www.cmri.org amongst others.
Just because one of the persons who supported this theological conclusion was/went off the deep end does not defeat the merits of the arguement that today the Catholic Church has no pope. Look into this matter yourselves; don’t just take my word for it, nor this newspapers for that matter.
Respectfully yours,
Joe
I am sure that mainstream Roman Catholics who read this can tell when a comment is made by someone strongly defending their positioon of sedevacantism. There have now been several since this article was re-released last week. I now choose to make this my last comment or read anything further that they post. However, just a few more thoughts before I go.
An anonymous commentor said that “Nobody mentions the Vatican II priest who left the Novus Ordo and was ordained at Mt. St. Michael on June 29.” Kind of funny that in nearly 40 years, they have managed to sway one young, impressionable man to join their religion. Yes, by their fruits you shall know them.
On the flip side, it is sad that they attack the sisters who followed God’s call to return to full communion with the church by saying, “Oh, no lets just reprint this story about a group of women who just got tired of living their religious vocation.” These wonderful Sisters have not given up their religious vocations or their habits. They are very involved in sharing the Catholic Faith with the world…. not just with those who agree with them. They have branched out and are doing more in these past few years than they did in their 25+ years at MSM. They do not hide inside a building on a hilltop!
And, finally -“The journalist needs to talk to the other side for the truth.” Well, I happen to know Mark Pivarunas personally. When I chose to leave, I posed the question to him - why don’t you have a dialgue with the mainstream Roman Catholic church? His response was very condescending and arrogant. I was addressed: “Dear confused,....we will have dialogue with anyone who is seeking the truth.” In other words, if you go to him, he’ll talk to you - but he isn’t going to follow the command of Jesus to go forth and preach the gospel to all nations…Remember, Francis Schuckardt may be long gone - but CMRI originated with him and still maintains a lot of his beliefs. Most of their priests were Seminarians under Francis Schuckardt. Perhaps the apple does not fall far from the proverbial tree.
Let’s all pray that we are united one with Christ through total Communion with His Church and His representatives, our bishops, priests, and the Holy Father.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine!
First, in the Conclave of 1958, there was white smoke, then after people all ran ti St. Peter’s, black smoke came. Several days later, White smoke and Angelo Cardinal Roncalli was presented as new Pope. Reports are that Cardinal Siri was first elected, then the election withdrawn, probably from outside pressure. Hence the Sedevacantist belief.
Pope John XXIII was to reveal the Third Secret of Fatima in 1960, but buried it. Belief is that it foretold a Council that would inject Heresy and Apostasy into The Church. One can see all the problems since Vatican II, loss of Faith, decrease in the people fulfilling their obligation to assist at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, people neglecting to go to Confession regularly, but still going to Communion. I see from younger people, how little they know of The Faith. These afre the fruits of the springtime of Vatican II.
An influx of Modernism, as your parent, EWTN, praised in their, as usual, poor coverage of the closing Mass at World Youth Day.
The “Vatican II” priest that left is not young and impressionable. He is almost forty years old and was a late vocation when ordained in the diocese he originates from.
There happen to be not a few young men and women in their late twenties and thirties coming over to the sedevacantists.
Great article! I have known these sisters for many years and I am edified by their sincerity. I also want to point out how much courage it takes to go against the grain and challenge an “opinion” that is taught as dogma. By doing this they have brought down upon themselves the ire and loose lips of many. They have left all they had known and the security they enjoyed. But, God is good and is providing for their support as they start their new mission within the church. For someone to say that they are, “women who just got tired of living their religious vocation,” is reckless and ignorant. I’m sure this is the official statement of the group to justify why they left. It has been ignorantly stated that those of us who left did so because of our friends. My conversion was brought about by a Navy Chaplain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when these sisters were walking in their conversion. In short, the websites listed and the level of negativity coming from those few (sede) who have chosen to post is par for the course. These sisters are living their vocation and spreading the faith.
to say that ‘black’ can’t be ‘white’ is “to set oneself up as a judge and jury”? Or is it a simple observation based on the ‘principium non contradictionis’, a ‘primum principium’ without which every reasoning is impossible (S. Thomas Aquinas)??? And now, to have a pope that says ‘yes’ when another pope said ‘no’, is it possible??? What has to do this with the Fouth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople??? It is John 23, Paul6, JP2, Ben16 that condemn themselves as popes!
OK pope bruno….
if to be logic is to be pope, yes, thank you!
I was baptised a Catholic many many years ago and received the Sacraments….I was raised by a wonderful Catholic father and a loving Lutheran mother….due to the ever watchful love of Mary the Mother of Jesus and the Holy Rosary I knew that things were terribly wrong when the Novus Ordo was forced on us in 1970 on Palm Sunday….by their fruits you shall know them….I prayed daily the rosary for guidance….I was told in a parish in Texas that I must learn the NEW THEOLOGY and stop the Baltimore Catechism….I left there and searched….I am glad B. Schukardt left, but our traditional beliefs at Mt. St. Michaels and in many other traditional faithful Catholic parishes around the world believe and pratice the beliefs Jesus taught and passed down to His Apostles without any change. Our beliefs are NOT of Schukardt but the Faith of our Fathers of the Catholic Church and all true councils! Our order was established believing in the true papacy but not of the teachings of Vat 2…..by their fruits you shall know them….let us pray for all mankind to come to God through His Mother Mary..Respectfully…Perseverant
• Can a Catholic believe:
*Religious Liberty needs to be corrected
*Heretics can be Christians
*Catholics are to reconcile with the world
*the Catholic Church is joined to heretics and schismatics
*Pius IX’s Syllabus is corrected by Vatican II
*The Catholic Church is guilty of sins
*Theologians can develop Church doctrines
*truth can be found outside the Catholic Church
*Jews need not believe in Christ to be saved. . . . .
If you say yes to any one of the above you are outside the Catholic Church. The Conciliar Church, the post Vatican II claimed Catholic Church accepts the above and much more, therefore, it has created a man-made religion.
The Pope is the head of the Church, remember “Upon this Rock(Peter),I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Christ was not a contradiction, there can only be one true Church, the Church that Christ Established.
yes, Julia, the ’ pope ‘!...This ( and these four before him ) is not the pope. A ‘pope’ who kisses the Koran, is not a pope. A ‘pope’ who prays with Jews, is not the pope, A pope who prays with Anglicans and Lutherans, is not the pope. A pope who believes in the same God as Jews and Muslims, or in the same Jesus as Lutherans and Anglican, is not the pope. Or at least not a pope as the others before tee Vatican II…
I’m proud of her, for coming to conversion.
We have had Popes since Pope Pius XII, no matter what the sedevacant schismatic heretics believe and teach.
True Catholics accept EVERYTHING the Roman Catholic church teaches.
Ok, I think it’s time for all the armchair sede theologians to put away their Denzingers and leave well enough alone. If your hatred for the good sisters drives you say uncharitable things, then be silent! Why do you care? If the Catholic Church in Rome is not Catholic then don’t worry about it. In your eyes no pope can come from the conclave, so why do you waste so much time and energy hating, degrading, and stressing over what Rome does? Hold your own conclave and elect your very own “Pope Michael.”
Velit Deus Benedic Pope Benedect in secessus!
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.