Amazon Synod 2019

A CRITICAL AND CATHOLIC LOOK AT THE
UNCATHOLIC CRITICAL AMAZON SYNOD OF BISHOPS
Meeting in Rome from October 6th to October 27th 2019

Follow our series of articles leading up to and all the way through the most contentious and potentially most critical Synod of Bishops held since the Second Vatican Council. Never in that time has the Church seen such public division amongst the highest ranks in its mainstream clergy over Faith matters.

Article 12
The Synod Has Ended
But "The End" is "Not The End"!
(to view the Intrumentum Laboris or Working Document, click here)

The Final Document was voted on by the bishops, paragraph by paragraph
Is it all "done and dusted"! Not by any means! The End is only the Beginning!

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

When Is An End A Beginning?
You would think that the “end” is really the end―but it can also be a beginning. St. Thomas Aquinas says that the end must come first―in the sense that one must know what the end or goal is before starting on the journey or work to achieve that end. In that sense, in the building of a house for example, the end comes first in the mind (by planning and designing the building) and then the end comes last (by materially completing the building).

The Synod may have ended, but the Synod is merely a step in the designs the Modernists and Liberals have for building a new Church. Each Synod has been like a new brick in the building of the new Church. Each year the building progresses and the Progressives introduce something new. The “new bricks” from this Synod are (1) married priests, (2) women being allowed into Holy Orders―at least as deaconesses, lectors and acolytes, (3) a new syncretic Amazon Liturgy being created, which would be a mixture of Amazonian customs and Catholic Church liturgical elements, (4) giving the Church what has been called an “Amazonian face”―which leaves a lot open to the imagination!

You could, in a certain sense, also say that the Second Vatican Council was “the beginning of the end” in recent history―though the real or initial “beginning of the end” goes back beyond that time, passing through the Communist Revolution, the French Revolution (1789), the creation of Freemasonry (1717), the Protestant Reformation or Revolution (early 1500s), Humanism and the Renaissance (14th to 16th centuries), and ultimately back to Satan and his initial rebellion against God.

Article 11
The Final Document was pre-written and
is not really a Final Document.
(to view the Intrumentum Laboris or Working Document, click here)

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

The calculated chirade and confusion continues

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

When is the Final Document Not the Final Document?
As usual―in recent synods―the so-called “Final Document” that emerged from the so-called “Working Document” or Instrumentum Laboris, is a bit of an anti-climax, considering all the hype and hyperbole that has been circulated with crescendo over the last few weeks. The “Working Document” or Instrumentum Laboris, after three weeks of “labor”, finally gave birth to the “Final Document” which is not even “Final”! The so called “Final Document” is merely a “Working Document” for the Pope, who will―hopefully by Christmas, as he himself said―finally produce the real “Final Document” or “Final-Final Document.” Do you “finally” understand?

The Amazonian “Hot Potatoes”
You could say it’s like “passing a hot potato” from one person to another. The idiom originated in the mid-1800s and is derived from the slightly older term “to drop [something/someone] like a hot potato”, meaning “to quickly abandon something or someone.” The idiom of “a hot potato” can mean:
(1) any subject which several folks are talking about and which is frequently argued
(2) something that is hard or terrible to handle
(3) a problem or situation that is difficult to deal with and causes a lot of disagreement
(4) an issue or question about which people have different opinions and feel very strongly
(5) a controversial situation that is awkward to deal with
(6) a delicate or contentious matter which many people do not want to talk about

All of the above were to be found in the Amazonian Synod Stew that was being cooked over the last few weeks.

This Amazon Synod―besides bringing up a lot of “hot potatoes”―has also produced a lot of “couch potatoes” or could we call them “mouse potatoes” (as in computer mouse) sitting outside on the Amazonian periphery, looking in. Now, as has become customary with these modern day Synods of Bishops―there is much secrecy about the “recipe” and “ingredients” being used. We have had to wait for the accustomed, daily vague, partial and basic “meat-and-potato” briefings served-up the Vatican News Agency, which barely satisfied the hunger for more clear and solid news. Nevertheless, all the “off-the-shelf” theological “couch potatoes” or “mouse-potatoes”, while realistically remaining mere “small potatoes” or “small-fry” in the thick Amazonian stew that was being boiled, reveled in the gossip and scandal that flavored the stew.

Rumors of a Pre-Cooked and Pre-Packaged Amazonian Stew!
To make matters worse―or at least more confusing―is the claim by one key organizer of the Amazon Synod, who confirmed a week before the end of the Synod― before the final document had even been officially written during the Synod and voted upon―that the final document had been “already written,” but he said that “no one knows” who wrote it. So the bishops were led to believe that they would compose the Final Document, whereas, in reality, the Final Document was already pre-cooked, pre-packaged and waiting on the shelf! That makes them all look like “potato-heads”!

Truth, as they say, can be stranger than fiction! Go figure out the truth in this one! Whatever the truth may be―it is not unlike the modern day occupants of Vatican City to practice skullduggery and subterfuge in Church matters. Just look at the clear case of the “Two Sister Lucias of Fatima” and the “Two Third Secrets of Fatima” and the alleged “Two Pope Paul VI’s” or the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I after only 33 days, around which emerged a whole lot of contradictory and dubious statements. So let nobody say that skullduggery and subterfuge are not ingredients that the Vatican is prepared to slither into its stews.

Naïvité in the Nave of the Church?
If your view of the current Catholic Church sees it as being a crowd of cardinals, a bunch of bishops, and a posse of priests all united in their desire to seek and fulfill the Will of God―the you are naïve, you are laboring under an illusion (believing the lies you hear), and you in a state of delusion (believing your own wishful, imaginary thinking). For over 250 years the Catholic Church has been the object of increasingly successful infiltration by its enemies―and consequently has lost its absolute grip on policies, discipline and doctrine. Even as recently as 1973, Our Lady of Akita warned: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises!”

Already as far back as the 1600s Our Lady of Good Success warned us of the massive upheavals the Church would experience in the 18th and 19th centuries: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be an almost total corruption of morals―for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. Various heresies will be propagated … As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by this almost total corruption of morals. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom!”

At La Salette, in 1846, Our Lady further said: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will put an end to Faith, little by little―even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist ... The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth! People will think of nothing but amusement! Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God.”

The message coming out of Fatima, from 1917 onwards, was pretty much the same. Sister Lucia confided: “The Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).

“Ah!” you say, “that is all merely private revelation! You don’t have to believe that!” Well, if that is your attitude to all Divine Private Revelation, then stop adoring the Sacred Heart and quit those First Friday devotions―all that is a result of the Divine Private Revelation by the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1600s. Stop your First Saturday devotions to the Immaculate Heart and throw any pictures of her in the trash can―for all that is a result of the Divine Private Revelation by Our Lady of Fatima. You can also toss your Brown Scapular into the trash can too― for all that is a result of the Divine Private Revelation by Our Lady to St. Simon Stock in the 1200s. Toss out your Miraculous Medal, your Rosary, and numerous other things that have been introduced into the Church as a result of the Divine Private Revelation.

The Modernist Stew Has Everything!
“There is no part of Catholic truth which they leave untouched, none that they do not strive to corrupt!” (Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi, the encyclical against the Modernists). St. John Bosco―but here we go again with Divine Private Revelation―prophesied that: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church.” This is borne out as being true by the pronouncements and statements of Pope Paul VI―the pope who presided over the Second Vatican Council after its instigator, Pope John XXIII died during the early days of the Council―reputedly saying on his deathbed: “Stop the Council! Stop the Council!”

But the Council did not stop and went on to sow and sprout chaos as St. John Bosco had foretold. The Second Vatican Council was a swamp of ambiguities and imprecisions. These ambiguities, however, were not accidental, but a calculated plan, a definite strategy, which was to advance a new theology contrary to traditional Catholic teaching. As a result, the Vatican II documents contained, within themselves, two opposing contradictory currents―(1) a Liberal, Modernist, Progressivist current and (2) a Traditional and Conservative current. The “Traditional and Conservative” passages of Vatican II serve as camouflage for the Council’s Liberal and Modernist orientations. The texts of the Second Vatican Council were deliberately imprecise, ambiguous, flawed documents that were designed to provide the platform and “justification” for a revolution in the Church from top to bottom. Since the Second Vatican Council, there are literally thousands of statements on record from the Liberals, Modernists and Progressivists, who reveal their avowed aim to remake the Church into their own Modernist image and likeness.

‘Traditional’ Modernist Recipe
If the Modernists are ‘traditional’ in anything, then they can be said to be ‘traditional’ in the way they seek to impose their Modernism on the Church as a whole. Back in the “sprouting days” of the Second Vatican Council, the Modernist ‘visionaries’ such as Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac, Dominique Chenu, Yves Congar, made it abundantly clear that they believed that the ‘old religion’― bit by bit― had to be gradually wiped-out, in order for the “new springtime sowing” of Vatican II ‘fruits’ to come to fruition.

► Fr. Hans Küng gloated: “Compared to the post-Tridentine epoch of the Counter-reformation, Vatican Council II represents in its fundamental characteristics, a 180 degree turn ... It is a new Church that has sprung up since Vatican II.”
► Father Bouyer, a French perito (expert) at the Council, exclaimed with relish that this anti-Protestant, anti-Modernist aspect of the traditional Catholic Church “might as well die.”
► La Civiltà Cattolica, the Rome-based Jesuit magazine, also exclaimed joyfully, “With Vatican Council II, the Tridentine age was brought to a close for the Church.”
On December 7th, 1965, in his closing speech at Vatican Council II, Pope Paul VI announced: “The Church had decided to serve man, to help man build a home here on this Earth.”
► Liberation Theology―for those who know little about it, a future article will deal with it―was born out of the Second Vatican Council, by taking the imprecise, ambiguous, ‘loaded’ terminology and running with it into a Marxist theology that, even though it was condemned by the Church, has not left the ‘bloodstream’ and is still circulating and infecting.
► Pope Francis is one of those who is affected and contaminated by Liberation Theology as well as Modernism in general.
Can you not see the above sentiments expressed by Pope Francis on more than one occasion―nay, on many occasions―over the course of his, thus far, six-year pontificate? The above expressions form the staple diet of his utterances!

The Smoke of Satan―Modernism―Has Entered the Church
Satan is called―by Christ―the “prince of this world” and it was to the world (thus also Satan) that the Second Vatican Council wanted to open its doors and windows with the false “aggiornamento” (updating) principle hatched at the Council. Man and the world became the primary focus after the Second Vatican Council―while Christ and Heaven were relegated into a secondary role. The main goals of the Church, established by Christ for the purpose of giving honor and glory to God and the salvation of souls, were inverted. Not the salvation of souls, but the improvement of human welfare became a major goal for the conciliar Church. The fire, that drove the Church on, was not a divine fire, but a humanistic fire, a fire akin to the fires of Hell and ignited and stoked by Hell. They say: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!”―well, you can also say: “Where there’s fire, there’s also smoke!”―the smoke of Satan. Satan has the Church all fired-up with humanism and the fire that Christ came to enkindle has been reduced to embers.

► In 1965, the year the Second Vatican Council ended, Pope Paul VI said: “The conciliar Church [the Church of the Second Vatican Council], it is true, has also been much concerned with man, with man as he really is today, with living man, with man totally taken up with himself, with man who not only makes himself the center of his own interests, but who dares to claim that he is the end and aim of all existence. Secular, profane, humanism has finally revealed itself in its terrible shape and has, in a certain sense, challenged the Council. The religion of God made man has come up against a religion ― for there is such a one ― of man who makes himself God. And what happened? An impact, a battle, an anathema? That might have taken place, but it did not. It was the old story of the Samaritan that formed the model for the Council's spirituality. It was permeated only with endless boundless sympathy. The attention of our Council was taken up with the discovery of human needs ― which become greater as the son of the Earth makes himself greater. … Do you at least recognize this merit, you modern humanists who have no place for the transcendence of the things supreme, and come to know our new humanism: we also, we more than anyone else, have the cult of man.” Pope Francis could not have said it better!

► Four years later on July 13th, 1969, Paul VI again emphasized this new elevation of man by declaring: “Man is both giant and divine, in his origin and his destiny. Honor, therefore, to man, honor to his dignity, to his spirit, to his life." The fulfilling of the new focus and purpose of the Church and the new elevated status of man was based upon such vague concepts as “dialogue, unity in diversity, building a worldwide community of love through dialogue, attaining a unity in diversity among all peoples of the world, establishing a one world man-defined ‘religion’,” etc.

What was fruit of all this “dialogue, unity in diversity, building a worldwide community of love through dialogue, attaining a unity in diversity among all peoples of the world, establishing a one world man-defined ‘religion’,” etc.? Well, not long after the Second Vatican Council had ended and opened its doors and windows to the world, tens of thousands of religious and clergy abandoned the Church! Furthermore, the Catholic Faith was abandoned by hundreds of thousands of Catholics. Instead of world being enticed into the “aggiornamento” (updated or up-to-date) Church, instead, hundreds of thousands of clergy, religious, and laity went out of those opened doors and windows into the world. This devastation of the Church began almost immediately after the close of the Council. It quickly became so evident that, just three years after its close, Pope Paul VI felt forced to declare: “The Church is in the process of auto-demolition.”

► In 1972, Pope Paul VI said: “We believed that after the [Second Vatican] Council would come a day of sunshine in the history of the Church. But instead there has come a day of clouds and storms, and of darkness ... And how did this come about? We will confide to you … that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the Devil. … It is as if from some mysterious crack, no, it is not mysterious, from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.” (Pope Paul VI, Address On the Occasion of the Ninth Anniversary of His Election, June 29th, 1972).

► Later in 1972, Pope Paul VI added: Some months later, on November 15th of 1972, at a General Audience, Pope Paul VI added: “What are the Church’s greatest needs at the present time? Don’t be surprised at Our answer and don’t write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church’s greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the Devil … Who can forget the highly significant description of the triple temptation of Christ? Or the many episodes in the Gospel where the Devil crosses the Lord’s path and figures in His teaching? (Matthew 12:43) And how could we forget that Christ, referring three times to the Devil as His adversary, describes him as ‘the prince of this world’?” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).

► A few years later, in 1977, Pope Paul VI repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).

► Cardinal Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, said after the Second Vatican Council: “We have now absorbed into Church teaching, and the Church has opened herself up to, principles which are not hers, but which come from modern society.” Elsewhere he said that with Vatican II, the principles of 1789 [the French Revolution] had entered the Church. Unfortunately, the opening of the windows of the Church to the world, has let worldliness into the Church, while many of the Catholics jumped out of the windows and joined the world! This opening up to the world (the devil in reality) has wounded the very Heart of the Church and the Precious Blood has been spilled and wasted.

Demolished from the Outside and the Inside
We know, of course, that the Catholic Church was attacked and chiseled-away at from both the outside and the inside. As Our Lord said, the world would always remain an enemy of Christ and His Church―yet there would also be Judases who would betray Christ and His Church from within. Though this has always been the case, nevertheless, in more recent times, there comes to mind the Masonic and Communist infiltration that escalated in the 20th century. The fallen-away Italy born, American Catholic, Dr. Bella Dodd, who turned Communist and rose through the ranks in the American Communist Party, confessed before a US Senate Committee, after leaving the Communist Party, that she and her cell had placed over 1,000 Communist infiltrators in the US Catholic seminaries, many of whom became priests and bishops. She testified that some of them had even reached the Vatican in Rome and were in the highest positions in the Church. That confession and testimony was made in the 1950s―less than ten years before the Second Vatican Council. It is not hard to see the “smoke of Satan” that Pope Paul VI was speaking of, barely 15 years later.

By the early 1990s, it was discovered that were FOUR MASONIC LODGES operating within the Vatican for the higher clergy―namely, cardinals and bishops! As one exorcist says, the Masons are the property of Satan―they belong to him, whether they like it or not, whether they know it or not, whether they admit it or not. They, too, are the “smoke of Satan” that has penetrated the Church.

How many Communist and Masonic infiltrators are there in Rome today? You guess is as good as anyone’s―but you can bet your salvation on the fact that they are there and that they are not small in numbers. Not only are they in Rome, but they are peppered throughout the entire Church. Speaking of the Communists and Masons who seek to change God’s order in the world, Pope Leo XIII, in Humanum Genus, his encyclical against Freemasonry, wrote: “This change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of Communists and Socialists―and to their undertakings the sect of Freemasons is not hostile, but greatly favors their designs, and holds in common with them their chief opinions” (§27).

Is there a connection between the Communist infiltration of the Catholic Church in the 1940s and 1950s with the birth of the Marxist influenced Liberation Theology of the 1960s and 1970s? Yes―there most certainly is, and Pope Francis is currently operating along the general lines of Liberation Theology under its new tactical camouflage of focusing on and working through the mask of “ecology”―which has been one of the favorite pets of Francis during his papacy.

Already in his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith) we see elements of Liberation Theology under the guise of ecology coming into play. The encyclical was not entirely his own work, for Pope Benedict XVI had already started to write an encyclical on Faith, as the final part in his trilogy on the three theological virtues―Faith, Hope and Charity. Pope Francis merely added his own thoughts to the parts already written by Benedict XVI. Pope Francis said that Pope Benedict “had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on Faith” before his retirement in February 2013, adding that “I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.” It was the first encyclical in the history of the Catholic Church written by two popes, being begun by Pope Benedict XVI and finished by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis’ second encyclical, Laudato Si (“On Care for Our Common Home”), was even more ecological and less and less theological―with hindsight, we can now see that it was a foundation for the Amazon Synod, which also would be more ecological than theological. You can many of the “refrains” or “lyrics” or “choruses” of Laudato Si, resurfacing in the Instrumentum Laboris or “Working Document” of Amazon Synod. Once again, it is heavily loaded with the new Liberation Theology tactic of making “ecology” the main focal point.

Article 10
The Last Week Begins! The Last Chance for Change!
(to view the Intrumentum Laboris or Working Document, click here)

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

This is week that the final document will be written, debated, and voted-on.

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

“Everything is Connected”
The frequently quoted mantra of Pope Francis ― “Everything is connected!” ― is also written into the Instrumentum Laboris and also, ironically, serves as a principle for the Modernist and Liberal tactics for this Amazon Synod. Everything is connected ― with no angle ignored, everything pre-ordained and pre-arranged, everything orchestrated and scripted to play out as close as possible to the goals of the Modernist and Liberals who have their stranglehold on the Church at this moment in time.

It seems that Francis and his finagling followers and functionaries are well-connected in everything and in every way to bring this Synod to its predestined conclusion―which is another step away from the traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and another step nearer to the new church that the Modernists want to build and which has been foreseen in Catholic prophecy. With each passing year, with each ambiguous statement, with each Modernist modification, with each Liberal appointment―the Church looks less and less like the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that marks Her as the One True Church. Nowadays―since the advent of false ecumenism―the prevailing notion is one of equality with other religions and polite, politically correct dialogue and interaction with all those false religions. The few Catholics that can still see and think―who have not been blinded and drugged by the world―are being provoked and pushed into what will be, allegedly, the greatest schism the Church has ever seen―and Pope Francis says that schism does not worry him. Of course it doesn’t worry him if that is his ultimate ulterior goal.

Talking of Everything Being Connected…
For a long time now there has been a continued and increasing debate about the―put it under which of these titles you want―Communist, Marxist, or Socialist element that seems to be emanating from the words, actions and lifestyle of Pope Francis. Some are asking―and not without good reason―is Pope Francis a Marxist, Socialist or Communist, or, at least, is he heavily influenced by those ideologies? When you delve back into his known and public past life, there are some very disquieting factors that emerge and raise more questions than they give answers!

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! The first factor is that POPE FRANCIS was born and raised in what was then a very Socialist Argentinian government and atmosphere. Another factor is Francis’ own admission to being heavily influenced by a Communist mentor in the early part of his life. A further factor is Francis’ implicit (he refrains from explicitly admitting this) manifestation of the chief principles of Liberation Theology in his words and actions. For those who do not know what Liberation Theology is―it is a Marxist, or Communist, or Socialist flavoring of Catholicism, that the Church has condemned. Yet another factor is the fact that many Liberation Theology supporters are waxing lyrical in excited expectation of Francis liberating the Liberation Theology that was previously condemned, chained and constrained by earlier popes. Furthermore, there is no small number of Francis appointed cardinals, bishops and priests who are of the Liberation Theology flavor.

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! Another connection here is that the honorary president of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM), CARDINAL CLÁUDIO HUMMES―who is essentially Francis’s chosen and appointed ‘chairman’ for the Amazon Synod―is also, like Francis, an avid supporter of Liberation Theology! When the new Pope Francis won the conclave ballot, Cardinal Hummes whispered to the Pope, “Don't forget the poor people!” and the Pope said that immediately he remembered St. Francis of Assisi and “the name Francis came into my heart.” When the newly elected Pope Francis appeared on the balcony shortly after his election, Cardinal Hummes was among the cardinals who accompanied the new pope and stood beside him at his immediate left on the balcony. In a 2006 interview with Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Cardinal Hummes said that “even though celibacy is part of Catholic history and culture, the Church could review this question, because celibacy is not a dogma but a disciplinary question.”

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! BISHOP ERWIN KRÄUTLER, the retired bishop of Xingu, Brazil, who has said that the ban on women’s ordination “is nevertheless not a dogma.” He also told reporters, during the Amazon Synod, he thought than two-thirds of synod participants “are in favor of the ordination of married men” and that “many of the bishops are in favor of the ordination of female deacons.” This is not an irrelevant fact, for Bishop Kräutler was a member of the preparatory commission for the Amazon Synod—and, according to widespread rumor, the principal drafter of the Instrumentum Laboris. Bishop Kräutler is also an avid supporter of Liberation Theology. Bishop Kräutler is famous for his expression that “I have never in my life baptized an indigenous [person], and I also do not have the intention of ever doing so.” It’s beginning to sound like “Amazon birds of a feather, flock together!”

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! One of the inspirers of the Amazon Synod, was the ex-priest LEONARDO BOFF. He is also one of the founders of Liberation Theology and a co-author of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on environmental problems. Another avid Brazilian Liberation Theology proponent and former priest, who would become laicized, Boff is widely credited for being the “theologian of reference” for this controversial Amazon Synod. Pope Francis and Leonardo Boff have been friends since 1972, way before Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became pope in 2013. The laicized former-priest, Leonardo Boff, placed on his twitter page, a picture from a conference that took place in 1972 and that shows both Boff and the then-Father Jorge Bergoglio, the later Pope Francis, in a gropu photo. Boff says that the Pope had just sent him this picture, recalling their time together. As a matter of fact, Boff claimed in 2016 – in an interview with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeigr – that Pope Francis is “one of us. He has turned Liberation Theology into a common property of the Church. And he has widened it.”

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! On a more practical level ― in the actual concrete preparation of the Amazon Synod's preparatory and working documents ― another Liberation Theology supporter, the 81-year-old FATHER PAULO SUESS, is regarded as being a key inspirer of the Amazon Synod. Father Suess is a professor of Mission Studies in São Paulo, Brazil and a member of the group Amerindia―which is a group of Liberation Theology defenders. In 2013, Suess said about Pope Francis: “Bergoglio is a practitioner of Liberation Theology.” Earlier this year he sated: “We do not have the right to proselytize, to belittle the religion of the other or to entice [others] to conversions.” “The people themselves must resolve which one is the best religion for this historical moment.” It is not surprising that Paulo Suess is also in favor of women “priests” and women “deacons.” He stated in February 2019: “Unfortunately, because of the unity of the Church, it will be difficult at this time to discuss the priesthood of women. In the perspective of a certain graduality of solutions, what could be discussed today would be the female diaconate.” The laicized former-priest, Leonardo Boff, also belongs to this pro-Liberation Theology group. As to the Amazon Synod itself, Father Suess was already involved in its preparations when Bishop Erwin Kräutler, in April 2014, had a private audience with Pope Francis―Bishop Kräutler took Father Suess with him to that meeting. Kräutler and Suess worked together for decades in Brazil in the Brazilian bishops' Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI). Father Suess was for many years CIMI's general secretary and then its theological advisor, while Bishop Kräutler was CIMI's president for over two decades. CIMI is also a member of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network REPAM, which has been tasked by the Pope with the preparation of the Amazon Synod. (Bishop Kräutler is Vice-President of REPAM Brazil.) Father Suess also edited a collection of texts written by Bishop Kräutler to which he added a foreword. For another of Bishop Kräutler's books, Leonardo Boff wrote a foreword. Complicated, huh? Yes―but as Pope Francis says: “Everything is connected!”

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! The Canadian based Life Site News reported on October 22nd that “A key organizer of the Amazon Synod has confirmed that the final document is ‘already written,’ but has said that ‘no one knows’ who wrote it.” Which―if it is true―only goes to show that everything is scripted and that bishops at the Synod are for the most part merely puppets, who are “wired” or “have strings attached” and are there merely to do the “puppet-master’s” bidding.

► “Everything is connected” as both Pope Francis and the Amazon Synod’s Insturmentum Laboris like to say! Observers of the Amazon Synod have not been slow to point out that the Amazon Synod’s pre-written working document, the Instrumentum Laboris, is steeped in principles that originate from Liberation Theology―which is hardly surprising, since the Instrumentum Laboris was largely the brainchild and product of BISHOP KRÄUTLER, who is an avid supporter of Liberation Theology. He was a member of the preparatory commission for the Amazon Synod—and principal drafter of the Instrumentum Laboris.

What then, exactly, is Liberation Theology? We will have a look at that in a future article. It suffices for now to show that the Amazon Synod agenda is really an agenda based upon a theology that has been condemned by the Church--Liberation Theology.

Article 9
The False Arguments Have Begun!
(to view the Intrumentum Laboris or Working Document, click here)

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

The battering ram of false arguments, misrepresentations and exaggerations

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The Pope Lights a Fire!
Our Lord said of Himself: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). It seems that Pope Francis has come to fire in the Church and he wants it to be kindled! He did not waste time at the Amazon Synod in igniting the fire of change and novelty. In his opening homily he said:

“The gift we have received is a fire, a burning love for God and for our brothers and sisters. A fire does not burn by itself; it has to be fed or else it dies; it turns into ashes. If everything continues as it was, if we spend our days content that “this is the way things have always been done”, then the gift vanishes, smothered by the ashes of fear and concern for defending the status quo. … For the Church is always on the move, always going out and never withdrawn into itself. Jesus did not come to bring a gentle evening breeze, but to light a fire on the Earth. The fire that rekindles the gift is the Holy Spirit, the giver of gifts. So Saint Paul says: ‘God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and prudence’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Not a spirit of timidity, but of prudence ... Prudence is not indecision; it is not a defensive attitude. It is the virtue of the pastor who is … to be receptive to the newness of the Spirit … Fidelity to the newness of the Spirit is a grace that we must ask for in prayer. May the Spirit, who makes all things new, give us his own daring prudence; may he inspire our Synod to renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia … so that the fire of mission will continue to burn … To rekindle the gift; to welcome the bold prudence of the Spirit; to be faithful to his newness.”

“The gift we have received is a fire, a burning love for God and for our brothers and sisters. A fire does not burn by itself; it has to be fed or else it dies; it turns into ashes. If everything continues as it was, if we spend our days content that “this is the way things have always been done”, then the gift vanishes, smothered by the ashes of fear and concern for defending the status quo. … For the Church is always on the move, always going out and never withdrawn into itself. Jesus did not come to bring a gentle evening breeze, but to light a fire on the Earth. The fire that rekindles the gift is the Holy Spirit, the giver of gifts. So Saint Paul says: ‘God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and prudence’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Not a spirit of timidity, but of prudence ... Prudence is not indecision; it is not a defensive attitude. It is the virtue of the pastor who is … to be receptive to the newness of the Spirit … Fidelity to the newness of the Spirit is a grace that we must ask for in prayer. May the Spirit, who makes all things new, give us his own daring prudence; may he inspire our Synod to renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia … so that the fire of mission will continue to burn … To rekindle the gift; to welcome the bold prudence of the Spirit; to be faithful to his newness.”

The Synod Puts More Firewood on the Pope’s Fire
Let’s face it―whether we are cynical or non-cynical―the ecological side of this Amazon Synod is just a smokescreen (made out to be a very believable smoke screen) for the Modernists intention to continue changing the Church until it is unrecognizable or Protestant-like. The Modernists know that there is still sufficient opposition (barely sufficient) to their plans of change―therefore they cannot make a full-frontal attack on what remains of the Church, so they have to “smuggle-in” their changes like the devil does―”under the guise of good.” In this case, they have made the “good” of the Amazonian region and its people the smokescreen they need.

What Has the Amazon to do with Germany?
You may find it quite strange―but the financial backing behind this Amazon Synod comes from the Modernist and Liberal Catholics in Germany! The largely Liberal and not too small Modernist contingent that makes up the Catholic Church in Germany. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a lengthy October 2019 interview with Matteo Matzuzzi for the newspaper “Il Foglio,” stated: “If one listens to the voices of some of the protagonists of this assembly, one understands easily that the agenda is entirely European.” Not only European, but heavily backed by Germans. Taking its cue from the Amazon Synod, Germany has launched its own “synodal path” that will take its cue from the Amazon, in order to reform nothing less than the universal Church. This German Synod is set to give certain numbers of the laity participate who will have synodal voting rights on a par with the bishops. This German synod’s resolutions will be “binding” and will concern the termination of priestly celibacy, the ordination of women, the reform of sexual morality, and the democratization of powers in the Church.

It is an that, ever since this synodal earthquake was announced, it has even perturbed (or seemingly perturbed) Pope Francis himself, who, in June, had written an open letter to the German bishops trying to persuade them to tone-down their excessive ambitions―yet Francis is known to say or do one thing publicly, while privately thinking, saying, holding to and desiring to do the very opposite . In September, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, wrote an even more pressing letter to them, rejecting as canonically “invalid” the synod set in motion in Germany. But the warnings Rome has given to Germany have so far had no effect. The Archbishop of Munich and German episcopal conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has already stated: “Rome will not be the one to tell us what we have to do in Germany!” And that mantra continues to hold firm in Germany, with the approval of most German Catholic bishops and the opposition of only a few, the highest-ranking of whom is the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, who has gone so far as to express sting disapproval of the threat of a “schism.”

The Amazon Synod in Germany’s Baby
The German Bishops’ Conference has supported the condemned “Liberation Theology” movement in South America―especially in Brazil, to the tune of around $30 million over the last few decades ― while during the same time “Liberation Theology” was being censored and heavily criticized by the Vatican. Coincidentally (?), it is Catholic Church in Brazil―the chief recipient of the $30 million and the chief seedbed for “Liberation Theology”―is also supplying the chief “movers and shakers” for the Amazon Synod―Cardinal Claudio Hummes, relator general of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon; Bishop Erwin Kräutler, the principal author of the synod’s working document; Father Paulo Suess, and the former priest (no married) Leonardo Boff, one of the founders of “Liberation Theology” and a co-author of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on environmental problems. Boff claimed in 2016 – in an interview with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeigr – that Pope Francis is “one of us. He has turned Liberation Theology into a common property of the Church. And he has widened it.”

Liberal German Money Buys South American Votes
Father Ralph M. Wiltgen, in his renowned history of the Second Vatican Council ― The Rhine Flows into the Tiber ― states that the German bishops, with some Austrian and Belgian bishops, were the main movers and shakers that pushed the Second Vatican Council in a Liberal and Modernist direction. Wiltgen showed that, prior to the Second Vatican Council, the German bishops had already been heavily financing multiple South American dioceses, which paid off during the Second Vatican Council: “Superiors general and missionary bishops, born in the countries which made up the European alliance, gave it their support almost without exception. And the alliance also received the support of numerous other missionary bishops and bishops of Latin America countries, who were grateful for the very generous financial assistance which they had received from Cardinal Frings [the leader of the progressive European Alliance], during the preceding years, through his two fund-raising agencies, “Misereor” and “Adveniat”. Many of those, who used the occasion of the Council to visit Cardinal Frings and thank him personally, found themselves joining the [progressive European] Alliance.”

Bishop Overbeck ― who is, as bishop of Essen, responsible for the German fund-raising agency Adveniat ― admitted, at a recent September 25th press conference, that “we are co-responsible” for the preparations of the Amazon Synod. Pope Francis has invited both priests heading Adveniat and Misereor ― Pirmin Spiegel and Michael Heinz ― to participate in the Amazon Synod. Two other prelates, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the radical Modernist President of the German Bishops’ Conference, and Bishop Bernardo Johannes Bahlmann, OFM, of Brazil will participate. Bahlmann collaborates closely with the German bishops’ relief agencies and will be one of the speakers at an event this November, where Misereor and Adveniat, among other German institutions, will try to draw out the conclusions from the Amazon Synod for Germany. There a lots of indications that show that the German bishops continue to influence the Catholic Church in a disproportionate manner―leading to the cynical (or syn-ical) observation that (the German river) the Rhine still flows into the Tiber (the river of Rome), but now by way of the Amazon.

Superbly Synchronized Schism
The sense of timing on the part of the enemies of the Church―both inside and outside―has been exquisitely calculated. Now is the time for change! Most of the “Old Guard” have died and the “New Guard”―today’s modern Catholic―knows little or nothing about “how things used to be”―and, quite frankly, they don’t even care. They know very little about their Faith and a lot about the world. They care very little about the Faith and care a lot about the world. They spend most of their time on electronic devices and have not time for spiritual devices―such as prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, catechetical study, Bible study, Church history, etc. As for Vatican II being bad―most of them could even give you the dates for Vatican II, never mind what transpired there! With such feeble minds and indifferent attitudes, the time is clearly ripe to take the next monumental steps in changing (destroying) the Church―because nobody really cares for the Church and very few will protest (as we are witnessing right now with the bad Amazon Synod).

Hence, in this middle week of the Amazon Synod (Monday October 14th to Friday October 18th) we have seen the enemies of the Church “ramp-up” and “rev-up” their agenda to introduce ultimately weakening changes to Catholic Church discipline (by lobbying for married male priests and women deacons or deaconesses), further changes to the Liturgy of the Church (by giving the Church an “Amazon face” as they call it and incorporating what are really pagan practices into a newly created Amazonian Liturgy). The final week of the Amazon Synod (Monday October 21st to Friday October 25th) will see how successful they will be. However, bear in mind that the tactics are always to ask for way more than is expected and then force a compromise for some less than or lower than what was asked for―much like the car salesman, who will add $1,000 dollars to the price of the car he is selling knowing full well that you will haggle over the price at which the car is originally and realistically priced. Thus by increasing the price of the car, he will allow you to haggle with him and he will get from you what he would have wanted in the first place.

Article 8
More Than a Garden Party! More Like a Pagan Party!

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

They say: "Start as you mean to go on!" Well, this was a shaky start!

BELOW: Two half-naked, or totally naked, bare-breasted, pregnant women, one of which is supposedly supposed to be the Blessed Virgin Mary! Guess which one! They could always argue it reflects the scene of the Visitation and that the other one is St. Elizabeth! Anything goes!

BELOW: Let's all kneel down in honor of the "Mandala" which is a pagan decorative circle that symboilzes the Cosmos! Where is God? Oh! He must be somewhere in the Cosmos! Can't see Him though!

BELOW: What is going on here? Have they all lost their contact lenses at the same time?
Nope! They are all bowing down and adoring their pagan "Mandala".

BELOW: Anyone wanna dance?
Come and join us in our pagan ritual dance!

BELOW: Planting trees is not a bad thing! Planting Faith is pagans is even better! Hey! Original Sin started with a tree! I hope Francis is not doing a repeat!

BELOW: Are those Rosary beads or a bunch of holy medlas he is putting aroung the Pope's neck?
Nope! Just some pagan necklace.

BELOW" Pope Francis gets to bless the bare-breasted, naked or half-naked Earth goddess, bearing tribal markings but allegedly supposed to be the Blessed Virgin Mary.

BELOW: Same statue--differenent angle

Garden of Eden and Vatican Gardens
It was in the Garden of Eden that Eve fell for Satan’s temptation. It was in the Vatican Gardens that Francis and his cardinals and bishops fell to Satan’s temptation.

The Official Commentary
The official Vatican News Agency, on October 4th, 2019, released a summary of the Pope consecrating the Synod for the Amazon to Saint Francis of Assisi. The Vatican News Agency writes: “During a highly symbolic tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on Friday, Pope Francis places the upcoming Synod for the Amazon under the protection of Saint Francis of Assisi. The phrase “Everything is connected” recurs often in Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato Sì. During a unique ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on Friday, signs, symbols and songs, ensured that everything really was “connected”. Starting with the timing: October 4th is the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, which closes the “Season of Creation” that began on September 1st. This year also marks 40 years since Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis Patron Saint of those who promote ecology. And, in just two days, the Synod for the Amazon will open, the first Synod ever to address the issue of integral ecology. Then there were the participants: the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor, and the Global Catholic Climate Movement organized the event, while various religious congregations and representatives of the indigenous people of the Amazon Region played important roles in providing color and creativity. The ceremony culminated with the planting of a holm oak from Assisi. The name of the tree is believed to come from the old Anglo-Saxon word for “holly” – “holy”. Even the soil in which the tree was planted came steeped in significance. There was soil from the Amazon, celebrating the wealth of the bioregion’s cultures and traditions; earth from India, representing countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, where droughts and floods leave millions devastated; soil representing refugees and migrants, forced to leave their homes because of war, poverty, and ecological devastation. There was earth from places of human trafficking, and from sustainable development projects around the world. And there was more soil from the Amazon, earth bathed in the blood of those who have died fighting against its destruction. But the tree also stands in soil coming from the places where Saint Francis walked, in and around Assisi: a place of encounter with the Creator. The Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development is Cardinal Peter Turkson. He too was present at the ceremony, and described how the “Season of Creation” is “not only a time for prophetic gestures…but a time for wisdom”, a season to respond to the ecological crisis”. Pope Francis’ Message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, said the Cardinal, suggests “a time of change: humanity’s turning a new leaf to save the planet”.

Some Reactions
►  CNA―the Catholic News Agency―reported the event thus [Devotion to Our Lady comments are red and in square parenthesis]: “Pope Francis witnessed an indigenous performance at a tree planting ceremony in the Vatican gardens Friday, during which people held hands and bowed before carved images of pregnant women, one of which reportedly represented the Blessed Virgin Mary. A group of people, including Amazonians in ritual dress, as well people in lay clothes and a Franciscan brother, knelt and bowed in a circle around images of two pregnant women who appeared to be semi-clothed, in the presence of the pope and members of the curia. Participants sang and held hands while dancing in a circle around the images, in a dance resembling the ‘pago a la tierra’ [see explanation at end of this CNA quote], a traditional offering to Mother Earth, common among indigenous peoples in some parts of South America. No explanation was provided by the event organizers as to why the dance was performed for the Feast of St. Francis or what it symbolized. Pope Francis remained seated in a chair outside the group throughout the ceremony.

“A representative from the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said after the event that the dicastery’s officials were invited to attend the event, but neither organized nor promoted it. People carried bowls of dirt from different places around the world, each symbolizing a different issue from ecological devastation to migration. The dirt was placed around a tree from Assisi, which was planted as a symbol of integral ecology. After what appeared to be the offering of prayers by participants, who prostrated themselves on the grass around a blanket upon which fruit, candles, and several carved items were set, an indigenous woman approached the pope and presented him with a black ring, which appeared identical to the one she was wearing.” (CNA―Catholic News Agency, October 4th, 2019).

“Pago a la Tierra” literally means “Payment to the Earth”, it is a traditional Incan ritual, a sacred offering of the Andean people to pay tribute to the “Pachamama” (Mother Earth) and invite her blessings. Typically led by a shaman [a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits], the ritual involves preparing a hole in the ground which the participants adorn with various foods symbolizing what they are asking Mother Earth to provide: (1) Honey and fruit for a sweet romance; (2) Corn, grains, and water for a bountiful harvest and wealth; (3) Seeds for fertility. The shaman leads a Quechuan prayer to the Apus (the Incan gods) in the surrounding mountains for a bountiful harvest and good fortune for family and friends in the coming year.

►  Another news outlet, CRUX, has the following quote: “In a reflection on the tree’s significance, Sister Liliana Franco of the Company of Mary, president of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Men and Women Religious, said the time has come ‘to listen to the voice that the Spirit brings us from the Amazon.’” Perhaps it is time for the Amazon to listen to the voice that the Spirit bring us from Heaven? It seems like they have things upside-down!

►  Bishop René Henry Gracida, now retired, who served as the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee and Bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, stated: “With regard to the participation of Francis in the travesty in the Vatican Gardens … The participation by Francis the Merciful in the pagan rites held in the Vatican Garden is further evidence of his lack of concern for the canonical penalties he is incurring by his repeated participation in heretical and even occult religious ceremonies forbidden to all Catholics, especially one who sits (invalidly ?) on the Throne of Peter. But then he does not seem to have let the excommunication incurred by him under the law of Universi Dominici Gregis bother him and so the penalties incurred by him with increasing regularity these days become easier to dismiss. A day of reckoning will come for him as it will for each of us.”

Blessings,
+The Most Reverend Rene Henry Gracida

►  Another website, The Catholic Thing, also showed a distaste for the Vatican Gardens Ceremony [Devotion to Our Lady comments are red and in square parenthesis]:

“On Saturday, Pope Francis along with Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri (both leaders of the Synod) attended an indigenous ritual, a tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican gardens. Participants danced around a ‘mandala’ [the literal meaning word ‘mandala’ means circle―their emergence in regions across the Himalaya and India, where people used the artistic expression of mandalas to form symbolic relationships between the universe and the spirit, whichever way you look at it―it links to paganism and not Christianity], spread soil from ‘symbolic places,’ and bowed to two female [bare-breasted and seemingly naked or half-naked] fertility figures. The pope himself threw in the first shovelful of dirt … This is no small matter and it’s difficult to see how cardinals and bishops simply let it pass. Many don’t, privately, but this will have major public repercussions, not least the scandal of suggesting that Christ is not the only way to the Father ― which the Vatican seems more and more ready to allow. We have here another example of confusion over the [recent] Abu Dhabi Statement, that Pope Francis signed, asserting that God willed a ‘pluralism and diversity of religions.’ … It’s worth remembering too that fertility gods were associated with child sacrifice in the ancient Mideast … Some indigenous gods in the New World, too, notoriously demanded human sacrifice. So, why flirt with the very things God Himself long ago revealed were false and dangerous – and therefore to be avoided? Some of the organizers have claimed that one of the [bare-breasted and seemingly naked or half-naked] female figures was Our Lady of the Amazon. But this hardly makes everything okay. You don’t need to be a liturgical expert to see that the whole ritual doesn’t exactly worship the God of Abraham. This sort of thing, which has now taken place on the very grounds of the Vatican, seems to be precisely what the synod organizers had in mind when they wrote of including indigenous elements in the Amazon church’s liturgy. And what many Catholics view as dangerous and reckless.”

►  There is the website, CatholicTV, that has a video―1 hour and 12 minutes long―that shows the entire ceremony in the Vatican Gardens. Having watched it, one can only lament at the overpowering humanism and elements of paganism that saturate something that should be predominantly religious. Sure, there are religious elements―some prayers, some singing, a few signs of the cross―but the overall tone is one of humanism and paganism. No commonly expected accessories of Christianity on display―crucifix, statues of Our Lady or the saints (except the dubious bare-breasted and seemingly naked or half-naked kneeling statues of pregnant women, once of which is allegedly supposed to be Our Lady of the Amazon! You can watch the entire video by clicking on this link― http://www.catholictv.org/shows/papal-programming/saint-francis-assisi-vatican-gardens

A Walking Contradiction―A Papal Paradox
Pope Francis shows his paradoxical and contradictory behavior by not practicing what he preaches. For way before this Pagan Garden Party, in a homily on November 29th, 2018, Pope Francis spoke of the fate of Jerusalem, saying that she will see her ruin because of “the corruption that comes from unfaithfulness to love―she was not able to recognize the love of God in His Son.”

The Pope said that the holy city would be “trampled underfoot by pagans” and punished by the Lord, because she opened the doors of her heart to pagans. He explained that “The paganization of life can occur―in our case, the [paganization of] Christian life. Do we live as Christians? It seems like we do! But really our life is pagan! When these things happen―when we are seduced by Babylon and Jerusalem lives like Babylon. The two seek a synthesis which cannot be effected [being both pagan and Christian, materialistic and spiritual]. And both are condemned. Are you a Christian? Are you Christian? Live like a Christian! Water and oil do not mix! They are always distinct. A contradictory society that professes Christianity, but lives like a pagan, shall end.” (“Pope at Mass: ‘So-called Christian societies will end if pagan'”, Vatican News, November 29th, 2018). Now, with this recent Pagan Garden Party, he is doing the very thing he was criticizing―water and oil do not mix, they are always distinct! Hmm!

Article 7
The Opening Days of the Syncretic Synful Synod!

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

What do you think the outcome will be?

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

When the Synod Hits the Floor
The long-awaited, much disputed, greatly feared and widely smeared Synod has hit Rome! The soul-searching, soil-slinging, song-singing, stealthily stinging, syncretic sounding, secretly syndicated, sinfully synchronized, synod starts! This is more than a mere playing with words―each of those “s” words is starkly and sadly true! But before we go further, let us explain one or two of those mysterious and hard to understand words.

The word “syncretism” is defined as “the reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion” ― which is exactly what the Synod has on its agenda.

The word “synchronize” means “to cause to occur or operate at the same time as something else” as in, for example, “The military units synchronized their operations” or “They synchronized their trip to coincide with the annual art festival” ― which can be seen by a worldwide synchronization of escalation in national and international tensions and divisions―this current actual division in the Church, caused by the Amazon Synod, risks escalating into a schism, which would be the equivalent of the potential civil wars that are currently fermenting in many nations.

The word “syndicate” means “an association of people to promote a common interest, or carry out some project or enterprise; or a loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities.”

Can’t Help Feeling That…
Stepping back and looking at the events in the whole world over the last 40 or 50 years, one can see a disconcerting though unsurprising pattern. The devil’s favorite stratagem―the “divide and conquer” tactic―can be seen to be operating more and more frequently, with greater and greater success, thanks to the fact that we are growing more and more stupid, and less and less concerned about spiritual and eternal matters, while becoming addicted to earthly, worldly, political, social, material and physical matters. The world―whose prince the devil is―does a masterful work of distraction and attraction, so that the devil can “pickpocket” souls of their grace and Faith.

This “divide and conquer” technique is at the root of all divisive tensions in both State and Church―with its ultimate roots descending into Hell. Satan and the fallen angels were the initial divisive rebels―with the cry of “I will not serve!”―and they have instigated that same division everywhere ever since. From dividing Adam and Eve from God, to the multiple divisions we now see in State and Church, family, school, workplace and parish. Social unrest has become the proverbial “perpetual soup” that is always simmering on the stove day and night―with new ingredients being added daily to keep it simmering and cooking. That is exactly what we happening around us―a perpetual soup of division, always simmering, perpetually boiling, never stopping. Since the middle of the last century, you can see that ever-growing worldwide subversion, division, unrest, protest, conflict and outright war flare-up constantly throughout the world―to the point where there is never a period of worldwide peace to be observed.

Synod Soup
That same “perpetual soup” of division is currently on the Vatican’s Menu for the Amazon Synod. If you have read the Instrumentum Laboris, you will see that is a “sweet-and-sour” soup―very dense and very daring. The chefs behind the soup are far from being traditional chefs―they have a thirst and tendency for “avant-garde-cuisine” ― the term “avant-garde” is defined as “the advance group in any field, especially in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods.” That most certainly is the Amazon Synod’s Soup―unorthodox and experimental.

One has to wonder if their soup is of the kind that God speaks about, when He says: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16). As God shoves His bowl of Amazon Synod Soup aside and demands it be returned to the culpable chef, He might well be heard to utter: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).

Opening Day of the Synod
Just as expected, the opening day of the Amazon Synod saw the slithering snakes of Satan slyly slide into the opening proceedings.

The opening speeches at the Amazon Synod insisted upon having an openness to new ways of thinking and not to be resistant to new ideas. Among these “new ideas” that one should not resist was (1) the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood , in order to solve the severe lack of Catholic priests across the nine-nation Amazonian region, and (2) finding a way for the Church to offer Amazonian women official ministerial work.

Pope Francis, in his homily at the opening of the Amazon Synod, stressed: “The gift we have received is a fire, a burning love for God and for our brothers and sisters. A fire does not burn by itself; it has to be fed or else it dies; it turns into ashes. If everything continues as it was, if we spend our days content that ‘this is the way things have always been done’, then the gift vanishes, smothered by the ashes of fear and concern for defending the status quo … The Church is always on the move, always going out and never withdrawn into itself. Jesus did not come to bring a gentle evening breeze, but to light a fire on the Earth. The fire that rekindles the gift is the Holy Spirit, the giver of gifts … Fidelity to the newness of the Spirit is a grace that we must ask for in prayer. May the Spirit, Who makes all things new, give us His own daring prudence; may He inspire our Synod to renew the paths of the Church in Amazonia … The fire of God is warmth that attracts and gathers into unity. It is fed by sharing, not by profits. On the other hand, the fire that destroys, blazes up when people want to promote only their own ideas, form their own group, wipe out differences in the attempt to make everyone and everything uniform.”

The Brazilian Cardinal, Claudio Hummes, who is the Synod’s lead organizer, suggested that those two possibilities be considered one of six "core issues" of the three-week Synod gathering. In addressing the 185 voting prelates and 80 non-voting experts attending the Synod, Hummes insisted: “The Church cannot remain inactive within her own closed circle, focused on herself, surrounded by protective walls and even less can she look nostalgically to the past. The Church needs to throw open her doors, knock down the walls surrounding her and build bridges, going out into the world and setting out on the path of history. In these times of momentous changes, the Church must always walk next to everyone and especially those living on the margins of humankind; an outgoing Church … A Church open to dialogue, especially interreligious and intercultural dialogue. A Church that is welcoming and wanting to share a synodal path with other churches, religions, sciences, governments, institutions, peoples, communities and persons.”

Cardinal Hummes then quoted Pope Francis, in a later stage of his address: “One must not fear what is new. In his 2013 Pentecost homily, Pope Francis already expressed the idea that, ‘Newness always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more secure if we have everything under control, if we are the ones who build, program and plan our lives in accordance with our own ideas, our own comfort, our own preferences… (…) We fear that God may force us to strike out on new paths and leave behind our all too narrow, closed and selfish horizons in order to become open to his own. Yet throughout the history of salvation, whenever God reveals himself, he brings newness ― God always brings newness ― and demands our complete trust.’ In the Evangelii Gaudium (no. 11), the Pope portrays Jesus Christ as ‘eternal newness’. He is always new, He is always the same newness, yesterday, today and forever. He is what is new. So we must not fear newness, we must not fear Christ, the new. This Synod is in search of new pathways.”

So there you have―we need a new Church and we should not be afraid of knocking down the walls of the old Church and going out to meet the world and building bridges to the world. We must be new. We must have a spirit of newness. We must not fear newness. We must not be tied to the past. The Church is always on the move. God will take us onto new paths. We must be faithful to the newness of the Spirit. Trusting in the God who always brings newness. Faithful to the new Christ.

What About Our Lord's Viewpoint and that of Holy Scripture?
What does Our Lord say of the world and building bridges to the world and going out to the world? Jesus said: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). If you cannot see the opposition that Christ places between Himself and the world, then you are incredibly blind or willfully blind!

Holy Scripture adds: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).

After reading that―now read once again the chief recommendations given at the opening day of the Amazon Synod: “The Church can no longer remain inactive within her own closed circle, focused on herself, [while] surrounded by protective walls. The Church needs to throw open her doors, knock down the walls surrounding her and build bridges, going out into the world and setting out on the path of history! God always brings newness … One must not fear what is new! … This synod is in search of new pathways!”

So there you have it―we need a new Church and we should not be afraid of knocking down the walls of the old Church and going out to meet the world and building bridges to the world.

What About Our Lord?
What does Our Lord say of the world and building bridges to the world and going out to the world? Jesus said: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). If you cannot see the opposition that Christ places between Himself and the world, then you are incredibly blind or willfully blind!

Holy Scripture adds: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).

After reading that―now read once again the chief recommendations given at the opening day of the Amazon Synod: “The Church can no longer remain inactive within her own closed circle, focused on herself, [while] surrounded by protective walls. The Church needs to throw open her doors, knock down the walls surrounding her and build bridges, going out into the world and setting out on the path of history! God always brings newness … one must not fear what is new!”

Anne Catherine Emmerich’s Visions of a New Church
Think what you will of Divine Private Revelation―bearing in mind the Fatima and Lourdes were Divine Private Revelations and the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on Divine Private Revelation, not to forget that God’s communications with Noe, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and a whole host of prophets in the Old Testament were also Divine Private Revelations until the Church classified them as Divine Public Revelation―let us cast an eye at the Divine Private Revelations granted to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich concerning our times, especially in regard to the “two popes” and the creation of a “new church”. Here are some relevant extracts from her visions:

If―as not a few observers seem to think―Pope Benedict XVI was forced to resign under threat, to make way for Francis, the person who was “runner-up” in Benedict’s papal election in 2008 and the “chosen one” by clandestine bishops and cardinals that made up the so-called “St. Gallen Mafia”―who were allegedly plotting and planning on how to depose Benedict and successfully elect Francis at the second attempt (after the 2008 failure)―if this is the case, then the following elements of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s visions are currently being played out.

Here is what she saw: “I saw the secret sect relentlessly undermining the great Church ... I also saw Jews standing under the porch of the Church … They want to take from the shepherd [the pope] his own pasture grounds! They want to fill his place with one who will hand all over to the enemy! … I had a vision of two churches and two Popes and a variety of things, ancient and modern. I saw also the relationship between two popes … Then I saw the connection between the two Popes and the two temples … I was shown how weak the one pope had been in adherents and human support, but how strong in courage … and, on the contrary, how strong in numbers and yet how irresolute in action was the other pope, since, in authorizing the erection of false temples, he had allowed the only true God, the only true religion to be lost among so many false gods and false religions.”

“I see the Holy Father in great distress. He lives in another palace and receives only a limited number of persons into his presence. If the wicked party knew their own great strength, they would even now have made an attack. I fear the Holy Father will suffer many tribulations before his death, for I see the black counterfeit church gaining ground, I see its fatal influence on the public. The distress of the Holy Father and of the Church is really so great that one ought to pray to God day and night. I have been told to pray much for the Church and the Pope.

“I see the Holy Father in great anguish. He lives in a palace other than before [notice how Pope Benedict XVI no longer lives in the Papal residence?] and he admits only a limited number of friends near him. I see that the false Church of darkness is making progress and I see the dreadful influence it has on the people. The Holy Father and the Church are verily in so great a distress that one must implore God night and day … I have been told to pray much for the Church and the Pope … The people must pray earnestly for the extirpation (rooting out) of the dark church.

“Last night I was taken to Rome where the Holy Father immersed in his sorrow, is still hiding to elude dangerous demands (made upon him). He is still very weak, and exhausted by sorrows, cares and prayers. He can now trust but few people. That is mainly why he is hiding. But he still has with him an aged priest who has much simplicity and godliness. He is his friend and because of his simplicity they did not think it would be worth removing him. But this man receives many graces from God. He sees and notices a great many things which he faithfully reports to the Holy Father.

“I saw a strange church being built against every rule … There was nothing holy in it ... I did not see a single Angel nor a single saint helping in the work. In that church, nothing came from high above … All in this church belonged to the Earth, returned to the Earth. All was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style and fashion, a church of man’s invention … Everywhere I see great misery, hatred, treason, rancor, confusion and utter blindness ... There was only division and chaos. It is a church of human creation … the new heterodox church of Rome.

“I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps.

“I now see that in this place (Rome) the (Catholic) Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for destruction, even the clergy. A great devastation is now near at hand … I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church; I saw it increase; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city (of Rome). I saw the ever-increasing lukewarmness of the clergy, and I saw a great darkness, the circle of darkness ever widening … I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions ... Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, sects of every description ... They were building a great, strange, and extravagant new church. There was something proud, presumptuous, and violent about it, and they seemed very successful. Such was to be the new ‘church’ … Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence ... I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church ... A bad priest will do much harm to the Church. When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on Earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish ... But God had other designs!”

Article 6
A Stranglehold Over the Church and Synod

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

Who holds all the cards in the House of Cards?

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Who Holds the Cards in the House of Cards?
You can play around quite a lot with the word “Card”!

► A “library/membership/business card” is defined as: “a small, rectangular piece of stiff paper or plastic with information on it that shows who you are or allows you to do something.”

► The word “credit card” is defined as “a small rectangular piece of plastic, issued by a bank, containing personal data in a machine-readable form and used chiefly to obtain cash or credit.” We use our credit/debit/charge cards to buy our groceries, purchase other things and pay for services.

► We also have a “deck of cards” which is defined as: “a set of 52 small (or another number of) rectangular pieces of stiff paper, each with a number or letter and one of four symbols printed on it, used in playing card games.”

► From this we get the word a “card-sharp” or “card-shark” which is defined as: “a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games”

► The expression― “hold all the cards” ― is defined as: “to be in a strong position when you are competing with someone else, because you have all the advantages”―as in the sentence: “Management holds all the cards when it comes to the negotiations over job cuts.”

► The expression― “He’s such a card!” ― if sound in Charles Dickens’ 1852 book, Bleak House, where he writes of a person: “Such an old card has this―so deep, so sly, and secret.”

► We also have the “Seven Cardinal Sins!” also known as the “Seven Deadly Sins” ― and there is actually, in real life, a prelate of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, whose last name was “Sin” and he was also a cardinal, thus “Cardinal Sin.” Cardinal Sin died in 2005, aged 78.

► This leads us to the “Cardinals” of the Catholic Church, who are leading bishops and princes of College of Cardinals in the Catholic Church. Their duties include participating in Papal consistories, and Papal conclaves (Papal elections), when the Holy See is vacant. Most cardinals have additional missions―such as leading a diocese or a dicastery (department} of the Roman Curia (which is the equivalent of a government of the Holy See). During the sede vacante (the period between a pope’s death or resignation and the election of his successor), and leading roles in the day-to-day governance of the Holy See are in the hands of the College of Cardinals. The right to enter the Papal conclave of cardinals―where the pope is elected―is limited to those cardinals who have not yet reached the age of 80 years by the day the papal vacancy occurs. You could, in a way, call the Church (especially in Rome) a “House of Cards” ― as in a “House of Cardinals.”

► The novel, “House of Cards” is a political thriller novel by British author Michael Dobbs. Published in 1989, it tells the story of Francis Urquhart, a fictional Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, and his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A television adaptation of the novel “House of Cards” was produced by the BBC was aired in 1990. In 2013, the “House of Cards” serial and the Dobbs novel “House of Cards” were the basis for a US television adaptation set in Washington, D.C. The American “House of Cards” is an American political thriller and an adaptation of the 1990 BBC mini-series. The American “House of Cards” is set in Washington, D.C. and is the story of Congressman Frank {Francis??) Underwood, a Democrat from South Carolina and House Majority Whip, and his equally ambitious wife Claire Underwood. Frank is passed over for appointment as Secretary of State {Pope Francis was passed over for appointment as pope, when he came second in the voting that saw Benedict XVI elected), so he initiates an elaborate plan to attain power, aided by Claire (The so-called “St. Gallen Mafia” group of cardinals and bishops were behind the plot to get Francis elected as pope). The series deals with themes of ruthless pragmatism, manipulation, betrayal, and power. Hmm! Food for thought!

► The expression ― “House of Cards” ― which was used for both the above novel by Dobbs and the British/American TV adaptations of the novel, actually dates back to 1645, and is based on the phenomenon of building a ‘house’ or ‘tower’ or any other structure with a deck of playing cards, which, as a result, is precariously balanced together. The idiomatic meaning “a House of Cards” refers to a structure or an argument that is built on a shaky foundation, or on a foundation that will collapse if a necessary (but possibly overlooked or unappreciated) element is removed―just as the ‘house’ or ‘tower’ of playing cards will collapse once a single card is removed.

► The card that most people need and want is the “get out of jail free card” which is defined as “a metaphorical way to refer to anything that will get someone out of an undesirable situation or allow them to avoid punishment.” The phrase “get out of jail free card” was popularized by the board game, Monopoly, which includes only two physical “get out of jail free cards”. They are placed in the “Community Chest” and “Chance” sections of the game, these small cards can be earned by players who pick them up during game-play. With the mess in the Church today, and the inescapable fact that most souls are lost, a spiritual “get out of jail free card” or “get out of this mess free card” or “get out of Purgatory free card” or “get out of Hell free card” or is probably the best card you could ever be dealt! Unlike Monopoly, which is merely a game with no real effect in real ilfe―there actually are some “get out of Purgatory free cards” or “get out of Hell free cards” ― it’s just that few people pick them up and use them.

Shuffling the Pack, Stacking the Deck, Holding the Aces
He who holds the pope, “holds the cards”, for the pope can “shuffle the pack” how he wants and “stack the deck” as he wants. Whoever thinks that Pope Francis is his “own man” needs to think again. Even Pope Francis―writing in his Apostolic Exhortation, Laudoto Si’, on May 24th 2015―repeatedly says that everything is connected: “I will point to … the conviction that everything in the world is connected (§16) … a conviction which we today share, that everything is interconnected (§70) … Everything is connected (§91) … Everything is related (§92) … Everything is connected (§117) … Everything is interrelated (§120) … Everything is closely interrelated (§137)… Everything is interconnected (§138).” It looks and sounds like Francis is truly connected with connections! When you read what the enemies of the Church think of Pope Francis and what they have publicly stated and written about Pope Francis [read about it here], then you will agree with Pope Francis―that everything is connected and that Francis has his connections.

Coming back the above definition of a “card-sharp” as “a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games” ― one has to ask if the “cunning” Pope Francis is playing risky poker with the Faith and the Church. Having been trained and formed in the “card-school” of the Jesuits, who are renowned for their “cunning”, it is not surprising to hear Francis speak often of “cunning” and be called “cunning” by others.

►  The UK Catholic Herald, in 2014, quotes the Pope as saying:“Christians should go out into the world to follow God―but use ‘holy cunning’ to guard against the snares of temptation, Pope Francis said today” (UK Catholic Herald, January 6th, 2014).

►  In 2916, the Italian journal, La Stampa, reporting on Pope Francis’ homily in September 2016, wrote: “There is a Christian cunning, an honest craftiness that has nothing whatsoever to do with the cunning of a crook or an exploiter. Pope Francis said this at the Mass he celebrated this morning at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens. The Pope talked about … the parable of the dishonest steward in Luke’s Gospel … ‘In this parable,’ the Pope said, ‘the master praises the dishonest steward for his worldly and deeply sinful cunning. But there is a Christian cunning, which involves a craftiness in one’s actions but an honest craftiness, devoid of a worldly spirit. This is what Jesus says when he invites people to be cunning like serpents and simple as doves: combining these two dimensions is a grace of the Holy Spirit, a grace we must ask for.’” (September 18th, 2016).

►  On September 22nd, 2018, the American Conservative quotes a piece of news from the very Liberal German news-magazine, Der Spiegel, Issue 39 for 2018, in which the Liberal Pope Francis is portrayed as man of cunning and lies. The American Conservative states:

“It is very, very tough — but fair. If this story had appeared in a Conservative magazine, it would not have been remarkable. Don’t get me wrong — it’s a good piece. But the fact that it appears in a German magazine with a generally Liberal editorial line — well, that’s a bellwether … Here’s how the [Der Speigel] report begins:

“‘The earthquake that shakes the Vatican City is scarcely noticeable in the epicenter. Behind high walls there is silence in the ecclesial state. The curtains in front of the papal apartment in the guest house Santa Marta are closed, a Swiss guard is guarding the entrance, a policeman patrols. The control center of the global Church is like a fortress. Only behind closed doors do cardinals and archbishops speak about what has happened to the foundations of the Church … It is increasingly about Pope Francis. About lies, intrigues, and ‘a Holy Father, who likes no one to question the truth of Faith in front of him,” says a grizzled cardinal at the court of Francis. Look at this quote: “I did not believe a word of this Francis from the beginning,” says a staunch cardinal―who does not want to be named: “He preaches mercy, but is in truth an icy, cunning Machiavellian and worse―he’s lying!”’ [End of the Der Spiegel quote. The American Conservative then continues]: “There is in the piece a good bit about the abuse scandals that Bergoglio left behind in Argentina. An experienced lawyer for victims says that Francis shows a benign face to the public, but a very different one in private, when confronted about abusive priests.” (American Conservative, September 22nd, 2018).

►  The Irish Independent newspaper reported in 2014: “The Pope recalled that celibacy was adopted 900 years after the death of Jesus and pointed out that the Eastern Church allows its priests to marry. ‘There definitely is a problem, but it is not a major one,’ he was reported as saying. ‘This needs time, but there are solutions and I will find them’ … In countless reports on the interview worldwide, links were made between this latest statement on celibacy and earlier ruminations on homosexuality, abortion and other controversial matters. If the Pope had been aiming to keep the pot boiling, he can certainly be said to have succeeded. Eugenio Scalfari is an atheist, the elder statesman of Italian Liberal journalism.

“This in itself prompts an interesting question: Why does the Pope repeatedly opt to speak through someone who has made no secret of his personal unbelief, who has a limited grasp of the nuances of Catholic theology and who is attached to a newspaper espousing a strong ideological antagonism towards the Church? Even more interesting is that Scalfari has used neither a notebook nor a tape recorder in any of the three interviews he’s conducted with Pope Francis. Apparently, in accordance with the Pope’s wishes, the interviews have been written on the basis of Scalfari’s recollections of their lengthy conversations. It seems an unnecessarily hazardous method — unless the resulting ambiguity and potential for confusion are risks Pope Francis is not entirely unhappy to take.

“Up to the point when he became pope, nothing he had said suggested Cardinal Bergoglio as a ‘progressive’ … Some people talk about Pope Francis — some in admiration, some not — as though he is not a Catholic at all, but a Liberal interloper determined to dismantle some of the key moral teachings of the Church. A disconsolate conservative rump regards him as a dangerous showman, indifferent to the consequences of unwarranted loose talking, prepared to sell out on the truth for an easy popularity. More than a few in the Church are confused, but remain loyal and obedient because the pope is given to them by the Holy Spirit. There are others who see him as the pontiff with the cunning plan, the purveyor of a constructive ambiguity designed to throw the enemies of the Church off guard. Within a few weeks of his election, he started saying things that appeared to throw open the Church’s position on hot-button issues like homosexuality, abortion, women priests and clerical celibacy. These statements, together with what is interpreted as a left-leaning position on economics, have turned Pope Francis into the darling of the liberal media and the new white hope of ‘progressive’ Catholics.” (The Irish Independent, July 20th, 2014).

Pope Francis Cunningly Playing His Cards Close to His Chest

►  In one of homilies in 2014, Pope Francis stressed the need for cunning: “One aspect of the light which guides us on the journey of Faith is holy ‘cunning’. This holy ‘cunning’ is also a virtue. It consists of a spiritual shrewdness which enables us to recognize danger and avoid it. The Magi used this light of ‘cunning’ when, on the way back, they decided not to pass by the gloomy palace of Herod, but to take another route. These wise men from the East teach us how not to fall into the snares of darkness and how to defend ourselves from the shadows which seek to envelop our life … They teach us not to be content with a life of mediocrity, of ‘playing it safe’, but to let ourselves be attracted always by what is good, true and beautiful … And they teach us not to be deceived by appearances, by what the world considers great, wise and powerful … We need to welcome the light of God into our hearts and, at the same time, to cultivate that spiritual cunning which is able to combine simplicity with astuteness, as Jesus told his disciples: ‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’.” (Pope Francis, homily on January 6th, 2014).

►  The UK news magazine, The Week, in an article on May 23rd, 2018, entitled “Pope Francis’ Cunning Long Game”, states that: “Pope Francis’ stealth reform of the Roman Catholic Church shows no sign of slowing down — and may even be accelerating. Stealth is key here. If the pope had declared that henceforth the Roman Catholic Church would authoritatively teach that homosexuals should be happy being gay, that God made them homosexual, and that God himself (along with the pope) loves them just the way they are, it would have been a massive story in the history of Catholicism — and one that quite likely would have precipitated a major schism, with conservative bishops and priests (mainly in North America and Africa) formally breaking from Rome. But because word of the pope saying these things comes to us second hand, in a report of a private conversation between Francis and a gay man named Juan Carlos Cruz―the utterance will go down as just the latest example of the pope making unorthodox statements in settings in which he has plausible deniability and in which he can claim he was speaking as a pastor rather than as an expositor of the Church's official dogmas and doctrines.”

“If Pope Francis were a straightforward reformer, he would seek to change Church doctrine regardless of the potentially dire consequences for Church unity. But Francis is well aware of the limits of his power and the danger of pushing too far too fast. So he has set out on a different, and distinctive, path. We first saw it early in his pontificate when the pope spoke to reporters about his views on homosexuality. In contrast to Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), who declared in a 1986 letter to the bishops of the Church that same-sex desires aim toward an “intrinsic moral evil,” Francis told the press that “if someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

“It continued in September 2014 with a marriage ceremony over which Francis presided at St Peter's. Some of the 20 couples involved had been previously married, while others had given birth to children out of wedlock or lived with their fiancées before marriage. That prior behavior placed them firmly out of step with the requirements of Catholic doctrine, and yet the pope participated and blessed the marriages. And on it has gone, through the notorious footnote in the apostolic exhortation that was published at the conclusion of the 2015 Synod on the Family, seeming to give priests the pastoral leeway to offer the sacrament of communion to parishioners who have been divorced and remarried without receiving an annulment of their first marriages. It has made headlines most recently when an elderly Italian journalist asserted that in an interview with Francis the pope had denied the dogma of Hell. And now there is Francis' apparent elaboration of his latitudinarian beliefs about homosexuality.

“What unites all of these examples is a distinctive approach to Church dogma and doctrine. Instead of acting as an expositor of these core teachings of the Church, the pope selectively diverges from them in his actions and statements without deigning to change the teachings themselves. The implicit message is the same in every case: The pope himself thinks it's possible to be a member of the Church in good standing while failing to abide by all of the institution's rules.

“This is significantly different than the pope acknowledging that everyone is a sinner and will therefore break the rules from time to time. That standard view presumes that the divergence from the rule is a failing that requires repentance and reconciliation (the sacrament of confession), along with the intention on the part of the sinner to do better next time. Francis' position is different — implying that the lack of conformity to Church teaching is acceptable, requiring no change or improvement in behavior. Juan Carlos Cruz is gay, that's how God made him, and there's nothing wrong with that. But of course Church teaching contradicts this. Which puts Pope Francis in the position of effectively promulgating two truths — implicitly affirming the official, harsher doctrine while subtly undermining it with a less stringent pastoral teaching. Instead of seeking to change the underlying rules, which would risk divisiveness and even schism, he shows that it's perfectly alright for a priest or layperson to diverge from or ignore the rule in the name of welcoming as many people as possible to Christ's Church.

“Conservative Catholics, like Ross Douthat, worry that Francis’ fudging of doctrinal truth will have bad consequences for the Church because it simply defers a necessary debate about what the Church actually believes. Better to have the argument sooner rather than later. But I think the pope’s strategy for a longer game displays greater psychological acuity — and Machiavellian cunning. Francis may be betting that once the Church stops preaching those doctrines that conflict most severely with modern moral norms, the number of people who uphold and revere them will decline rapidly (within a generation or two). Once that has happened, officially changing the doctrine will be much easier and much less likely to provoke a schism (or at least a major one) than it is in the present. That’s the great advantage of pursuing a strategy of stealth reform: The seed planted now with a minimum of conflict bears fruits in the future with even less. It's never been more obvious that this is precisely what Pope Francis has in mind.”

“Long-Term Game Plan” ― “Cunning” ― “Double-Standards”
We see this “long-term game” and “cunning” and “double-standards” of Pope Francis come into play with Church sex scandal. In his December 18th Christmas address of 2018 to the members and staff of the Vatican, Pope Francis made an unprecedented call for priests who had abused children to turn themselves in and vowed the Church will “never again” hide their crimes. “Let it be clear that before these abominations the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes.” He added a warning to abusers: “Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice.”

If the Church will “never again” hide their crimes, what about all homosexuals who have ever been active, turning themselves in? If the Church “never again” hide their crimes―what about all those Catholics who have committed an abortion turning themselves in? ― because they are also part of the Church! If the Church will “never again” hide their crimes―what about all Catholic parents who have had an abortion or help get an abortion turning themselves in if the Church will “never again” hide their crimes? ― because they are also part of the Church! If the Church will “never again” hide their crimes―what about all Catholic parents who have ever committed adultery turning themselves in if? ― because they are also part of the Church! If the Church will “never again” hide their crimes―what about all those Catholics who have abused their children, siblings or others turning themselves in? ― because they are also part of the Church!

For that matter If the Church will “never again” hide their crimes and if this is turning oneself in such a good thing―why not remove the obligatory seal of confession from priests, so that they can turn in any and every Catholic who has ever committed a serious sin? ― because they are also part of the Church! Instead of turning a blind-eye to all the sinful same-sex unions within the Church; instead of turning a blind-eye to perpetrators of abortion within the Church (woman, or aborter); instead of turning a blind-eye to the rampant cohabitation and fornication within the Church; instead of turning a blind-eye to equally rampant adultery within the Church; instead of turning a blind-eye to the sacrileges within the Church―what about not turning a blind-eye, but turning them all in? Why not? Why stop with the clergy? Do not all the other members of the Catholic Church need to be told to “hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice”?

For that matter―if this is what the world and the media want and are definitely baying for―why does not everyone in the world hand themselves over “to human justice, and prepare for divine justice”? That is a legitimate and logical question that needs to be answered―not just by Francis, not just by Catholic priests, not just by the Catholic laity, not just by the world’s media, but by every single soul walking on this planet! And that question will be answered one day―at least on Judgment Day―when the following words of Christ and God will be thrown in their faces. But before we come to those scathing and damning words of God, let us briefly give a possible reason as WHY Francis is saying what he is saying.

The Cunning Church Castigation of Francis
Objectively speaking―and not just speaking subjectively from emotion or from feelings, or from a bias or prejudice―if you follow Francis, you will quickly catch-on that he “speaks out of both sides of his mouth”―meaning that he says both yes and no to the same thing, he calls the same thing black and white, good or bad, etc. He is rarely transparently clear on many major things―or if he is on one day, the next day he steams-up the window and it no longer that clear.

This is typical of Liberalism and Modernism―they will change their language and attitude to suit the audience and confuse people as to their true standpoint or belief. “Keep ‘em guessin’!” or “Don’t paint an obvious target on your back!” is the typical Liberal and Modernist maneuver. Francis preaches charity but them shows only selective charity. He preaches mercy, but shows only selective mercy. We are all like that to some extent―favoring our own. Francis favors those of his own ilk, his own kind. Hence he has great toleration for Liberal homosexuals, and little toleration for Conservative homosexuals. He is more of a Catholic politician than a Catholic pope.

One has to wonder why the enemies of the Church like and even love him so much! Perhaps the enemies of the Church are obeying Christ’s command and loving their enemy (the Catholic Church); or perhaps they love Francis because essentially―explicitly or implicitly, by design or not―they see that he is one of them, an enemy of the Church. Of course, Francis cannot go around saying he is an enemy of the Church―which enemy in his right mind would fight like that? Insanity!

Article 5
A "Tail" of Two Faiths! Which Tail is Doing the Wagging?

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

The Tail is Wagging the Dog! Whose Tail is it?

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

First of All―What Are We Dealing With? What is the Make-Up of the Church?
As of September 26th, 2019, there are 212 Cardinals in the Catholic Church―Cardinals are usually only bishops who are merely given more responsibilities. According to the latest Annuario Pontifico for the year 2018 (The Pontifical Yearbook―a kind of yearly “almanac” for the Catholic Church worldwide), there were 5,304 bishops in the Catholic Church as of 2018. The numbers of priests in the whole world were listed by the 2018 Annuario Pontifico as being 414,969 (282,010 diocesan priests and 132,959 religious order priests); while the number of non-priest male religious (monks or brothers) was listed as being 52,625; and the number of women religious as being 659,445. This gives a total of just over 1 million clergy and religious ― 1,132,343 ― among a listed Catholic world population of 1,300 million (1.3 billion), which is a ratio of 1 clergy/religious to 1,148 lay people.

The average number of Catholics per priest in the world is 3,132―but not all priests are engaged in the active ministry. Some religious order priests do not have an active ministry among the laity and many diocesan priests are retired and of them many are of a very old age and in retirement homes, some of them sick and incapacitated. So that total number of combined diocesan and religious priests ― 414,969 ― looking after 1,300 million lay Catholics is grossly overstated.

It is difficult to find worldwide figure for the number of priests who are in active service, but in the USA the percentage of diocesan priests active in the ministry has steadily declined from 90% in 1970 to a mere 66% (or two-thirds) by 2018. If we apply a similar percentage (33%) decline to the worldwide number of diocesan priest in active ministry, then only 188,007 diocesan priests are in active ministry, which would give you almost 7,000 Catholics per diocesan priest. If you also reduce the 132,959 religious order priests by 33% due to old age, then their reduced number becomes 88,640. Even if all religious priests were involved in active ministry among the Catholic laity―which is not the case―then you would at best have a combined total (both active diocesan and active religious priests) of 276,647 priests taking care of 1,300 million Catholics (if all of them were practicing Catholics, which, sadly, they are not), giving a ratio of 1 priest per 4,700 Catholics.

That is one heck of a shortage of priests! If the priest were to hear the confessions of all of them―purely a speculative thing, since hardly anyone goes to confession anymore―then, giving 5 minutes per confession, it would take 1 priest 390 hours to get through his 4,700 “parishioners”―if you put that into a context of a 40-hour working week of doing nothing else but hearing confessions, then those 5-minute confessions would take up almost 10 weeks or 2½ months of the year. But would one 5 minute confession a year be enough for most folk? What if they need to go just once a month which would be 12 times a year―then the priest would need 120 weeks in a 52 week year, or 30 months in 12 month year to merely hear confessions based on a 40-hour week! Okay, so children under the age of reason do not go to confession―but that only accounts for about 10% of the population―so it would still mean around 4,230 5-minute confessions per priest―totaling 350+ hours, or almost nine 40-hour weeks, or over 2 months just to hear each confession once. Given 12 confessions per person per year (excluding those under the age of reason), that would require a 96-week year, or a 27 month year. That is one heck of a shortage of priests!

Church Attendance and Practice of the Faith
Before we start to look at the various “flavors of the Faith”―let us first look at the practice of the Faith, which will give us some indication as the “flavor.” The number of regularly practicing Catholics has plummeted worldwide―go where you will, especially in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australasia, and you will see terrifying statistics. Terrifying―because these are souls that are risking their eternal salvation by fostering their eternal damnation by practically and perpetually living in a state of mortal sin. Overall―and estimates vary from optimistic to pessimistic―the percentage of Catholics that regularly attend Sunday (the missing of which is a mortal sin) stands at an average of around 20%. That means that some countries are way below that average―such as France (2% of Catholics), Italy (15% of Catholics), Spain (13% of Catholics), Germany (10% of Catholics). The average weekly attendance for the 18 European countries surveyed was 12%. Other countries show better numbers, but those numbers have also plummeted from much higher numbers―Poland (39% down from over 90%), Ireland 36% (down from over 90%), England 25% (down from 40%). Yet out of the minority that still practice the Faith regularly, how many of those are in a state of mortal sin? Very few go to confession, while the sources of temptation have increased a hundredfold or a thousandfold over the last 20 or 30 years. They might be practicing their Faith by regularly attending Sunday Mass―but what state is there soul in?

All of this paints a picture that is far worse than any picture you could possibly paint of the problems in the Amazon. The current Synod is focusing on lesser issues whilst leaving major issues unattended. It is like a man trying fix the problem of a squeaky door while his house is on fire! Or a doctor worrying over a patient’s cut finger when he has a severe gunshot wound. They are not seeing the forest because of a tree―to which they have glued their noses.

We Are Living in an Upside-Down World
Without doubt, we are currently living in a world that has reversed so many traditional and true values―which, incidentally, is the hallmark of Satan. It is an age “that calls evil good, and good evil: that puts darkness for light, and light for darkness: that puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).

Divorce is now called ‘good’―and opposing it is a hate crime. Contraception is now called ‘good’―opposing it is opposing the woman’s rights and is a hate crime. Abortion is now called ‘good’―and opposing abortion and calling it “murder” is opposing the “right to choose”, infringes on a “woman’s rights” and is a hate crime. Cohabitation and fornication is now called ‘good’―and opposing it is none of your business, opposes the “free choice” of the fornicators and is an oppressive hate crime. Homosexuality is now called ‘good’―and opposing it is an oppressive hate crime. The list grows with each year.

Contracepetion
All of this has infected the Catholic laity, who, by living in and breathing in such an atmosphere, have gradually become imbued with this inverted or upside-down spirit “that calls evil good, and good evil: that puts darkness for light, and light for darkness: that puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). That is why most Catholics readily accept and practice contraception―a 2016 Pew Research Center study found that among Catholic women and men, 45% of those attending Mass weekly said contraception is morally acceptable; while 42% said it's not a moral issue at all, and only 13% considered the practice morally unacceptable.

Abortion
As for abortion, according to Marist College Institute for Public Opinion’s survey released in 2008, 36% of practicing USA Catholics, defined as those who attend church at least twice a month, consider themselves “pro-choice”; while 65% of non-practicing Catholics considers themselves “pro-choice.” As of 2019, 56% of practicing USA Catholics think that abortion should be legalized. According to the latest numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, 24% of USA women who procure abortions, identify as Catholic―almost the same as 22% of all USA women procuring an abortion who called themselves Catholic in a 2014 survey by Pew Research Center.

Same-Sex Marriages and Homosexuality
As regards same-sex marriages, already back in 2012, as many as 54% of Catholics were in acceptance of same-sex marriages. By 2017 that number had risen to 68%. Fr. Donald Cozzens, an American Roman Catholic priest, author and lecturer, is a former president-rector and professor of pastoral theology at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio. He estimated the percentage of gay priests in 2000 to be anywhere from a definite 23% to a possible 58%, suggesting more homosexual men (active and non-active) within the Catholic priesthood than within society at large. Self-proclaimed “Conservative” (?) Catholic author, researcher and journalist, Andrew Sullivan, writes: “In the United States, however, where there are 37,000 priests, no independent study has found fewer than 15% to be gay, and some have found as many as 60%. The consensus in my own research over the past few months converged on around 30% to 40% percent among parish priests and considerably more than that — as many as 60% or higher — among religious orders like the Franciscans or the Jesuits.” Sullivan identifies himself as a faithful Catholic while disagreeing with some aspects of the Catholic Church's doctrine―which is very typical of most Catholic today. He [falsely] argues that the Bible forbids same-sex sexual activity only when it is linked to prostitution or pagan rituals. That is why this article questioned his self-proclaimed “conservatism” above. Sadly, what was “Conservative” many years ago is not conservative today―but more often than not a fatal mix of Liberalism and Modernism with some left over Conservatism. Just as most of the world has been dumbed-down these days, Conservatism has likewise been “watered-down” and Liberalized.

Cohabitation
Today many couples (those who are engaged and those who are not) prepare for their possible married life together by cohabiting, or “living together,” before marriage. Their reasons for doing so are many and varied. However, a false view that is commonly held is that couples, who live together before marriage, can more adequately determine if their lifetime commitment to one another as husband and wife is possible. Two generations ago living together before marriage was viewed as scandalous by our society. Young people were strongly discouraged from cohabiting. As a society, that view has been greatly challenged today. Between 30% and 40% of Catholic couples seeking marriage in the United States today are living together. In some areas of the country it can be as high as 50% or more. While some researchers claim it is as high as 60% to 70%. Many people see cohabiting not only as permissible, but even as necessary to attempt to diminish the possibility of divorce or marital unhappiness later in the life of the couple.

Article 4
The "ISM" Family and the Amazon Synod,

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

New Synod, Same Old Faces, Same Old Suspects

Let Begin With the Closing Credits!
Have you ever read the closing credits (or end credits) that scroll down at the end of the movie? Boring, huh? If there are no “Opening Credits” that list the cast in a movie, then they are included in the “Closing Credits” or “End Credits” which will include a list of the cast and crew of a particular movie, television program, or video game. Whereas “Opening Credits” appear at the beginning of a work, “Closing Credits” appear close to, or at the very end of a work. A full set of credits can include not only the cast and crew, but also production sponsors, distribution companies, works of music licensed or written for the work, various legal disclaimers, such as copyright and more. It can be a real long-running productions list production guys―the closing credits for Around The World In Eighty Days took all of seven minutes of continuous scrolling!

Well, since we seem to be living in “a world of credit” (financially), let us look at “the world of credit” religiously! What would the Amazon Synod be without credits? Just recently―on September 21st―the Vatican released the “credits” for its “cast of hundreds” in its latest movie-like spectacle series of Synods―this latest release being the Amazon Synod.

The Amazon Synod―which is not being “shot” on location (i.e. in the Amazon Jungle), but in civilized, staid, prim and proper setting of Rome―the Vatican to be exact, in a remote corner of the ‘jungle’ of the Pope Paul VI Hall (see below).

The Main Paul VI Audience Hall (as shown in the center of the drawing above)

The ugly sculpture in Main Paul VI Audience Hall (the center of the drawing above)

The smaller Synod Hall in the Pope Paul VI Building (as shown encircled in red in the drawing above)

A Cast of Hundreds!
It may not quite be the proverbial “cast of thousands”―and even calling it a “cast of hundreds” might be a teeny-weeny exaggeration―but there will be a total of 185 voting members, plus a few tens of non-voting participants on top of that. So somewhere in the 200+ range is realistic. This, you could broadly say, is somewhat representative of the Amazon tribes―estimated at being around 400 tribes, with around 100 who have no outside contact with the world. One would be hard put to describe the synodal bishops as being “out of contact with the world”―especially since all of them are the children of the Second Vatican Council, whose explicit “new” philosophy was to get out and make contact with the world!

A full list of the 185 participants in the Special Assembly for the Pan-Amazonian Region was published by the Vatican Sept. 21. The synod is set to take place October 6th to October 27th in Rome (not in the Amazon―as some people think!). Most of the 185 voting members of the synod are bishops or priests from the nine countries whose territories contribute in part to the making of what is called the “Amazon Rainforest” or “Amazon Jungle.” ― these nine countries are: Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana and French Guiana.

Here are your “Closing Credits” to start with! Let's get the boring bits out of the way right at the beginning of the article.

At the top of the Amazon Synod “tree” are Pope Francis, who is president of the Synod of Bishops; and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who is secretary general.

Then come the three president delegates ― (1) Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, apostolic administrator of Caracas and archbishop of Merida in Venezuela; (2) Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, archbishop of Huancayo in Peru and vice president of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM); and (3) Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Another Cardinal―Claudio Hummes―Archbishop emeritus of Sao Paulo in Brazil and president of REPAM is the Relator General―who who coordinates the discussion on the theme of the Synod.

The special secretaries―whose role is to assist the Relator General in all his activities―are Cardinal-elect Michael Czerny, under-secretary of the Migrant and Refugees section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Bishop David Martinez De Aguirre Guinea, apostolic vicar of Puerto Maldonado in Peru.

Other pontifical nominations include heads of bishops’ conferences, commissions, or councils, such as Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, archbishop of Vienna; Cardinal Bagnasco, archbishop of Genova and president of the Council of European bishops’ conferences; Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising; Cardinal elect Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and president of the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union; and Archbishop Marcel Madila Basanguka of Kananga, president of the Association of Bishops’ Conferences of Central Africa.

Others nominated include Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa; Cardinal John Ribat, archbishop of Port Moresby; and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay.

There are four bishops coming from the Antilles, 12 from Bolivia, 58 bishops from Brazil, 15 bishops from Colombia, seven from Ecuador, 11 bishops from Peru, and 7 bishops from Venezuela.

Non-bishops nominated include religious priests from Argentina, Peru, Angola, and Italy; Fr. Anthony Spadaro, S.J., director of the Jesuit periodical La Civilta Cattolica; and Fr. Mauricio Garcia Duran, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

According to synod norms, there will also be in attendance 15 superior generals, chosen by the Union of Superior Generals (USG).

There will be 25 experts and 55 auditors, as well as six fraternal delegates from other Christian churches, who attend the synod, but do not participate in final voting.

So there you are! “Closing Credits” are all done! Get the “tough stuff” out of the way first! Boring, huh? Yes. Penitential? Yes―but Our Lady did ask for lots of penances and sacrifices, didn’t she? So by reading through all that, you have a potential penance if read in a spirit of penance! Besides, if―as some of Conservative leaning cardinals and bishops say―this Synod could lead to schism, heresy and a mortal wound and blow to the Church (and even the Pope admits the possibility of a schism)―then wouldn’t you like to know the names of the Synod cast that would potentially cast the votes that would cast the Church into schism? Well, there you have it! The cast is cast, perhaps “the dye is cast” too! Perhaps the Amazon has already been dyed a color that we will not be able to get rid of―barring heavenly intervention!

Here Come the “ISMS”
Let us now shift our focus from the “cast” to the “ISMS.” Every member of the “cast” belongs to one “ISM” family or another. The same even applies to YOU! You belong to some “ISM” family―which one is it?

Not all “ISMS” are born equal! Not all “ISMS” are evil! Some “ISMS” are good, some are bad. Some lead to holiness and Heaven. Others lead to sinfulness and Hell. Pick and choose your “ISMS” carefully.

Among the good or even holy “ISM” families we have, of course, the CatholicISM family―which has produced some good children and not-so-good children. Among the good children we have TradionalISM and ConservatISM.

The “Black Sheep” of the Family
However, the “black sheep” of the family are in greater number―HumanISM, RationalISM, LiberalISM, ModernISM, ProgressivISM (the name for post-modern Liberalism), EcumenISM, ReductionISM and AgnosticISM. There are even “black sheep” among the relatives of the CatholicISM family―especially among the “aunties” (but not “uncles”), such as anti-ConservatISM, anti-TraditionalISM, anti-ScholasticISM, anti-rigorISM, anti-dogmatISM, anti-intellectualISM, etc.

All of these “black sheep”―whether among family or among relatives―did not start out bad, but became bad by mixing with and listening to those outside the family of CatholicISM―those known as the “Auntie Catholic” brigade or Ant-CatholicISM families, such as MaterialISM, HedonISM, ProtestantISM, JudaISM, IslamISM, CommunISM, IlluminISM, PaganISM and AtheISM.

The Big “ISM” Around the Corner
Sometimes, the children of a family rebel against the parents and their values. In this way Humanism, Rationalism, Liberalism, Modernism, Progressivism (the name for post-modern Liberalism), Ecumenism, Reductionism, Metamorphism―have combined to put the Catholic Church on the verge of SchISM―the ultimate “ISM” that divides the Church and which would lead to its destruction if Divine intervention would not protect it―”Jesus said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand!’” (Matthew 12:25). However, remember this―even though Christ has promised that “thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)―that does not mean, not does it guarantee, that the entire Church will be protected and safe, nor does it even promise that the majority of the Church will be protected and safe―for that would contradict the manner in which God has always operated with regard to His “Chosen People” or His “Chosen Ones” from within that “Chosen People”.

Favorit-ISM with God is Not What You Might Think!
Adam and Eve―the first “Chosen Ones” so to speak―were not protected from the ability to sin and thus sign their own death sentence. From that time onwards, Holy Scripture repeatedly shows instances where God punishes His “Chosen Ones” and is prepared to even kill and annihilate them!

The Catholic Church―the successor to the “Chosen People” in the time after Christ―will be treated no differently than the “Chosen People” of old were treated. This is simply because “He that loveth his son, frequently chastiseth him―that he may rejoice in his latter end!” (Ecclesiasticus 30:1). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth and―as a father in the son―He pleaseth Himself” (Proverbs 3:12). “He that chastiseth nations, shall he not rebuke … man?” (Psalm 93:10). “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:19).

God Kills Millions of “Chosen People”
These are not just idle words spoken by God, without any intent to follow through on them! God says what He means and means what He says! Thus, for refusing to enter the Promised Land at the first command when they initially arrived there. Prior to entry, however, they became convinced they could not oust the current inhabitants of the land, even though God told them they could. Their lack of belief in God’s word and promises brought forth the wrath of God. He cursed them with forty years of wilderness wandering until the unbelieving generation died off, never stepping foot in the Promised Land. God chastised His “Chosen People” by turning them back from the Promised Land of “milk and honey” and sentenced them to 40 years in a desert prison―until all the adults, who had initially left Egypt in the Exodus, had died in the desert prison. You are not talking about a few thousand deaths here―you are talking about MILLIONS! God does not change― “With Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17)―what God did to them, He will do to us―“Chosen People” or not!

God Destroys His Temple and the “Chosen People’s” City, Jerusalem
Similarly, once the “Chosen People” had conquered the Promised Land, if ever and whenever the “Chosen People” chose to disobey God, God had no problem choosing the “stick” instead of the “carrot.” Thus we see God first annihilate the Ten Tribes of Israel―who, after the schism among the Israelites, formed the Northern Kingdom. God annihilated His “Chosen People” because they fell away from Him and fell into idolatry―worshipping false gods and materialism. These Ten Tribes were taken away as slaves by their conquering enemies and gradually assimilated into the captive’s nations, thus eventually disappearing―they are referred to today as “The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.”

Not long after that, the Southern Kingdom of Juda also fell into idolatry and God arranged for the Fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the Babylonian Captivity which took away to Babylon all the key people of Jerusalem―over ten thousand of them (which was a lot at that time)―some estimate between 16,000 and 18,000 men, women and children. Jerusalem was essentially destroyed and had to be rebuilt by the few Jews who chose to return after 70 years of exile, when eventually freed from Babylon by the conquering King of Persia.

Catholic Babylonian Captivity?
If God chooses the same 70 year timeline for the Catholic Church’s Babylonian Captivity through the Second Vatican Council―then we are looking at something between 2032 and 2035―which is, respectively, 70 years from the year that Council began (1962) or 70 years from when it ended (1965). This would dovetail favorably with “100 Year Limit” that some people talk about regarding Heaven’s formal request for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary―which was formally made in 1929. If―as Our Lord seemed to indicate in comparing the request for the consecration to the request He made for France to be consecrated to His Sacred Heart in 1689 and which saw France punished for its refusal by the French Revolution of 1789 (100 years later)―then if that same 100 year time limit is applied to our case, it would mean “all Hell breaking loose” around 2029. Many prophecies indicate a 3 year period of “all Hell breaking loose on Earth”―which would end with Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart beginning its triumph around 2032 (70 years after the Second Vatican Council began). Interesting―but God only knows!

Our Lady Says Nothing New
The above quotes showed that being one of God’s “Chosen Ones” does not exempt one from punishment―even severe punishment―if any one of God’s “Chosen Ones” chooses to disobey God. In her modern-day apparitions (from Quito in Ecuador in the 1590s to Akita in 1973) Our Lady says nothing new, but merely restates that truth in her modern day prophecies. In fact, ECUADOR IS ONE OF THE NINE AMAZON COUNTRIES, and, as you know, OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS APPEARED SEVERAL TIMES IN QUITO, ECUADOR, spelling out the warnings for our day and age! Pope Francis would do better if he took Our Lady of Quito Ecuador as the theme of his Amazon Synod―for what Our Lady warns us off is of far more grave consequences that Francis’ concerns for trees, rivers, and indigenous people!

The Amazon Instrumentum Laboris of Our Lady
Here is what could be called Our Lady’s Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for an Amazon Synod. It is based on what she said at her apparitions to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres in Quito, Ecuador:

“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, in what is today the Colony and then will be the Republic of Ecuador, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws … This will make it easy for everyone to live in sin … The years that will follow, will be ill-fated ones for the Church. These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay and the precious light of Faith will gradually be extinguished until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to ensnare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women ... There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings … How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … [only a] small number of hidden souls will preserve the treasures of the Faith” (Our Lady of Good Success).

Trees or Souls? Indigenous or Indigent?
You can be sure that Pope Francis―having spent his whole life in South America―is most certainly aware of Our Lady of Good Success. She would bring success to any Amazon Synod if it would only take notice of what she has said and foretold for our day and age. Never mind rivers and trees so much―what about souls? Our Lady says: “Innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!” Our Lord had already said: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The Instrumentum Laboris (working document) of the Amazon Synod sees “the Synod as a central element of the future life of the Church” and, in addressing the Amazon people, it says: “We need to listen to you!”

Hey! Never mind listening to pagan Amazon tribes! Your should be listening to Our Lady of Quito (Ecuador), which, incidentally is one of the Amazon countries―the second largest, after Brazil! The Instumentum Laboris speaks only trivial matters when compared to what Our Lady spoke about! The Instumentum Laboris speaks of a loss of trees more than a loss of souls―a loss of freedom rather than a loss of Heaven! Never mind the rivers, trees, forests and indigenous tribes―there is a bigger picture and a bigger problem here―and the solving of the bigger picture and the bigger problem would automatically solve the little things that Francis is focusing on. There is a massive “deforestation” of souls going on throughout the whole world, the Faith is being “uprooted” or “burnt-down”! What is worse? What takes priority? The loss of trees or the loss of souls? The chopping-down of forests or the chopping-down of the Faith? The pollution of rivers or the pollution of souls? Sure there are indigenous tribes to take care of (about 20 million)―but there are roughly 1,400 million mainly indigenous (born into the Faith) Catholics to take care of, who are spiritually and doctrinally indigent (poor), most of whom have lost their Faith or somewhere down the road to losing their Faith!

Article 3
To Understand the Amazon Synod,
You Must First Understand Modernism

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

They say the Amazon is a synthesis of the Earth's ecology!
Well, Modernism is the "synthesis of all heresies" say Pope St. Pius X

Would You Like Pasta or Rice with Your Pascendi?
Today, few Catholics could tell you what “Pascendi” is―some may think it to be a movie, others might think it is an Italian culinary dish, some may think “Pascendi” to be a new video-game, others won’t even hazard a guess and will give you that blank, deer-the-headlights look while thinking “What on earth are you talking about?” Very few Catholics will know that “Pascendi” is a papal encyclical, even fewer will be the number who will tell that Pope St. Pius X was the author, fewer still will be able to tell what the subject matter of the encyclical was and still is―and almost nobody will be able to give you the key points contained within that encyclical. Yet compared to the more widely known encyclicals addressing social and moral problems (of which most Catholics are ignorant of anyway―they have better things to do than waste their time on encyclicals), the topics discussed in Pascendi have probably had a far deeper impact upon the religious lives of all Catholics than any other encyclical.

What’s This All About?
Well then―so as not to belabor the point―what was Pascendi all about? Pascendi was a sweeping and vehement papal condemnation of a loose movement of Catholic biblical scholars, philosophers and theologians, who were labeled “Modernists.” These thinkers believed that the Church could not afford to ignore new alleged historical findings about the Bible and the origins of Christianity, or the new alleged findings of science―all of which called into question many traditional secular and religious beliefs. Rather than build the foundations for the Faith on the solid rock of traditional arguments and proofs, Modernists tried to build and explain their Faith through the shifting sands of intuition, human experience and inner yearnings and feelings as the basis for all religious belief, instead of accepting and relying on the age-old argumentative proofs of a traditional theology, philosophy and history offered for the existence of God and the authority of Scripture and the Church. The Modernists questioned these sources and emphasized the limitations of all unchanging dogmatic formulas.

On a broad universal stage―not just in the domain of religion alone―Modernism is seen as a socially progressive trend of thought that gives power to human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical experimentation, scientific knowledge, or technology. From this perspective, Modernism encourages the re-examination of every aspect of existence―from commerce to philosophy to religion, with the goal of finding that which was “holding back” progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end. Others focus on Modernism as an introspection―a kind of a “navel gazing”―for the Modernists hold that God arises out of man’s need for “something out there” and so man gives birth to God―rather than God creating man! Weird, huh? Well Modernism is weird in case you didn’t know―but we live in an age when weird things are “cool”, so… Plus, Modernism offers lots of new things―and we love new things, don’t we? New houses, new cars, new phones, new tablets/laptops, new TVs, new clothes, new friends, new jobs, new places to visit, new recipes to try, we even watch programs and scour websites looking for what? NEWS!!!

People of Change
To be able to “DIGEST” what is being “SERVED-UP” by the Amazon Synod, you must first understand Modernism―for Modernism is to this Synod, what a chef is to a meal. It is Modernism that has supplied the “CHEFS or COOKS” for this “Amazonian Banquet” and it is Modernism that has supplied the “RECIPES” for Amazonian Banquet”; and it is Modernism that has got together all the “INGEDIENTS” for this “Amazonian Banquet” in the hope that this will a meal nobody will ever forget!

Modernism is more than a doctrine: it is a new psychological attitude in the face of the modern world. The seeds for this attitude and change of mentality developed, above all, during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903)―you could say he inadvertently opened the door by his double standards of being tough on novelties doctrinally, but indirectly rubbing shoulders with novelty through his aggressive political associations and contacts with the modern world . The Modernists were and still are essentially “people of change” … “people of progress” ... “people seeking newness or new things” … “people of experimentation and innovation”― with a mania for “out with old and in with the new!”

But beyond such general tendencies and attitudes, the Modernists did not agree on specifics―for each Modernist is “king of his own castle” and if the Modernist has accepted an attitude of not letting the Church tell him what to think―then you can bet your bottom-dollar that nobody else―even a fellow Modernist―is going to tell him what to think. If they agree on anything, then it is to agree on nothing or as little as possible―taking for a ‘dogma’ the statement: “What is true for me, may not be true for you―but it is true! And what is true for you, may not be true for me―but it is true for you and I respect that even if I don’t agree with that! Thus whatever we think―it is true!”

The Modernists were influenced by secular philosophy or rationalism, and by Liberal Protestant theology―but they were also trying to create a distinctly Roman Catholic alternative to that secular rationalism or Liberal Protestantism. In case you haven’t noticed―they have succeeded, and most of the Catholic Church is now carrying the “virus” or “bug” of Modernism, or at least its egg or seed which is Liberalism.

If You Don’t Believe That―Then Read This…

► The Modernist, Father George Tyrrell, S.J. (1861–1909), in a letter of August 24th, 1908, explained: “We must wait for the day when, thanks to a silent and secret work, we will have gained a larger following in the Church for the cause of liberty.”

► The Modernist, Father Alfred Loisy (1857–1949), excommunicated by Saint Pius X, stated, “The avowed Modernists form a fairly definite group of thinking men united in the common desire to adapt Catholicism to the intellectual, moral and social needs of today.” And elsewhere he wrote: “The fundamental principle of Modernism is, ‘the possibility, the necessity and the legitimacy of evolution in understanding the dogmas of the Church, including that of papal infallibility and authority, as well as in the manner of exercising this authority.’”

► Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (1888-1967), just before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), in his letter of May 9th, 1961, to Cardinal Ottaviani, pulled no punches when he said: “I have said it other times and I repeat it―Modernism, condemned by St. Pius X, today has become freely spread in aspects even more serious and deleterious than it was then!”

► The Italian bishop, Msgr. Luigi Borromeo (1893-1975), even in the very first session of the Second Vatican Council, wrote in his diary: “We are in full Modernism. Not the naive, open, aggressive and combative Modernism of the time of Pius X, no. The Modernism of today is more subtle, more camouflaged, more penetrating, and more hypocritical. It does not want to stir up another tempest; it desires that the entire Church will find that it has become Modernist without noticing it. (…) Thus the Modernism of today saves all of Christianity, its dogmas and its organization, but it empties it completely and overturns it. It is no longer a religion which comes from God, but a religion which comes directly from man and indirectly from the divine which is within man.”

Today, what was considered “abnormal” to the Faith in the time of Pope Pius X (and also during the decades that followed his death), is today considered as being “normal” or “par for the course.” In fact, there is more of a stigma today about being Traditional or Conservative, than there is about being Liberal or Modernist!

The Smoke of Liberalism and Modernism in Your Eyes and Soul
As the proverb says: “You cannot leave clothes for long in a smoky room without them taking on the smell of smoke!” Similarly, you cannot live in a house where many people smoke without inhaling what they call “secondhand-smoke”―which refers to smoke inhaled involuntarily from tobacco being smoked by others. The same idea is confirmed by Fr. Felix Salvany, in chapter 1 of his book Liberalism Is A Sin, wherein he writes:

“Physical science tells us that floating through the atmosphere are innumerable disease germs seeking a suitable nidus in which to settle and propagate and that we are constantly breathing these germs into the lungs. If the system be depleted or weakened, the dangerous microbe takes up its abode with us, and propagating its own kind with astonishing rapidity, undermines and ravages our health. The only safeguard against the encroachments of this insidious enemy, which we cannot escape, is a vigorous and healthy body with adequate powers of resistance to repel the invader. It is equally true that we are subject to like infectious attacks in the spiritual order. Swarming in the atmosphere of our spiritual lives are innumerable deadly germs, ever ready to fasten upon the depleted and weakened soul and, propagating its leprous contagion through every faculty, destroy the spiritual life. Against the menace of this ever-threatening danger, whose advances we cannot avoid in our present circumstances, the ever-healthy soul alone can be prepared.

“To escape the contagion, the power of resistance must be equal to the emergencies of the attack, and that power will be in proportion to our spiritual health. To be prepared is to be armed, but to be prepared is not sufficient; we must possess the interior strength to throw off the germ. There must be no condition in the soul to make a suitable nidus [platform] for an enemy so insidious and so efficacious as to need only the slightest point of contact whence to spread its deadly contagion. It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a disguise often calculated to deceive the unwary and incautious. The Trojans admitted the enemy into their walls under the impression that they were actually securing a valuable acquisition to their safety, and today their fatal experience has come down to us in the proverb—“Beware of the Greeks when they bring gifts.” Intellectual sluggishness, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, and a willingness to please others, or even virtues, such as, benevolence, generosity and pity―all these may be the unsuspected way open to the foe, and behold, we are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel!

“That we may know our danger, we must appreciate the possible shapes in which it may come. Here is just the difficulty; the uniform of the enemy is so various, changeable, sometimes even of our own colors, that if we rely upon the outward semblance alone, we shall be more often deceived than certain of his identity. As we are addressing ourselves to those who live amidst the peculiar circumstances of our American life, and, as the spiritual and moral conditions, which obtain in this country, make up the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we have our being, let us then consider these surroundings in a general way for the moment.

“First, as to some patent facts: The population of this country [USA] is at present something over 325 million [2017 census]. Of these, 70 million are Catholics, and according to their claim [2017 stats], 150 million are Protestants, leaving a population of 105 million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all. Amongst the 150 million Protestants, every shade and variety of belief in the Christian dispensation find easy lodging … The adjustments of creeds are loose and easy. Lack of any decisive authority renders any exact standard of belief impossible. Outside of these various bodies of loosely professed Christians stands a still larger mass of our population who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity or who positively reject it. This mass comprises over 35% of our population, holding itself aloof from Christianity, and in some instances virulently antagonistic to it.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: When you add together the Protestants with the non-believers, it produces a total in excess of 78% of our population, but currently enhanced to an even more frightening percentage by the vast majority of Catholics today—2017—around 80% (or 56 million) of the 70 million Catholics, who either do not practice their Faith at all, or irregularly, or who are ignorant of its teachings (especially with regard to morality) or in practice simply disregard those teachings--bringing the total of practical non-believing and infidel people, including bad Catholics, to around 97%, if we can presume there to be today approximately 14 million believing, regularly practicing Catholics in the USA out of a population of 325 million (2017 stats)].

“In distinct religious opposition to this mass of infidelity (non-believers) and Protestantism Catholics find themselves sharply and radically opposed. Heresy and infidelity are irreconcilable with Catholicity [and Pope St. Pius X says Modernism is the synthesis of all heresies!]. “He that is not with me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30) are the words of Our Lord Himself, for denial of Catholic truth is the radical and common element of both heresy and infidelity. The difference between them is merely a matter of degree. One denies less, the other more. Protestantism, with its sliding scale of creeds, is simply an inclined plane into the abyss of positive unbelief. It is always virtual infidelity, its final outcome open infidelity, as the [2017 stats] 105 million unbelievers in this country stand witness.

“We live in the midst of this religious anarchy. Some [2017 stats] 255 million of our population can, in one sense or other, be considered anti-Catholic [you can add to that 255 million the 56 million Catholics who do not practice their Faith regularly]. From this mass—heretical and infidel—exhales an atmosphere filled with germs poisonous and fatal to Catholic life, if permitted to take root in the Catholic heart. The mere force of gravitation, which the larger mass ever exercises upon the smaller mass, is a power which the most energetic strength alone can resist. Under this dangerous influence, a deadly inertia is apt to creep over the souls of the incautious and is only to be overcome by the liveliest exercise of Catholic Faith. To live without being weakened amidst an heretical and infidel population requires a robust religious constitution. And to this danger we are daily exposed, ever coming into contact in a thousand ways, in almost every relation of life, with anti-Catholic thought and customs. But outside of this spiritual inertia, our non-Catholic surroundings—a danger rather passive than active in its influence—beget a still greater menace.

“It is natural that Protestantism and infidelity should find public expression. What our [2017 stats] 255 million non-Catholic population thinks in these matters, naturally seeks and finds open expression. They have their organs and their literature where we find their current opinions publicly uttered. Their views upon religion, morality, politics, the constitution of society are perpetually marshaled before us. In the pulpit and in the press [and now the internet] they are reiterated day after day. In magazine and newspaper they constantly speak from every line. Our literature is permeated and saturated with non-Catholic dogmatism. On all sides do we find this opposing spirit. We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear. From birth to death, it enslaves us in its offensive garments. It now soothes and flatters, now hates and curses, now threatens, now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes to us under the form of “liberality.” It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise. And it is under this aspect that we wish to consider it. For it is as Liberalism that Protestantism and Infidelity make their most devastating inroads upon the domain of the Faith. Out of these non-Catholic and anti-Catholic conditions thus predominating amongst us springs this monster of our times, Liberalism!” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin, chapter 1).

The Toxic “-ISM” Family
To add to that―it must be said that Modernism is a child of Liberalism. Personal Liberalism (to think, say, and do what you want) finds its expression in social or wide-scale experimentation, progress, and change that Modernism brings about. Humanism, Rationalism, Protestantism, Liberalism, Modernism and Progressivism, are all, in a certain sense, part of the same family―where Humanism is the great granddaddy of them all.

► HUMANISM (1300s & 1400s +) — The term “Humanism” was freely applied to a variety of beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place central emphasis on the human side of the world. It glorified the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations with their focus on the human being and human sciences. Gradually, man began to replace God as the most interesting subject. This meant that the words of man—philosophical reasoning on grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy—replaced the words of God—theology—as the main focal point of Humanists. This led to the enthronement of human reason as king and judge of all things—even over the things of God.

► RATIONALISM (1500's to our present day) — Humanism, with its focus on man and all that he could with his mind and skills, gave birth to "Rationalism” which is the view that looks upon HUMAN REASON as the chief source and test of all knowledge. This prideful over-confidence Rationalists’ confidence in human reason and proof, takes away respect for other ways of knowing―especially knowing through Faith. In Ethics (morality), Rationalism says that human reason―rather than feeling, custom, or authority―has the ultimate right in judging good and bad, right and wrong.

In Religion, Rationalism says that all religious knowledge can only come through the use of human reason and the five senses ― without the aid of supernatural revelation. Human reason, for the Rationalist, thus stands opposed to many of the religions of the world, including Christianity, because they claim that the Divine has revealed itself through inspired persons or writings and which have required, at times, that its claims be accepted as infallible, even when they do not agree with natural knowledge or cannot be explained and proved by human reason.

Rationalism seeks to explain everything in human terms. If something cannot be explained in human terms with human proofs, then it is to be doubted. Human reason begins to question Faith and accuse it of not having any proofs furnished by human reason, and that therefore it must a fallacy, or fable, or superstition. This kind of glorification of human reason paved the way for the Protestant Revolution against the Catholic Church and the Faith.

► PROTESTANTISM (1520’s to our present day) — Essentially, Protestantism was an attitude that was infected with the disease of Rationalism. Whereas Rationalism would question everything in the universe, Protestantism would apply Rationalism to questioning the Faith and the protector of that Faith—the Catholic Church. Protestantism took Rationalism and applied it to religion. Outside or external authorities were to be brought to trial in the Court of Human Reason. Personal or private interpretation replaced the authoritative teaching of the Church. Truth in religion is what I think it to be!

► LIBERALISM (1700s to our present day) ― Protestantism would “father” Liberalism―it would embody the spirit of Luther and the other Protestant rebels, into the world at large―both religious and secular. Rationalism was generally about freeing the mind or human reason from outside dictates and interference, allowing it to think what it wants. Liberalism would take that baton from Rationalism and would add “do what you want” to the “think what you want” of Rationalism―which is only a logical consequence―for our soul has two basic powers, the intellect (which regulates thinking) and the will (which regulates actions). Liberalism took the “think what you want” baton of Rationalism, and took it a stage further by making a political, philosophical and religious theory based on liberty or freedom.

Some of the “freedoms” or “liberties” that Liberalism champions include such things as individual rights, civil rights, human rights, capitalism (free markets), democracy, secularism (freedom of the state from the Church), gender equality, racial equality, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Liberalism became a distinct movement in the Age of Enlightenment―which basically started around or just before 1700. The Age of Enlightenment focused on ideas that were centered on HUMAN REASON as being the primary source of knowledge and they advanced ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of Church and State. In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy―thus sowing the seeds for science to grow into the false god that it is today. Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee-houses and in printed books, journals, and pamphlets.

John Locke (1632–1704), a Protestant (Puritan), was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism.” Here we will pass over Locke’s secular Liberalism and mention only his influence on religious Liberalism. In his Letters Concerning Toleration (1689–1692), written in the aftermath of the European wars of religion, Locke formulated a classic reasoning for religious tolerance. With regard to his position on religious tolerance, Locke was influenced by Protestant (Baptist) theologians. Freedom of conscience had had high priority on the theological, philosophical and political agenda, since Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs before the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms in 1521, unless he would be proved false by the Bible. Three arguments are central to Locke’s views on the need for RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: (1) Earthly judges―the state in particular, and human beings generally―cannot dependably evaluate the claims to truth made by competing religious standpoints; (2) Even if they could, to enforce a single “true religion” would not have the desired effect, because belief cannot be compelled by violence; (3) Coercing religious uniformity would lead to more social disorder than allowing diversity. These views of Locke have grown into becoming a classic Liberal and Modernist foundation to this very day―even within the Catholic Church!

► MODERNISM (1800s to our present day) ― Modernism basically take Liberalism (think, say, do what you like) into the worldwide public arena and canonizes that attitude. Simplistically, you could say that Liberalism seeks to “free” or “unchain” the person, and Modernism seeks to “free” or “unchain” the world. You cannot discuss religious Modernism without first looking at Modernism in the secular world―for it is the secular diseases that invade and weaken the spiritual health of the Church. Secular Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 1800s and early 1900s―in pace with the explosion of modern industrial growth and the growth of modern cities as a result. Modernism, in general, catered to those persons who felt that the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and sciences were becoming ill-fitted and outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world. “Make it new!” was the touchstone of the Modernist movement’s approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past. Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, in all disciplines of life, from business to philosophy to theology, with the goal of finding that which was ‘holding back’ the progress of mankind, and replacing it with new ways of reaching man’s potential.

Looking at Modernism within the realm of religion―there is very little difference between Modernism and Liberalism. Most certainly Modernism is Liberalism, but not all Liberalism is Modernism in its essential form. Modernism is a growth and development and worldwide or societal application of Liberalism. Extreme Modernism even goes so far as to declare there is no final or absolute truth. All supposed religious truth is declared to be relative and subjective―meaning that “religious truth is only true in the mind of the believer” and that “religious truth comes forth or born from the feelings, needs and desires of the believer.”

The “ISM” Family and Amazon Synod
If you see and grasp the growth of this toxic “ISM” family, then any examination of the Amazon Synod will be a “piece of cake”―for you will see all the members of the “ISM” family present in the Amazon Synod agenda or Instrumentum Laboris (working document). If you can understand the above material, you will understand and see the swamp in which the Amazon Synod is being organized.

Article 2
The Dense Jungle of the Amazon Synod Document

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

Never before has a Synod of Bishops caused such a Forest Fire of Faith!

“The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him: ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?’ And he said to them: ‘An enemy hath done this!’” (Matthew 13:24-28).

Tell-Tale SIgns
You can sometimes recognize an artist or a musical composer through their work―the drawing, painting, sculpture, or musical composition. The composer writes the musical piece and the orchestra plays it according to the interpretation of the conductor. Someone has written the Amazon Synod agenda (the Instrumentum Laboris ― meaning, “working document”), and the bishops specially chosen by the Pope to attend plus some others, will be expected to “dance to the tune” that has been composed or written. So who is the key personage behind the Amazon Synod agenda or the Instrumentum Laboris?

The notorious 80-year old Brazilian Bishop Erwin Kräutler is a chief “author” or “composer” of the Instrumentum Laboris (agenda or working document) for the upcoming Synod. The Austrian born Kräutler is a firm supporter, proponent and lobbyist for married male and female priests. He was a bishop in Brazil from 1980 to 2015 and is considered one of the most radical-modernist bishops in the whole Church. Bishop Kräutler already wrote parts of the Francis controversial encyclical Laudato Si. He is a hero of the media oligarchs and of hero of many enemies of the Church. Between 1983 and 1991 and since 2006 was President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Brazilian Catholic Church. He defends and advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples. Already in the 1980s, he helped secure the inclusion of indigenous peoples' rights into the Brazilian constitution.

As they say, “Tell me who your friends are―and I will tell you what you are!” Another saying that springs to mind is “Birds of a feather flock together!” So since the Amazon is a paradise for birds―what kinds of Church “birds” will be flocking together for the Amazon Synod? If we take a look at some the key names, “big-players”, who will be involved, then we can clearly see what kind of tune will be played and what the participants will be expected to dance to.

● In the recent pre-Synod meeting, the list of participants approved or chosen by Pope Francis included Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who will be the general relator of the Amazon Synod, and has for many years advocated a change in the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Latin Rite.

● Another participant was the Liberal and Modernist, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a close theological adviser to Pope Francis, who recently said that if the conferences of the Amazon region agreed among themselves that married men could be priests, and proposed such a change to the Pope, the Holy Father “would in principle probably accept it.”

● Another participant was the above mentioned Bishop Erwin Kräutler who has argued for ordaining married men in the Amazon, and voiced his support for women priests.

● Also included was Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany, head of the German bishops’ Latin America commission. Last month, Bishop Overbeck said the Synod will lead the Church to a “point of no return,” and, thereafter, “nothing will be the same as it was.”

Participants Criticized by Conservative Cardinal
Some of the above participants were heavily crtiicized by CARDINAL WALTER BRANDMÜLLER who wrote in a public letter on the subject of the Synod: “Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it … The nebulous [vague, imprecise, confusing] formulations of the Instrumentum [Laboris], as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the proposed priestly ordination of the so-called ‘viri probati’ [subtly meaning “married men”] arouse strong suspicion that even priestly celibacy will be called into question … The sole fact that Cardinal (Claudio) Hummes is the president of the synod and thus will exercise a grave influence in a negative sense, suffices to have a well founded and realistic concern, as much as in the case of bishops Erwin Kräutler [a long time lobbyist for married priests], Franz-Josef Overbeck [an advocate for change in the Church’s teaching on priestly ordination and sexual morality]., etc. … We must face serious challenges to the integrity of the Deposit of the Faith, the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church and its Apostolic Tradition. With all this has been created a situation never before seen in the Church’s history, not even during the Arian crisis of the fourth and fifth century.”

ABOVE AND BELOW: A striking similarity is seen by the placement of the Amazon Jungle or Rainforest above, and the location of the brain below. The Modernist mind-jungle or brain-forest is now at the center of the head of the Church and has become the "tail that wags the dog", just as the "Amazonian tribal issues" have become the "tail that wags the dog that is the Church." The Amazon Rainforest or Jungle can be compared to the Modernist Brainforest that is ruling the greater part of the Church. This latest Modernist "chess move" against the Faith

BELOW: The indigenous Brazilian Salesian priest, Fr. Justino Sarmento Rezende, a pivotal element among those who prepared the Amazon Synod and a co-author of the Synod's the preparatory document.

BELOW: The indigenous Brazilian Salesian priest, Fr. Justino Sarmento Rezende supervising some kind of religious ceremony.

BELOW: The indigenous Brazilian Salesian priest, Fr. Justino Sarmento Rezende decides that if you can't beat 'em, then join 'em. Here is (circled in red) in some kind of procession. Perhaps its a Palm Sunday procession with some kind of palm or other vegetation.

BELOW: Pope Francis with the Salesian priest, Fr. Justino Sarmento Rezende, who is touted as being the “indigenous counselor of Pope Francis." Looks like the Pope is pleased with his counselor.

As Pope St. Pius X wrote, in his encyclcal against Modernism, Pascendi Dominci Gregis, in 1907:

"The partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart, and are the more mischievous, the less conspicuously they appear. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, vaunt themselves as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ ... with sacrilegious daring."

"Tthey lay the axe not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fires. And having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to disseminate poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth from which they hold their hand, none that they do not strive to corrupt. Further, none is more skilful, none more astute than they, in the employment of a thousand noxious arts; for they double the parts of rationalist and Catholic, and this so craftily that they easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance."

"It must first of all be noted that every Modernist sustains and comprises within himself many personalities; he is a philosopher, a believer, a theologian, an historian, a critic, an apologist, a reformer."

"For the Modernist .Believer, it is an established and certain fact that the divine reality does really exist in itself and quite independently of the person who believes in it. If you ask on what foundation this assertion of the Believer rests, they answer: In the "experience of the individual." This is their manner of putting the question: In the religious sentiment one must recognise a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the very reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God's existence and His action both within and without man as to excel greatly any scientific conviction. They assert, therefore, the existence of a real experience, and one of a kind that surpasses all rational experience. If this experience is denied by some, it arises from the fact that such persons are unwilling to put themselves in the moral state which is necessary to produce it. It is this experience which, when a person acquires it, makes him properly and truly a believer."Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of experience united with the other doctrine of symbolism, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true. What is to prevent such experiences from being met within every religion? In fact that they are to be found is asserted by not a few. And with what right will Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? With what right can they claim true experiences for Catholics alone? Indeed Modernists do not deny, but actually admit―some confusedly, others in the most open manner―that all religions are true. That they cannot feel otherwise is clear. For on what ground, according to their theories, could falsity be predicated of any religion whatsoever?"

The above extract from Pope St. Pius X's encycilical on Modernism is direcltly applicable to the ideas being put forward by the authors of the Amazon Synod agenda or Instrumentum Laboris. They are validating and giving credence and authority to the personal pagan "experiences" and "feelings" of the indigenous non-Catholic tribes of the Amazon and are putting on par with the "experiences" and "feelings" fo Catholics―which will lead to the eventual conclusion that "we are all right to some extent, each having some truth or a part of the truth and if we put all our truths together like a jigsaw puzzle, we will see "God" more clearly!" Absolutely incredible!

Dense Theological Jungle of Modernism
The Amazon jungle or rainforest is the world’s largest―much like the Catholic Church is the world’s largest Christian religion. The Amazon jungle or rainforest covers about 3 million square miles, which is larger than the next two largest forests (the Congo and Indonesia) combined. It accounts for around half of the tropical forest remaining on the planet, which is an area larger than the contiguous United States. Known for being impossibly dense, the Amazon’s forest canopy is so thick that it takes around ten minutes for falling rain to hit the ground. The sun actually never does reach it: The floor of the Amazon rainforest lies in permanent darkness―which brings to mind the “darkness” of the Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (working document), which seems to work its own ‘magic’ and cast spells of darkness over the Catholic Faith―creating a dense jungle of heavy mumbo-jumbo that the light of the Faith cannot penetrate.

Deforestation of the Amazon and the Faith
Even though the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforest has been on the decline since 2004, unfortunately, over the past 40 years, about 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been cut down―which brings to mind the “deforestation” or “decatholicization” of the Faith over the last 60 years, to a point where only 20% of Catholics still attend Sunday Mass regularly, and even less live a truly Catholic life―being merely superficial Catholics.

Indigenous or Disingenuous?
The Amazon region contains over 300 indigenous tribes. Let us not use words without being clear about their meaning or understanding their meaning― “indigenous”, “aboriginal”, and “native” all mean the same thing. “Aboriginal” by common custom and popular usage is connected with Australia, and native with North America. The most neutral of the three terms, indigenous comes from the Latin word, “indigena” ― coming from indu- (“inside”) +‎ -gena (“born”), thus giving the general and broad meaning of “a native”. While the Amazon has its share of indigenous tribes―today’s Catholic Church (especially among its episcopacy) has its fair share of―not “indigenous” bishops, but “disingenuous” bishops. For those uncertain of the meaning of the word “disingenuous”―it is defined as “not straightforward or candid; being insincere or calculating”―which is what Liberalism and Modernism is in essence.

Less than 200,000 indigenous people live in the rainforest―About 70 tribes have yet to make formal contact with the outside world―if only Catholics were the same―which is what Scripture demands: “ But the “aggiornamento” idea (modernization, updating) of the Second Vatican Council was for the Church to come out Her “shell” and embrace the modern world! We can clearly see the results of that policy! “The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19; Luke 8:14). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also ... No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). There are still some tribes that prefer the poverty of the Amazon to the riches of mammon―but sadly most of them are pagan and idolatrous. Nevertheless, from a naturalistic point of view―as Christ said― “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). What great advantage has our Catholic mammon wealth got over the Amazon pagan poverty? They treasure their poverty more than our riches! From that point of view―yes, we have something to learn.

The Chalice of God or the Chalice of the Devil
Yet, from another point of view―since everything that exists has a positive and negative aspect―there are things that we need not and must not learn from the indigenous tribes of the Amazon―even thought the Synod authors say the opposite. The spiritual world is extremely important to the indigenous people of South America, a world they claim to get closer to by utilizing plants that contain certain hallucinogens. One of the most important persons to many indigenous groups is the shaman, who holds the knowledge of local plants and animals, and who is believed to communicate with the spirit world. In other words―they are of the devil―for as Holy Scripture clearly says: “The things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils! You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils! You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils!” (1 Corinthians 10:20-21). It is to be wondered if the authors of the Synod agenda are familiar with Holy Scripture when concoct a very dense jungle of a text that eerily praises pagan rituals (see §87) and speaks of “faith in the God Father–Mother Creator” (see §121) and of a “dialogue with the spirits” (see §75).

An indigenous Brazilian Salesian priest, Fr. Justino Sarmento Rezende, a pivotal element among those who prepared the Amazon Synod: A member of the group that wrote the preparatory document for the Synod (with its pantheistic overtones) in 2018. The Brazilian media tout him as the “indigenous counselor of Pope Francis,” and, like a true “indigenous” and “disingenuous” Modernist, he has repeatedly pleaded for the Church to “change” in order to acquire an “indigenous face” in his own country. In a recent interview with the Liberal Hispanic site Religion Digital, Fr. Sarmento expanded on his vision of a Catholic Church that would embrace the heritage of the many diverse indigenous tribes of the Amazon, helping them to retrieve their ancestral pagan culture and pagan rituals.

Stupidity of Catholics Opens Doors to the Absurdity of Modernism
The more indifferent, ignorant and stupid that Catholics become, the more bold, powerful and successful Modernism becomes. It is like a “see-saw”―as one side goes down, the other side goes up―and vice-versa. Right now, true Catholicism is going down―and, on the other side of the see-saw, false Catholicism or Modernism is on the way up. As one side becomes weaker, the other side becomes stronger. The reason why the absurd doctrines of Modernists can gain a hearing and a foothold in the Church today, is basically down to the weakness of mind (or stupidity) on the part of Catholics―who can only remember “bits-and-bats” of their “parrot-fashion” catechism and whose theological grasp of things is akin to an eight-year-old’s mastery of algebra―zilch, zero, nothing.

Add to that equation the fact that Modernists encumber and muddy their opinions and teachings with obtuse, obfuscating, dense and complicated terminology and concepts―and you have a modern-day infantile Catholic mind that has overheated even before it has really started to even remotely grasp what is being talked about. Therefore, that infantile Catholic mind sheepishly retreats back into its more comfortable and familiar milieu of gossipy or insulting forums, rash-judging blogs, and juicy scandal-mongering websites―while remaining content with the illusion that Catholic intellectual acumen consists in the knowledge of the latest gossip and latest scandals―the knowledge of which it considers to be empowering and virtuous. Welcome to the modern world! Welcome to Modernism by the back door!

Because our minds are weak, Modernism grows strong. Pope St. Pius X, in his encyclical Pascendi, says that of all “the intellectual causes of Modernism, the first which presents itself, and the chief one, is ignorance.”

How can you fight what you do not know? How can you criticize what you do not understand? How can you combat tactics that you are unaware of and cannot see? How can you diffuse a bomb if you do not know its mechanisms and how it works? How can you find an antidote to a disease you have not examined and analyzed and do not understand? That is the dilemma and pitfall facing most Catholics today―they just do not want to know; it is too difficult to think about and understand; it is no fun and there are far more entertaining things that they could be doing. They might not want the disease―but they fail to understand it and take remedies against it. They have the comfortable and non-demanding disease of ignorance―and they like it. It is not that they are totally ignorant―they know a lot of things and know them to great depths―it is just that these are secondary things―and the primary things, the most important things, the salutary things are left unstudied and unknown. “Because he is ignorant of things past, the things to come he cannot know” (Ecclesiastes 8:7). “Be not ignorant of the words of knowledge … They that are ignorant, shall die in their lack of understanding” (Proverbs 19:27; 10:21).

These people are the kind that Our Lord referred to when He said: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? … "Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 16:26; 15:14). Today, these kinds of blind, ignorant people are being led a merry a dance into the pits of Liberalism and Modernism―they like the tune, they love the dance, let’s hope they like the pit when they fall into it! They are like animals that fall into the pits in the Amazon jungle, prepared by the hunter-gatherer indigenous Amazon tribes―except the tribes in this case are Mammonous Modernist and Liberal “disingenuous” tribes. For those uncertain of the meaning of the word “disingenuous”―it is defined as “not straightforward or candid; being insincere or calculating”―which is what Liberalism and Modernism is in essence.

Swimming in a Swamp of Subtle Slithery Statements
As said in another article―Today, we are living in the middle of, and wading through, an omnipresent (all times) and ubiquitous (all places) swamp of Liberalism and Modernism. Just as a person’s legs can barely be budged in a swamp―likewise, a person’s mind can barely think when immersed in the swamp of Liberalism and Modernism―it is so dense, so sticky, without any solidity or firmness. You try to grasp it―and it squirms and squelches out of your grasp.

► Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, for three decades a professor of Church history, and was president of the International Commission for Contemporary Church History from 1998 until 2006―on June 27th, 2019, ten days after Rome published its Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming October Amazon Synod―issued a strong denunciation and critique and denunciation of the Instrumentum Laboris. He unambiguously and boldly spoke of “heresy” and “apostasy” and “departure from Divine Revelation”, and “suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly.” ... What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church?"

“Furthermore―throughout the Instrumentum Laboris―one finds a very positive assessment of natural religions, including indigenous healing practices, etc., even mythic-religious practices and cult forms. In the context of the call for harmony with nature, for example, there is even talk about “dialogue with the spirits” (§75) … The result is a natural religion masquerading as Christianity.

“It is impossible to conceal that the ‘synod’ intends, above all, to help implement two most cherished projects that heretofore have never been implemented: namely, the abolition of priestly celibacy and the introduction of a female priesthood ― beginning with female deacons. In any event, it is about “identifying the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women … in the Church” (§129 a 3). In a similar manner, “room is now opening up to create new ministries appropriate to this historical moment. It is the right moment to listen to the voice of the Amazon…” (§43).

► Cardinal Gerhard Mueller also speaks of a swamp of subtlety and subterguge. He writes: “Key terms are not clearly defined and then excessively deployed: what is meant by a « synodal path », by « integral development », what is meant by a « Samaritan, missionary, synodal, open » Church? By « a Church reaching out », the « Church of the Poor », the « Church of the Amazon », and other such terms? … Has the Church of Christ been put by her Founder, as though she was some kind of putty, into the hands of bishops and popes, so they may now ― illuminated by the Holy Spirit ― rebuild her, into an updated instrument with secular goals, too? The structure of the text presents a radical U-turn from … Catholic theology. ...

"A 'cosmovision' with its myths and the ritual magic of Mother “Nature,” or its sacrifices to “gods” and spirits which scare the wits out of us, or lure us on with false promises, cannot be an adequate approach for the coming of the Triune God in His Word and His Holy Spirit … In the formation of future pastors and theologians, shall the knowledge of classical and modern philosophy, of the Church Fathers, of modern theology, of the Councils now be replaced with the Amazonian “cosmovision” and the wisdom of the ancestors with their myths and rituals?

"The cosmos, however, is not to be adored like God, but only the Creator Himself. ... Rather than proposing an obscure approach comprised of vague religiosity and a futile attempt to turn Christianity into a science of salvation by sacralizing the cosmos, nature’s biodiversity and ecology, one must turn to the very center and origin of our Faith" (Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

► Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was recently interviewed by Inside the Vatican’s Robert Moynihan. Viganò is warning of an invidious campaign to infiltrate the Catholic Church--a “project” he says that “goes back centuries”—“in particular, to the creation in the middle of the 1700s of Freemasonry.” This “very deceptive” plot against the Church included some of her own senior members. Viganò believes that this process of infiltration “became strikingly evident in modern times,” and that we are now witnessing the “triumph of a 60-year-old plan” to revolutionize the Church with “a Jesuit on the See of Peter.” As Viganò recalls, many key Vatican II revolutionaries were Jesuits who maneuvered to replace the council’s prepared schemas with ones they had drawn up. Most prominent among them was Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., frequently touted as the council’s most important ideologue.“This was the beginning of an opening… in the process of creating a new Church,” says Archbishop Viganò.

Today, St. Gallen don Walter Cardinal Kasper and others are euphemizing Pope Francis’s ruptures with the past, as a wonderful “paradigm shift” (moving the goal-posts, if you like). But Archbishop Viganò says the “exotic,” “sophisticated” slogans are just being used “to mislead, to deceive.” He explains that, in the past, a “huge machine of media propaganda” applied a hermeneutic of rupture to Vatican II. Today, he says, a slick “media machinery, including photos of Pope Francis with Emeritus Pope Benedict, and so forth, has been used to argue that the ‘new paradigm’ of Pope Francis is in continuity with the teaching of his predecessors.” However, Viganò adds:“But it is not so! It is a ‘new church’!” He reveals that Pope Benedict XVI had said of the project to make a new Church: “This would be a catastrophe!”

Publicly, Pope Francis is saying h it’s an “honor” that the "rigid" Conservatives are “attacking” him. He almost dares them to keep raising their voices and playing with fire. “I pray that schisms do not happen, but I am not afraid of them,” Francis declares, while warning the “schools of rigidity” that their “pseudo-schismatic” ways will “end badly.”

Viganò argues: “Pope Francis is saying that because he knows the Amazon Synod may provoke a schism, He is ready to say others are making the schism, but―by his actions in continuing to support the Amazon synod―he is provoking it himself. Is this the attitude of a pastor who cares for the faithful? It is his own duty to prevent a schism.”

Francis Fails to Focus on Faith―the Focus is on Fish, Forests, Flying Feather-Friends
During his visit to the indigenous people of the Amazon in January, 2018, Pope Francis pledged the Church’s “whole-hearted option for the defense of life, the defense of the Earth and the defense of cultures. The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present! ... Amazonia is not only a reserve of biodiversity, but also a cultural reserve that must be preserved in the face of the new forms of colonialism.”

That should be his attitude to the Faith―never mind the fish, forests, and feathered-friends! To rephrase his quote above and fire it back at him: "Catholic people have probably never been so threatened in the Faith as they are at present! Catholicism is not only a "Faith reserve" of great diversity, but also a spiritual and supetrnatural reserve that must be preserved in the face of news forms of Modernism."

Article 1
Planting What Seeds? Trees of Life? Or Trees of Death?

With this Amazon Synod are we heading for Dogma Deforestation, Faith Forest Fires, Traditional Tree Toppling, Pagan Planting, Jesuitical Jungle Junk, Amazonian Apostasy?

Never before has a Synod of Bishops caused such a Forest Fire of Faith!

“The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great forest.
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by Hell” (James 3:5-6).

Amazon? Huh? Do You Mean the Website?
For most people, the word “Amazon” brings to mind only the internet giants Amazon―where you can buy a “ton of stuff” online. Fewer people think of the Amazon Rainforests―and even fewer could tell you where they are―and fewer still could roughly draw on a map the extent or boundaries of those Amazon Rainforests. Yet it is funny how things can be connected! What is there in common between the Amazon website, the Amazon Rainforests and today’s Catholic Church―especially the Church’s upcoming Amazon Synod? Hang on in there and you will soon see the surprising answer!

If you go to the Amazon―the website, not the rainforests―you will find on their homepage their FOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES: “Amazon is guided by four principles: (1) customer obsession rather than competitor focus, (2) passion for invention, (3) commitment to operational excellence, and (4) long-term thinking.”

Another website states that the Amazon Rainforest landscape contains:
(1) One in ten known species on Earth
(2) Around 1.4 billion acres of dense forests, half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests
(3) Over 4,100 miles of winding rivers
(4) More than 2.6 million square miles in the Amazon basin, about 40% of South America

With tongue in cheek―but many a true word is said in jest―you could combine the above four guiding-principles of the electronic internet and computing giants Amazon, with the contents of the gigantic Amazon Rainforests and come up with a sketch of the Catholic Church as it is today.

As for the connection with the Amazon Rainforest landscape (compare it to the above):
(1) Catholics make up a little less than one in ten people on Earth
(2) Around 1.4 billion “dense” Catholics (knowing little about their Faith) populate the world.
(3) Over 400,000 priests(rivers of grace) populate the world ―okay, so we add couple of “zeros” but that is like adding nothing at all―for “zero” is “nothing”.
(4) Around 40% of all the world’s Catholics live in South America

As for the connection with the Amazon technology giant and its four guiding principles, you could say that the Catholic Church today:
(1) Is guided by “customer obsession” or the obsessive modern desires of worldly Catholics, rather than being Faith-focused.
(2) Has a passion for invention―meaning “inventing” a new religion that has less and less to do with the Catholic Faith that we once knew.
(3) Is committed more to “operational excellence” (meaning practical and pastoral things) rather than doctrinal and dogmatic things.
(4) Is guided by the “long-term thinking” and long-term planning of the Modernists and Liberals and Communists that have infiltrated the ranks of the Church and now have a stranglehold on the Church.

Amazing Amazonian connections, huh?

Before You Talk the Talk―Know What You Talk About―Know Your Subject
If there is about to be an “Amazon Synod” in the Catholic Church―then it must have something to do with the Amazon, right? The Church does not name its Synods alphabetically like the National Weather Service, official weather bureau of the United States, names the hurricanes each year―beginning with the letter “A” for the first, “B” for the second―as in the 2019 names: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humbert and counting.

What is the Amazon Synod all about? If the Church has called it the “Amazon Synod” or “Pan-Amazon Synod”, then it must be something to do with the Amazon and “Amazonians”, don’t you agree? So what do you know about the Amazon? Where on Earth is the Amazon? Who lives there? Why all the interest by the Catholic Church on the Amazon? If this is so important―why hasn’t the Church dealt or discussed it before? Why, all of sudden, now? If you don’t know your subject or are ignorant about what is being discussed, then anyone could tell you anything and you would just nod, accept it and believe it. So before we go any further, for the very few folk (or very many folk) who are clueless about the Amazon--thinking it to be a online shopping website that gives you good deals and cheap prices―let us just fill in a few blanks (and blank stares) on the subject of the real and original Amazon, that is to say the Amazon Rainforests.

This will read a little like the account of the Days of Creation in the Book of Genesis.

(1) First of all―surprise, surprise―Amazon is NOT a country, but a region that overlaps into several different countries.

(2) Secondly, its location is in South America―in the northern part of the continent―covering a little over 2 million square miles and spanning nine countries, namely Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana.

(3) Thirdly, the majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

(4) Fourthly, the Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.

(5) A remarkable example of the Providence of God is that more than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus, important for plant growth. The yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods.

(6) Recent anthropological findings have suggested that the Amazon region was densely populated. Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in AD 1500, divided between the more densely populated coastal settlements and more sparsely populated inland settlements. A complex civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. Many of these populations existed along whitewater rivers―where they had good means of transportation, excellent fishing, and fertile floodplain soils for agriculture. However, when Europeans arrived, these were the first settlements to be affected and infected, since Europeans used the major rivers as highways to the interior. In the first century of European presence, the Amerindian population was reduced by 90 percent. It is believed that civilization was later devastated by the spread of diseases from Europe, such as smallpox. Most of the remaining peoples lived in the interior of the forest: either pushed there by the Europeans or traditionally living there in smaller groups. By 1900, the population had fallen to 1 million and by the early 1980s it was less than 200,000.

(7) Today, despite the population decimation, natives peoples still live in American rainforests, although virtually all have been affected by the outside world. Instead of wearing traditional garb of loin cloths, most Amerindians wear western clothes, and many use metal pots, pans, and utensils for everyday life. Some groups make handicrafts to sell to tourists, while others make routine trips to the city to bring foods and wares to market. Almost no native group obtains the majority of its food by traditional nomadic hunting and gathering. Nearly all cultivate crops, with hunting, gathering, and fishing serving as a secondary or supplementary food source. Usually a family has two gardens: a small house garden with a variety of plants, and a larger plantation which may be one hectare in area planted with bananas, manioc, or rice. These plantations are created through the traditional practice of slash and burn, a method of forest clearing that is not all that damaging to the forest if conducted in the traditional manner. Today virtually no forest Amerindians live in their fully traditional ways, although there are still several dozen groups living in voluntary isolation. The “uncontacted tribes”, as they are popularly known, mostly live in Brazil and Peru. The number of indigenous people living in the Amazon Basin is poorly quantified, but some 20 tmillion people in 8 Amazon countries and the Department of French Guiana are classified as “indigenous”. Two-thirds of this population lives in Peru, but most of this population dwells not in the Amazon, but in the highlands―so 20 million is really a false figure if you are talking about the actual Amazon Rainforest population and are excluding the populations of the cities.

Amazonians of Today Reflect the Catholics of Today
Strangely enough, if you research a little into the life of today’s Amazonians, you will find that they are victims of the same thing as Catholics―namely, worldliness. Most Amazonians have embraced worldliness and thus they have become “hybrid Amazonians”―some more, some less―blending worldliness with their ancients traditions, while only a minority of Amazonians are trying to still live exclusively according to their ancient traditions (let us add the word “pagan” here, for that is what most of their traditions are: “pagan traditions”). The same is true for Catholics―most Catholics have embraced worldliness and only a minority are still trying to live by the Catholic traditions of old, preferring instead to live in a hybrid Faith―partially traditional, largely worldly.

Thus, some Amazonians still live much as did their ancestors thousands of years before them. Some tribes, deep in the rainforest, remain out of contact with the modern world. In early 2011, Survival International released footage of a tribe living on the border between Brazil and Peru. Their food, medicines and clothing come primarily from the forest. Aerial monitoring of the tribe over 20 years suggests that they grow their own vegetables, including pumpkin, bananas, manioc and maize, although this is probably supplemented with meat from animals hunted in the forest.

These communities organize their daily lives differently than our culture. Most tribal children don't go to schools like ours. Instead, they learn about the forest from their parents and other people in their community. They are taught how to survive in the forest. They learn how to hunt and fish, and which plants are useful as medicines or food. Some of these children know more about rainforests than scientists who have studied rainforests for many years! Besides hunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing, Indigenous people also plant small gardens for other sources of food, using a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation. First they first clear a small area of land and burn it. Then they plant many types of plants, to be used for food and medicines. After a few years, the soil has become too poor to allow for more crops to grow and weeds start to take over. They then move to a nearby uncleared area. This land is traditionally allowed to re-grow for 10-50 years before it is farmed again. Indigenous people revere the forest that, until the present, has protected them from outsiders and given them everything they need. They live what is called a sustainable existence, meaning they use the land without doing harm to the plants and animals that also call the rainforest their home.

Indigenous peoples have been losing their lives and the land they live on ever since Europeans began colonizing their territories 500 years ago. Unknowingly, the first European explorers to what is now called Latin America brought diseases such as small-pox, measles and even the common cold to which Europeans had developed varying degrees of immunity but to which indigenous peoples had no immunity at all since none of them had never been exposed to these diseases before. As a result of those encounters, over ninety percent of the native peoples died from diseases that today we regard as minor and even then were fatal to only a small fraction of Europeans. Time and time again, contact has resulted in disaster for Brazil’s uncontacted tribes. These very isolated peoples have not built up immunity to diseases common elsewhere, which is why they are so vulnerable. It is not unusual for 50% of a tribe to be wiped out within a year of first contact, by diseases such as measles and influenza.

However, until about forty years ago, the lack of roads prevented most outsiders from exploiting the rainforest and entering indigenous territories. These roads, constructed for timber and oil companies, cattle ranchers and miners, have opened up vast areas for outsiders to grab and exploit and have made possible the destruction of millions of acres of rainforest each year. Although indigenous people have lived on their lands for thousands of years, they do not own it, because they have not filed “deeds” of land and do not possess “title.” Therefore governments and other outsiders do not recognize their rights to the land. Because of land colonization by non-indigenous people, many local groups were forced into sedentary lifestyles and became peasants. They have no other choice but to move to different areas, sometimes even to the crowded cities. They often live in poverty because they have no skills useful for a city lifestyle and little knowledge about the urban culture. Today, most Amerindian tribes live in indigenous reserves called resguardos, where they practice a lifestyle that integrates both traditional and modern elements. Inhabited centers and cities in Amazonia have rapidly increased in number due to migration to the suburbs, so that today between 70% and 80% of the population resides in these centers and cities. Few live in complete seclusion from the modern world. For example, some make a living from tourism, and/or need to visit the local markets to supplement what they grow in their plant gardens.

The Amazonians, Religion and Paganism
Survival International estimates that the area is home to around 400 tribes of indigenous people, each with their own culture, language and distinct territory. Due to the difficulty to get to many of these areas, many of these tribes have developed very differently. The majority of Amazon cultures practice some form of animism (the attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena). This belief system sees the rainforest as the home of spiritual life, with every flower, plant and animal containing its own spirits. The Yanomani tribe of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil perform rituals using hallucinogenic drugs prepared from the bark of the virola tree to see the spirits. Shamans use the power of the spirits to heal members of the tribe and to call for harm to befall enemies.

A current exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, states that the world’s preoccupation, preference and pursuance of pornography and all kinds of sexual immorality in thought, word and deed, has opened and will continue to open the doors of Christian souls to paganism and its acceptance and its embrace: “Exorcists know that the introduction into the occult is almost always accomplished through immorality, especially immorality in the areas of the sixth and ninth commandments[.] … The previous generation’s slow descent into the sexual depravity of the prior generation, fueled by a prolific pornography industry, has opened the door to the spirit of paganism. The trajectory of moral depravity and curiosity in occult matters will result in the next generation wanting or actually having open worship of other ‘gods.’”

Is it a coincidence that―after the Synod of Bishops on the Family and publication of Amoris Laetitia, both of which directly and indirectly attacked the Sixth Commandment―the Amazon Synod’s working document has entered into the shadows of an open “neo-paganism”?

For in a 64-page, 157-paragraph, 45,000-word working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the Amazon Synod in October of 2019― titled “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology” ― which will take place in October 2019 on the Pan-Amazonian region of South America, which includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Suriname ― the Church has unveiled a brazenly “neo-pagan” text that eerily praises pagan rituals (§87) and “Faith in the God Father–Mother Creator” (§121) and “dialogue with the spirits” (§75).

Pope St. Pius X warned against this universal acceptance of all religions and no religions in his papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, where prophetically wrote: “For the Modernist Believer, on the contrary, it is an established and certain fact that the divine reality does really exist in itself and quite independently of the person who believes in it. If you ask on what foundation this assertion of the Believer rests, they answer: ‘In the experience of the individual.’ … In the religious sentiment one must recognize a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the very reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God's existence and His action―both within and without man―as to excel greatly any scientific conviction. They [Modernists] assert, therefore, the existence of such a real experience, and one of a kind that surpasses all rational experience. If this experience is denied by some, like the rationalists, it arises from the fact that such persons are unwilling to put themselves in the moral state which is necessary to produce it. It is this experience which, when a person acquires it, makes him properly and truly a believer [therefore even pagan ‘experiences’ have to be accepted―which is what increasingly being done by the modern Church today].

“How far off we are here from Catholic teaching we have already seen in the decree of the First Vatican Council. We shall see later how, with such theories, added to the other errors already mentioned, the way is opened wide for atheism. Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of ‘experience’, united with the other doctrine of ‘symbolism’, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true. What is to prevent such experiences from being met within every religion? In fact that they are to be found is asserted by not a few. And with what right will Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? With what right can they claim true experiences for Catholics alone? Indeed Modernists do not deny but actually admit, some confusedly, others in the most open manner, that all religions are true. That they cannot feel otherwise is clear. For on what ground, according to their theories, could falsity be predicated of any religion whatsoever?” (Pope St. Pius X, papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, §14).

Faith on Fire? The Amazon Synod Could Produce an Amazon Schism!
The current modern Catholic Church’s internal criticisms, disagreements, debates, splits and accusations of heresy, continue to find their way into the public forum―something that would never have happened 60 years ago and would not have even been dreamed of or deemed possible. Yet here we are today, caught in the public media crossfire between Liberal-Conservatives and Liberal- Modernists. The staple-diet today seems to be Vatican Vendettas, Cardinals Crossfire, Fatherly Feuds, Hierarchical Heretics, Synodal Smokescreens, Dogmatic Double-crossing, Faith Fragmentation, and lots more. Never a dull moment with each Synod-Sin-Nod. With every passing Synod, sin gets more and more nods of agreement.

Perhaps Rome should take a leaf out of the National Weather Service hurricane naming “play-book” and name each successive Synod alphabetically after some sin or deficiency: Aggiornamento (Vatican II’s “modernization” slogan), Brainwashing, Compromising, Democratic, ‘Ecumaniacal’, Faithless, Godless, Homosexual, Immoral, Jargonistic, Kosher, Liberal, Modernist, Noncombatant, Obfuscating (creating confusion), Prayerless, Questionable, Revolutionary, Sly, Traitorous, Unspiritual, Vacillating, Worldly, X-Rated, Yielding and Zigzagging.

Denounced and Condemned by Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider
So what has this latest Synod brewed-up for the Church? This latest “brew” is more than just “a storm in a teacup”―it risks cracking the teacup or even breaking it! Why? Well, it seems that this particular “brew” has things in it that just don’t mix―or shouldn’t be mixed! The Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (which is the Latin title that Rome always gives to its preparatory working documents for its Synods of Bishops) was released in June of 2019. On September 12th, 2019, CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE and BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER pointed out SIX HERESIES — implicit and explicit — contained in the Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (which is the Latin title that Rome always gives to its preparatory working documents for its Synods of Bishops). The working document (Instrumentum Laboris), which is 147 paragraphs long, discusses the Amazonian approaches to theology and ways of thinking. Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider stated that foremost among these falsehoods contained in the Instrumentum Laboris, or preparatory working document, is an “implicit pantheism” promoting “a pagan socialization of ‘Mother Earth,’ based on a cosmology of the Amazonian tribes.” The preparatory working document paints indigenous peoples as models of “good living” who enjoy a “harmony of relationships” between “the whole cosmos — nature, men, the supreme being” and “various spiritual forces.”

Other key personages in the Church―who are not yet Modernist in their stance―have also criticized or even condemned the Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (the preparatory working document). CARDINAL GERHARD MUELLER, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 and 2017, is also critical of the some of the ideas presented in the Instrumentum Laboris. He writes:

“Key terms are not clearly defined and then excessively deployed: what is meant by a « synodal path », by « integral development », what is meant by a « Samaritan, missionary, synodal, open » Church? By « a Church reaching out », the « Church of the Poor », the « Church of the Amazon », and other such terms? … Has the Church of Christ been put by her Founder, as though she was some kind of putty, into the hands of bishops and popes, so they may now – illuminated by the Holy Spirit – rebuild her, into an updated instrument with secular goals, too? The structure of the text presents a radical U-turn from … Catholic theology.

“The relationship between Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition on the one hand, and the Church's Magisterium on the other, has been classically determined … Thus, Holy Scripture and Tradition are constitutive principles of knowledge … The Magisterium, on the other hand, is merely active in an interpretative and regulative manner … In the case of the Instrumentum Laboris, however, the very opposite is the case. The whole line of thought revolves, in self-referential and circular ways, around the latest documents of Pope Francis' Magisterium, furnished with a few references to John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Only little is quoted of Holy Scripture, and the Church Fathers barely at all … Next to the confusing of the roles of Magisterium on the one side and of Holy Scripture on the other, the Instrumentum Laboris even goes so far as to claim that there are new sources of Revelation … For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has infallibly taught that Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are the only sources of Revelation and that no further Revelation can be added in the course of history … A “cosmovision” with its myths and the ritual magic of Mother “Nature,” or its sacrifices to “gods” and spirits which scare the wits out of us, or lure us on with false promises, cannot be an adequate approach for the coming of the Triune God in His Word and His Holy Spirit … In the formation of future pastors and theologians, shall the knowledge of classical and modern philosophy, of the Church Fathers, of modern theology, of the Councils now be replaced with the Amazonian “cosmovision” and the wisdom of the ancestors with their myths and rituals? The cosmos, however, is not to be adored like God, but only the Creator Himself. We do not fall on our knees before the enormous power of nature and before “all kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8), but only before God, “for it is written, the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Matthew 4:10) It is thus that Jesus rejected the diabolical seducer in the desert … Rather than proposing an obscure approach comprised of vague religiosity and a futile attempt to turn Christianity into a science of salvation by sacralizing the cosmos, nature’s biodiversity and ecology, one must turn to the very center and origin of our Faith.” (Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

Denounced and Condemned by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller
Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, for three decades a professor of Church history, and was president of the International Commission for Contemporary Church History from 1998 until 2006―on June 27th, 2019, ten days after Rome published its Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming October Amazon Synod―issued a strong denunciation and critique and denunciation of the Instrumentum Laboris. He unambiguously and boldly spoke of “heresy” and “apostasy” and “departure from Divine Revelation”, and “suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly.” Here are some extracts from that public condemnation.

Cardinal Brandmüller writes: “It is truly astonishing that―contrary to former assemblies―the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will deal exclusively with a region of the Earth whose population is just half that of Mexico City, that is to say, 4 million. This also raises suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly … In principle, we must ask why a synod of bishops should deal with topics which, at best, (as is now the case with three quarters of the Instrumentum Laboris) relate only marginally to the Gospels and the Church. Clearly, there is an encroaching interference here by a synod of bishops into the purely secular affairs of the Brazilian state and society. What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church? More importantly―what professional expertise authorizes an ecclesial synod of bishops to express itself on such topics?

“Furthermore―throughout the Instrumentum Laboris―one finds a very positive assessment of natural religions, including indigenous healing practices, etc., even mythic-religious practices and cult forms. In the context of the call for harmony with nature, for example, there is even talk about “dialogue with the spirits” (§75) … The result is a natural religion masquerading as Christianity.

“It is impossible to conceal that the ‘synod’ intends, above all, to help implement two most cherished projects that heretofore have never been implemented: namely, the abolition of priestly celibacy and the introduction of a female priesthood ― beginning with female deacons. In any event, it is about “identifying the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women … in the Church” (§129 a 3). In a similar manner, “room is now opening up to create new ministries appropriate to this historical moment. It is the right moment to listen to the voice of the Amazon…” (§43). But the fact is omitted here that, in the end, John Paul II also stated―with highest magisterial authority―that it is not in the power of the Church to administer the Sacrament of Holy Orders to women. Indeed, in two thousand years, the Church has never administered the Sacrament of Holy Orders to a woman. The demand which stands in direct opposition to this fact shows that the word ‘Church’ is now being used purely as a sociological term on the part of the authors of the Instrumentum Laboris, thus implicitly denying the sacramental-hierarchical character of the Church.

“The Instrumentum Laboris burdens the synod of bishops and ultimately the Pope with a serious break with the Deposit of Faith. Such a break consequently implies the self-destruction of the Church or the change of the Mystical Body of Christ … We are witnessing a new form of the classical Modernism of the early twentieth century … a concept of dogmatic development that is sharply opposed to the genuine Catholic understanding … It is to be emphatically stated that the Instrumentum Laboris contradicts the binding teaching of the Church on decisive points, and is therefore to be qualified as heretical. Inasmuch as the fact of Divine Revelation is here even being questioned or misunderstood, one must also speak of apostasy … The use of Christian words and concepts cannot obscure the fact that, regardless of their original meaning, they are being used merely as empty words. The Instrumentum Laboris for the Amazon Synod constitutes an attack on the foundations of the Faith, in a way that has heretofore not been thought possible. It must therefore be firmly and decidedly rejected.” (Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, June 27th, 2019).

Continued Denouncements and Condemnations
Two months later, on August 28th, 2019, both Cardinal Brandmüller and Cardinal Burke sent separate letters to their
fellow members of the College of Cardinals, expressing their serious concerns regarding the working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the pan-Amazonian region.

► CARDINAL WALTER BRANDMÜLLER wrote: “Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it … The nebulous [vague, imprecise, confusing] formulations of the Instrumentum, as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the proposed priestly ordination of the so-called ‘viri probati’ [subtly meaning “married men”] arouse strong suspicion that even priestly celibacy will be called into question … The sole fact that Cardinal (Claudio) Hummes is the president of the synod and thus will exercise a grave influence in a negative sense, suffices to have a well founded and realistic concern, as much as in the case of bishops Erwin Kräutler [a long time lobbyist for married priests], Franz-Josef Overbeck [an advocate for change in the Church’s teaching on priestly ordination and sexual morality]., etc. … We must face serious challenges to the integrity of the Deposit of the Faith, the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church and its Apostolic Tradition. With all this has been created a situation never before seen in the Church’s history, not even during the Arian crisis of the fourth and fifth century.” Brandmüller added that all cardinals must consider how they will react to “any heretical statements or decisions of the synod … I would hope, therefore, that Your Eminence, for your part, will seize this opportunity to correct, according to the teachings of the Church, certain positions expressed in the Instrumentum Laboris of the pan-Amazonian synod.”

► CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE, also wrote to fellow cardinals on August 28th, telling them that he “shares completely the deep concerns of Cardinal Brandmüller on the upcoming Synod on the Amazon, based upon its Instrumentum Laboris … a long document marked by language which is not clear in its meaning, especially in what concerns the Deposit of the Faith … It contradicts the constant teaching of the Church on the relationship between the created world and God, the uncreated Creator, and man, created in the image and likeness of God to cooperate with him as guardian of the created world … The Instrumentum Laboris characterize the teaching regarding the unicity and universality of the salvation brought by Christ alive in the Church as relative to a particular culture and emblematic of what they call ‘petrified doctrine’ (§38) … The truth that God has revealed Himself fully and perfectly through the mystery of the Incarnation of the Redeemer, the Son of God, is obscured, if not denied … Cardinal Brandmüller indicated in his letter the serious difficulties regarding the ordained ministry and perfect continence of the clergy. These proposals, as the cardinal indicates, attack the ‘hierarchical-sacramental structure’ and ‘the Apostolic Tradition of the Church’ … The disturbing propositions of the Instrumentum Laboris … portend an apostasy from the Catholic Faith.”

► CARDINAL RAINER WOELKI, the Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, in his sermon for the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8th), stated that the “priesthood has not been invented by man, but goes back to the mandate of Our Lord … If we take this seriously, it becomes clear that therefore the question about the priesthood of women is not a question which lies in our power of disposition … Pope John Paul II has decided upon this question in a binding manner and for the entire Church already in 1994 … in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, saying that ‘The Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women … Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful!’ (Pope John Paul II, 1994).”

Cardinal Woelki spoke these words at a time when intense debates are taking place in Germany about the possibility of ordaining women to the priesthood. On September 9th, 2019, the German bishops’ news website published a report, according to which several Catholic children and youth organizations from Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have called for the female priesthood. According to the view of these young people, women are being set aside in the Catholic Church, and therefore these people protest that “the Church cannot not stand in the way of the vocation of women to the priesthood by denying them the Sacrament of Holy Orders.” Cardinal Woelki, who recently visited the United States, warned in an interview about the dangers of the Catholic Church in Germany turning into a “German national church” and entering into a schism.

Liberal-Conservatives Call for Anti-Amazonian Prayer and Fasting
On September 12th, 2019, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider issued a call for prayer and fasting to prevent them being approved. They propose that clergy and laity “pray daily at least one decade of the Holy Rosary and to fast once a week” for such intentions over a 40 day period, from September 17th to October 26th. They add that “no one” can say they were not aware of the “gravity of the situation” and so excuse themselves from “taking appropriate action” for love of Christ and His Church. Given such a threat, they call on “all members” of the Church to “pray and fast” for her members “who risk being scandalized, that is led into confusion, error and division” by the synod text. They write that “every Catholic, as a true soldier of Christ” is called to “safeguard and promote the truths of the Faith” lest the synod bishops “betray” the synod’s mission which is to assist the Pope in the “preservation and growth of Faith and morals.”

Regardless of where you stand on the wide-ranging spectrum of belief and convictions and attitudes―all the way from staunch Traditional Catholic, to mildly Traditional Catholic, to Conservative Catholic, to Conservatively Liberal Catholic, to Liberally Conservative Catholic, to Liberal Catholic, to Liberal-Modernist Catholic, to Modernist Catholic―the fact is that the Catholic Church is gradually crumbling, Holy Mother Church is being repeatedly raped of Her dogmas and abused in Her beliefs, Her children are being increasingly “spiritually aborted”. We are living-out the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a modern format. Will be like the Priest and the Levite, who saw the half-dead, beaten, naked and robbed victim laying at the roadside ―but chose to ignore him and walked-by, minding their own business, concerned only about their own affairs. Or will we, like Good Samaritan, stop what we are doing and do something for the good of the victim―Holy Mother Church? Perhaps it is time to wake-up and fast and pray?

The words of Our Lord come to mind from another parable―that of the Sheep and the Goats, where the goats are condemned to Hell for DOING NOTHING: “Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting!” (Matthew 25:41-46).

Over the last two centuries―like the proverbial frog in gradually heated pot of water― we have been slowly stewing and pickling in the brine of Liberalism and Modernism. That process has been markedly speeded-up since the Second Vatican Council. Now the ‘Conservative’ (really Liberal-Conservatives) are crying: “Wolf!”―but they fail to see that they have contributed to the birth and rearing of that “Wolf” which was allowed to enter the flock of Our Lord’s sheep and the sheepfold of the Church―the birth of the wolf being the Second Vatican Council, of which St. John Bosco prophesied in 1862, exactly 100 years before the disastrous Second Vatican Council began in 1962. St. John Bosco predicted the Second Vatican Council and its disastrous impact on the Church. The relevant portion is: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady.”

Like Cain, we will protest in vain: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother's keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand!’” (Genesis 4:9-11). Holy Mother Church is being bled to death of her teachings, truths, dogmas and disciplines―and most prefer to keep sitting in front of their TV’s, browsing their smartphones or laptops, enjoying their social gatherings, sports, games and pastimes. What answer shall they give on the Day of Judgment? “Was I my brother’s keeper?”

Regardless of who you think is to blame for the mess that we find ourselves in today―something must be done about it and you must do something about it. If you come home to find your house burgled and in a messy disarray; or flooded; or on fire―regardless of who burgled it, messed it up, caused it to be flooded, or led to it catching fire―you have to clean up the mess and repair the damage. The same is true for the “House of God”―the Church. It is your Church as much as any other Catholic’s. We are in a mess! Where are you?