What to Expect of Benedict XVI

What to Expect of “Pope” Benedict XVI

A Message from Novus Ordo Watch about what we believe will happen
during the “papal reign” of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger

Fr. Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI

May 20, 2005 AD
Ember Friday in Pentecost

Dear Reader:

The recent election of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger as “Pope” Benedict XVI, the new head of the Concilar Church, marks the beginning of a new era. After almost 40 years since the end of the Second Vatican Council, and over 46 years since the selection of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli as John XXIII, in order to finish its triumph over the Catholic Church, the Conciliar Novus Ordo Church must now move into its final stages to complete its work of inquity, that is, the setting up of a universal one-world religion, under the pretext of human dignity, that has abandoned all that is distinctively Roman Catholic.

Catholic traditionalists have hitherto been the last great resistance against the New Church’s complete destruction of Catholicism. In order to succeed fully in implementing the New Religion, therefore, the Novus Ordo Church must once and for all break down the traditional Catholic resistance. In what follows we propose what we believe Benedict XVI has planned to bring about the demise of Traditional Catholicism. We put these considerations before you today, before the plan is carried out, that you may know to beware of the great dangers ahead and identify them as such as they come to pass.

(1) Benedict XVI will seek to destroy the traditional Catholic resistance not by attacking it, but by neutralizing it: he will seek to undermine its reason for being.

(2) As time goes on, Benedixt XVI will bend over backwards to appear conservative, even traditional; he will do everything in his power to reconcile with and fully regularize the Society of St. Pius X and similar traditionalist groups. He will allow all Novus Ordo priests to say the traditional Mass and perhaps even command that the traditional Mass be said on a regular basis in every Novus Ordo parish. (This reintroduction of the traditional Mass in regular parish life will be absolutely essential.) He will lure good-willed but confused and battle-weary traditionalists by letting them voice their concerns concerning Vatican II and the New Mass and fully accept their reservations concerning these. He may even reform the New Mass into a more conservative liturgy. He will say that it is time to come to the aid and comfort of the one faction in the Church still marginalized and neglected for so long, namely, the traditionalists. He will pretend to have an open mind and heart for them and do everything in his power to regularize their status, with the ultimate goal of having all traditionalists be part of the New Church, under the tacit banner, however, of “unity in diversity.”

(3) After having regularized and fully accepted the formerly traditionalist priestly societies, and perhaps even erected Apostolic Administrations for them, Benedict XVI might even go so far as to ordain priests for those traditionalist groups. This will anger the ultra-modernists but at the same time be a great defeat for traditional Catholicism, for the ordinations will not be valid. They will not be valid because Benedict XVI is not a bishop. Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict’s real name, was ordained a priest in 1951, but his consecration as “bishop” occurred in 1977 and took place in the new rite of consecration promulgated by Paul VI (in 1968), a rite that is clearly invalid because the words of episcopal consecration were changed so much that they no longer express that what is taking place is the consecration of a Catholic bishop. Against this, Pope Leo XIII has taught clearly and infallibly that a form that does not signify the grace it confers is unable to confect a sacrament: “That ‘form’ consequently cannot be considered apt or sufficient for the Sacrament which omits what it ought essentially to signify” (Bull Apostolicae Curae, 1896). Therefore, any and all ordinations “conferred” by Benedict XVI are invalid. [Read a full theological study demonstrating the invalidity of the new rite here: “Absolutely Null and Utterly Void” (PDF)] Hence it will not matter how many “traditional priests” he will seem to ordain, for all the “Masses” they will ever say will be invalid. Yet none of the former traditionalists then reconciled to Rome will dare speak against this, for they will necessarily recognize Benedict as the Bishop of Rome, and it is absurd, of course, to acknowledge someone as the Bishop of Rome while at the same time maintaining that he is not a bishop. All this will happen while the last few surviving bishops appointed by Pope Pius XII are dying.

(4) Benedict XVI will seem conservative and traditional not only in words but also in deeds. He will move to excommunicate the more obvious Ultra-Modernists in the Novus Ordo Church. He will strike down the left-wing dissidents against his Novus Ordo Magisterium. He will not tolerate openly homosexual organizations that claim to be Catholic, such as “Dignity USA.” He will perhaps provoke a schism with “Cardinal” Roger Mahony of Los Angeles to further make people believe that he, Benedict, is an orthodox Anti-Modernist, the “great Pope” to “save the Church,” and that Mahony and his ilk are Liberals and Modernists. He will be uncompromisingly against abortion and euthanasia — and the death penalty.

(5) Benedict XVI will be very successful in this endeavor. He will be successful mainly because many traditionalists are tired of fighting. They are worn out from the battle. They will welcome the illusion of a “traditional Pope” who will finally “restore the Church.” Benedict will take advantage of this unique moment.

(6) But all of this will be facade. It will serve only one purpose: to lure the faithful Catholic remnant into the New Church and invalidate the last valid Latin-rite sacraments, all while the last Catholic bishops are dying. This tactic will reveal itself as extremely cunning and successful, for there is no better way to destroy traditionalism than by apparently acceding to its every demand. Thus they will succeed in deceiving everybody, except for the elect, which is impossible (see Matthew 24:24). The few faithful Catholic souls who will then still have refused to join the New Church will be easy to deal with, for their number will be small. They will be marginalized, ostracized, and persecuted in ways without precedent. They will be derogated as “extreme right-wing lunatics” and “rabid fundamentalists” who are “very uncharitable” and “can never be pleased.” They will be denounced as enemies of the Catholic Church, even though they are but the enemies of the New Vatican II Church. They will be put on a par with the followers of the David Koresh cult. They will be denounced as left-overs from the Inquisition and witch-burning times. They will be denounced as antisemitic. Quite possibly, even publications formerly known as traditionalist will join in the bashing. Once this has succeeded, everything will be in place; the last stage of the Great Persecution of the Holy Catholic Church will have begun.

Pray hard, therefore, for the Novus Ordo hierarchy will move swiftly to smash that last outpost of Catholicism, that last bastion they so far still haven’t been able to demolish. “They [the faithful] must pray above all for the Church of Darkness to leave Rome,” counseled the Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich on August 25, 1820. So do not be surprised if this comes to pass. We are telling you beforehand. The remaining true Catholics, however, will be consoled by the fact that “Catholics who remain faithful to Tradition, even if they are reduced to a handful, are the true Church of Jesus Christ” (St. Athanasius), and that Our Lady of Fatima promised that “in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
St. Pius X, pray for us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Image source: flickr.com (Papist)
License: CC BY-NC 2.0