Salza & Siscoe taken to the woodshed by one of their own…
“To Deceive the Elect”:
Rev. Paul Kramer destroys John Salza and Robert Siscoe
Every so often someone from the recognize-and-resist camp will complain that no sedevacantist has written a full book-length rebuttal of John Salza and Robert Siscoe’s 700-page whopper True or False Pope? Refuting Sedevacantism and Other Modern Errors (Winona, MN: STAS Editions, 2015). Frankly, there has been no need: Years ago already, after seeing the atrocious theology put forward in that book, one of their very own “priests” — the NovusOrdo-ordained Rev. Paul Kramer — announced that he was preparing a lengthy rebuttal.
This book has now been published. It is volume 1 of a larger work entitled To Deceive the Elect. It bears the subtitle The Catholic Doctrine on the Question of a Heretical Pope (Fort Collins, CO: Gondolin Institute Press, 2019) and is sold in hardcover as well as electronic format (Amazon Kindle and Apple iBook). The print edition has a total of 676 pages and 724 footnotes.
According to the book’s promotional page:
To deceive the Elect is a treatise on the catholic doctrine on the question of a heretical Pope which examines and elaborates the Catholic teaching on Defection from the Faith and the Church, focusing primarily on Heresy, and Loss of Ecclesiastical Office; and it is presented in such a manner to clear up the widespread confusion and refute the most common errors on these points that are being propagated at the present time. The book refutes primarily the arguments of the legalist-fundamentalist propagandists of Conciliarism, who profess that a Church council possesses the authority to juridically pass judgment on a reigning Pontiff for the delict of heresy.
Father Paul Kramer is an Irish-American native of Bristol, Connecticut, USA, who studied philosophy and theology in Rome at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas during the 1970s, and was ordained to the priesthood on April, 20, 1980 by Bishop Vittorio M. Costantini O.F.M. Conv. in the Cathedral of Sessa Aurunca (CA) Italy. Fr. Kramer served in parish ministry in Germany, Philippines, USA, and has carried out various missions in other countries, including Canada, Italy, Brazil, India, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and England. Fr. Kramer is currently retired, and is living in Ireland. Fr. Kramer was a close collaborator with the world famous “Fatima Priest”, Fr. Nicholas Gruner from 1986 until the latter’s untimely death in April 2015; at whose request this book has been written, and to whose memory it is dedicated.
(Source; italics and bold print given.)
This is significant: Not only has someone written a copiously-documented rebuttal of Salza and Siscoe’s theological train wreck, it was one of their very own clerics! What a colossal embarrassment to the authors!
The author, Rev. Paul L. Kramer
Until Francis arrived on the scene and occasioned a split between the Fatima Center‘s American branch (Constable, NY) and its Canadian branch (Fort Erie, ON) after Rev. Nicholas Gruner’s sudden passing, “Fr.” Kramer was part of the same camp as John Salza, Robert Siscoe, John Vennari, Christopher Ferrara, Michael Matt, and all the rest. In other words, Kramer was definitely “one of their own”, one who had spoken at their conferences, and whose books and articles they recommended, published, or sold — some still to this day! Perhaps the most well-known of all of Kramer’s books is The Devil’s Final Battle (2004), which was heavily promoted by all the English-speaking semi-trad outlets at the time, especially the Fatima Center.
To be clear: We are not endorsing Kramer’s book, To Deceive the Elect. Kramer is not a sedevacantist. While he does reject Bergoglio as a true Pope, he believes all the other papal claimants after the death of Pope Pius XII have been true Popes and that Benedict XVI is still reigning today. His own theological position, pre-Bergoglio, is the very same recognize-and-resistism (semi-traditionalism) held by Salza, Siscoe, and all the other usual suspects.
The reason why Kramer parted ways with many of his associates over Bergoglio is that Kramer is not willing to pretend that “Pope Francis” is not a manifest and public heretic and apostate. Neither is he willing to act as if being a manifest apostate does not have automatic and immediate consequences with regard to his membership in the Catholic Church and his claim to the Papacy. To show that that is indeed so, and that Siscoe and Salza are gravely misleading the public with their book True or False Pope?, is the purpose of volume one of To Deceive the Elect.
As regards the title of the book, it is a reference to these Sacred Words of our Blessed Lord: “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect” (Mt 24:24). Here it is also important to recall that to be a victim or even an abettor of the Great Deception foretold by our Lord Jesus Christ, it is not necessary to be malicious, as explained by the 19th-century Fr. Frederick Faber:
The purpose of this post, then, is not endorse “Fr.” Kramer’s book or to get people to purchase it, but simply to notify the public that a lengthy refutation of Salza and Siscoe’s errors has been published by one of their very own very learned co-religionists, who was a friend and coworker of “Fr.” Gruner’s for many years.
People who are interested in seeing the myriad sedevacantist responses to different claims made by Robert Siscoe and John Salza may consult our topical page for a plethora of links and resources:
Kramer’s book To Deceive the Elect may prove to be an important eye-opener for those who think Salza and Siscoe have written a work of tremendous orthodox scholarship and yet who would never read any rebuttal by a sedevacantist.
Thank you, Rev. Kramer.
Image sources: amazon.com / facebook.com
License: fair use / fair use
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