Inter
Regnum
XXXXXXX
Logic & Facts,
Based on Catholic Law,
Dogma, Scripture &
History,
Proving There Have Always Been
Gaps of Time Between Popes, and
That, Indeed, God Sometimes
Allows Startlingly Long
Papal Lacunae
XXXXXXX
“And
the Lord shewed [showed] me Jesus [Josue or Joshua, meaning, in Hebrew, ‘Help of
God’, i.e., by inference, ‘Savior’] the high
priest [the man God made pope of the Old Testament Church at this
time in history, circa 520 BC, as a small remnant of Jews returned from exile
& captivity to rebuild the Holy City of Jerusalem & God’s
Singular Temple under the auspices of the mighty rulers of the Persian Empire]
standing before the angel of the Lord [literally, God’s Messenger,
who was, at least, a celestial angel speaking on behalf of God, or else
the Second Person of God Himself speaking in this prophetic vision]: and
Satan [whose name means ‘adversary’ or ‘enemy’, also
known as the Devil, that is, ‘slanderer’ or ‘accuser’]
stood on his right hand [at his right hand side] to be his adversary [to accuse
him of all his terrible sins]. And the Lord said to Satan: ‘The Lord rebuke thee [you], O Satan: and the Lord that chose
“And
Peter [the first pope of the Roman Catholic Church] answering,
said to him [Christ the God-Man, His Divine Master]: ‘Although all
[everyone] shall be scandalized in thee [offended by you and too
frightened to be associated with you in public], I will never be scandalized.’ Jesus said to him:
‘Amen I say to thee [Indeed, I tell you the truth most solemnly] that in
this night before the cock crows [during the middle of this night before
morning comes and a rooster crows], THOU
WILT DENY ME THRICE [you will publicly deny your association with me three
times].’ Peter saith [says] to him:
‘Yea [literally “Yes”, figuratively “Even so”], though
I should die with thee [with you], I
will not deny thee.’ And in like manner [in the same way] said all
the disciples [the other Twelve Apostles --- thus first bishops ---
of the Roman Catholic Church under St. Peter’s rule]… But Peter
sat without in the court [outside the building where Caiaphas, the Old
Testament high priest at that time right before the New Testament began,
queried Jesus, trying to find a sin with which he could condemn Him]: and there
came to him a servant maid [young girl], saying: ‘Thou also wast [you too were] with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied
them all, saying: ‘I know
not what thou sayest [I don’t know what
you’re talking about].’ And as he went out of the gate, another
maid saw him, and she saith [says] to them that were
there [to the others gathered outside the building]: ‘This man also was
with Jesus of
“Simon
Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great [huge] fishes, one-hundred
fifty-three… Jesus saith [says] to them:
‘Come, and dine [eat].’ …This is now the third time
that Jesus was manifested [showed Himself clearly in physical form] after
he was risen from the dead. When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: ‘Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? [Do you love Me more than your fellow disciples love Me?]’ He
[Peter] saith to him: ‘Yea [Yes], Lord,
thou knowest [you know] that I love thee
[you].’ He [Jesus] saith to him: ‘FEED MY LAMBS [all the lay
members of My Roman Catholic Body].’ He [Jesus] saith
to him again: “Simon, son of John, lovest
thou me?” He [Peter] saith to him: ‘Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.’ He
[Jesus] saith to him: ‘FEED MY LAMBS.’ He [Jesus] said to him the third time: ‘Simon, son of
John, lovest thou me?’ Peter was
grieved [very upset], because he had said to him [for] the third time: ‘Lovest thou
me?’ And he [Peter] said to him: ‘Lord, thou knowest
all things [my dear Jesus, as God, You are omniscient and know
everything, including my heart]: thou knowest
that I love thee.’ He [Jesus] said to him: ‘FEED MY SHEEP [all the clergy of My Roman Catholic Body,
who rule God’s
“And
I saw another beast coming up out of the earth [this
‘terrestrial’ beast follows the beast out of the sea in
verse one], and he had two horns,
LIKE A LAMB, and SPOKE AS A DRAGON [he appears to represent Jesus on
earth, the ‘lamb of god’, calling himself ‘bishop
of rome’, while teaching Satanic lies, i.e., false religion]. And he executed all the power of the former
beast in his sight [the sea beast]; and he caused the earth, and them that
dwell therein, to adore the first
beast [worship it as if it’s God], whose wound [un]to death was healed. And he did great signs [lots
of amazing things], so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto
earth in the sight of men. And he SEDUCED
THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH [gets us to believe anti-Roman Catholic teaching, turning sin into
‘virtue’], for [because of] the signs, which were given him
to do in the sight of the [sea] beast…” (Apocalypse [Revelation]
13:11-14b DRC)
COMPOSED & EDITED DECEMBER 2017 TO MAY
2018.
XXXXXXX
Intended by the
Author of This Book
for the
Greater Glory of the Adorable Triune Catholic God,
for the
Worship of the Sacred Heart of King Jesus Christ of
for the
Praise of the Immaculate Heart of Queen Mary, the Blessed Ever-
Virgin Mother of
God,
unto the
Protection & Propagation of the Holy Roman Catholic Church &
Her Most
Precious Heavenly Dogmas,
and
under the
Euphonious Patronage of St. Cecilia, the Eloquent Patronage
of St.
Catherine of
Ven. Mariana de
Jesus Torres, Virgins &
Martyrs.
XXXXXXX
Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum, neque elati sunt oculi mei. Neque ambulavi in
magnis, neque in mirabilibus super
me. Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed exaltavi animam
meam; sicut ablactatus est super matre sua, ita retributio in anima mea.Speret
in Domino,
ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum. (Psalmus CXXX,Vulgata)
St. Francis
Xavier, Patron of Catholic Missioners, Ss. Catherine of Alexandria &
Francis of Sales, Patrons of Catholic Philosophers & Apologists,
respectively, and St. Peter of Verona, the Glorious Martyr, may you be pleased
to guide this arrow to its target, either unto eternal life or eternal death! Now
thanks be to God, who always maketh us
to triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us
in every place. For we are the good odour of
Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the
one indeed the odour of death unto death: but
to the others the odour of
life unto life. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16b DRC)
St. Francis of
Assisi, Humble Seraph of the Incarnate God, and St. Dominic the Preacher,
Dogged Cherub of the Triune Deity, pray for your children that they may not
fail the test but suffer the malice of the wicked gladly and so gain the Crown
of Life!
XXXXXXX
+++ 1. What Does This Book Prove? +++
This book logically & factually destroys the fantasy that
it’s ‘impossible’ for the Throne of St. Peter to sit empty, especially for a long amount of time; or for
persons, who are not Roman
Catholic (or, at least, not
validly or lawfully elected), to fool people into believing they are true & legitimate popes over
Christ’s Singular Catholic Body.
People who believe in this fantasy --- and call
themselves Catholic --- blithely assume either, 1.) that God’s Church would ‘cease
to exist’ if the papal throne is unoccupied, or else, 2.) that God would never
permit His Church to be without a true pope for more than an unspecified
amount of time. They often believe both of these things simultaneously.
Neither assumption is logical, factual,
canonic… or dogmatically justified.
Nothing that the Roman Catholic Church infallibly teaches us rules out the possibility Our Creator might allow Peter’s Throne to be
empty for a surprisingly ‘long’ time, and
the Catholic Church’s history over the course of nearly two
thousand years provides plenty of examples regarding terrible confusion
over who is actually the
pope.
Or, to put it differently:
Physical sufferings & catastrophes are NOT the worst affliction humans
experience; the worst punishment that God can inflict upon us is spiritual blindness. When
God’s Mercy is exhausted because we human beings are relentlessly
rebellious… even despite having His One & Only Catholic Faith…
God’s worst punishment for our sins is to take away most of our ability to see & believe
Catholicism WHOLE & ENTIRE,
leaving us subject to temptations &
bias, and thus blind to our LACK OF
CATHOLICITY.
(Please go
here to carefully study the book,
Helplessly Ignorant, for the irrefutable
reasoning & evidence of this ‘audacious’ claim. It
is in the Books & Articles section of The Epistemologic Works. Employing
rigorous logic and referring to the clear & explicit magisterial definitions
or infallible tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the morally
certain assertions of various ecclesial theologians or the carefully verified
records of academic historians, it plainly shows us how our present era of the Great
Apostasy revolves around willfully blind & obstinate denial of Salvation
Dogma.)
Such papal murk is simply one result of this
punishment during our apostasy.
To wit, with St. Peter’s Throne empty for a
‘long’ time (by human standards), this is how the whole world gets into a state of hideous evil and
global apostasy. This is how
those who are the Antichrist can appear to ‘triumph’ briefly,
since he (a real pope) who
restrains such appalling evil is briefly taken
out of their way.
+++ 2. And Why Is This Point Imperative? +++
Most of the world is NOT Catholic right now. Granted, a large amount of people
(although still rather a small minority of the world’s population…)
insist on calling themselves ‘catholic’, yet REAL Roman Catholicism never
results from merely sporting the title. That
is to say, you must truly be what you dare to claim to be in True
Religion.
Period.
And what constitutes proof for this claim? What separates a pretender from
someone really being what he says he is… to wit, Roman Catholic? God’s
Church has always been visible and, in a physical
& visible mortal existence, that claim --- that you’re
Catholic --- must be able to stand up, where necessary, under the light
of a visible examination & eyewitness account. In
other words, the physical evidence of a visible water baptism and visible
faith profession. Without this, no Catholicity actually
exists.
Visible water baptism must have at least one eyewitness testimony (this is one reason why the Church forbids a
person to baptize his or her own self) and, where lawfully required, a man
or woman of adequate intelligence must
profess the Roman Catholic Religion whole
& entire with others as eyewitnesses, comprehending every single infallible dogma in
a completely & unwaveringly orthodox
sense (you could, out of
necessity, profess God’s One True Faith all by your lonesome self…
but this is never the proper way to be Catholic during normal religious times
with a functioning Hierarchy).
People forgetting these standards makes them BLIND
to their lack of True Religion.
Whilst for a very few others --- who may be real
Catholics --- it makes them oblivious toward these fraudulent
‘catholic’ claims. At worst, they’ll eventually capitulate
and join in with such fraudulent ‘catholicity’; at best,
they’ll suffer horribly, fraudulent ‘catholics’ persecuting
them mercilessly. Meanwhile, real Catholics who think they can, or should,
‘worship’ with phonies, do so having to hide their orthodoxy (lest
the phony excoriate them or refuse to associate) and OFFEND GOD (Who
through His Church forbids Catholics from uniting religiously
with those who are non-Catholics --- please see irrefutable evidence
here
that this is forbidden for Catholics to
do). The upshot?
Acknowledging or following a fake
‘pope’ today is the same risk ten times over.
If unaware, then you’ll eventually follow
this phony ‘pope’ into
non-Catholicity. Or, unexpectedly staunch, you’ll wind up painfully excoriated &
rejected by those who slavishly follow the fraudulent ‘pope’ in his
non-Catholicity. In any case, knowingly
uniting in a religious way with these phonies… or having had enough time,
from God’s view, to know better
than to unite religiously with these phonies… OFFENDS God and, via Church’s Canon Law since most
ancient times, causes you to suffer, along with these open frauds, AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATION from
His Church and Hope of Salvation. (You may go
here for proof that Canon Law
automatically excommunicates any intelligent
Catholic who is notoriously &
pertinaciously heretical or schismatic.)
Each of these situations leads to hell, apart
from fake ‘catholics’ rejecting you.
So, dear soul, does hell or rejection make this
book sound imperative?
It had better… or else you’re not Catholic, or else you refuse
to think.
+++ 3. The FIRST Devastating Argument: +++
Our 1st Pope, Peter, Denied
Christ, Thus Losing Both His
Catholicity… and His Papal Office, Briefly (Part 1)
Yet upon what logical & factual
foundation may we have the ‘audacity’ to make the claim that it is possible
the Triune God of His Singular Roman Catholic Church --- the One True Divinity & Our Uncreated Creator, Who makes everything
that exists out of nothing --- might decide to allow the Throne of
St. Peter to be empty? More specifically and to the point, that He might
punish us, EITHER for being extremely
horrible Catholics or ELSE for the hideous wickedness of humanity as
a whole (and BOTH OF THESE are the situation on earth the past few centuries!),
by permitting the papal throne to remain empty… hence void of real
occupants… for an unexpectedly (perhaps startlingly so!) ‘long’
amount of time? And can a legitimate pope ever openly betray the Church?
We offer EXHIBIT NO. 1, from the
very first papacy of the New Testament.
To wit, the very first pope of the Roman
Catholic Church, the man Christ appointed to be His very first visible
representative upon earth during New Testament times, exercising supreme
authority over, and, where appropriate, infallible judgment on behalf of, His Roman
Catholic Body, which is His True Church and Singular Ark of Salvation:
St. Peter the Magnificent, the Apostolic Rock. A.k.a., Simon Bar-Jona.
Sacred Scripture is brutally honest about the
people in its pages, and Peter is no exception. Just as King St. David’s
sins of adultery & murder are bluntly revealed (as well as his heartfelt
penance afterward, too), so, also, is Pope St. Peter’s sin of apostasy
bluntly revealed (as well as his heartfelt penance afterward!), he publicly
denying the Christ, His Master, three times in a row just as the God-Man,
Jesus, had foretold.
(For scriptural evidence regarding David’s
shocking sins and later penance, plus all the ramifications of his actions and
God’s Punishment, as well as His Mercy shown to His Anointed King after a
terrible scourging, please see 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 11:1-12:25.)
Are David & Peter’s iniquities scandalous &
appalling? To be sure.
Does carnal lust & lowly cowardice afflict people in a
fallen world? Doubtless.
Dear David suffered the former temptation
(concupiscence) and fell into the most grotesque & hideous of mortal sins.
Poor Peter was no exception --- just like most of us, fear got the better of
him. He was a traitor and a liar, having rejected the Author of Truth & His
One True Religion for the sake of avoiding earthly suffering & bodily
death. Till, come to his senses with a glance from his Lord, he wept bitterly
in shame… as he did daily for the rest of his life, a precious tradition
tells us, dying a brave martyr.
(The beloved reader may review the first
pope’s tragic denial of God Incarnate in Matthew 26:31-35 & 69-75,
Mark 14:26-31 & 66-72, Luke 22:31-34d & 55-62, John 13:36-38 &
18:15-18, 25-27. Peruse all listed chapters for the full context.)
The point?
As Jesus Himself taught His disciples in the
Gospels:
“Behold [You
see that] I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves… But beware of
men. For they will deliver you up in councils [charge you with the ‘crime’ of being Catholic], and
they will scourge [whip & torture]
you in their synagogues [they’ll
persecute you because they’ll think their religion requires it, your
Roman Catholicity being a ‘threat’ to them]… But when
they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak [don’t worry about what to
say]: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak [the Holy Spirit will inspire you, so
that you’ll know exactly what to say in defense of the Catholic Faith at
the moment that you must speak]… Fear not therefore [you have no reason to worry beforehand
about these challenges]… Every one therefore that shall confess me before men [openly & publicly acknowledge
that he or she is Roman Catholic, when it is necessary to do so], I will
also confess him before my Father
who is in heaven [I will acknowledge
him or her as belonging to My Roman Catholic Body in Heaven]. But he
that shall deny me before men
[openly & publicly refuse to admit
that he or she is Catholic], I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven [I will never consider this person a
member of my Roman Catholic Church, deniers of Me & My Catholic Body
doomed to hell forever]. (Matthew 10:16a, 17, 19, 31a, 32-33 DRC)
+++ 4. The FIRST Devastating Argument: +++
Our 1st Pope, Peter, Denied
Christ, Thus Losing Both His
Catholicity… and His Papal Office, Briefly (Part 2)
Sobering, eh?
This is why, since ancient times when a pagan
Public betrayal of Jesus Christ & His
Singular Roman Catholic Church.
As an old & flawed, yet still helpful,
scholarly Roman Catholic work informs us:
“Perfidiae [religiously speaking, since to be Catholic
is to be a true soldier of Christ, fighting a just war against
our bodies, the world & hell in order to secure our ultimate salvation]
is the complete and voluntary abandonment of the Christian religion [again, read: Roman Catholic Faith]…
The heretic differs from the apostate in that he only denies one or more of the
doctrines of revealed religion, whereas the apostate denies the religion itself [whether by, e.g., denying God or Christ or the Holy Ghost as the
Divine Instigators of this Singular Religion, or, for instance, denying the
absolute uniqueness and necessity --- and hence its singularity --- of this One
True Religion via, e.g., an individual member denying Christ’s Catholic
Church’s Salvation Dogma to mean precisely what it has always explicitly
said, no ifs, ands or buts, or any theological ‘loophole’], a sin which has always been looked upon
as one of the most grievous. The ‘Shepherd of Hermas’ [the
apostrophes or ‘quote marks’ are in the original text], a work
written in Rome in the middle of the second century [this is a modern scholarly opinion basing itself upon some Catholics
of old doubting its canonicity --- but not its worthiness! --- during
ancient times… whilst in reality, any intelligent Catholic is presently free
to believe that the ‘Shepherd of Hermas’
was written exactly when the text of the book says it was composed, to
wit, during the latter half of the first century when the Apostle Paul’s
fellow Catholic laborer, St. Clement of Rome, was still alive], states
positively that there is no forgiveness
for those who have wilfully [spelling in original text] denied the Lord… Apostasy belonged, therefore, to the class
of sins for which the Church imposed perpetual penance and excommunication
without hope of pardon, leaving the forgiveness of the sin to God
alone.” (The
Catholic Encyclopedia, printed by Robert Appleton Co. at
Savvy, dear soul?
The earliest Church was quite rigorous in its
discipline, usually urging Catholics not to actively seek to be martyred, but
if… confronted by imminent martyrdom regardless of not actively seeking
it, this being, obviously, then, God’s Will for your life… facing
the ultimate test and thus required to remain steadfast, commanding Her members
to NOT deny their Lord, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, or His One & Only Saving Body, the Most Holy Roman
Catholic Church and Her Infallible Teachings, especially the one that instructs
us there is surely ‘no Salvation outside His Roman Catholic
Church’!
And why, why would this be? What’s the point of dying
painfully or young?
To avoid ecclesial
excommunication, great penance & eternal damnation.
Once more, read the Catholic Encyclopedia quote
carefully, in case you don’t want to believe it. I’m not making
this up --- as if I dare to imagine into existence my own religion --- the
evidence & proof is there for those who dare to look. Examine it!
True, if one studies the history of the Catholic
Church meticulously during its first few centuries, there was a tiff in the
third century over lots of Catholics in the Roman Empire (who were becoming
very numerous at this point in time) turning out to be cowards when confronted
by persecution. These ‘lapsi’ (the term
is Latin and is from ‘lapsus’, meaning
someone who is lapsed, or who has slipped, into error against the Catholic
Faith, by denying in public what they know & believe to be infallibly true)
were afraid of the consequences of standing firm against the pagans around
them. Most of them, or, perhaps, at least half of them, only denied Christ
& His Catholic Body so as to save themselves the torment & death
threatened against them, and not because they ceased to believe the Catholic
Religion whole & entire privately, in their hidden hearts & minds. Like
poor Peter, who was afraid, then horribly ashamed afterwards, weeping bitterly,
these poor souls, too, wilted with fear and then wept bitterly, being ashamed.
What should the Church do about them, after
persecution ends?
Kind-hearted popes amended the Church’s
strict discipline, making it just the slightest less strict. They allowed these
truly sorrowful ‘lapsi’ to do severe
& continual penance for ten years straight, being officially excommunicated
and forbidden to receive the sacraments in the meantime (although permitted to attend the first part of Mass, placed apart from
faithful Catholics in good standing, in an area publicly reserved for them in
the sight of others at Mass). Then, at the conclusion of this severe
discipline & penance, they would be formally re-admitted to the Church and
allowed to receive the sacraments again. Unless they were in
danger of death before completing the ten years of penance. Then, out of
mercy for their immortal souls, canon law permitted a priest to comfort them,
administering the Viaticum of Extreme Unction before their last breath.
+++ 5. The FIRST Devastating Argument: +++
Our 1st Pope, Peter, Denied
Christ, Thus Losing Both His
Catholicity… and His Papal Office, Briefly (Part 3)
Yet do you still doubt, dear reader, or drag your
feet with reluctance?
Out of mercy for your immortal soul, we proffer
yet more expert testimony:
“In general, it was a well-established principle in the Church of the second and
beginning of the third century that an
apostate, even if he did penance, was
NOT again taken into the Christian community, OR admitted to the Holy Eucharist.
IDOLATRY [offering sacrifice
or incense to a false god, or obtaining official documentation that you had
done so, in an attempt to avoid doing so while not standing firm and facing the
dire consequences] was one of the THREE
CAPITAL SINS [worst of all sins,
and hence punished most severely] which
entailed EXCLUSION [excommunication]
from the Church.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia,
printed by Robert Appleton Co. at
And we go back to that ancient era of the
Catholic Faith, quoting directly from an eminent bishop who wrote a famous
& invaluable history of the Roman Catholic Church, Eusebius of Caesarea, a learned early Church father with the greatest ecclesial
library of the time at his disposal around AD 324. He recounts the persecution
of Catholics in
“And when a very great tumult [huge commotion] arose in consequence of
the cries [the shouts & yells of the
pagans gathered at the local arena, or other public forum, where the Catholics
were being martyred, which the pagans treated as an entertainment], a
certain Phrygian [an area in Asia Minor
--- modern day Turkey --- east of Smyrna], Quintus by name, who was newly
come from Phrygia, seeing the beasts and the additional tortures, was smitten with COWARDICE and GAVE UP
the attainment of SALVATION.” (Eusebius of Caesarea’s The History of the Church, Book 4,
Chapter 15, Paragraph7)
And there you have it. Just as Jesus said…
he who denies Me, I will deny.
In other words, you won’t be in Heaven forever.
This is what ancient Catholics believed.
It’s what the Roman Catholic Church from the most ancient of times
taught. It’s why canon law automatically
excommunicated all who failed to uphold the Catholic Religion and the
Name of Christ in the face of persecution, out of cowardice denying His Singular Name and His
Singular Faith, whether through offering of a sacrifice to a false god,
offering of incense upon this false god’s altar, or obtaining official
documentation that --- while fake --- nevertheless took the heat off, causing
pagan rulers or magistrates to think that you had done either of the former.
Whichever, the end result was the same… public denial of
Jesus & Catholicism.
Period.
+++ 6. The FIRST Devastating Argument: +++
Our 1st Pope, Peter, Denied
Christ, Thus Losing Both His
Catholicity… and His Papal Office, Briefly (Part 4)
Yet how does this relate to St. Peter the First
Pope?
Well, once more, precious soul, what was poor
Peter guilty of?
What terrible crime did he commit, of
which he was horribly ashamed?
How did he fail
Jesus Christ & His Holy Body,
the Roman Catholic Church?
Right, just as Jesus sadly predicted, Peter
publicly denied Him three times over.
(By the way, if you haven’t reviewed it
already, but still doubt or are uninformed, then go to the top of this page at
the beginning of Inter Regnum, and
find the four passages from Sacred Scripture that we quote from, prior to
launching into the book’s main text. The quote to which I here refer is
the second of the four passages altogether.)
A band of temple soldiers arrested Jesus in the
nearby
Later, driven by love for Jesus and eager to see
how this would turn out, with John the Beloved’s assistance (who had also returned, following Jesus at a
distance, and having a connection to the high priest of that year, Caiaphas,
was able to enter the residence and witness what transpired), entered the
building (which belonged to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, and who examined
Jesus first, before He was sent to Caiaphas) and witnessed, along with St.
John, all that occurred. It was here that he denied Jesus.
Now, my dear soul, based
upon what we have examined, what then happened?
Correct --- Peter was excommunicated and lost his ecclesial office.
That is to say, he was no longer Catholic and no
longer Pope.
But was that the end of the story?
Fortunately not.
Jesus resurrected and God is merciful. We as
Catholics must be penitent for our sins, and certainly St. Peter was very
sorrowful and perfectly contrite for his sin of apostasy, of denying Christ
& His Singular Catholic Religion. This is proven in John’s Gospel.
In one of His post-resurrection appearances to
His disciples (which you may read above at the beginning of this book as the
third scriptural passage of four overall), Jesus asks Peter three times in a
row, “Simon son of John, lovest thou me more
than these?” (John 21:15c DRC) In other words, “Simon son of John [the birth name of Peter before Christ gave
him the nickname of ‘Rock’, which is what ‘Peter’
signifies from the Latin, via the Greek, via the original Aramaic, the Hebrew
of Jesus’ epoch, which is ‘Kepha’],
do you love me more than the other Twelve Apostles [eleven, really, since Judas Iscariot was gone and St. Matthias had not
yet taken his place], with a perfect
love and a perfect contrition
that undoes the terrible crime you committed, denying Me, your Lord?”
Dearest Peter, struck to the heart, at the third time
Jesus asked this, replies:
“Lord, thou knowest
all things: thou knowest that I love thee.”
(John 21:17g-h DRC)
Accordingly:
“Jesus, You are
Almighty God in the Flesh. You are omniscient. You know that I love you with a
perfect heart now, with a contrition that is perfect for my horrible &
hideous sin of denying you in front of others… even as you stood on
trial, slandered wickedly. My soul is in agony that I betrayed You, and I never want to lose You again.”
And Jesus, Who knows all things, knew that this
was true.
He didn’t ask because He didn’t know,
but to test Peter and allow him to give public testimony in front of His fellow
apostles, those to whom He had entrusted to St. Peter’s care, as He had
His Universal Church, His One & Only Roman Catholic Body. Thus the
“Feed my lambs”, “Feed my lambs”, and “Feed my
sheep” rejoinders to Peter in succession. I.e., doctrinally &
sacramentally feed My Laity & My Hierarchy.
+++ 7. The FIRST Devastating Argument: +++
Our 1st Pope, Peter, Denied
Christ, Thus Losing Both His
Catholicity… and His Papal Office, Briefly (Part 5)
This is affirmed by St. Augustine of Hippo,
explaining the exchange.
“Such was the end [fate] reached by that denier and lover; elated by his presumption,
prostrated by his denial, cleansed by his weeping, approved by his
confession, crowned by his suffering, this was the end he reached, to die with a
perfected love for the name of Him with whom, by a perverted forwardness [cocky recklessness], he promised to
die… Now you have cause [reason],
Peter, to be no longer afraid of death, because He lives whom you mourned when
dead, and whom in your carnal love you tried to hinder from dying in our
behalf. You dared to step in before the Leader, and you trembled before His
persecutor: now that the price has been paid for you, it is your duty to
follow the Buyer, and follow Him even to the death of the cross. You have heard
the words of Him whom you have already proved to be truthful; He Himself has
foretold your suffering, who formerly foretold your denial. But first
the Lord asks what He knew [what Jesus as
the Omniscient God already knew to be the case and thus true], and that not
once, but a second and a third time, whether Peter loved Him; and just
as often He has the same answer, that
He is loved, while just as often He gives Peter the same charge [command] to feed His sheep. To the THREEFOLD DENIAL there is now
appended [added] a THREEFOLD
CONFESSION, that his tongue may not yield a feebler service to love
than to fear, and imminent death may not appear to have elicited more from the
lips than present life.” (
So says St. Augustine, who everyone believed to
be the greatest of the Catholic Church’s doctors & theologians during
the latter half of the first millennium and on into the first part of the
second millennium; but, since St. Thomas of Aquinas has been acclaimed, takes
the place of second greatest in most Catholics’ minds in the last few
centuries. Notwithstanding, his eminence, authority & perspicuity are still
flabbergasting.
I suggest the reader, calling himself Catholic,
take Augustine seriously.
Jesus’ questioning of Peter’s love
for Him, here near His Ascension, is both a chance for St. Peter to formally
abjure his denial & apostasy (therefore making him a member of Jesus’
Catholic Body again) and to formally affirm him as His Visible Representative
(therefore making him the Pope & Visible Head of Jesus’ Catholic Body
again).
Christ didn’t require a written abjuration,
signed & dated. This is because this canonic requirement had not yet been
formally established (for normal times,
of course, with a functioning Hierarchy available to rightly require it)
and because Christ is Omniscient God, not needing such physical & ecclesial
protocols in order to know, with infallible certainty, that Peter was perfectly
contrite for his horrible sin of apostasy, and that, infallibly certain as He
was, dear Peter would do penance and die a brave martyr. Accordingly, that both
Divine & Ecclesial Law were satisfied as to his reparation.
And, so, Peter was a denier, apostate,
excommunicated & lost his papal office.
And, yet, Peter abjured, professed, communicated
& regained his papacy.
Can anyone, then, being honest & intelligent,
doubt it is possible for a
pope to betray the Church,
when, in fact, our very first pope did
this very thing? Or that, if God allows it, a pope could apostatize, not really abjure or be perfectly
contrite for his horrific crime, and, as a result, never regain his Catholicity or his Papacy? Hmmm.
Let us be candid.
Precious soul, as wicked as we are during modern
times (the last millennium, and especially the last five hundred years), it
is what we deserve. Let us say it again and drive it home to make
sure we don’t nod off into a spiritual & religious narcotic stupor
--- the affliction of apostate, counterfeit & anti-Catholic
‘popes’ is precisely what we deserve. Given our dreadful sins
and perpetual rebellion (particularly in the past three of the
‘modern’ centuries, as defined by contemporary historians), it is
only our just punishment. We deserve religious blindness; the
Curse of St. Amos is our lot.
+++ 8. The SECOND Devastating Argument:
+++
Ecclesial Rank Is Immaterial; Automatic
Excommunication
Applies to All… If the Crime Is Public & Grievous (Part 1)
Ah, yet some of our beloved readers will balk at
the idea of excommunication.
“There is no one,” say they,
“who ranks over a pope. No one can sit in judgment upon a pope!
Consequently, a pope cannot be deposed unless he deposes himself!
And, anyhow, excommunication cannot occur unless someone in authority in the
Church’s Hierarchy, with jurisdiction, makes a formal declaration.
Ergo, all this talk of popes ‘losing their office’ is nonsense. No
one loses Church membership without an official ruling. A Catholic is a
Catholic no matter what until a Church authority rules otherwise!”
So they think, so they say.
Actually true?
No.
(A simple rational
analysis suffices to verify the above “No.” What if someone supposedly ‘catholic’
begins spouting things that are sorcerous & diabolic? What if,
while at Holy Mass, this hypothetical ‘catholic’ clearly remarks
--- while not enough to interrupt the Mass for everyone, but loud enough for
several intelligent adults around him or her to clearly hear ---
“I praise thee, satan, and despise and spit
upon thy Eucharistic Foe,” and says this despicable
statement at least two or three times repeatedly? The sensitive
reader will please pardon the shocking words. I myself do NOT subscribe to them; I merely say them to illustrate a CRUCIAL POINT. Are we then to think,
given hideous, repeated & undeniably public words, during Mass --- heard by many intelligent adults near
to him or her --- that such a person is ‘catholic’ in spite of all the plain & indisputable
evidence to the contrary?
Let’s make it even more obvious. Let us suppose that one of those nearby
intelligent adults, properly shocked & appalled, admonishes the
hypothetical ‘catholic’ by pleading, “Please don’t say such evil & blasphemous things!”
And the hypothetical ‘catholic’ responds, with all nearby
adults who have adequate intelligence able to clearly hear, “I will honor my lord satan and do oppose his
Eucharistic Foe with resolution! I will not be quiet. I will praise satan, and I spit upon his Enemy
with utter hatred & contempt. Praise satan!”
Now, dear soul, can you suppose that any adequately intelligent Catholic,
who witnesses these things, can then think, “Ah,
well. Can’t judge my fellow ‘catholic’.
He or she is Catholic until a
proper Church authority tells me otherwise!”
I mean, really? Does anyone of sound intelligence dare to think this? At
the very least, we must SUSPECT this
purported ‘catholic’ of apostasy & satanism, and AVOID
them cautiously in the meanwhile!)
As I note near the end of Chapter 2 in this book,
Inter Regnum, you may peruse
here to
find more-than-sufficient facts, logic & proof for the unpleasant
but necessary reality of ‘automatic excommunications’
in the Catholic Church. It is NEITHER
imaginary NOR truly debatable
for the properly informed person. A need for excommunication to operate automatically within
Christ’s Singular Church Body has always
existed and applies to those members of the Church who are adequately
intelligent and either already openly are, or else will be openly so at
some point in the future, notorious & pertinacious heretics or
schismatics (or those who are notorious & pertinacious apostates,
a distinction subtly existing between heresy & apostasy). Don’t
be blind!
It is in the Books & Articles section of The
Epistemologic Works. You may find it to your left in the navigation pane. You
may also find it to your right in the quiklinks pane
(at the top as of this instant, under Recent Posts, though this may change in
the future as new writings continue to accumulate), or alphabetically arranged
further down in this quiklinks pane under the full
title of
Automatic Excommunications (‘Latae Sententiae’):
Why Canon Law Automatically Excommunicates Notoriously & Pertinaciously
Heretical or Schismatic Members of the Catholic Church Without Formal Action or
Declarations from Her Leaders, and Why This Principle Applies from Highest Pope
to Lowliest Layperson from the Most Ancient of Times.
In any case, the evidence is there for anyone to
see.
If Catholic and of sound mind, you are morally obliged to examine it.
What, though, does an automatic excommunication amount to in
the real world?
+++ 9. The SECOND Devastating Argument:
+++
Ecclesial Rank Is Immaterial; Automatic
Excommunication
Applies to All… If the Crime Is Public & Grievous (Part 2)
And here is where the rubber meets the road.
We have also logically & factually pointed
out in Chapter 2 above in this book, Inter
Regnum, how visible proof
of a visible Catholicity is
twofold in a visible & physical
world when it comes to the supernaturally-constituted yet necessarily visible & physical Catholic
Church. Which in turn is the very visible
& physical Roman Catholic Body of the Singular God-Man, Jesus
Christ, Who lived on earth in a very visible
& physical (hence natural) way, despite a necessarily miraculous
(and hence quite supernatural) means He employed to do so, via the Womb of His visible & physical Mother.
Meaning?
That visibility & physicality are no ‘whim’ or
‘lark’ of the Divine Will.
God purposefully
& sovereignly chose to make the Ark of His Salvation visible & physical. If not,
then why the theatrical ‘charade’ of visible & physical Birth to a visible & physical Woman named Mary, the Blessed
Ever-Virgin Queen of Highest Heaven?
Are you getting it?
Put your thinking cap on. Use your God-given mind
with its God-given intelligence… and actually start to think logically
& rationally. Ask yourself --- what
in the world is the purpose of widespread visibility &
physicality in our existence if there no need to see & sense
these visible & physical things? Why make & form all
human beings into the visible & physical creatures we are and place
us upon a material earth?
Eh?
In order to make us Catholic --- and thus able to
save our immortal souls --- Our Sovereign Creator gave us VISIBLE WATER BAPTISM and VISIBLE
FAITH PROFESSION as the VISIBLE
RELIGIOUS MEANS of knowing that we have a concrete HOPE OF SALVATION. This same Creator gave most of us adequately
intelligent minds, along with free wills, to seize this means and so strive for
Him.
Now take it a step further, my beloved soul, and
reason straightforwardly:
If, as adequately intelligent human
beings, we are capable of knowing exactly what constitutes a valid
water baptism (correct form & matter) and a valid faith profession
(correct dogmas & interpretation), then
what on earth would make it ‘impossible’ for human beings of
adequate intelligence to hear or see someone saying or doing that
which notoriously (openly in public with sufficient eyewitness) and pertinaciously
(can’t just be ‘explained away’ since it’s too blatant
or repeated to be ‘accidental’) contradicts the Roman
Catholic Religion Whole & Entire? How could this quandary ever occur?
There is only one way such an evil situation
could wind up happening.
To wit, if those who are truly Catholic
cease to care enough to remain truly Catholic, and,
in this Laodicean “lukewarm” carelessness
(Apocalypse [Revelation] 3:16a DRC, see 3:14-22 for the fuller context), cease
to care enough to know --- or even how to know! --- that there are others, going by the name of
‘catholic’, who are not actually so.
+++ 10. The SECOND Devastating Argument:
+++
Ecclesial Rank Is Immaterial; Automatic
Excommunication
Applies to All… If the Crime Is Public & Grievous (Part 3)
We offer EXHIBITS NO. 2, 3 & 4, from
New Testament Sacred Scripture.
For Jesus’ Beloved Disciple,
“Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try [examine & test] the spirits [to see] if they be of God [to see
if what is taught agrees perfectly with the Catholic Religion whole
& entire, not contradicting any infallible tenet in its original,
correct & timeless sense]: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world.” (1 John 4:1 DRC)
A warning that the first
pope, St. Peter, put forth as well before he died as a martyr.
“But there were also false prophets among the people [before Christ came, many persons dared to teach false things during Old Testament times], even as there shall be among you lying
teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition [likewise, after Jesus has come,
during New Testament times, groups of people claiming to follow Jesus
both have and will arise, who teach religious lies that cause them to
wind up in hell forever], and DENY
THE LORD who bought them [Jesus &
His Apostles gave us His Singular Sacrifice & Singular Catholic Religion, whole & entire, so as to be
able to have real hope for salvation], who
shall bring upon themselves swift destruction [eternal damnation due to false
forms of ‘christianity’ or
‘catholicity’].” (2 Peter 2:1 DRC)
A warning echoed by
“For such false apostles [priests
& bishops who are not truly Catholic] are deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ [they make themselves look like
they’re really ‘catholic’]. And no wonder: for
Satan himself transformeth [transforms] himself into an ANGEL OF LIGHT. Therefore it is no great
[amazing] thing if his ministers [servants] be transformed as [transformed
into and look like] ministers
of justice [‘priests &
bishops’ who pretend to uphold Catholic ‘dogma &
morality’], whose end
[destiny] shall be according to their works [all that they do in misleading unwary Catholics, or those who
are already self-deceived into believing that they are
‘catholic’, is gravely hellish --- consequently, such phony
‘catholic’ priests & bishops will wind up going to hell
everlastingly].” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 DRC)
Sinking in, my dear soul?
God does indeed allow false
‘catholics’ to masquerade as the real thing in the Roman Catholic
Church. He even permits this to happen amongst the Hierarchy. It is His Way of
punishing those who are extremely bad Catholics and of testing those who are
striving to remain true & good Roman Catholics. Which is why He repeatedly
warns us, in Sacred Scripture, to beware of such phony ‘catholics’,
testing “the spirits” (1 John 4:1b), being leery of “false
prophets” (2 Peter 2:1a) and avoiding “false apostles” (2
Corinthians 11:13a). And if we are to beware of, test, be leery of, and avoid
such charlatans… oughtn’t we then openly RECOGNIZE these frauds as the PHONIES they are?
I mean, what good is it to beware
of them if we can never identify
them?
We’re not talking about rocket science
here, beloved reader.
We’re not talking esoteric & complex
theology.
We’re talking about brass tack basics:
Valid water baptism and valid faith
profession.
If you’re adequately intelligent enough
to willingly receive a visible water baptism (though, of course, many people, in Catholic families, are raised
from infancy having been baptized, prior to the age of accountability
and having to freely choose baptism for themselves), and to know &
profess the Roman Catholic Religion whole & entire (which applies to those baptized as infants,
too, since most people end up being of sound mind as adults, of at least
adequate intelligence), then you’re also intelligent enough to know, acknowledge & act when
someone indisputably contradicts
these same things.
IT’S THAT SIMPLE.
End of sentence.
+++ 11. The SECOND Devastating Argument:
+++
Ecclesial Rank Is Immaterial; Automatic
Excommunication
Applies to All… If the Crime Is Public & Grievous (Part 4)
You can’t be a Catholic fundamentalist (CF)
about it… go
here
&
here
to find out what CFs
are… but you also can’t be a Novus Ordo
apostate (NO) about it --- go
here
(Chapter 132) &
here
(Chapter 50) to
discover what NOs are. You must judge other people
fairly, not twisting their words & actions uncharitably. Only indisputably
heretical evidence, having no orthodox interpretation logically possible,
counts as proof of non-Catholicity. Notwithstanding,
when every effort to interpret the purported Catholic’s words &
deeds, charitably in an orthodox way, fails, then there is no recourse.
You as a true Catholic must recognize the undeniable truth --- that this person isn’t truly
Catholic.
God alone knows the ‘internal forum’
as theologians say. We as mere creatures of
intelligent mind can only discern the ‘external forum’. And if we
are simply laypersons, or clergy without jurisdiction, then we cannot pretend
to have ‘authority’ over those who are fake ‘catholics’
or pretend to ‘punish’ them. We can only make a factual judgment.
This is what
automatic excommunications are, and what
they’re based upon.
The Roman Catholic Church has put automatic excommunication in
Canon Law for those situations where factual judgments of heresy & schism both can & must be made by
those who are truly Catholic
in order to avoid further confusion, scandal & evil in the Church. No intelligent Catholic, who is
not a priest, bishop or pope with jurisdiction, pretends to possess the ‘authority’ to
excommunicate anyone from the Church.
We merely FACTUALLY recognize that the
excommunication is AUTOMATIC.
Catholics being bad, and losing all knowledge of
automatic excommunication in canon law --- or
that the existence & process of automatic excommunication is more
than just ‘symbolic’ or of no ‘real’ consequence
in the everyday world --- is one big reason we’re in trouble today.
It’s one huge reason the Great Apostasy was able to happen, since true
Catholics ceased to care and ceased to be able to recognize
that their fellow Catholics were notoriously
& pertinaciously heretical or schismatic, and hence automatically excommunicated, despite the Hierarchy being increasingly unwilling
or increasingly negligent to formally acknowledge excommunication
that occurred automatically, thereby leaving ignorant Catholics,
or careless Catholics, utterly
defenseless.
Catholics being bad and losing this knowledge ---
or even losing their Catholicity and failing to realize that they were no
longer Catholic --- is also why more & more priests, as well as more &
more bishops, could lose their Catholicity, too (or, as the case might be, reveal their lack of Catholicity if never
truly Catholic to begin with), and no one even blinks an eye. Why should
they? Practically no one in the Church was left who cares (and, if only a fake ‘catholic’, again, why should they
care…?), and, as time passes, practically nobody remained Roman
Catholic at all. The entire Church is denuded.
So… what difference does it make to these
people at this point in time?
This is how
it worked its way up the ladder of the Roman Catholic Body of Christ over the
past few centuries, from lowlier
positions in the Church, to, eventually, the highest positions of authority & responsibility in the
Hierarchy of the Church, the pope who styled himself as ‘Paul VI’ officially & indisputably
revealing his non-Catholicity (indeed, his anti-Catholicity!)
at the close of Vatican II on 8 December 1965.
And no one blinked an eye. There was, as the
saying goes, a deafening silence.
Many bishops & priests had revealed their
heterodoxy well before then. It’s even possible, in my mind, that someone
could study carefully, reason logically, meticulously & justly, and find
that Paul VI… or a somewhat earlier pope… revealed his heresy or
apostasy in a notorious & pertinacious way before then, prior to
December 8, 1965.
But I doubt it.
+++ 12. The SECOND Devastating Argument:
+++
Ecclesial Rank Is Immaterial; Automatic
Excommunication
Applies to All… If the Crime Is Public & Grievous (Part 5)
Religious & moral evil of an unprecedented
nature was already transpiring around the world before the Vatican II
Pseudo-Council took place. But anyone who lived through those times then --- or
studies them carefully through the eye of history --- can tell you that
something unparalleled & profound occurred in the wake of Vatican II, after
the mid-1960s. A new Spirit of Antichrist broke out, a spirit of shameless
rebellion & perversion. It was as if the whole world went insane &
unhinged, as if chaos personified suddenly became unleashed. Nor have things
quieted down since then; we’ve simply become frostbitten & numb to
the new reality of constant moral & religious insanity.
Things have only gotten worse in the decades
since Vatican II and the 1960s, at an unimaginably fast & galloping pace,
like a rocket going hypersonic to reach orbit and then… beyond, into the
fathomless void of interplanetary or interstellar space. No intelligent, honest
or aware person, of a traditional nature, can deny it.
This is indeed the Great Apostasy, foretold by
the prophets, Christ Jesus, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, the early Church
fathers, an untold number of saints, and many Church-approved apparitions,
especially those of Guadalupe, La Salette &
Fatima. We are witnessing, truly & indeed, the worst of all times come upon
us with a vengeance.
And it could never have taken place unless
Peter’s Throne was between popes.
Then, filling the void, a
series of antipopes on the throne of ‘antipeter’.
Antipope Francis is proving this in spades, if
you’re paying attention.
For the true Roman Catholic, however, with
his or her head screwed on straight, this is agonizing but not
paralyzing. Automatic
excommunications are real. They are in Canon Law. They always have been and they always will be until Christ returns.
True Catholics must then regain their ability to recognize fake
‘catholics’. We must be neither
Catholic fundamentalists (CFs) nor Novus Ordoists (NOs). CFs factually judge people
in the external forum unfairly, even often pretending to have the
‘authority’ to ‘punish’ the condemned with reckless
abandon. Meanwhile, NOs mostly refuse to
factually judge people in the external forum --- except for, oddly, when condemning someone for being truly
Catholic --- and pretend to ‘know’ that the internal forum of
every single human being’s heart is inarguably ‘good’, making
them ‘saved’ no matter what their religion (except for, again, weirdly enough, when it comes to the hidden hearts
of all truly Catholic persons, which NOs almost
invariably judge to be of a ‘bad’ will).
Understanding automatic excommunication, then,
means being able to recognize
whenever someone, calling his or herself ‘catholic’, says or does
something that is indisputably
anti-Catholic. That is to say, something that cannot be fairly & logically
interpreted to be orthodox,
squaring with an infallible dogma of the Roman Catholic Church in its original meaning. Or, to
put it differently, what they notoriously & pertinaciously do or say inescapably contradicts a dogma,
rightly understood.
Don’t like this? Don’t want to
believe it? Refuse to investigate it carefully?
That’s not my problem --- it’s YOUR problem, dear & beloved soul.
I’m doing what I can… raising a red
flag of danger & warning.
I’m remaining true to Roman
Catholicism whole & entire.
What are you
doing? Are you looking for the
truth?
Or are you pretending to be an ‘infallible
pope’?
Think you couldn’t be wrong or need to
look?
Then you may have difficulty with pride.
Arrogance brought the devil down.
Please don’t follow his bad example. I
don’t have to continually re-invent the wheel. Solid proof, with simple
facts and logical reasons laid out succinctly, is there for the taking. If
you’re skeptical or confused and need more help, with eminent theological
authorities backing me up, then do your homework. God has enabled you to find
this website. Or, at least, to get this writing into your
hands. He’ll help you get the linked writings, too, the ones that
spell it out even more clearly and more painstakingly, with facts & logic
galore. Go to
Automatic Excommunications
(‘Latae Sententiae’)
and read it. Study it carefully.
If you’re not all-knowing or never-wrong… and you’re not!... then swallow hard, find a little patience (and some
curiosity, too!), and figure out why the Church bothers to automatically
excommunicate without any formal declarations.
And realize that everybody is subject to this process…
even popes.
+
+ +
Part Two of Inter Regnum (Chapters 13-27)
Part Three of Inter Regnum (Chapters 28-34)
Part Four of Inter Regnum (Chapters 35-42)
Part Five of Inter Regnum (Chapters 43-50 & 1-3)
+
+ +
Pilate’s
query met:
Note:
if you’ve come
to this webpage directly from a search
engine or other
website, then, when done viewing this webpage
--- and assuming
you wish to view more of this website’s pages ---
please type the
website’s address (as given above right before this
note) into the
address bar at the top of your browser and hit the
‘enter’ button on the keyboard of your computer.
Please go here about use of the writings
on this website.
© 2018 by
Paul Doughton.
All rights
reserved.