The Last Word…

Projecting Doubt: Francis Strikes Again

By Father Celatus

On December 21st the Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, the last of the Saints on the liturgical calendar before the Birth of the Savior.

The Gospel reading of the Mass is from Saint John:

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.

Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name.

With good reason Thomas was rebuked by the Lord for his lack of faith. Thomas should have believed in the Resurrection for at least two reasons: our Lord Himself foretold the Apostles of his Passion, Death and Resurrection on at least three occasions as they journeyed toward Jerusalem for the last time; the other Apostles who had already seen the Risen Christ had told Thomas of His Resurrection. In effect, the testimony of the Apostles to Thomas represents an early instance of what we call Apostolic Tradition.

To his credit, Thomas did not remain obstinate in his disbelief and he made a remarkable recovery of faith in his confession of Christ: "My Lord and my God!"

But even the short term disbelief of Saint Thomas lasting no more than a week has earned him the nickname Doubting Thomas that continues to be applied to those who doubt something that should be believed. It used to be that being called a Doubting Thomas was not a compliment. But that was before Francis of Rome, who has transformed a failure in faith from something shameful into a veritable virtue.

In his sermon to seminarians shortly before Christmas, Pope Dubius Maximus made these comments:

But the Baptist also suffered in prison – let us say the word – the interior torture of doubt: ‘But maybe I made a mistake? This Messiah is not how I imagined the Messiah would be.’ And he invited his disciples to ask Jesus: ‘But tell us, tell us the truth: are you He who is to come?’ because that doubt made him suffer. ‘Was I mistaken in proclaiming someone who isn’t [who I thought]?’ The suffering, the interior solitude of this man… The great can afford to doubt, and this is beautiful. They are certain of their vocation but each time the Lord makes them see a new street of the journey, they enter into doubt. ‘But this is not orthodox, this is heretical, this is not the Messiah I expected!’ The devil does this work, and some friend also helps, no? This is the greatness of John, a great one, the last of that band of believers that began with Abraham, that one that preaches conversion, that one that does not use half-words to condemn the proud, that one that at the end of his life is allowed to doubt. And this is a good program of Christian life.

Ever wonder why Saint John does not have the nickname Doubting Baptist associated with him? Because unlike Thomas, our Lord did not accuse him of being faithless--and neither has the Church. The idea of a Doubting Baptist is a fabrication of the Modernists, one of whom now occupies the Chair of Saint Peter.

If anyone is a doubter it is Francis of Rome—and not just for the span of a week. Francis appears to be in a perpetual state of doubt and denial, far worse than anything said of Saint Thomas the Apostle. What does another Saint Thomas have to say about obstinate disbelief? According to Saint Thomas Aquinas:

A person who disbelieves [even] one article of faith does not have faith, either formed or unformed.

The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church. Consequently, whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Sacred Scripture, has not the habit of faith, but holds the [other articles] of faith by a mode other than faith. If someone holds in his mind a conclusion without knowing how that conclusion is demonstrated, it is manifest that he does not have scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it.

So likewise, it is manifest that he who adheres to the teachings of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teachings of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will.

Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves [even] one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things (but if he is not obstinate, he is not a heretic but only erring).

Therefore, it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will.

With every passing day of silence from Francis regarding the five

dubia submitted to him, it becomes increasingly clear that Jorge Bergoglio remains obstinate in his errors and is a heretic. Whether or not the Cardinals will follow through and have Jorge declared a formal heretic and deposed from papal office remains to be seen, but the reality that Francis of Rome is a modernist heretic is now manifestly clear.

How about this for a new nickname, for a modernist heretic undermining the Church: Faithless Francis.

May America be great again with a new president and the Church also with a new pope in the New Year! ■