When the Shepherd Becomes a Wolf
February 25, 2025
“When the shepherd becomes a wolf, the first duty of the flock is to defend itself. It is usual and regular, no doubt, for doctrine to descend from the bishops to the faithful, and those who are subject in the faith are not to judge their superiors. But in the treasure of revelation there are essential doctrines which all Christians, by the very fact of their title as such, are bound to know and defend. The principle is the same whether it be a question of belief or conduct, dogma or morals.”
— (The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger Vol. 4 Septuagesima, p. 379-380)
THE man the world recognizes as pope and supreme ruler of the Catholic Church, who proclaimed in the first year of his pseudo-reign, “I want a mess,” is gravely ill. While Francis may recover from this latest health crisis, his remaining days on earth are clearly to be few. It is likely his condition is worse than is being publicly let on today.
As he lies ill at Gemelli Hospital in Rome, may God have mercy on the many victims of this audacious vulgarian, head not of the Catholic Church but of the One-World Ekumenik Church. As an indicator of just how bad off the institution he led is, the city of Boston, once a stronghold of Catholicism, now has one seminarian per nearly 30,000 nominal Catholics, while the city of Chicago has one seminarian for every 67,000 parishioners. (And sadly, those seminarians will never be true Catholic priests, no matter how well-intentioned they are.)
Highlights from his false pontificate in 2014 alone include:
Held the first Muslim/Jewish prayers and Koran readings at the Vatican; Sent an iPhone message to evangelicals through prosperity-gospel TV preacher Kenneth Copeland; Peace doves attacked; Said to ‘scold the Lord‘ and also that he would baptize aliens; Cover of Rolling Stone; Accidentally said ‘the F word’; Cardinal Dolan claimed Francis said ‘Catholic Church should not dismiss gay marriage‘; Mentioned re-thinking celibacy for priests; Said he’s ‘not interested in converting evangelicals to Catholicism‘; Initial synod document suggested shift in Church’s position on homosexuality, but was revised; Said man is ‘the king of the universe!‘; Told a woman in invalid marriage it’s alright to take Holy Communion, saying ‘A little bread and wine does no harm‘; Compared Islamic terrorists to Christian fundamentalists…
But, the purpose of this post is to focus on the countless casualties, not on the state of Francis himself. The people harmed by this outrageous imposture that a man who joked about the Crucifixion, who said “Communists think like Christians” and who rejects key doctrines of Catholic belief and its sacred rites can be head of the Church include the following:
*Protestants repelled by his clearly immoral, anti-Christian statements, his eager support for the flooding of Western countries with immigrants, and his enthusiasm for every globalist U.N. agenda, including the Covid fraud. Francis has scandalized them and confirmed many in their obstinate blindness against the unshaken spiritual authority of the papacy which comes from Christ himself.
*Muslims, Maoists, Buddhists, voodooists, Jews, and assorted pagans who have been led to believe they worship the same God as Catholics. They too have been confirmed in their errors and continually given the impression that objective truth in spiritual matters does not exist. Francis went so far as to wish Muslims a Happy Ramadan: “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.” (Homily given at Lampedusa on 8 July 2013 with illegal Muslim immigrants)
*The people all over before whom Francis has insulted and apologized for the martyrs and saints of the past, dragging the name of Christ’s Church through the mud.
*Sincere, would-be Catholics deceived into believing Francis is a true pope when he is not even so much as a member of the body he claims to govern. The spiritual harm to them is incalculable and most have lost the true faith. Many are woefully uneducated about their faith and do not even know of the many anti-popes in Church history.
*Would-be Catholics offended by Vatican II apostasy who yet believe a heretic and apostate such as Francis can somehow be a true pope and that it is permissible to refuse him submission, thereby destroying all honor due to the papacy. (This is known as the “recognize-and-resist” position.)
*Those sincerely striving to be Catholic who understand Francis is not a true pope and yet erroneously believe that it is still possible to have a normal church life by following clergy not in communion with a true pope in Rome. They have sadly fallen into the lawless realm of Traditionalism.
To all of the above, Jorge Bergoglio has brought confusion, error, blasphemy and shameless vulgarity. No amount of public relations can hide the effects from those with eyes to see. The truth is, Francis is not only not a pope, he likely isn’t even a priest. But most of the above do not know or understand any of this, bringing to mind the “operation of error” and “lying wonders” prophesied by St. Paul.
In statements about death in the past, Francis, elected in February of 2013, has generally looked at the end of life from a worldly perspective, which is not surprising:
Francis preaches what we call the “gospel of man”, a false gospel that focuses almost exclusively on the temporal, the mundane, the natural. His concern is always with this world: Whether it be helping the needy, eradicating poverty, improving education, combatting economic injustice, advocating for a “culture of encounter” or of “tenderness”, or improving working conditions for coal miners in Indonesia, the “Pope” is always there with his oh-so tender-hearted solicitude and unsolicited advice.
While all these goals may be quite noble in and of themselves (excepting the encounter/tenderness junk), eventually people will figure out that no one really needs a Pope or a Catholic Church if the ultimate goal is simply the combatting of social problems — especially not if the remedies offered are always of the natural, humanist, and therefore lowest-common-denominator kind, which could just as easily be provided by the United Nations, Kiwanis International, or the Red Cross.
In 2016 German journalist Alexander Kissler hit the proverbial nail on the head when he called Francis a “U.N. Secretary General with a pectoral cross” (source). This apt observation takes on greater weight still when we consider that even his pectoral cross leaves a lot to be desired, as it reminds one more of a bottle opener than of the Redemption wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ.
He and his Vatican II predecessors — John 23rd, Paul 6, John Paul 1, John Paul 2, and Benedict — have done more damage to humanity than any genocidal dictators in history. For the work of the former is in the realm of the spiritual. As to who will succeed Francis in the Counterfeit Church, whoever it is — no matter how much more moderate and less of an insulter of the Church than Francis — he too could not possibly be a true successor to St. Peter.
The true popes live on. The papacy lives on.
In the countless encyclicals, sermons and faithful teachings of the popes, more easily accessible to us now than ever before, we have consolation and truth in this time of unprecedented apostasy. Christ has clearly kept his promise to remain with the rock of St. Peter until the end of time. He never said human beings would remain true to it.
As St. Leo wrote in Sermon 3: “[L]et it not be said or thought, that this ministry of Peter finishes with his life on earth. That which is given as the support of a Church which is to last forever, can never be taken away. Peter will live in his successors; Peter will speak, in his Chair, to the end of time.”
And so he does — though never has Peter spoken in a chair that is not his.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them.”
– Gospel of Saint Matthew –
— Comments —
Teresa Benns writes:
I don’t know where the quote in your article about the wolves and sheep came from but it was not from Pope St. Leo the Great. Just thought I would let you know. This pope’s third sermon is on the New Advent site.
Found a reference to St. Leo here.
“Let it not, therefore, be said,” observes Bossuet, in his sermon on the Unity of the Church, “let it not be said, or thought, that this ministry of Peter finishes with his life on earth. That which is given as the support of a Church which is to last for ever, can never be taken away. Peter will live in his successors; Peter will speak, in his Chair, to the end of time. So speak the Fathers; so speak the six hundred and thirty bishops of the Council of Chalcedon.”
Bossuet”s referenced sermon is printed here.
But this link shows it is not in the Bossuet letter either. Even if he did write that, Bossuet was a Gallicanist, so I don’t put too much stock in what he said about the papacy.
Laura writes:
Okay, thank you.
I got the quote from Dom Guéranger’s entry on the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair.
