FOR 11 full years, Jorge Bergoglio has fooled the world into believing he is pope. And the world has gone along with the act.

In reality, Francis has been the vulgar emperor of a pagan city, a common celebrity, a publicity hound and the official representative of a global religion that proudly rejects the One True Church, indulges in flagrant irreverence and promotes secular humanism. If this global religion did not seductively mix truth with falsehood, if it did not attract many good people, if it did not count on those people indulging in mindless obedience, it would be much less successful. The Church had been so glorious that this false religion could only claim its banners and citadels through stealth, clever duplicity and gradual indoctrination.

Leaving aside his outrageous public acts and statements, increasingly too outrageous and too much a temptation to anger to speak of here, Francis embraced the doctrines and official worship of his Vatican II predecessors before he was elected and therefore even if he had been much less the audacious loudmouth and revolutionary, even if he had nodded reverently to tradition as did Benedict, even if he did not constantly insult true Catholics, calling them “rigid” and “narcissists,” he still would be an anti-pope and not so much as a lowly member of the Catholic Church.

As Pope Leo XIII wrote in his encyclical Satis Cognitum:

“The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodoret, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should anyone give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic.“(S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).” [emphasis added]

Not only does Francis reject many Catholic doctrines and Catholic worship, he openly boasts of it.

It’s not easy to explain all that Francis represents. It’s not easy to explain that all his clergy, from the cardinals down to the priest at the local parish, do not represent the Catholic Church and are not objectively Catholic. People may rush to the mad and impossible conclusion that somehow the Church no longer exists.

In history, God’s mysterious ways have not always been easy to explain. We are only human.

You can’t find it in any local church building, but the Church still exists. You can still pray at home, study the faith and die a Catholic in good standing, on that golden and narrow road to heaven if you so choose. You can still be baptized and still marry. God values obedience above all else, as Abraham proved. Yes, the One True Church still exists.

The clock is ticking for humanity.

God warned us that, not long before Christ’s return, the sacrifice at the altar would end and most people in the world would fall away.

It was the same when Jesus warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Almost nobody listened until 40 years later when the Temple went up in flames and hundreds of thousands died.

It was the same when Noah warned of the Flood, when Moses asked Pharaoh for permission to leave for a few days and when Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold great chastisements. It was the same when God warned Adam that there was a limit to his freedom.

It was the same when Jesus Christ said his kingdom was not of this world, angering those who did not want such a disgraceful Messiah. Those who were the most outwardly religious and attached to their traditions rejected Our Lord with especial scorn.

The perversity of the human heart is such that it often won’t tolerate the truth.

[See Gerry Matatics excellent lectures on Scripture, currently broadcast four times a week, in which he discusses, among other things, the parallels between ancient times and our current situation. Mr. Matatics’ insights have helped me in this post.]

There may be more false popes, but there will be no more true popes. We await the return of Jesus in peace and hopeful expectation.

Happy Anniversary, Francis. Thank you for helping a few of us see the truth.

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