A kindly soul sent me a copy of an online review of Catholic Tradition by a Catholic resource mega site, which shall not be named. Any personal criticism of Catholic Tradition that is imputed to me is of no concern as I do not count myself as of any importance whatsoever. Being a sinner and far from perfect I willingly accept any such criticism.  In fact, so unworthy did I find myself after lengthy self-examination, to undertake such a task as that of Catholic Tradition, a web site devoted to reparation for sin, first and foremost, and the upholding of Sacred Tradition secondly, that I offered this little apostolate to His Divine Majesty and Our Lady, asking, that if it be the Divine will, that it should be their work and not mine. The purpose of that site's review is to offer their patrons advice on which web sites are the preferred ones to visit using the criteria of those particular web masters, which is subjective, but perfectly within their right to do so, and with this I find no quarrel. Of course such reviews, by definition, serve to discourage Catholics who are trying to be faithful, from visiting Catholic Tradition, based on that site's basis for acceptability and not Tradition itself, ironically. Again this is of no import because I prefer to let God send us those He chooses, by the ordinary means available at the present time. Those Catholics meant to find Catholic Tradition will find it and that is all there is to the matter. It is what God wants, not my poor efforts on His behalf and that of Our Blessed Mother. I pray every morning that this will be the end I seek.

The focus of this piece is Father Nicholas Gruner. Among the negatives applied to Catholic Tradition was that this site is suspect as to loyalty to the Holy See because we have defended Father Nicholas Gruner [see Update on the Third Secret], just the latest instance. Some of the other negatives, interestingly are because of the special and continual requests of a majority of you regular visitors, and not at the behest or needs of this reviewing site; and when I attempted to make changes that would have inadvertently been acceptable to this site, the e-mail was resoundingly against such changes. Irony abounds.

Now, I realize that using Fr. Gruner as a criterion on a check list validating Catholic propriety is standard operating procedure in "non-Traditional" circles. By this I mean, those groups of Catholics that uphold Catholic doctrine to the best of their ability but are not so inclined towards the Immemorial Roman Mass and the sacrifices it takes to do so, and only this. I make no judgment on their "Catholicity" at all, nor are they suspect with me as to their loyalty. Unless I have incontrovertible facts otherwise I always presume good faith and rightful intentions on the part of another, whether the situation is objectively in accord with this or not. Non-Traditional Catholics are not predisposed to reading Catholic Family News regularly, and are thus perhaps not familiar with Antonio Socci’s Il Quarto Segreto di Fatima [The Fourth Secret of Fatima]. There is more irony here because that journalist did not consider himself a "Traditionalist" or "Fatimist", if your prefer, when he undertook his research on Fatima and the Third Secret.  After a thorough examination of all the facts he concluded that the Vatican has not played exactly straight with us to use a common phrase.

Pope Benedict XVI has said that he has two things on his conscience, his involvement in the release of an incomplete 3rd Secret, and its lying 'interpretation'. [The other is his failure to achieve a reconciliation with the SSPX.]

Non-Traditionals are not in the habit of measuring Vatican pronouncements in view of Tradition itself, unlike all the Saints and Doctors of the Church who urged us to do exactly that, in so far as we are not to cast our pearls of faith before swine and must judge all things according to that which we have received and which has been faithfully passed on down from the Apostles and their successors. St. Paul himself instructs us that if anyone----including himself----should come preaching "another Christ" [in other words, a distortion of Him and or His teachings] that we are to treat him as an anathema. These same Catholics, good-hearted and trusting as they are, but not steeped in Church history as they appear to be, do not know that until the modern popes, all popes, after its being composed long long ago, took the papal oath not to violate Tradition. Since popes are by virtue of their office and Christ's promise to Peter and his successors, infallible when defining or declaring dogmas on faith and morals to be believed, such an oath would seem redundant and unnecessary. Of course this is anything but the case, simply because popes make all sorts of decisions and various pronouncements that are not covered under the guarantee of infallibility. Certainly no pope is impeccable, without the possibility of sinning. Thus over the first few centuries the popes saw the wisdom of the papal oath, in order to safeguard Tradition from poor decisions and rash personal statements that might confuse the faithful and leave them in doubt. So unlike we Traditionalists, they do not know, and they do not know that they do not know, that popes are capable of enormous blunders, nor do they stop to ask why it is that the latest popes discarded the oath and the impact it may be having on a particular pontificate. They simply cannot understand why it is that they and we differ so in our approach to various crises. They presume in good faith that the problem lies with us and not a weak pope who may be a very good man but subject to the spirit of the age and surrounded by men who have a stake in seeing that this continues. Such can be said to be the situation with the latest statement from Pope Benedict XVI while upholding the eternal reality of Hell, added that the torment of fire is symbolic, not physical. Now this is an error, simply invalid because at all times the Church has taught the actual flames of Hell and its torments, as has Our Lady of Fatima. We know that after the Last Judgment all bodies will be joined again to their souls, whether in Heaven or Hell, real bodies, capable of feeling pain if in Hell. The vision that Our Lady of Fatima gave the three children was vivid, and frightening, so much so that they could not stop praying for the conversion of sinners. They saw real flames tormenting the hideous souls. Now, Pope Benedict just made a statement, he did not issue a formal definition contradicting Tradition [the Holy Ghost will not permit him to do so], but still there is the possibility of loss of faith on the part of many Catholics. Maybe if he had taken the papal oath to uphold Sacred Tradition under pain of anathema he would not have issued such an erroneous statement and would have corrected anyone who concurred with it. There was ever more irony here as his purpose was to defend Hell as a real dogma, while in effect denying a portion of the dogma. For those who have Denziger, the Sources of Catholic Dogma, I refer you to 40, 160b, 228a, among others, see Systematic Index. Nowhere is symbolic used in the teachings of the Pontiffs and or the Sacred Councils.

Now, as I have said, there are Cardinals and other Churchmen in the Vatican and their supporters throughout the world who have a vested interest in seeing that the Consecration of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart to Russia, and not the world, is never done, whatever their individual motives. Socci sees clearly now, without any doubt that the Consecration has not been done as specifically requested by Our Lady. As has Father Nicholas Gruner who is a thorn, the thorn, in their side, so he must be excised by whatever means and relentlessly so. Thus we have the cleverly devised straw man of Father Gruner, who willingly sacrifices himself to be Our Lady's champion as many a Saint and Martyr have and will continue to do until the end of time. His only "crime", that of upholding the rights of God as expressed through Our Lady of Fatima, the Mother of God. The penalty for the crime? An impossible web of intrigue by which he is placed in a special form of double jeopardy, whichever way he answers to these unfaithful prelates, he "is damned". Either find another bishop or else. But the route to finding another bishop to incardinate him has been sealed so that it is impossible at present. Heads, the unfaithful prelates win, tails, Father Gruner loses. Only Satan, the Father of Lies and the infernal enemy of Our Lady is ultimately capable of directing anything this diabolical.

And so, this little housewife in a backwater section of a small rural town in Maine writes an article here and there coming to the defense of Father Nicholas, that is, in reality, in defense of the Mother of God, and therefore the web site she has devoted her end life to is "suspect". Does this discourage me? Dissuade me from my course? Anything but!

I take my cues from Father Gruner, a wholly holy priest, a latter day St. John the Baptist, considered an object of curiosity, an oddity, to those who are of this world, one who must be dealt with because the truth is too hard to bear for those with guilt in this matter; an "angel" of sorts, like St. Michael the Archangel, who leads Our Lady's legions against the powers of Hell, the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, an invincible weapon against the gates of Hell; Our Lady is Satan's implacable foe according to Genesis and the Apocaplyse, the beginning and the end of the battle, so to speak; Father Gruner can be likened unto St. Joseph, Our Lady's guardian companion, humbly searching for a "room in the inn"; and he can be said to be like St. Paul, not counting the cost, being all things for the salvation of others, "running the course" unto the finish. Being all things for Father Gruner means taking on all manner of aspersions, calumny, and mockery, not caring about himself, so that Our Lady is served as she ought to be. He champions her, I champion him. Rather than be disheartened by scorn or simple misunderstanding in these tumultuous times, I am so very greatly honored, beyond words to tell and beyond my merit.

When I place my brown woolen Scapular over my shoulders, kissing it as I do, saluting My Queen, My Mother, Mary Most Holy and Ever-Virgin, the Immaculata, I have an additional garment to wear now, albeit an invisible one, a golden badge of honor, with which to adorn my heart.




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