Editor’s Note: It has long been the vice of the enemies of Christ to accuse Christians of the crimes they themselves perpetrate and desire to perpetrate. They call our love hatred, and their hatred love. So it is remarkable that in this post Ann Barnhardt ridicules the present age for insisting it is a virtue to be wrong, while insisting on her own private opinion, in defiance with all the Doctors, Fathers and Popes of the Catholic Church, who say the Roman Church by Apostolic Right has the authority and liberty to elect Her own Bishop: a thing which was done on January 30, 2023, when with the College of Cardinals failing to convene to elect the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who was pope until the day of his death, on Deb. 31, 2022 — AS ANN BARNHARDT ADMITS — the Faithful of the Roman Church elected his successor in the person of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, there being no other candidates proposed by anyone in attendance or not in attendance, including Ann Barnhardt (who was not in attendance and ridiculed the election as invalid, thereafter). — It remains to my mind a most shameful thing that after denying Apostolic Tradition, Ann has gone one to imitate the hypocrisy of Christ’s enemies and the private judgement of protestants, in denying the Church of Rome its right to elect its Bishop. — The moral of this story is, that if you break with the Roman Church, you will be dashed upon the Rock of Peter.
Barnhardt made a shipwreck of her recently acquired Catholic Faith, by insisting on grifting on the issue more than honestly seeking the good of the Church. She rather preferred to plunge her soul into the hatred of the man, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, rather than into the love of the whole Mystical Body, which has need to be in communion with a validly elected pope, even when no honorable man has the courage and integrity to present himself as a candidate. Cradle Catholics know this by default, since they know the Pope exists for the Church, and not the Church for the personal agenda or preferences of any man or woman. If there are many who are displeased at the outcome of the election, there are far too few of them who have truly assessed or recognized the grave moral fault of their own guilt in not promoting a worthy candidate to be chosen by the Assembly on January 30, 2023.
Let us pray for such humility and honesty, without which no one, who rejects the juridically valid elections of Roman Pontiffs can be saved.
Whatever the relevance of AB it is a sad reminder of the state of Catholic thought. I read a few of her diatribes, I saw the pink rifle she displayed in her site. It seems to me that she is some sort of a female Gary Michael Voris.
I would not honor her musings with a minute of my attention. Unfortunately there are those who follow her. We live in very sad times.
I think you are wrong because to be eligible to be elected pope, you must be a member of the Church, and formal heretics are automatically removed from membership in the Church.
“For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy.” (Mystici Corpus Christe)
This does not appear to be a matter of canon law, but a matter of divine positive law. Or are you claiming that all the heresies of Bergoglio before Benedict died were merely material heresies? If they were indeed formal heresies, what is lacking in its own nature to separate a man from the Body of the Church? If it needs a delegation then it is a consequence of legal action, and not by it’s own nature. Or you would say that it’s possible to be an ontological heretic without being an epistemological heretic and possible to still be elected pope.
If a heretic could be validly elected pope so could the Dali Lama, Martin Luther, Donald Trump, a member of the British Royal Famil, etc, But that is absurd. Then it must be the case that a heretic or anyone else not in the Church cannot be it’s head.
A Baptized Catholic is presumed to be a Catholic, not a formal heretic. And no opinion of any man, howsoever holy, can make him in law to be a formal heretic. Only the judgement of a juridically competent tribunal. You erred because you do not distinguish between your own private opinion and ecclesiastical authority, which Christ did not give to you but to the Sacred Hierarchy in accord with the norms of Church Law.
Indeed that is the point in which Catholic modern thought fails: opinions are highly over-valuated. As thoughts and conclusions go through our own heads, we find them truthful without further consideration. Christ showed us an example when He said (and His thoughts are infallible): ” ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” (Matthew 23:1-3).
Logos has come to order the world. The Church is ordered first and judged first. JMB sits in the chair of Peter just as the Jewish leaders sat in the chair of Moses. The end of those who climb to authority will be according to their deeds and it will be their own responsibility. Each one will pay or be rewarded for his own deeds.