Tag Archives: End Times

Ecclesiology

Antonio Socci: Pope Benedict’s understanding of the End Times

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“The Two Parts of the Church”

By Antonio Socci

Excerpted from Il Dio Mercato, La Chiesa, e L’Anticristo
Rizzoli, 2019

Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino
@pellegrino2020

And Reprinted with permission from his FB page

In September 2013 – only seven months after the resignation of Benedict XVI – Giorgio Agamben published a book with an eloquent title: Il Mistero del male. Benedetto XVI e la fine dei tempi [The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End Times] (Laterza, 2013).

This philosopher’s interpretation of the event of the “resignation” made in the heat of the moment is surprising. It refers back to the question of the Antichrist and the kathécon.[1] (We shall later see that other thinkers such as Mario Tronti and Massimo Cacciari have interpreted the “resignation” of Benedict XVI in this apocalyptic key; however they are coming from a Marxist point of view.)

But let’s begin with Agamben. He focuses on an old essay written by the young theologian Joseph Ratzinger on the 4th-century theologian Tychonius who, commenting on the Book of Revelation, does not place Jerusalem and Babylon in opposition to one another (as Augustine would do, subsequent to Tychonius, in his famous work The City of God), but rather proposes that Jerusalem includes Babylon within itself.[2]

Ratzinger wrote: “It thus follows that the Antichrist is a part of the Church, it grows in her and with her up until the great discessio, which introduces the definitive revelatio,” that is, the return of Christ and the universal judgment.[3]

Ratzinger observed that “his doctrine [that of Tychonius] is objectively completely Catholic” and he demonstrated that it was instead Augustine who distinguished two cities, Jerusalem and Babylon, the “city of God” and the “earthly city” (that of the devil).[4]

The young theologian Ratzinger added: “Augustine objected against Tychonius’ concept of the Church, saying that the separation [discessio] between Christ and the Antichrist will not occur only in the end times, but is already fundamentally present now.”[5]

After recalling this old essay written by the future pope, Agamben notes that “during the General Audience on April 22, 2009, […] before placing his pallium on the tomb of Celestine V, Benedict XVI made a new reference to the figure of Tychonius regarding the way in which we ought to understand ‘the mystery of the Church’ today.”[6]

On that occasion, Pope Benedict XVI explained Tychonius’ thought in these words:

In his commentary he sees the Apocalypse above all as a reflection of the mystery of the Church. Tychonius had reached the conviction that the Church was a bipartite body: on the one hand, he says, she belongs to Christ, but there is another part of the Church that belongs to the devil.

Agamben writes:

The fact that Tychonius’ thesis now receives the sanction of the bishop of Rome, who calls him a “great theologian,” is certainly not a matter of indifference. What is in question is not only the thesis of the two-part body of the Church; what is also in question is above all the ecclesiological implications of this teaching, that is, the “great discessio,” the great separation between evildoers and the faithful – between the Church as the body of the Antichrist and the Church as the body of Christ – which much take place in the end times. Seen from this perspective, the abdication [of Benedict XVI] cannot fail to evoke something like a discessio, a separation of the beautiful Church [Ecclesia decora] from the “dark Church [Ecclesia fusca],” and yet Benedict XVI knows that this can and must happen only on the eve of the second coming of Christ.[7]

Then Agamben adds:

The [contemporary] Church has long since closed its eschatological office; but the decision of Benedict XVI [to resign] shows that the problem of the last things continues to act underground in the history of the Church. […] What interests the Apostle Paul [in 2 Thessalonians] is not the last day, not the end of time, but rather the end times [the times immediately preceding the end]. […] And one of the theses of Tychonius’ Commentary on the Book of Revelation, which Benedict XVI knew well, was that the prophecies of the Book of Revelation do not refer to end of time but rather to the condition of the Church in the interval between the first and second coming of Christ, that is, in the historical period which we are still living now. […] If we situate this understanding of Benedict XVI in the context of the situation he personally faced as pope, the “great refusal” of Benedict XVI is far from a reference to a future eschatological schism: his “refusal” recalls, on the contrary, that it is not possible for the Church to survive if it passively defers the solution of the conflict that tears apart the “two-part body” to the end of time.[8]

And thus we arrive at the “resignation” of Benedict XVI.

______________

ORIGINAL FOOTNOTES BY SOCCI

[1] From 2 Thess 2:6-7: “But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is removed from the scene.” The kathécon is the “one who restrains” the anomos, the “lawless one” before the Second Coming of Christ.
[2] This essay was republished as the first chapter of Il nuovo popolo di Dio [The New People of God] (Queriniana, Brescia 1992). Tychonius (alternatively Ticonius) was an African Donatist writer of the late 4th century whose thought is incorporated into the writings of Augustine and also the Venerable Bede. His best-known work is “Seven Rules of Interpretation [of the Bible]” which are quoted and explained by Augustine in De doctrina Christiana III, 30-37. Tychonius’ Commentary on the Apocalypse is now lost (it is quoted by Bede in his Explanatio apocalypsis, PL XCIII, 130-134). It is believed that Augustine’s Commentary (PL XXXV, 2415-52) is a modified version of Tychonius. The late 5th-century writer Gennadius says of Tychonius, “He flourished at the same time as Rufinus; in the reign of Theodosius and his son,” thus dating his writing to somewhere between 379 and 423.
[3] Ibid., p. 20. The Latin word discessio means a separation or division, meaning a great cleavage or cutting in two. It also has the sense of withdrawal.
[4] Ibid., p. 24.
[5] Ibid. p. 23.
[6] From Benedict XVI’s General Audience of April 22, 2009 (the rich depth of the teaching of Benedict’s general audiences on the Fathers of the Church is astonishing when compared to the content and style of the Bergoglian magisterium):
“Ambrose Autpert’s most important work is without a doubt his commentary on the Apocalypse [Expositio in Apocalypsim] in 10 volumes: this constitutes, centuries later, the first broad commentary in the Latin world on the last book of Sacred Scripture. This work was the fruit of many years’ work, carried out in two phases between 758 and 767, hence prior to his election as abbot. In the premise he is careful to indicate his sources, something that was not usual in the Middle Ages. Through what was perhaps his most significant source, the commentary of Bishop Primasius of Hadrumetum, written in about the middle of the sixth century, Autpert came into contact with the interpretation of the Apocalypse bequeathed to us by Tychonius, an African who lived a generation before St Augustine. He was not a Catholic; he belonged to the schismatic Donatist Church, yet he was a great theologian. In his commentary he sees the Apocalypse above all as a reflection of the mystery of the Church. Tychonius had reached the conviction that the Church was a bipartite body: on the one hand, he says, she belongs to Christ, but there is another part of the Church that belongs to the devil. Augustine read this commentary and profited from it but strongly emphasized that the Church is in Christ’s hands, that she remains his Body, forming one with him, sharing in the mediation of grace. He therefore stresses that the Church can never be separated from Jesus Christ. In his interpretation of the Apocalypse, similar to that of Tychonius, Autpert is not so much concerned with the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time as rather with the consequences that derive for the Church of the present from his First Coming, his Incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And he speaks very important words to us: in reality Christ “must be born, die and be raised daily in us, who are his Body” (In Apoc., III: CCCM, 27, p. 205). In the context of the mystic dimension that invests every Christian he looks to Mary as a model of the Church, a model for all of us because Christ must also be born in and among us. Under the guidance of the Fathers, who saw the “woman clothed with the sun” of Rv 12: 1 as an image of the Church, Autpert argues: “the Blessed and devout Virgin… daily gives birth to new peoples from which the general Body of the Mediator is formed. It is therefore not surprising if she, in whose blessed womb the Church herself deserved to be united with her Head, represents the type of the Church”. In this sense Autpert considers the Virgin Mary’s role decisive in the work of the Redemption (cf. also his homilies In purificatione S. Mariae and In adsumptione S. Mariae). His great veneration and profound love for the Mother of God sometimes inspired in him formulations that in a certain way anticipated those of St Bernard and of Franciscan mysticism, yet without ever deviating to disputable forms of sentimentalism because he never separates Mary from the mystery of the Church. Therefore, with good reason, Ambrose Autpert is considered the first great Mariologist in the West. He considers that the profound study of the sacred sciences, especially meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, which he describes as “the ineffable sky, the unfathomable abyss” should be combined with the devotion that he believed must free the soul from attachment to earthly and transient pleasures (In Apoc. IX). In the beautiful prayer with which his commentary on the Apocalypse ends, underlining the priority that must be given to love in all theological research, he addresses God with these words: “When you are intellectually examined by us, you are not revealed as you truly are: when you are loved, you are attained”.
[7]Giorgio Agamben, Il mistero del male. Benedetto XVI e la fine dei tempi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2013, Kindle position 163, 170.
[8]Ibid., Kindle position 170-177, 184, 192.

Editorials

The International Mantel of Our Lady + the Prudence of St. Athanasius

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by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Knowing how to achieve victory is the greatest morale booster for troops preparing for battle. For that reason I wish to focus here on

the FORMULA for victory:    M + A = V

Here is the explanation:

“M” Stands for …

Our Lady does nothing in vain. Being the Queen of Heaven and Earth and the Queen of the Elect, as She worships God Her Son, She sees in Him the entire future and each one of us. So She knows well in advance what needs to be done and how to prepare for it.

Now, I am going to make an educated guess what Our Lady’s grand strategy for defeating the Anti-Church is, inasmuch as it involves our collaboration.

I get this idea from watching a film on the Apparitions at Montechiari, in the province of Bergamo, by Our Lady under the title of the “Mystical Rose”. In one of those apparitions at Fontenelle, a natural spring outside of Montechiari, among the fields of wheat, Our Lady said it was Her desire that the wheat of these fields be gathered together to make hosts which would be used in Communions of Reparation at Fatima and at Rome.

What Our Lady was exactly referring to, I cannot say. I am not an expert in the apparitions of Our Lady Mystical rose.

However, when hearing of this desire of Our Lady, the thought struck me, that Our Lady may have had a long term plan in all Her apparitions on Earth, and that She was not only appearing to Her children, but preparing places of devotion to Her Son and to Herself which would be FORTRESSES of spiritual power and places of the formation and salvation of souls in the End Times.

As I wrote the other day, Franciscan Saints were convinced that the 12th Chapter of the Apocalypse had to do with Our Lady’s triumph over the Anti-Church at the end of Time. Great Marian Saints such as St. Louis Marie de Montfort were convinced of the same thing.

It follows logically, therefore, that if Our Lady was coming down from Heaven to promote devotion to God through Herself, that She might have also been preparing PLACES which would be the HUBS of Her power-network among Her children in the Final Days.

The thought struck me then, that perhaps we Catholics can best fight the Anti-Church by building an international alliance of Marian Shrines and Marian Faithful.  I think the Enemy realizes the great danger of these places too, because I just saw reports that Bergoglio not only attacked the title of Our Lady, “Corredemptrix”, but that he is preparing to dismantle Fatima!

This international alliance of Marian Shrines is what I call the INTERNATIONAL MANTLE OF OUR LADY. This is what the “M” in the formula of victory stands for.

At each Shrine the faithful would found a Seminary for the formation of priests. It might have to start in secret, to avoid open persecution. But what better places to learn to be an Ambassador of Jesus Christ? These seminaries should be places that the faithful enrich with donations of sound Catholic Books, religious artwork, and all that is necessary to train and outfit future priests. Then as men are trained, when faithful Bishops visit, they can ordain these men and send them out to the local dioceses. These can also be the places they consecrate new Catholic Bishops to replace the apostates who have seized local dioceses.

The “A” stands for …

Now, the “A” stands for the prudence of Saint Athanasius. Saint Athanasius was the first Bishop venerated as as Saint who was not a martyr. That is because of all the Saints of his age, and in a way of all the Saint in the entire history of the Church, this man had his head on straight! He understood that Divine Law trumps all positive law, even the laws of the Church, which if observed in a time of crisis would lead to the destruction of the Church at the hands of Antichrists.

We know from the historical record that Saint Athanasius regularly did the following, without hesitation or scruple:

  1. He left his own diocese to travel the world so as to encourage the faithful in other dioceses.
  2. He ordained Bishops and Priests in other dioceses, where the churches had been taken over by Heretics.
  3. He wrote letters to the Bishops of the world with authority urging them to hold fast to the faith.
  4. He disregarded any calls for him to stop any of the above, even when they came from the Pope or Emperor.
  5. He recognized that the State had no authority to suppress the true Catholic Faith, and was eminently discrete with civil authorities who were allies of heretics.

He went so far, as some historians say, that he was excommunicated by Pope Liberius. But he did not care one wit. He knew that in the just cause of opposing Apostasy, he was in the right.

He remembered that Christ Jesus railed constantly against the religious authorities of His own day who observed man made laws to such an extent that they destroyed souls or deprived them of saving truth.

Saint Athanasius, of all the Saints, was the one who understood Our Lord best of all in these matters. THE SALVATION OF SOULS is the highest rule.

At the same time, Saint Athanasius was an eminently pro-Catholic Church man, that is, he did not consecrate bishops or ordain priests to form a private club, but always for the dioceses so that they might keep the faith and provide the sacraments for ALL CATHOLICS who refused the heresy of Arian.

There is just no Saint in the history of the Church who was so darn virile and chaste at the same time. Every member of the clergy today should read his life and then lower his head in shame for his lack of zeal in defending the truth as Saint Athanasius did: NO MATTER WHAT THE PERSONAL COSTS, NO MATTER WHAT THE RISK OF REPUTATION, FAME, WEALTH, HOME, COMFORTS!

We can see a kind of courage like this in the many priests who were and are viciously persecuted for the Faith since the time of the Council and who had to take refuge in a private chapel and being an apostolate on the periphery of the Church. They got very little support. And if they did not say the Old Mass they probably even got even less support.

We need Bishops like this to restore the Sacred Hierarchy by ordaining men devoted to Jesus and Mary.

M + A = Victory

We need to pray that Bishops are infused with this prudence of Athanasius, and that the laity devoted to Our Lady are infused with the zeal to take what She had given and in gratitude now put it to work. In this way we can achieve victory, inasmuch as it is our duty to collaborate with Our Lady in the Victory which She has promised, but which will not exclude our collaboration.

We urgently need to make Marian Shrines the new seminaries of the clergy of the True Catholic Church and trained to fight the Anti-Church. We may have victory over the Anti-Church soon, but the world might be much more hostile for the rest of time. Having seminaries up and functioning, will greatly encourage faithful Bishops to act and ordain new clergy.

The Victory over the Anti-Church, however, may NOT include that we recover the great centers of Christianity from the Anti-Church. This maybe the warning contained in the message given to Melanie at La Salette, that “Rome will become the Seat of the Antichrist…. What falls at Rome will never arise again”.

But the Church will continue until the end of time, and what more spiritually sound example than Saint Athanasius can there be for the clergy? What more spiritually strong fortresses for formation, than the Marian Shrines of the World, where Our Lady appeared?

These are my thoughts. I may be wrong. I claim no authority for them, but common sense and guess work. I confide them, however, to Bishops and to the souls devoted to Our Blessed Mother in the End Times.

Nunc est “Ora et labora!”

And so, to this end, to not leave a suggestion without putting good works into practice, we need to recognize that, Now it is the time for “Prayer and work”.

First, a prayer. Prayer cannot hurt, because God answers good prayers and knows when not to answer improper ones. May He inspire us always to pray good prayers.

LET US PRAY:

ALMIGHTY AND ETERNAL WORD OF GOD, Who out of Thy infinite Mercy descended into the Virginal Womb of the Blessed Mary to save us wretched sinners and to establish Thy True Church upon Earth, for the salvation of all souls, LOOK PROPITIOUSLY upon Thy servants who cry unto Thee, that under the Mantle of Thy Immaculate Mother, Thou might deign now in this terrible battle in which we find ourselves, to Send forth Thy Holy Ghost TO STRIKE THE HEARTS of Bishops with repentance and tears and to open their minds with the gifts of heavenly grace, especially with a share in the prudence of Thy faithful Bishop, Saint Athanasius, that they might have the zeal to go throughout all the Earth like the Apostles of the last days, ordaining for Thee new ministers of God for the salvation of Thy Remnant; and deign to INSPIRE those souls devoted to thy Ever Faithful Mother to organize and found centers of formation for faithful priests, so that Thy Vineyard, which is Thy Mystical Body on Earth, might not be without workers for the harvest, before That Great and Terrible Day, which will soon be upon us! We ask this in Thy Blessed Name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Second, Action:

Contact souls devoted to Our Lady, wherever you can find them and exercise an apostolate to inspire them to support the formation of priests who reject the Apostasy of Freemasonry, Idolatry, Sodomy, Marxism etc.. There are few souls today willing to do anything, and all of those who are for Pope Benedict XVI are devout servants of Our Lady. So it is prudent to look for more among Her children.

So, if you are able, found a non profit in your area, under the title of Our Lady and work to found a house of formation near a Marian Shrine in your nation. There are also many devout Catholics who have purchased properties near Marian Shrines who would love to help in such a holy project by donating their property or allowing its free use. Search them out.

Be confident that Our Lord will back your efforts: build and they will come! — If you are not able, encourage others to do the same. We cannot allow the Avalanche of Apostasy to overwhelm us without taking action! Prayer is NOT enough!

POST SCRIPT

While I have written about the Apocalyptic implications of remaining in communion with the Head of the Anti-Church, as regards what Saint John said in the Apocalypse, and what the laity need to do, and here suggesting a way forward, I was informed this morning that already a group of Priests in Spain 4 weeks ago began such an effort. The Holy Spirit is truly at work!  Learn more via this video in Spanish. We all need the zeal to begin to do the same! And we need to stop heeding the voices that advocate “Recognize and Resist”, “Do nothing”, “Wait for God and Our Lady to intervene”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvhEGtlur5E

CREDITS: La Virgen de las Cuevas, by Zurbaran, 1645-55, in the public domain, retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bellas_Artes_Sevilla.jpg