lepanto

Carlos Caso-Rosendi

I found this paragraph in one excellent article by Angelo Stagnaro, Calling a Spade, a Spade:

And I also forgive Martin Luther for accepting funding from Suleiman the Magnificent, the Sultan of the Muslim Ottoman Empire as he “struggled” to secede from the Catholic Church. Luther schemed to throw Christendom under the bus for fun and profit as he urged his fellow Protestants to side with the Muslim Turks in defeating the Catholic Church and, with it, Europe. Suleiman even extended his munificent kinship to any and all Protestants in Hungary and Romania now that they were no longer “Christian” (i.e., loyal to the pope). The sultan urged Luther and Protestants to unite under the Muslim banner to defeat both the emperor and the pope. Please recall that Suleiman the Terrorist wanted nothing less than to wipe Christianity from the planet―talk about politics and their strange bedfellows!

Stagnaro is writing about the time leading to the decisive Battle of Lepanto, between the combined forces of Spain, Genova, Venice, and Malta against the Turkish fleet. In those days, Martin Luther sided with the enemies of Christian Europe in the hope that the Ottomans would dispatch the Pope and the Catholic Church. The sheer stupidity of that attitude is hard to miss. Luther was not only wrong, he was also a small man, a traitor first and later, a cowardly collaborator.

The scene made me think of the present state of the Church, weakened from the inside by the effeminate ‘progressives’ that have taken an increasingly important role in the curia since those days when Pope John XXIII said “Aprite le finestre;  lascia entrare una folata d’aria fresca!” [1] Well, Your Holiness … attraverso le finestre aperte entra qualcosa di più non soltanto l’aria fresca. Many things can come in through open windows … not only fresh air. A few years later, the successor to the Throne of the Fisherman, Paul VI said:  “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered into the temple of God” (“da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio.” See Insegnamenti, 1972, 707). Apparently, our good Paul VI forgot that the windows were wide open. That was not some fissure.

Later, the same Paul VI was quoted as saying: “We believe … that something preternatural has come into the world specifically to disturb, to suffocate the fruits of the Ecumenical Council, and to prevent the Church from breaking out in a hymn of joy for having recovered in fullness the awareness of herself .”[2] Those events reminded me strongly of a passage of the Gospel of John, when Judas the traitor is revealed to John who is reclining his head on Jesus’ chest, with his ear close to the Sacred Heart:

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.  Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. John 13:21-30.

As Jesus gives Judas a piece of bread, the Iscariot opens his mouth to receive the Lord’s loving grace but along with that morsel, the traitor also lets in the devil before going into “the darkness outside”.

Treason, vice, and disobedience

While we are talking about this, allow me to also share with you a personal and very painful story.  Some decade or so ago, when I  published my first apologetics webpage I received a call from Fatima, Portugal. A rather mellifluous character was offering me some old and valuable Catholic books as a gift, on the condition that I personally traveled there to pick them up. He also invited me to see his page on the web, which I did. It was a huge chaotic collection of Catholic writings illustrated with very colorful but disconnected images. I remember it included scenes from the Mardi Gras, from Rio’s Carnaval, marching Chinese Communist troops, and nearly every gaudy photograph under the sun. I was not impressed.

I declined the offer to go to Portugal and forgot about the strange call. A few weeks later, two different friends warned me that all the content of my page was being lifted into that strange website even minutes after being published. I verified that and also noticed that the stolen articles were published many times and illustrated with immoral pics. A quick check of the search engines confirmed that my work was appearing 10 or 20 times in a standard Google search  before even listing my site. The originals were thus pushed to the bottom of the list by the many copies pasted in that ridiculous pastiche.

After visiting the offending site a few times, my computer gave me a warning indicating that my disk space was low and was approaching full capacity. A quick inspection revealed that — while I was logged to that monstrous site — someone had sent to my disk a huge collection of  homosexual pornography. All of those images could be traced to the website of the mellifluous ‘catholic apologist’ in Portugal. In his rush to cause damage, the creep forgot that I could easily track his un-requested illegal download.

As you can imagine, I complained in the strongest terms. The man refused to remove the stolen articles from his site. At this point I could surmise that the objective of this “catholic” site was to attract internet traffic with the intention of contacting possible romantic partners for the owner, presumably among young Catholics. Later, a priest friend told me about the existence of a sect or cult, that is homosexual in nature whose members form a sort of brotherhood inside the Church,  often helping and protecting each other. I was shocked to say the least but that was not going to be the biggest shock. About that time, I received an email — sent to me by mistake — the email came from the Argentine priest that had baptized me in 2001. The communication was meant for the ‘homoapologist’ in Portugal: it provided some suggestions on how to effectively harm my budding ministry.  I wasted no time in making that email public through my blog and I notified the Father Superior of the Institute about the incident involving his priest, providing copies and links to the pornographic images I had received — amazingly, that rubbish still lingered in the offending site’s server! I never got a response from anyone. The Bishop of Leria, some law enforcement agencies in Spain, Portugal, and the US were also informed of the unsolicited download of pornographic materials coming from the creep’s ‘catholic website’.

Imagine my surprise when I recently found out the very Father Superior of that Catholic Institute was suspended in his functions by Pope Benedict (punishment confirmed by Pope Francis) due to an investigation that uncovered the sexual abuse of seminarians under his care. [3] I have been informed that the man is now a recluse in a certain parish in Genoa, Italy, and he is forbidden to leave that place. He seems to be  also in disobedience to the papal order not to teach or offer the Mass. A webpage and a Facebook account, display plenty of fresh videos and articles signed with his name.

Ever since those days I have been persecuted by those shadowy groups. I will spare you the details but the results are quite evident and most of you know how I receive no support from anyone but my faithful readers. I remain blacklisted and quite frankly, very happy to be apart from any contact with that satanic cabal. Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother made sure that I did not perish. In fact, those who attacked me out of envy and ill will are now being exposed.

The owner of that disgusting website I mentioned before has released it to the care of some nationalistic philo-nazi group in Argentina after some clean-up — now it features only religious images but it continues to be just a useless, disordered pile of articles lifted from everywhere in the web with no discernible rhyme or reason, a festival of massive cut-and-paste. The writings of a number of known sedevacantists and schismatics are published also side by side with faithful Catholic authors.

Back to Lepanto

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Ephesians 6:12.

I was not warmly welcomed into the fold if I may say so. I am a fully self-catechized Catholic. I learned the faith from books and from watching EWTN during the glorious days of Mother Angelica. I must have watched Fr Corapi’s series of videos a good 50 times — complete! I visited several Catholic parishes in Virginia and Massachusetts before I could find a priest that would even talk to me about being received in the Church.

I was very aware of the corruption of some clerics in the Church when I accepted to be Catholic. I never imagined I was going to be the target of their envy and venom but that is sadly the case. In two occasions I have been assured  the protection of Jesus and Mary. St Michael walks close by my side for good measure. The creeps will not prevail but they certainly “make more noise” than the faithful and the obedient. We must “lift high the Cross” and bear all the abuse and the shame that all those traitors have brought on us since the days of Judas Iscariot, and more specially, since the days of Martin Luther. That does not mean we have to give up our fight.

G. K, Chesterton put it well in Lepanto, his epic poem about the Christian victory of 1571, highlighting how in spite of having all odds against him, Don John of Austria — the son of King Charles V of Habsburg — sailed with his allies to fight the Ottoman fleet.

The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes,
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.

Like Don John, we are riding to battle against all odds. There is a lot of work to do with very limited means but we have Christ and Mary Most Holy, nothing will be lacking. Watch the enemy fold and fall in disgrace under the powerful hand of God. Pray for this mission, help if you can but most of all praise God and thank Him for considering us worthy of going to battle under His banner.

 

[1] Open the windows and let in a breeze of fresh air!

[2] “Crediamo … in qualcosa di preternaturale venunto nel mondo proprio per turbare, per soffocare i frutti del Concilio Ecumenico, e per impedire che la Chiesa prorompesse nell’inno della gioia di aver riavuto in pienezza la coscienza di sé.”  See Insegnamenti 1972, 708.

[3] The news are shamefully all over the web in various languages.
Institute of the Incarnate Word founder guilty of sexual misconduct ;
Institute of the Incarnate Word Founder Carlos Buela Guilty of Sexual Misconduct with Seminarians.
Una historia de abusos en el Verbo Encarnado … etc. etc.