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It's a judgment on an apostate Assembly, just as on Israel.

Getting back to the "gates of hell" prevailing: if, as in fact is the case, God controls and wills what is going on, hell does not prevail. His will is being exercised, as when Christ was killed, and it appeared that Satan won. That Satan prevails factually upon the Church according to plan is not victory, morally or spiritually speaking, as to end or final cause, not teleologically, which is what matters.

As Cardinal Manning said, accurately reading prophecy, Satan does factually prevail at a critical time before Our Lord's return:


God wills that some men give their power to the "beast":


Those who kill the "harlot" act on behalf of the beast. Who is the "harlot"? Does Satan kill Satan? No, his kingdom would not stand.

The harlot is an apostate Church which has fornicated with and become one with the forces of darkness:


The apostates hate Tradition and the true faith: they kill its witnesses, and rejoice over their death. But their time is measured and limited:


Where was Our Lord crucified: in an apostate Jerusalem. Where will the witnesses be crucified: in the apostate Church.

The Church is now Israel (Galatians 6:16), and it is Jerusalem - just read the notes in Challoner's Douay Rheims, or Haydock. For example, the Haydock note to Jeremiah 33:9: "Jerusalem, as figure of the Church."

And the Church of "Rome" is also identified as "Babylon." 1 Pet. 5:5.

Of course the Church didn't speak on these things when it was doing the Lord's work of converting the nations. If it did, who would convert to a Church that said it would end up fornicating with the world as the harlot of the End Times?

But now the time is ripe.

The Conciliar popes are indeed "popes" under God's hand, working out His Plan, his judgment on an apostate Israel - yet again.

 The true faith lives in those who have fled the harlot with their Catholic faith intact, and still adore God as their fathers did. 

DR, we are getting closer to the truth with every post. But I don't think we are there yet.

You put "popes" in scare quotes. Earlier in this exchange you called them true Popes without qualification. Why the scare quotes now? Are they true Popes or aren't they?

You say the harlot is "an apostate Church" and that the true faith lives in those who have "fled the harlot with their Catholic faith intact." DR, I agree completely with you on that. If you must flee the harlot, you are separating from her authority. If her head is a true Pope, you cannot flee without committing schism. If you can flee with your Catholic faith intact, then her head is not a true Pope. You just argued for my position.

You cite 1 Corinthians 6: "he who is joined to a harlot is made one body." If the conciliar structure is the harlot, then what does that make the SSPX, which remains joined to her through their recognition of her head as "Holy Father"? They beg the antipope to allow them to remain in communion with him and his harlot church. Is that not the very fornication Paul condemns?

You identify Rome as Babylon through 1 Peter 5:13. Yes, exactly. And Apocalypse 18:4 says "Come out of her, my people." Not "recognize and resist." Not "stay inside and hope for a tribunal." Come out. That is what I am saying we must do.

And the Manning quote you provided actually supports my position, not yours. Manning says "the barrier shall, by the Divine will, be taken out of the way." Taken out of the way, DR. Not converted into an instrument of destruction. Not turned against the flock. Removed. And then "the man of sin will be revealed." Manning's framework is the Katechon framework. The true Pope is removed. The imposter takes the apparent seat. Manning does not say the Vicar of Christ becomes the agent of Satan. He says the Vicar's protective role is withdrawn and the enemy takes the field.

You see the harlot. You see Babylon. You see the apostasy. You see the need to flee. You have laid every brick. You just will not place the last one.

The men presiding over the harlot-Babylon structure that you yourself have identified are not "popes," with or without scare quotes. They are the false prophets that Jesus warned us about. And every authority you have cited in this exchange, including Manning, agrees with that conclusion.

Our task must not be to engage in the abstract speculations of canonists, but to resist with all our strength – and with the help of God’s Grace – the explicitly destructive action of the Jesuit Argentine [read now Leo XIV], refusing with courage and determination any collaboration, even indirect collaboration, with him and his accomplices.

https://www.exsurgedomine.org/en/blog/aspicite-nobis-illusiones

Angelus,

I quoted Archbishop Vigano earlier:


Factually, they are popes. As such, they are fulfilling prophecy. If you want to call them "not popes," or argue over whether they are "true popes,' I'm not interested in that. It's a waste of time.

Some people call then "antipopes," but there is no rival claimant. They were elected pope, 7 of them running now, by the cardinals. They are popes.

You can call them the tooth fairies for all I care. But it's nonsense, and an attempt to understand a world of squares with the geometry of a world of circles. 

These times are an anomaly, alike no other, and defy the prior categories.

DR