From Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year -
January 18 Feast of St. Peter's Chair in Rome:
"Jesus Christ by Peter, and Peter by his successor - these our rulers in the order of spiritual Government. Every Pastor whose authority emanates not from the See of Rome is a stranger to us, and an intruder. So likewise, in the order of our Faith, Jesus Christ by Peter, and Peter by his successor, teach us divine doctrine, and how to distinguish truth from error.
Every symbol of Faith, every doctrinal judgement, every teaching, contrary to the Symbol and judgements and teachings of the See of Rome, is of man and not of God, and must be rejected, hated, and anathematized.
Here again let us borrow the sublime words of St. Leo and hear him discuss the claims of Peter to Infallibility of teaching. The Holy Doctor will teach us how to understand the full force of those words which were spoken by our Lord and which he intended should be for all ages the grand charter of Faith.
' The word made Flesh was dwelling among us, and he, our Saviour, had spent his whole self for the reparation of the human race. There was nothing too complicated for his wisdom, nothing too difficult for his power. The elements were subject to him, Spirits ministered to him, Angels obeyed him, nor could the mystery of human Redemption be ineffectual, for God, both in his Unity and Trinity , was the worker of that mystery. And yet Peter is chosen from the rest of the entire world to be the one, the only one, put over the vocation of all nations, and over all the Apostles, and over all the Fathers of the Church: that so, whilst there were to be many Priests and many Pastors in the people of God, Peter should govern, by special power given to him, all those whom Christ also rules by his own supreme power. Great and wonderful, dearly Beloved, is this fellowship with Christ's power granted, by divine condescension to this man! Moreover, if our Lord willed that there should be something in common to Peter and the rest of the Princes of his church, it was only on this condition - that whatsoever he gave to the rest, he gave it to them through Peter.'
In another of his Sermons, the same holy Doctor explains to us how it is that Peter ever lives and ever teaches in the Chair of Rome. After having cited the passage from the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew (verses 16-19), he says,
' This promise of him who is truth itself must, therefore, be a permanent fact, and Peter, the unceasing Rock of strength, must be the ceaseless ruler of the Church. For we have only to consider the pre-eminence that is given him, and the mysterious titles conferred on him, and we see at once the fellowship he has with our Lord Jesus Christ: he is called the Rock (Peter); he is named the Foundation; he is appointed such power of loosing and binding that his sentence and responsibilities wherewith he was invested, he discharges with fuller perfection and power now that he is in him and with him from whom he received all these honors.'
Thus speaks St. Leo. 'Let it not, therefore be said,' observes Bossuet, in his sermon on the Unity of the Church, 'let it not be said or thought, that this ministry of Peter finishes with his life on earth. That which is given as the support of a Church which is to last for ever, can never be taken away. Peter will live in his successors; Peter will speak, in his Chair, to the end of time. So speak the Fathers; so speak the six hundred and thirty Bishops of the Council of Chalcedon.' And again; 'Thus the Roman Church is ever a Virgin-Church; what has once been believed will be for ever believed; the same voice is heard all over the world; and Peter, in his successors, is now, as he was during his life, the foundation of which the Faithful rest. Jesus Christ has said that it shall be so; and heaven and earth shall pass away rather than his word.'
Full of gratitude, therefore, to the God of truth, who has vouchsafed to raise up this Chair in his Church, we will listen with submission of intellect and heart to the teaching which emanates from it. Rejecting with indignation those dangerous theories which can only serve to keep up sects within the Church and confessing with all the past ages that the promises made to St. Peter continue in his successors; we will conclude, aided by the twofold light of logic and history, that the teachings addressed to the Church by the Roman Pontiff CAN NEVER CONTAIN ERROR and can contain NOTHING BUT THE DOCTRINE OF TRUTH. Such has always been the expression of her spirit. Now if we acknowledge a permanent miracle in the uninterrupted succession in the Bishops of Rome, in spite all the revolutions of eighteen centuries, we acknowledge, it to be a still higher prodigy that, notwithstanding the instability of man's opinions and judgements, the Chair of Rome has faithfully preserved the truth without the slightest admixture of error..."
If you believe Francis is the Pope, then all of this ^^^ MUST be true of him and he is therefore the "FOUNDATION OF YOUR FAITH." What he believes Peter believes, what he teaches - Peter teaches and you must listen/submit to his teachings and decisions with "intellect and heart", or you are NOT CATHOLIC.
BUT
if you acknowledge that all that the Church has always believed/taught about the papacy and the Infallibility and Indefectibility of the Church is true (as clearly taught above) - THEN YOU MUST DENOUNCE HIM AS A FALSE POPE. Otherwise, you must adopt the heresies of the R&R clergy in that regard to continue in your present mode and again you are NOT CATHOLIC.
You lose if you accept him as pope and follow his teachings (accepting his heresies - Modernism, Indifferentism, etc.).
You lose if you accept him as pope and reject his teachings (inventing new heresies (R&R) to reject his teachings).
If you accept him as pope you lose either way.
So, in openly rejecting him as pope - you stand nothing to lose. You love the papacy, you stand ready to submit to a true pope, you believe the promises of Christ are always true, you believe in the Infallibility of the Pope and the Indefectibility of the Church as She has always taught them. You are Catholic in that regard.
Topic: Every R&R's Favorite Feast Day - St. Peter's Chair At Rome (Read 5418 times)