These are the sentiments of those who truly appreciate what is most important in life. Catholics who want to honor God and save their souls do not yearn primarily for material blessings or freedom from suffering, but rather freedom from sin and other evils, which can separate us from God.

Throughout the Gospels, Our Lord gives us various indications that we ought to have this firm desire to adhere to His commandments:

“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)

“Not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father Who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

“And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to Him: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck. But He said: Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.” (Luke 11:27-28)

“If you love Me, keep My commandments . . . He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:15, 21)

The Church has always emphasized these teachings, making it clear that those who have despised God’s commandments and die in a state of mortal sin go to Hell. As such, we must remain in the state of sanctifying grace, which necessitates our following what Jesus commanded.

It is a matter of common sense, confirmed by 60 years of unmistakable reality, that Catholics will no longer believe that they must absolutely follow the Church’s teachings if they believe the Church now says that all religions — most of which place little or no importance on God’s commandments — lead to heaven.

Beyond reminding us how much care we must have for our souls, these reflections make it clear how much God is offended by our failure to keep His commandments. We frequently express this reality in the Act of Contrition, when we tell God we are heartily sorry for having offended Him because we dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because our sins offend Him, Who deserves all our love. If we were to keep this in mind at all times and live by it, we would surely become saints.

Tragically, though, almost all developments arising from Vatican II have undermined this indispensable aspect of the Catholic Faith. The cumulative destruction caused by this abomination has led to the present state, in which we find very few priests and bishops willing to decry the numerous ways in which Francis instructs the Church and world that Our Lord no longer cares about His commandments:

False Ecumenism. Francis’s predecessors, especially John Paul II, were the primary promoters of false ecumenism, which seeks to unify religions through a process of diminishing the importance of Catholic teaching and praising the merits of non-Catholic religions. It is a matter of common sense, confirmed by 60 years of unmistakable reality, that Catholics will no longer believe that they must absolutely follow the Church’s teachings if they believe the Church now says that all religions — most of which place little or no importance on God’s commandments — lead to heaven. On several occasions, Francis has reinforced his dedication to false ecumenism by condemning proselytism as a “sin against ecumenism,” which should be enough to convince us that he places no value in the mission Our Lord gave His disciples:

“Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you . . .” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Communion for Those in a State of Mortal Sin. Francis’s Amoris Laetitia did not inaugurate the sacrilegious practice of allowing those in mortal sin to receive Communion, but it did provide “theological” cover for bishops and priests who permitted the practice. In his 2022 Apostolic Letter “on the liturgical formation of the people of God,” Desiderio Desideravi, Francis went so far as to suggest that Our Lord actually desired every reception of Communion:

“Indeed, every reception of communion of the Body and Blood of Christ was already desired by Him in the Last Supper.”

If Our Lord desired every Communion, there is no real sense in which a person can receive Communion in a way that offends God. If this were true, it would completely invalidate the notion that we offend God by receiving Communion in a state of mortal sin.

Apologists for Francis typically offer a strained interpretation for why we could see such statements as orthodox, but it is obvious to those with the Faith and eyes to see that Francis means that the Church welcomes sinners and their sins, with no need to repent. This makes a complete mockery of God’s truth, justice, and mercy.

Elevation and Promotion of Pro-LGBTQ Clerics. In recent years, Fr. James Martin has become a household name, representing the reality that Francis not only tolerates but endorses LGBTQ Catholicism. Even if Francis were as orthodox as St. Pius X in every other respect, this alone would suffice to make him one of the worst enemies of the Church to ever live. All people knowledgeable about Catholicism know that the Church has always taught that sexual relations outside of lawful marriage are inherently sinful and contrary to God’s commandments, so Francis’s embrace of LGBTQ ideology falsely signals that the Church has been wrong about God’s commandments. Naturally, if the Church has been wrong about this, there is no reason to trust its authority on anything else.

Synodality. The Synod on Synodality exists to reexamine and reshape the Church’s teachings through a process by which “the Spirit” guides the Synod to listen to what Catholics and non-Catholics think the Church should be. Even if that process yielded a Church that returned to its pre-Vatican II beliefs and practices, it would be blasphemously deficient because it would base the religion on the will of the people rather than God’s immutable truth. As we can see from one of the questions for further consideration found in the recent Instrumentum Laboris, though, there is no possibility that one would confuse the Synodal Church with the Catholic Church as it appeared before Vatican II:

“In the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?”

What “concrete steps” are needed to welcome sinners who feel excluded from the Church? The same steps Catholics have always taken: present the unadulterated Catholic Faith, and charitably teach them that, like every person, they must abandon their sins and turn to God. Any welcome that involves “accompanying” them in their sins not only leads these poor people to hell but also sends the message that the Church no longer cares about God’s commandments.

Leaving People in Their Sins. Francis frequently encapsulates all of these themes with the overarching notion that God accepts us as we are, without any need for us to “sin no more.” This was the thrust of his message at the welcoming ceremony of the World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal:

“Christ’s Church, the Pope continued, is ‘the community of the called,’ not a community of the best people; rather, we are all sinners, all called ‘as we are, with our problems and limitations.’ We are, he said,  ‘a community of brothers and sisters of Jesus, sons and daughters of the same Father. I want to be very clear with you.’”

Apologists for Francis typically offer a strained interpretation for why we could see such statements as orthodox, but it is obvious to those with the Faith and eyes to see that Francis means that the Church welcomes sinners and their sins, with no need to repent. This makes a complete mockery of God’s truth, justice, and mercy.

In spite of all this, there remains a body of purportedly faithful Catholics who assiduously defend Francis. Often, these delusional Catholics believe that the Church would have defected if Francis is as bad as he appears, so they must gaslight the rest of us into thinking that Francis has been unfairly maligned by Traditional Catholics.

When the ostensible head of the Catholic Church acts in this way, the world takes notice. Souls who might otherwise become good Catholics never enter the Church. Those who might become saints instead choose a life full of sin. God’s great yearning for souls to love Him and do His will is thwarted.

In spite of all this, there remains a body of purportedly faithful Catholics who assiduously defend Francis. Often, these delusional Catholics believe that the Church would have defected if Francis is as bad as he appears, so they must gaslight the rest of us into thinking that Francis has been unfairly maligned by Traditional Catholics. Francis himself adopts this line of defense, condemning Traditional Catholics as backwards and rigid. Thus: Francis is good; Traditional Catholics are bad; and, among Traditional Catholics, those who believe that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was right in questioning Vatican II are the absolute worst.

How does this interesting theory look in practice? Presumably the purportedly faithful Catholics who adopt this line of thinking sincerely wish to please God and make it to heaven. Perhaps they attend (or, if priests, say) the Traditional Latin Mass and follow the commandments. They have, by all appearances, secured for themselves a comfortable safe-harbor from all the evils afflicting the Church.

There is only one problem: by defending Francis and attacking those who seek to combat the great evils in the Church, these otherwise faithful Catholics constitute the most persuasive enemies of God’s commandments. “Yes,” their actions tell us, “following God’s commandments is certainly a worthwhile path; but there are many legitimate paths, and we have no reason to criticize those who tell you that you are just fine ignoring God’s commandments.”

These “holy” defenders of Francis are like guests at a banquet who know that certain foods have been poisoned by an enemy of the host. They carefully avoid the poisoned foods but never utter a word of caution to their fellow guests — indeed, they contemptuously rebuke those guests who raise concerns about the wholesomeness of the poisoned dishes. These smug guests realize that they could save the lives of others by warning about the poisoned dishes, but they have idiotically convinced themselves that the host would be offended by their criticism of the banquet fare.

By contributing to Francis’s work of keeping people in their sins, they foster the increasingly suffocating evil in the world. The resulting rise in global wickedness is a scourge for all of us, which seems to be waking more people up to the reality that everyone suffers when we allow heretics in the Church to misrepresent God’s immutable truth.

Unfortunately, these defenders of heterodoxy do far worse than contribute to the bodily death of their neighbors. Their actions obstruct souls in the pursuit of holiness and salvation, depriving Catholics of eternal beatitude and God of the love He desires. Moreover, by contributing to Francis’s work of keeping people in their sins, they foster the increasingly suffocating evil in the world. The resulting rise in global wickedness is a scourge for all of us, which seems to be waking more people up to the reality that everyone suffers when we allow heretics in the Church to misrepresent God’s immutable truth.

Our Lord told us how He views these blind guides who defend Francis while denouncing those who insist that on the clear articulation of the immutable Catholic Faith:

“Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. . . Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all filthiness . . . You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city.” (Matthew 23: 24, 27, 33-34)

Today’s blind guides swallow a caravan of camels in the form of Francis’s endless attacks on the Church, while they foolishly strain out those who rightly call into question Francis’s orthodoxy. If these modern Pharisees truly respected Francis, they would know that he accompanies and embraces all people as they are, which means he cannot sincerely object to Traditional Catholics, even though he chides them. Ultimately, however, these whited sepulchers do not actually believe anything Francis says — they, like everyone else with eyes, know he is lying . . . but they have, like the Pharisees of old, dedicated themselves to the technical adherence to laws, while completely neglecting the common sense principles that give rise to the laws.

If we love God and want to do His will, we must oppose Francis’s unholy lies. Otherwise, we are betting our eternal salvation on the hope that God will reward us for sitting by silently while our neighbor consumes the poison we refuse. God did not create us for these times so that we would aid and abet Francis with our complicit silence. If we truly love Him and want to save our souls, we should cooperate with His grace to oppose those who make a mockery of His commandments. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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