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cairsahr_stjoseph's avatar

He deliberately misuses the term. “Schismatic” would be what he actually describes.

He also probably thinks he is turning the tables. Sedevacantists are justified by pointing out the heretic in Rome, using the Church’s teachings against heresies; and Ripperburger thinks that sedes are calling the alleged ‘pope’ as one who is ‘judged by his own heresies’; whereas the R&R position is, unofficially, that the robe of the papacy is a kind of invincible armour that preserves him through all heresies and errors and thus, so can anyone else, if they just keep ‘faithful’ to him. This is literally the doctrine of the Antichrist; it is precisely what everyone must not do.

Sean Johnson's avatar

I’ve always been wary of celebrity exorcists (Ripperger, Amorth, et al). Somehow it seems incongruous with preconciliar practices (hidden, discreet, etc.).

Ps: Notice the majority are bald (Amorth, Ripperger, Lampert, Rossetti, Martins, Farao, et al). As though trying to convey some kind of image?

RosaryKnight's avatar

Fr Amorth said that "around 1960" Padre Pio told him, "You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church." (Interview with Fr Amorth by José María Zavala, in The Best Kept Secret of Fatima)

Unfortunately - and mysteriously - Fr Amorth, like almost everyone else, didn't recognize the Vatican II church as that "false church."

Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu's avatar

+Fr. Amorth said he refused to use the new rite of exorcism (yes, they even changed that). He said, "it doesn't work like the old rite in Latin."

Hardy Röthel's avatar

It is a pity how many faithful will be deceived by this. Father already caused a lot of damage With his talks about exorcisms. You are Not supposed to talk about that in public, that should be a no brainer.

Heather McKenzie's avatar

“Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.” Gospel of St Matthew

We really need to be careful, as these days progress—

the deceptions and betrayals are astoundingly pervasive.

Thank you for this exposé.

David Charles's avatar

The conversation gets nutty pretty fast once the topic of a prolonged vacancy enters the chat. I think it's pretty clear at that point that you are talking with people under duress of various kinds.

No Greater Love's avatar

Thank you, thank you, for this patient and scholarly rebuttal and defense. Of the many illuminating quotes you adduced, the one from Fr Edmund O'Reilly had this gem that needs to be heeded in many situations: "What I would infer is, that we must not be too ready to pronounce on what God may permit." Amen!

I want to thank you for this important principled defense that extends even to those of your faithful readers who hold differing positions regarding the very apparent crisis in the hierarchy. I tend to favor the hypothesis that Benedict XVI was the last pope, because the dissolution of doctrine and practice has sharply accelerated especially since his death, as if the floodgates had burst, a boundary had been crossed--or the Restrainer has been removed? Of course, one can make a persuasive case that the boundary was Vatican II, and I continue to read with appreciation your defenses of that position. And you have not deserved such a charge as the one you responded to here.

S.D. Wright's avatar

Many thanks as ever for your encouragement, No Greater Love. It is much appreciated.

RosaryKnight's avatar

The "dissolution of doctrine and practice...sharply accelerated" with the crypto-Jew "Saint" Paul VI, a.k.a. the Destroyer of Catholic tradition, worship, sacramental rites* and more.

"Paul VI: The Pope Who Changed the Church":

catholicendtimetruths.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Chiesa-viva-441-S-en-OK-1.pdf (Title should really read "Antipope"; Communist double agent: p.18; Responsible for the murder of scores of bishops & priests: p.21; Freemason: p.30; his mother a false convert Jew: p.44; as Jewish High Priest: p.50; Homosexual: p.55; Satanist?: 53, 59, 82, 87; p.80: read "Impostor Sr Lucia of Fatima": sisterlucytruth.org)

Also novusordowatch.org/paul-vi

* As astounding as this may sound to many readers, Paul VI invalidated Holy Orders, and knowing pretty well how evil he was, I'm quite sure intentionally.

novusordowatch.org/2018/06/unholy-orders-50-years-invalid-ordinations

William The Samaritan's avatar

When I began my conversion to Catholicism, I came across Sedevacantist sources pretty early on. But no main stream Catholic sources discussed these communities. Now there are basically 'in house' Sedes. So, 'edge lords' trads like Ripperger need to distance themselves from the swell of the movement, and assure everyone that it is perfectly Catholic to disagree with everything the pope says and does, as long as you call him Holy Father.

Peregrinus's avatar

Excellent article.

Here is another quote from Fr. O'Reilly speaking of the possibility of a long vacancy lasting for the whole duration of the Western Schism (about 40 years):

"We may here stop to inquire what is to be said of the position, at that time, of the three claimants [during the Western Schism], and their rights with regard to the Papacy. In the first place, there was all through, from the death of Gregory XI in 1378, a Pope — with the exception, of course, of the intervals between deaths and elections to fill up the vacancies thereby created. There was, I say, at every given time a Pope, really invested with the dignity of Vicar of Christ and Head of the Church, whatever opinions might exist among many as to his genuineness; ***not that an interregnum covering the whole period would have been impossible or inconsistent with the promises of Christ, for this is by no means manifest***, but that, as a matter of fact, there was not such an interregnum.

(O’Reilly, The Relations of the Church to Society, p. 283).

Darrell Goodliffe's avatar

Honestly, I like Fr Ripperger, man is a warrior for God and he wouldn't last 5 seconds doing what he does if he wasn't but knowing what he knows, in fact, he's publicly spoken this, about the demonic influence on the hierarchy, his loyalty to them does strike me as odd but I guess he would see it as loyalty to the Church not the people.

Sonia's avatar

Ripperger is a celebrity who has based his fame on interactions with demons. If he had any discernment he would understand that he doesn't have priestly orders. His sincerity notwithstanding, he is a menace to souls.

When I was still half in the Novus Ordo I once contacted Rippgerger’s organization asking about my local Novus Ordo Cathedral which was wreckovated in the 90s. It was redecorated with pagan carvings on all the pews in deference to ‘indigenous rites’. I asked about the prudence of worshipping in a church sporting demons. I was instructed to direct my concerns to the very ‘Bishop’ responsible for the abomination. Men like Ripperger are ‘company men’. He defends the promulgators of heresy and all manner of evil. His talks include demon communications.. He promotes a novel heresy that the ‘proximate rule’ can diverge from the ‘remote rule’, and in such an event ‘resist’ the Pope. His prayer book includes an appendix basically giving the reader a crash course on demonic heirarchies and Freemasonic oaths. No ordinary Catholic should have a book in their house including such filth.

Darrell Goodliffe's avatar

I have no problem with him retelling what demons say because it serves an educational purpose in that it illustrates how they behave and people should know that.

Sonia's avatar

The devil is a liar. The most expert liar. Ripperger is a consumer of those lies and is working very hard to sell the same lies to others. Wisdom has nothing to do with lies or liars.

Darrell Goodliffe's avatar

No one denies that but he usually mixes lies with truth and essentially Sedes agree with what Fr Ripperger reports about the hierarchy when it comes to demonic infestation which makes your comment even more amusingly silly

Sonia's avatar

I haven't met a single 'sede' who has any time for Ripperger. The degree to which one grows in the actual Catholic faith is the degree to which men like Ripperger lose their credibility. “Despite the seriousness of his demeanour’, as one critic wrote, objectively Ripperger is not a serious traditional Catholic man but an intellectual who has found a niche market. I witnessed a bit of a back and forth once between a Ripperger fan and a priest who was not a fan. The priest pointed out the superstitious nature of Ripperger’s approach to ‘spiritual warfare’. True spiritual warfare has its sole focus on God and growing in virtue. Ripperger's amounts to a Protestant-like ‘deliverance ministry’, at best, and an occult like ‘curses, hexes and spells (a phrase used in Ripperger’s prayers)’ business. Ripperger’s 'warfare' produces books and conferences, and media this and that encouraging a daily dose of attention towards the demonic and gathering a huge conservative Novus Ordo following where these scattered sheep hang on his very word taking him for some sort of religious authority. Other exorcists have pointed out the unorthodox character of Ripperger’s fame and fandom and his teachings on the demonic as being foreign to Catholic tradition and theology, including his very Protestant teaching on ‘generation curses’ and ‘ancestral spirits’, whereas ‘ancestral sin’ is an heretical notion according to the Church. One Novus Ordo 'priest' in a review of his prayerbook wrote: “There is an obsessiveness, nuttiness, and creepiness behind so many of the prayers, and what I regard as seriously defective in them….I believe that this prayer book will induce scrupulosity, obsessions, fears, intense worry, and possibly depression.” I can recall folks who have displayed this sort of 'worry' under the burden of the Ripperger weltanschauung.

Errin Clark's avatar

I think you have clearly demonstrated that there is no incompatibility between perpetual succession and an extended vacancy. This is a crucial point in the sede vacante issue. From my conversations and experience working through this controversy, it seems many simply assume an incompatibility between the two, and the conversation, thus, goes no further. Given Ripperger's influence, do you know if he is aware of your response? Is there a way he can be urged to address it?