In a “featured commentary” on the blog OnePeterFive.com (1P5), Steve Skojec, founder and editor of 1P5, called Pope Francis a monster. The post title is “A Pope in Bed With Monsters“; the pope in question is Pope Francis. But as the article unfolds, the Pope is not only said to be “in bed” with monsters, but he is also called a “monster”.

“Sometimes monsters don’t cut organs out of your still living body. Sometimes, they seek to fundamentally transform the world you live in, or the Church you thought you knew and could trust.”
…
“I just want these monsters to leave us alone. I want them not to lock us down, bankrupt us, or sell us and our children – sometimes literally – to the highest bidder. But they won’t stop, because they think they’re better than all of us. They think they’re entitled to toy with us. They think they have every right to tinker with – or even carve up piecemeal and ultimately dispose of, as the Chinese government so horrifyingly proves – human lives.

“And like it or not, Pope Francis is one of them.” — Steve Skojec at OnePeterFive.com

How did Skojec reach this conclusion? He explains that he read an article saying China was committing “crimes against humanity” by harvesting organs from religious minorities. The religious minorities, particularly Muslims and one other group, were put to death when their organs needed to be “harvested”, on order from the government. That is a very grave crime against humanity, being not only murder, and mass murder, but also a type of slavery where human persons are treated like mere objects without any rights, to be used as the government sees fit.

Did Pope Francis approve of this behavior? Not at all. But Skojec’s “first thought” was to blame the Roman Pontiff:

“My first thought, seeing the world as I do through a Catholic lens, was that this pope – this cruel, wicked pope – has sold out the faithful Catholics in China to a regime willing to do this to other religious minorities.” (His emphasis, not mine.)

Pope Francis made an agreement with China concerning Catholics, which conservative Catholics oppose. Skojec sees this agreement not merely as an imprudent decision by the Roman Pontiff in a complex situation (where there is no choice that would not result in much suffering), but as a connection between Pope Francis and the Chinese government that allows him to accuse the Vicar of Christ of every sin committed by that government. Is the U.S. government guilty of every sin committed by other nations, those with which we have treaties or those to whom we give aid? No, we are not.

The principle of cooperation with evil, in addition to its specific teachings, addresses in general the case where one person sins and another person is in some way cooperating with that sinner. No cooperation with other human persons would be possible if you are guilty of every sin that they commit, merely by cooperating with them. We could not buy products or services from any company involved in abortion. We could not cooperate with any federal administration, the federal government in general, or any State government, if they sin by abortion or by unjust war or by any other grave sin. In short, we could not live in any nation, we could not buy from any corporation, we could not cooperate with many family and friends, we could not have coworkers — except for the fact that the Church, teaching a rather OBVIOUS truth, teaches that when another person sins, we do not necessarily sin by cooperation with them.

The Roman Pontiff in no way, directly or indirectly, approved or cooperated with the sin of the Chinese government in killing human persons for their organs (if that claim is true). So the Pope did not violate Catholic teaching on cooperation with evil. And the Church absolutely does not teach that any cooperation with a person or group makes you guilty of all their sins. That type of guilt by association is used by those who HATE Pope Francis for refusing to teach what their god, the conservative Catholic subculture, demands that he teach. They DESPISE the Vicar of Christ for refusing to bow down before the idol that they themselves worship, an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist, perverse version of Catholicism.

Other Accusations

Skojec: “And yet, he shows no indication that he cares even a little.”

The claim that Pope Francis does not case even a little about his flock in China (or does Skojec think Pope Francis cares not for any in his flock?), is a vicious accusation of actual mortal sin. If it were true that a Roman Pontiff did not care even a little for his flock, all or any of the flock, that would be a grave sin of omission by the Pope. Thus, Skojec is making a very grave claim. And his basis for this public grave accusation against the Vicar of Christ is “he shows no indication”. You could accuse almost anyone of almost any sin of omission by such an assertion.

Skojec: “It appears he may have done it for money. He’s been accused of taking billions in bribes from the Chinese government.”

Steve Skojec, editor and founder of OnePeterFive, is accusing the Supreme Pontiff of making the aforementioned agreement with China “for money”, and specifically, for “billions in bribes”. This is a baseless accusation of very grave sin against the Supreme Pontiff. Yet Steve Skojec (and many other papal accusers) feel free to accuse the Vicar of Christ of anything they wish with no basis or support at all.

First, he says that the Pope has “been accused” — by whom and on what basis? Skojec doesn’t say. No basis is presented for such a grave accusation against the head of the Church. Even secular media outlets have standards that require substantial proof before printing such a grave accusation. But the papal accusers have no such standard. Any accusation against the Pope is acceptable to them.

Now the sum in question, billions, is absurd. There is no indication that the Vatican has received billions from China. Skojec in fact refutes his own claim by asserting that the Vatican is slowly going broke. If they had received billions from China, then that would not be true. And what does China get from this agreement that would be worth billions? Nothing.

Skojec next casts aside his vicious accusation that the Roman Pontiff took a pride to “sell out” Chinese Catholics, and proposes a different accusation to explain the same agreement between the Vatican and China: “Perhaps Francis sold out Chinese Catholics for another reason; perhaps it’s because he wants a seat at the table with his Chinese Comrades.”

The Pope does not in fact have such a seat at the table. The head of the Catholic Church has long had very little influence with the government of China. And so this explanation is also ridiculous.

Essentially, Skojec is not offering reasonable supportable explanations for the agreement in question. Rather, he is using that agreement as an excuse to express malice and hatred toward the Vicar of Christ.

Steve Skojec, and many other papal accusers, are behaving no different from the way that some liberal citizens of the U.S. treat President Donald Trump. By coincidence, I happened across an article, as I was writing this part of my post, in which an actress said the following about the President: “you are a weak, scared, stupid, inept, negligent, vindictive, narcissistic, criminal.” Notice the name-calling, the unmitigated hated and open malice. It’s the same in politics, toward Trump, as it is in religion towards Francis. (And it was the same in politics toward Obama, so what is new is religion adopting the worst elements of politics.)

And this malice toward a leader is claimed to be justified merely because the other person has a different political or religious point of view. The harm done by that different view is exaggerated to the extent that George W. Bush was called a Nazi, and Donald J. Trump was called…many things. And Pope Francis is also called every negative term that can be applied in religion: apostate, heretic, idolater.

The papal accusers utterly REJECT Pope Francis and other Popes and Vatican II and other Councils for asking them to give the assent of faith to teachings which are contrary to their own minds and hearts. They respond to this request for faith by judging and condemning many different Popes and Councils, thereby asserting themselves to be above the Church Herself, thereby usurping the role of Christ, the true Head of the Church, whom they also despise.

[Matthew]
{10:40} Whoever receives you, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives him who sent me.
{10:41} Whoever receives a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive the reward of a prophet. And whoever receives the just in the name of the just shall receive the reward of the just.

Whoever receives the Church, Her teachings, Her Popes and Her Councils, receives Christ. And whoever rejects the same, rejects Christ. Do not be deceived. Whoever despises, maligns, and falsely accuses the Vicar of Christ, despises, maligns, and falsely accuses Christ.

{25:40} And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
{25:41} Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
{25:42} For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
{25:43} I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’

“For I was Pope Francis and you falsely accused Me. For I was the Second Vatican Council, and you treated Me with contempt. For I was present in the Church and in each successor of Peter, and you judged ME unjustly, you treated me with contempt, malice, and hatred. For I taught you through My Body the Church, and you led my lambs away from Me, teaching them to hate My authority in my Church.”

“Therefore, Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For you behave like Satan, the accuser of the holy ones, the leader of rebellion against God.”

There is no basis for calling Pope Francis a monster, merely because you disagree with his decision on the relationship between the Chinese government and Catholics. Nor are any of Pope Francis’ critics on this issue fit to make such a judgment. For Pope Francis undoubtedly has information that his critics lack. And moreover, every Roman Pontiff is led by the Holy Spirit, not only in teaching on faith and morals, but in decisions of the prudential order of grave concern to the Church. Such decisions are not free from all error, but they are certainly free from that type of error that would make the Roman Pontiff, and by implication also the Church Herself, a monster for that decision. And since the Church and the Pope are led by the Holy Spirit, calling the Vicar of Christ a monster is tantamount to calling Christ a monster.

{10:20} Then many of them were saying: “He has a demon or he is insane. Why do you listen him?”

When you papal accusers treat Pope Francis with hatred and malice, you treat Christ the very same way. And it is not possible, in my understanding of the moral law, for any Catholic to be free from grave sin, by a sincere but mistaken conscience, when he treats any Roman Pontiff with such extreme open malice and hatred. Such an act of full deliberate malice toward the Pope is entirely incompatible with the infused virtue of Faith and with the state of grace.

Previously, Steve Skojec, founder and editor of the blog OnePeterFive.com, referred to Pope Francis as “our heretical Pope”. His blog, 1P5, regularly publishes open attacks on the Pope Francis, on other Popes, on Vatican II, and on other Councils by various authors, including Peter Kwasniewski and Carlo M. Vigano.

OnePeterFive is a schismatic and heretical publication. The dogmas rejected include:
* the never-failing faith of each Roman Pontiff
* the indefectibility of the Church
* the infallibility of teachings of the ordinary universal Magisterium
* the infallibility of teachings on faith and morals of Ecumenical Councils
* the grave immorality of refusing submission to the Roman Pontiff
* the necessity of subjection to the Roman Pontiff
* that the See of Peter is unblemished by any (grave) error

The publication 1P5 has openly rejected the authority, per se, of many different Popes and Councils. Nothing taught by the Magisterium is considered infallible or is considered to require the assent of the faithful, unless it is in agreement with the judgment of the authors and editor at OnePeterFive. They put themselves above the Church, to judge and to condemn, without any limitations based on Faith. Whatever is contrary to their own minds is rejected without regard for the work of the Holy Spirit in teaching through the Church, the Magisterium, the Popes and the Councils.

Faith

Those Catholics only have faith who accept the teachings of the Church even when contrary to their own understanding and judgment. If you only accept the teachings that are in agreement with your own mind, then you have no faith. Even an atheist accepts those teachings of the Church which agree with his own mind. Those Catholics who reject the teachings of Pope Francis and other recent Popes and Vatican II and past Popes and Councils — whenever these are contrary to their own mind — have no infused theological virtue of faith and are therefore not in the state of grace.

For those Catholics who put themselves above Popes and Councils, to judge and even to condemn Popes and Councils, specifically for their exercise of the authority given to them by Christ, the authority over doctrine and discipline, have usurped the role and the authority of God. They rebel against the authority of God, just as Satan did. They cannot call Jesus Christ, the Son of God, their Lord, as they do not accept His teachings and His authority in His Church.

Some persons in this world have love, faith, and hope. Those who die in that state of grace, having love, faith, and hope, will have eternal life. Some persons in this world have only faith, as they lost love and hope by an actual mortal sin, though not an actual mortal sin that was gravely contrary to faith. Some persons in this world have never had love, faith, and hope, and they are guilty of an actual mortal sin of omission for never having found sanctifying grace in this life, despite ample opportunity.

Then there are those persons who once had love, faith, and hope, but who lose all three by grave sins against faith itself. If your actual mortal sin is gravely contrary to faith, you lose all three theological virtues along with the state of grace. Catholics who refuse submission to Pope Francis, to many other Popes, to Vatican II, and to other Councils, and to the body of Bishops in communion with the Pope, they have no faith at all.

Neither am I judging their souls. I am simply taking them at their word. I am believing their own words, when they publicly proclaim their malice for the Popes, the Bishops, the Councils, the Magisterium, and the Church. They say that they reject the Catholic Faith, despite being (at one time) formal members of the Church, and I believe them. But now they have lost their formal membership in the Church by public obstinate formal schism.

You cannot call the Roman Pontiff a monster and a heretic and then claim to be a faithful son or daughter of the Church, nor of Christ. Whoever calls the Vicar of Christ a monster, calls Christ a monster. Whoever accuses the Church of being infiltrated by Satan, at the level of Popes and Councils, accuses Christ of having a demon. And that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

The Church is not a political body. You cannot declare certain Popes and Councils to be your political opponents, and then treat them with utter contempt and malice, opposing them at every turn. Whoever refuses submission to Pope Francis commits the sin of schism. And how can you submit to Pope Francis while calling him a heretic and a monster? The mere assertion that Francis is the Roman Pontiff is not sufficient. Even an atheist accepts that Francis is the Pope. To avoid schism, each Catholic must accept each Pope and Council as their Teacher and Shepherd.

The opponents of Pope Francis are schismatics and heretics, and they will be condemned by a future Ecumenical Council, just as has happened in every case in the history of the Church.

Whoever donates money to OnePeterFive, commits formal cooperation with the intrinsically evil sins of schism and heresy. It is not Pope Francis who is guilty of cooperation with the sins of China.

“But the Pope is liberal, and I’m conservative.”
If you cannot leave conservatism to follow Christ, then you are not worthy of Christ.

Whoever treats the Pope or any other human person with contempt, hatred, malice, and ridicule becomes those things. If you speak with hatred, you become hatred. If you act with love, you become love. If you act with malice, you become malice. You are what you say and what you do. No excuses.

Ronald L. Conte Jr.