The website OnePeterFive (1P5) has many times rejected the indefectibility of the Church and has attacked multiple Popes, accusing them of gravely failing in faith and of grave errors on doctrine and discipline. 1P5 has also attacked multiple Ecumenical Councils, including Vatican I, Vatican II, Lateran V and other Ecumenical Councils. This website openly promotes heresy and schism. And then they complain that the Roman Pontiff, Pope Francis, sometimes says things that are ambiguous.

The latest article, which is a re-edit of an older article, expresses heresy and schism to a severe extent: The Third Pornocracy: the Current Crisis in the Church by T. S. Flanders (January 15, 2024)

First, let’s review Catholic dogma.

The Church is the Body of Christ, with Christ himself as Her eternal Head, and with the Holy Spirit as Her soul. The Church is an image of the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin Mary is an image of the Church. Then the dogma of the indefectibility of the Church was taught directly and explicitly by the Lord Jesus:

[Matthew]
{16:18} And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
{16:19} And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound, even in heaven. And whatever you shall release on earth shall be released, even in heaven.”

[Luke]
{22:32} But I have prayed for you, so that your faith may not fail, and so that you, once converted, may confirm your brothers.”

[Matthew]
{7:24} Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
{7:25} And the rains descended, and the floods rose up, and the winds blew, and rushed upon that house, but it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

Notice that the indefectibility of the Church is inextricably linked to, and founded upon, Peter as on a Rock, and that the faith of Peter and his successors cannot fail. The Church is the house that cannot fall, because it is founded upon Peter and his successors as on a Rock. Christ is that wise man who built His House, the Church, upon a Rock. Whoever claims that this house can fall or that any successor of Peter can fail in faith, contradicts the Son of God.

Jesus says to Peter that, by the intercession of Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator between God and man, the Son of God, the Second Person of the most holy Trinity, God incarnate, the faith of Peter and his successors — as the Church has always taught — will never fail. And this charism of never-failing faith converts the Roman Pontiff, so that he may confirm his brother Bishops in faith and also confirms the entire flock of Jesus Christ in the true faith.

This charism of truth and never-failing faith is three fold: the charism given to the person of the Roman Pontiff; the participation in that charism by the Bishops as a body; the participation in that charism by the faithful as a body. The indefectibility of the Church is accomplished by this threefold divinely-conferred gift to the Pope, the body of Bishops, and the body of the faithful. Then the Church can never lose Her essential characteristics: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Therefore, the Church can never be rightly called a “pornocracy”, as the Pope has the papal charism of truth and never-failing faith, and he confirms in never-failing faith the body of Bishops, who govern the Church, and the body of the faithful. If the Pope or the Bishops as a body were ever to fail in faith or to teach grave errors, leading the faithful astray from the path of salvation, then the Church would have lost her indefectibility, which is impossible according to the Magisterium, and Sacred Scripture in the Gospels.

As for claims that the Church or the Roman Pontiff, historically failed in faith or erred gravely in doctrine or discipline, these claims require a prudential evaluation of temporal circumstances by fallen sinners, and evaluation which can and frequently does err even gravely. Only the Magisterium has the protection from grave error required to exercise the Keys of Peter over doctrine and discipline. Any argument that the Church or the Pope has failed in faith or erred gravely can easily be refuted with an argument to the contrary. Then, the ancient constant teaching of the Church on the indefectibility of the Church and the never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiff is infallible under the ordinary universal magisterium and under the teaching of the First Vatican Council. This is not subject to prudential judgment by the reason of fallen sinners, but instead requires the full assent of faith. So the indefectibility of the Church and the never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiffs is inarguable.

Jesus said to Peter that He will build His Church upon the Rock of Peter and his successors, and that this Church, having been founded upon Rock, will not fail, so that the gates of Hell will never prevail over the Church so founded. The claim of a pornocracy running the Church in any time period is an heretical denial of the dogmas of the indefectibility of the Church and the charism of truth and never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiff.

Claims that Peter himself failed in faith, as when Jesus said “Get behind me, Satan” and when Peter denied Christ three times, occurred prior to the Ascension of Jesus, when the Pontificate of Peter began (according to the First Council of Lyons and Pope Pius XII in Mystical Body of Christ).

If you have any doubts that the above is the correct understanding of the words of Jesus in the Gospel and the correct presentation of magisterial teaching, see this extensive review of the ancient constant teaching of the Church. The ordinary universal magisterium teaches the same truths, and so have the Fathers, Saints, Doctors, and Councils throughout all of Church history. Whoever rejects this dogmatic teaching is guilty of heresy. And when a heresy rejects a dogma specifically on the authority and teaching of the Roman Pontiffs and the Ecumenical Councils, as well as the dogma of the indefectibility of the Church and the never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiffs, that heresy is also a severe schism.

Every Catholic Christian who commits heresy and/or schism, formally (deliberately and knowingly) is automatically excommunicated (latae sententiae) by Canon law and by divine law itself, since, by the very act of formal heresy or formal schism, one cuts oneself off from full communion with the Church.

The Claim of a Pornocracy is heresy and schism

The wicked article at OnePeterFive, linked above, proposes severe heresy and schism. It was written by T. S. Flanders, Editor-in-Chief at OnePeterFive, and it begins thusly:

T.S. Flanders: “Pornocracy. The term was coined to refer to the period that Cardinal Baronius called “the dark age” (saeculum obscurum): the tenth century Papacy.”

So a Cardinal referred to a period of time in Church history as “the obscure age”. The translation as “dark age” is somewhat inaccurate, given the context. But in no way does such an expression justify the term “pornocracy”.

Flanders then tries to justify this sexually-derived term by a wicked and blasphemous attribution of the term to the Holy Spirit: “Protestants attempted to use this term to discredit the Church as entirely corrupt, but they failed to realize that the Holy Ghost had used the same accusation against the Church of the Old Covenant, Israel….” This claim is followed by a quote from Jeremiah 3:1-2 in which the Lord rebukes the nation of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah.

Notice that T.S. Flanders does not deny that the term accuses the Church of being “entirely corrupt”. Instead, he claims that “the same accusation”, i.e. pornocracy or its equivalent, was used in Sacred Scripture, thereby making it an accusation, he claims, made by the Holy Spirit against “the Church of the Old Covenant, Israel”. Later, Flanders repeats this blasphemous accusation against the Holy Spirit, saying: “Thus the unfaithfulness of Israel to the one true God is cast as adultery, as the Holy Ghost says in another place…” citing Hosea 2:2,4-5.

[Mark]
{3:27} No one is able to plunder the goods of a strong man, having entered into the house, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he shall plunder his house.
{3:28} Amen I say to you, that all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and the blasphemies by which they will have blasphemed.
{3:29} But he who will have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit shall not have forgiveness in eternity; instead he shall be guilty of an eternal offense.”
{3:30} For they said: “He has an unclean spirit.”

No one is able to plunder the goods of the Church, which is the body of Christ, unless he first binds the “strong man”, meaning Jesus, so as to be able to plunder his House, the Church. But Jesus is the Son of God, and so he cannot be bound, and therefore the Church cannot become a pornocracy. And since the Church is continually led and enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who is the soul of the Church, such an accusation against the Church is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Now there are two types of this blasphemy, (1) per se, which is final impenitence (dying unrepentant from actual mortal sin), and (2) proximate, which is grave sins that tend toward final impenitence. And Christ was specifically responding to the proximate type in Mark’s Gospel, because they said that Jesus had an unclean spirit. But the spirit of the Body of Christ is the Holy Spirit, and so any wicked accusations that imply corruption on the part of the Holy Spirit — e.g. that the Church has been infiltrated by evil at the highest levels; that the gates of Hell have prevailed; that the Church is afflicted in Her leadership by the greatest corruption, by spiritual corruption, and always has been; etc. — these accusations constitute the proximate type of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And it is also heresy and schism.

So I can’t believe I actually have to write these words: Neither Sacred Scripture, nor the Holy Spirit ever accused the Church of being a pornocracy. Scripture was decrying the behavior of SOME Israelites in the time BEFORE Christ, Peter, the other Apostles, and their successors. And this is in no way equivalent to an accusation against the Church founded by Christ on Peter and his successors. Were the Israelites led by Peter or one of his successors? No. Did Jesus say that “the gates of Hell shall not prevail against” the Israelites in Old Testament times? No. The indefectibility of the Church and the never-failing faith of Peter and his successors does not apply to the Israelites in ancient times. For the Church was born from the side of Christ on the Cross, when out flowed blood and water, signifying the Sacraments which were each and all established by Christ during His Divine Ministry.

As for the fact that some Israelites in ancient times, and some Catholic Christians today, have gone astray from the true faith so severely that they may be said to have committed spiritual adultery (idolatry), that is true of Flanders and his fellow heretics and schismatics at OnePeterFive. But they do not have the indefectibility of the Church, nor the papal charism of truth and never-failing faith. They speak as if it were impossible for them to have gone astray from the true faith, and at the same time as if it were proven that the Popes, Councils, and the Church Herself have frequently fallen into severe spiritual corruption. They commit the sin of extreme pride thinking to judge and condemn many Popes, multiple Councils, and the Church Herself — even across three long periods of time — calling the Body of Christ, with Christ as Her eternal Head, and the Holy Spirit as Her soul, calling the indefectible Church founded on the never-failing faith of Peter and his successors, a pornocracy, even in the present time.

Then, as a matter of public admission, the founder of OnePeterFive, Steve Skojec, has departed from Catholicism and Christianity; he has stated he is no longer a Christian (per his blog on substack). Skojec spent years on OnePeterFive viciously attacking the Roman Pontiffs, the Ecumenical Councils, the Novus Ordo Mass (which he called diabolical) and the Church Herself, until at last he destroyed his own faith and left 1P5 in the hands of heretics and schismatics, while he himself departed Christianity entirely. That is the typical progression (in the branches who cut themselves off from the vine) from schism to heresy to apostasy. Not every unfaithful person reaches to that extent; but that is the direction in which they are traveling.

As for this article by OnePeterFive, accusing the Church of being a pornocracy across three long periods of time, is a severe act of schism, as this claim refuses submission to the Church Herself, across a period of time including over 200 years, dozens of Popes, and multiple Ecumenical Councils, including the Council of Trent. Here are the alleged three periods of pornocracy in the Church:

One: 904-964 — total 60 years and many Popes (in the older version of this article, the first period was said to be from 882 to 964)
Two: 1471-1563 — total 92 years and 13 Popes — Lateran V, Council of Trent
Three: 1965-present — total 59 years and 5 Popes so far — Vatican II

Then we know that OnePeterFive also vehemently rejects the First Vatican Council as well. Such a proposal is severely schismatic as it permits the adherent to refuse submission to any Pope or Council on the basis of a “pornocracy” ruling over the Church. Moreover, the claim includes “the Current Crisis in the Church”, and so constitutes active schism against the current Roman Pontiff, as well as the grave scandal of promoting schism widely in the Church, harming many souls.

As for heresy, this claim of three periods of pornocracy constitutes an obstinate severe denial of the dogmas of the indefectibility of the Church, the authority of Roman Pontiffs and Ecumenical Councils, and the charism of truth and never-failing faith (taught by the ordinary universal magisterium and Vatican I). Then the period includes multiple Popes who have been canonized, and such canonizations fall under the secondary object of infallibility of the Roman Pontiffs. Accusing Popes, Pope-Saints, and Ecumenical Councils of reigning during a “pornocracy” is heretical, schismatic, wicked, and contrary to both faith and reason.

The article by Flanders goes on to falsely accuse the Blessed Virgin Mary in this heretical and schismatic claim of a pornocracy:

Flanders: “This third pornocracy seems to be worse than the first two. It is so bad that Our Lady herself came down to warn us about it in some way. The Fatima children first received the message about Eucharistic reparation from the Angel, and then came the exhortations of Our Lady to penance and suffering for sinners, with a warning of the errors of Russia and God’s punishing wrath. It is unclear when exactly the errors of Russia invaded the Church.”

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not bear false witness against dozens of Popes, multiple Ecumenical Councils, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Church Herself.

As for the assertion of Mary at Fatima on Russia, she NEVER said that the errors of Russia would “invade the Church”. That is another false accusation, and another claim against the indefectibility of the Church. Flanders then goes on to make accusations against Pope Leo XIII, Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XII, Pope Saint John XXIII, and Pope Francis.

Flanders tries to acquit himself of grave sin by this claim: “Unlike the Protestants who saw Church corruption and invented heresies to cope with their emotional trauma, the Holy Ghost speaks against the harlotry of Israel in the most stark terms, yet God is still faithful to Israel. This is why the Church can be spotless, even while evil men corrupt souls and even rule the Church. This is because the Church is actually ruled by Christ Himself, and all the hierarchy are merely his vicars…. In the same way the Church will never be destroyed nor polluted even in the greatest corruption, for Christ is always faithful to His spouse.”

Wow. What convoluted self-contradictory wicked rationalization for heresy and schism. One cannot separate the Church into two parts, Christ who is faithful and holy; and the “hierarchy” and “vicars” who rule the Church and are supposedly spiritually corrupt in the way that they rule the Church. Instead, Christ rules the Church through the Pope and the body of Bishops, in the Holy Spirit.

Flanders argues that the Church “can be spotless” because God is still faithful and because the Church is “actually ruled by Christ himself”. Yet Flanders clearly states his heretical claim that, in certain periods of time, “evil men corrupt souls and even rule the Church”. Flanders accuses the Church of “the greatest corruption” and claims that the rulers of the Church are evil men who have corrupted souls by their exercise of Church authority. The error here, in addition to rejecting the indefectibility of the Church and the charism of truth and never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiffs, is the separation of the Pope and the body of Bishops from Christ and the Holy Spirit.

It is NOT sufficient to establish a continuous indefectibility of the Church to say that God remains faithful. Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would never prevail over the Church, and this has been the constant teaching of the Church since ancient times. He did not say merely that the gates of Hell would never prevail over Himself or over the Trinity.

Flanders has written an entire book DENYING these words of Jesus that the gates of Hell will not prevail over the Church, a book titled “When the Gates of Hell Prevail”. In this wicked heretical book, Flanders rejects the teaching of Christ that the gates of Hell will not prevail over the Church, and rejects the teaching of Christ that the faith of Peter and his successors will never fail. Flanders writes: “When Our Lord was crucified, the gates of Hell did prevail over the Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ was dead. His soul went to Hell and his body was laid in the tomb.” [p. 22] All I need to say is that is Wicked Heresy.

In the same book, Flanders claims that the Pope is the Rock on which the Church is founded — correct, certainly — but then he adds that the Pope can become Satan. I could cite many more examples of this type of heresy. One more will suffice for now. Flanders writes: “Man can truly see the triumph of Hell according to his eyes of flesh. Considering the death of Our Lord, we must expect the most awful tragedy imaginable to overcome the Roman Church, so that it becomes absolutely impossible for the Church to survive.” [p. 29] These claims by Flanders are a direct obstinate full rejection of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels in his own words as well as a rejection of Church dogma on the indefectibility of the Church.

Back to the article in question. Flanders claims: “Since porneia means fornication and idolatry, then a pornocracy refers to government by corruption in the worst way. It means sexual corruption, financial corruption, and most importantly spiritual corruption afflicting the Papacy and the Vatican. There has been corruption in the Church since Judas and before that in Israel.”

Judas was never Pope. After betraying Christ, he departed from this life in a terrible manner, and the Apostles chose a replacement (Acts 1), Matthias. Each Roman Pontiff has the papal charisms, including the charism of truth and never-failing faith. Then the body of Bishops, led by the Pope, also possesses or participates in various charisms, when they teach and rule with the Pope. These charisms are from the Holy Spirit, and they absolutely prevent the kind of wicked false accusations made by Flanders from ever becoming true at any time.

As for the claim that “the Church is actually ruled by Christ Himself, and all the hierarchy are merely his vicars”, Flanders must be ignorant of the teaching of Pope Pius XII in Mystical Body of Christ:

“40. But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden [59] or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the “little flock” [60] Himself during His mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in view of his primacy is only Christ’s Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisibly, though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His glorious Ascension into Heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter, too, its visible foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; [61] and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.

“41. They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it.”

The Roman Catechism (the Catechism of the Council of Trent) teaches the same.

Notice that Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head of the one Church. So it is impossible to clam that the Roman Pontiff is spiritually corrupted while the Church remains indefectible by the faithfulness of Christ, since the Church is ruled by Christ and the Pope as “one only Head”. Then Christ “never ceases” to guide and rule the Church, not only invisibly, but also “visibly, through him who is His representative on earth”, the Roman Pontiff. The truth is that “our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth.” Therefore, no one can claim that the hierarchy, or the Roman Pontiff, or “the Vatican”, etc., is a pornocracy without the very same false accusation falling upon Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Christ and His Vicar are one Head of the one Church. It is the “dangerous path of error” to try to separate the Roman Pontiff from the Lord Jesus Christ, or to try to separate the Church from the Holy Spirit, as the soul of the Church and the source of Her graces. Jesus never ceases to guide and rule His Church through the visible head, the Pope; abundant graces continuously pour out from the Holy Spirit upon the Church, including the Popes and the body of Bishops, so as to keep the promises of Christ on the indefectibility of the Church and the never-failing faith of the Roman Pontiffs.

Flanders says: “In the same way the Church will never be destroyed nor polluted even in the greatest corruption, for Christ is always faithful to His spouse.” But this is a contradiction that rejects dogma. IF one claims that the Church has fallen into “the greatest corruption” — as Flanders claims for three periods of time, including the present — then the indefectibility of the Church is denied by that claim. The fact that Christ is always faithful is not sufficient. For when Christ promised the indefectibility of the Church founded on Peter and his successors, He did not say merely that He would always be faithful, but that the gates of Hell would never prevail over the Church founded on Peter and his successors. This certainly implies, as Pope Leo XIII taught in the quote below from Origen, that the gates of Hell can prevail over the Church, nor over the Rock on which She is founded, the Roman Pontiff.

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum: “The words – and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it – proclaim and establish the authority of which we speak. “What is the it?” (writes Origen). “Is it the rock upon which Christ builds the Church or the Church? The expression indeed is ambiguous, as if the rock and the Church were one and the same. I indeed think that this is so, and that neither against the rock upon which Christ builds His Church nor against the Church shall the gates of Hell prevail” (Origenes, Comment. in Matt., tom. xii., n. ii). The meaning of this divine utterance is, that, notwithstanding the wiles and intrigues which they bring to bear against the Church, it can never be that the Church committed to the care of Peter shall succumb or in any wise fail.”

Vatican I: “Indeed, their apostolic teaching was embraced by all the venerable fathers and reverenced and followed by all the holy orthodox doctors, for they knew very well that this See of St. Peter always remains unblemished by any error, in accordance with the divine promise of our Lord and Savior to the prince of his disciples: I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren [Lk 22:32].

“7. This gift of truth and never-failing faith was therefore divinely conferred on Peter and his successors in this See so that they might discharge their exalted office for the salvation of all, and so that the whole flock of Christ might be kept away by them from the poisonous food of error and be nourished with the sustenance of heavenly doctrine. Thus the tendency to schism is removed and the whole Church is preserved in unity, and, resting on its foundation, can stand firm against the gates of hell.”

The article by OnePeterFive and T.S. Flanders discussed in this post was followed by similar articles, as a “five part series on pornocracy”. I don’t think I need to reply to each part of that series, as the same errors recur again and again.

[Titus]
{3:9} But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, as well as arguments against the law. For these are useless and empty.
{3:10} Avoid a man who is a heretic, after the first and second correction,
{3:11} knowing that one who is like this has been subverted, and that he offends; for he has been condemned by his own judgment.

Ronald L Conte Jr