Just a quick note.
Far from any "hot take" claiming the See vacant or the Great Restrainer now removed, I will offer some thoughts in the mind of the Church, that is, in light of our current woes and Her storied past.
At this point I am sure everyone has been informed of the passing of Pope Benedict XVI at around 9:30 am on December 31st, the 7th in the Octave of Christmas.
This 7th day in fact belongs to St. Sylvester whose illustrious pontificate was marked with peace after dozens of Pontificates ending from martyrdoms, banishments, and exiles. He oversaw the Council of Nicea and Council of Rome both being called to combat the heresy of Arianism.
It is recalled also that he baptized Constantine, a much preferable remedy to the latter's leprosy instead of the planned "bathing in infant's blood," which was standard operating procedure for elites at that time in the face of a tricky case. It is said that Constantine received Peter and Paul in a dream who pre-emptively decried his plan of the blood bath and implore him to find the newly elected Pope Sylvester who was living and hiding in the mountains.
What a stark contrast to our heroes of today. Nearly all of which are compromised in some way.
Speaking of which, Pope Benedict XVI will always remain in my mind as someone who spent his latter days pointing to the Church of the past, it's glories and its teachings. To that I will be eternally grateful. In fact, if not for him, would this sinner have even considered the other options to the Novus Ordo Missae? I shudder at the thought.
Of course we must include Lefevbre in the canon of those, who at great cost, maintained the bridge to the past whilst nearly all ecclesiastics found a new opiate in change.
But for an un-catechized, revert to the One True Faith, having a sitting pope point to the importance of the Roman Mass of Trent was a significant motivation to explore it. I can say with some certitude that Pope Benedict XVI might have been one of the most important people in my life, and by extension my progeny. Without him I would not have started the slippery slope trail of breadcrumbs back to the right and true worship, the Mass of Ages.
What a strange man Benedict was. Quite possibly the future patron saint of cognitive dissonance, as a Vatican II "periti" he introduced the auto-demolition of our beloved Church, as Pope he reversed course and restated from the See of Peter the Church's historical reliance on tradition, and did not limit his pronouncements to the old liturgy.
For this, I commend his soul to God, and beg mercy for his sake. I will always look on him as a son who misses his father. No matter his faults, how simple or grave, he gave me life to some extent.
I sure as heck won't condemn him. I have lived my life at times as if God did not exist.
A peach, I am not.
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