I’m surprised that the Vatican 2 religion keeps going the way it does, but there may be a good answer. If the Lexington Diocese reflects the rest of the Vatican 2 religion, then we may have the answer.
Most of the priests here are homosexual or homosexual friendly (meaning it’s not that sinful if at all). Bishop Stowe is the biggest LGBTQ supporting bishop in the United States and he was hand-picked and supported by none other than “Pope” Francis himself.
The following 2020 poll (taken from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/02/how-catholics-around-the-world-see-same-sex-marriage-homosexuality/) shows where the Vatican 2 religion is going and I suspect it’s directly related to the membership increase, since the world is going in the same direction. The Vatican 2 religion is a cultural religion that goes with the flow as the following poll nicely proves.
The Gallup Poll also shows how Vatican 2 Catholics support same-sex unions. Even “Pope” Francis calls for Sodomite civil unions.
The significance of these facts goes right to the heart on how the Vatican 2 religion can’t possibly be the Catholic Faith.
Pope Leo XIII declared in his Encyclical, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church), June 29, 1896:
“But he who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honour God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith.”
Rejecting “all faith” is apostasy, not mere heresy. Homosexuality is contrary to the Natural Law, which is written on all the hearts of all men. Like atheism, there’s no excuse for believing and professing that homosexuality is okay.
May a Catholic profess to be an atheist openly and repeatedly and remain a member of the Catholic Church? Has the Vatican 2 Church stooped to the level that belief in God is not necessary to be a Catholic? Yet, that’s precisely what Vatican 2 apologists are arguing in principle with homosexuality.
If you’re a member of the Vatican 2 religion, you are united in faith with apostates that we know are apostates without doubt.
The Mark of Oneness or Unity has no meaning in the Vatican 2 religion. Vatican 2 apologists must adopt a worse understanding of the oneness mark of the Church than even Protestants.
Pope Leo XIII’s entire Satis Cognitum encyclical is on the oneness mark of the Church. He explains that “the eminence of the Church arises from its unity, as the principle of its constitution – a unity surpassing all else, and having nothing like unto it or equal to it”
No other religion has the mark of oneness as the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo continues to explain “So the Christian is a Catholic as long as he lives in the body: cut off from it he becomes a heretic – the life of the spirit follows not the amputated member…
Wherefore, in His divine wisdom, He ordained in His Church Unity of Faith; a virtue which is the first of those bonds which unite man to God, and whence we receive the name of the faithful – “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. iv., 5). That is, as there is one Lord and one baptism, so should all Christians, without exception, have but one faith…
It is of the greatest importance and indeed of absolute necessity, as to which many are deceived, that the nature and character of this unity should be recognized. And, as We have already stated, this is not to be ascertained by conjecture, but by the certain knowledge of what was done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining what kind of unity in faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ…
He requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in regard to one single point.
The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. “No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic” (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).
The need of this divinely instituted means for the preservation of unity, about which we speak is urged by St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. In this he first admonishes them to preserve with every care concord of minds: “Solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. iv., 3, et seq.). And as souls cannot be perfectly united in charity unless minds agree in faith, he wishes all to hold the same faith: “One Lord, one faith,” and this so perfectly one as to prevent all danger of error: “that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. iv., 14): and this he teaches is to be observed, not for a time only – “but until we all meet in the unity of faith…unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ” (13). But, in what has Christ placed the primary principle, and the means of preserving this unity? In that – “He gave some Apostles – and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (11-12)…”
Here we see that the leaders are the primary principle and means of preserving the unity. Yet, in the Vatican 2 religion, it’s precisely in their leaders that there’s disunity in faith. I give one example with homosexuality, but I could easily provide more examples. Pope Leo continues…
“It is therefore clear that all doctrine which agrees with that of the Apostolic churches – the matrices and original centers of the faith, must be looked upon as the truth, holding without hesitation that the Church received it from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God….We are in communion with the Apostolic churches, and by the very fact that they agree amongst themselves we have a testimony of the truth…”
The Vatican 2 churches do not agree amongst themselves over the Natural Law, much less, all the other common doctrines of the Church. The Vatican 2 people are not in unity over the Natural Law as the polls clearly indicate. Absolutely nothing is done about it by the leaders except maybe encouragement of the vice. Where are the condemnations of the bishops with the other bishops? They don’t condemn each other, because they recognize each other as members of the same religion regardless of the Natural Law. It’s The Believe-Whatever-You-Want Religion of Bergoglio.
Pope Leo continues…
“In many things they are with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit them” (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not “bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey themselves than God. “You, who believe what you like, believe yourselves rather than the gospel” (S. Augustinus, lib. xvii., Contra Faustum Manichaeum, cap. 3).
For this reason the Fathers of the Vatican Council laid down nothing new, but followed divine revelation and the acknowledged and invariable teaching of the Church as to the very nature of faith, when they decreed as follows: “All those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written or unwritten word of God, and which are proposed by the Church as divinely revealed, either by a solemn definition or in the exercise of its ordinary and universal Magisterium” (Sess. iii., cap. 3). Hence, as it is clear that God absolutely willed that there should be unity in His Church, and as it is evident what kind of unity He willed, and by means of what principle He ordained that this unity should be maintained, we may address the following words of St. Augustine to all who have not deliberately closed their minds to the truth: “When we see the great help of God, such manifest progress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to take refuge in the bosom of that Church, which, as is evident to all, possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the Episcopal succession? In vain do heretics rage round it; they are condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by the weight of councils, partly by the splendid evidence of miracles. To refuse to the Church the primacy is most impious and above measure arrogant. And if all learning, no matter how easy and common it may be, in order to be fully understood requires a teacher and master, what can be greater evidence of pride and rashness than to be unwilling to learn about the books of the divine mysteries from the proper interpreter, and to wish to condemn them unknown?” (De Unitate Credendi, cap. xvii., n. 35).
It is then undoubtedly the office of the church to guard Christian doctrine and to propagate it in its integrity and purity. But this is not all: the object for which the Church has been instituted is not wholly attained by the performance of this duty. For, since Jesus Christ delivered Himself up for the salvation of the human race, and to this end directed all His teaching and commands, so He ordered the Church to strive, by the truth of its doctrine, to sanctify and to save mankind. But faith alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and important an end. There must needs be also the fitting and devout worship of God, which is to be found chiefly in the divine Sacrifice and in the dispensation of the Sacraments, as well as salutary laws and discipline. All these must be found in the Church, since it continues the mission of the Saviour for ever. The Church alone offers to the human race that religion – that state of absolute perfection – which He wished, as it were, to be incorporated in it. And it alone supplies those means of salvation which accord with the ordinary counsels of Providence…“
Those holding Vatican 2 offices do not teach or guard the whole truth, which sanctifies and saves mankind.
Pope Leo continues…
“Furthermore, the eminence of the Church arises from its unity, as the principle of its constitution – a unity surpassing all else, and having nothing like unto it or equal to it” (S. Clemens Alexandrinus, Stronmatum lib. viii., c. 17). For this reason Christ, speaking of the mystical edifice, mentions only one Church, which he calls His own – “I will build my church; ” any other Church except this one, since it has not been founded by Christ, cannot be the true Church. This becomes even more evident when the purpose of the Divine Founder is considered. For what did Christ, the Lord, ask? What did He wish in regard to the Church founded, or about to be founded? This: to transmit to it the same mission and the same mandate which He had received from the Father, that they should be perpetuated. This He clearly resolved to do: this He actually did. “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you” (John xx., 21). “Ad thou hast sent Me into the world I also have sent them into the world” (John xvii., 18). But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished.“
Are we to believe the Vatican 2 leaders really carry on this mission? Are they even trying to save mankind at this point because they think everybody is already saved? They either encourage homosexuality or are quiet about the evils of it by permitting it and recognizing as legitimate authorities of the Church who actually do encourage it. They all claim to be one in faith!
Regardless as to which side of the fence you stand on the issue of homosexuality, to be a Vatican 2 Catholic, you must completely chuck Pope Leo XIII’s teaching and the Catholic Mark of Unity!