December 31st, 2025, Pope Saint Silvester.
Today is my Grammie’s birthday. I often joke with her and say, “Benedict was elected on my birthday and… died on yours”. Her usual response? “Cheerio”. Happy Birthday, Gram. This post is for you!
Today is the 3 year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s death:
Then Jesus said to them: All you shall be scandalized in Me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd [papacy], and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed.
Matthew 26:31
Peter and the Passion of the Bridegroom:
It just hit me as I was inserting the above quote that not only was Our Lord referring to the papacy, but He was referring to Peter as first Pope. Peter told Our Lord He would not be scandalized, and that very night Our Lord “struck Peter” and the flock (apostles) were indeed “dispersed.” It actually makes you wonder if Peter had not been scandalized, had not denied Christ and followed Him to the cross if the other apostles would have followed?
This proves the power of the papacy when it comes to authority… and influence? The other apostles did not follow John to the cross, but it does make you wonder if they would have followed Peter? Food for thought. This is why I try not to say I will NEVER be scandalized, because while I hope I would do the right thing in a crisis, I don’t actually know what I would do. Peter was so sure he wouldn’t deny Our Lord or be scandalized, but we all know what followed.
Pope Benedict XVI and the Passion of the Bride:
What am I getting at? We are about to go through this very “passion” one more time, per the catechism, prophecy of Ezechiel (and other prophets) and the Book of the Apocalypse. But this time, it’s the Passion of the Church initiated by Pope Benedict XVI; whether he knew it or not! Today’s “passion” is likened to the Titanic (the ark). Our Lord strikes it, she capsizes and the true Church is thus “dispersed” into little life boats of salvation. Let’s view the Titanic as the “spirit of Babylon”.
Since I just finished up part one and part two on the passion of the Church and the spirit of Babylon, I think it’s a proper metaphor. Babylon sinks, we “depart from her” and the little lifeboats are then gathered by Christ the King to begin anew through Mary’s Triumph: the resurrection of the Catholic Church. This time, the shepherd that was struck was Pope Benedict XVI. Just like the Titanic having the pride of “not even God can sink this ship”, so too does that perfectly represent the pride, and narcissism, of Babylon.
Why I don’t hold the sedevacantist position:
According to traditional understanding of the definition of schism and according to Canon Law’s definition, sedes are NOT in schism. I have a good and holy sedevacantist friend and acquaintances, and they have either tried to “convert” me to their side or have even asked why I’m not a sedevacantist yet, and that answer lies with Pope Benedict XVI. I want to state for the record, that I don’t care what your view is on the papacy.
Nothing you say would make me lose my charity toward you for your viewpoint. If we can’t have civilized debate or friendly discussions without other Catholics letting charity grow cold in their hearts, then satan has already won. I CARE about the papacy and I want those to see the truth, but when I say “I don’t care” about your viewpoint, I only mean I don’t care in the way that it would make me shun you.
The only time I kick up the dust is if I see charity grow cold in someone, they cut me off for my view, it’s like talking to a brick wall or they are narcissistic. The one thing you won’t see me tolerate is narcissists. I’m done with those hypocrites. But we must NEVER get to a point in the Church where we resort to the name calling because we don’t want to have a charitable discussion:
“You’re a schismatic. You’re a sedevacantist. You’re not in union with Rome.” All these arguments are so eye roll worthy, weak and only prove my point that when they have no argument, they resort to ad hominem attacks. People who say those beyond stupid expressions are in full on “communion” with the great whore Babylon, and in that case, it’s me departing from you. These are the people I don’t waste my time with any longer, the way Our Lord didn’t return to Nazareth to work miracles.
So what’s my current view point and why? I believe Pope Benedict XVI was the last valid pope, thus making BOTH Bergoglio and prowling Prevost anti popes. The very TWO “worm ridden” anti popes Our Lady of Lasallete warned about, as well as Marie-Julie Jahenny. I also believe Pope Benedict XVI was ROME’S final pope, “the Fatima pope” and the “great restrainer” (Katechon) predicted by Saint Paul, that once “removed from the center”, the anti Christ will come.
I know this truth is getting out, because I’m amazed at the messages we receive or the people I meet who tell me they believe Pope Benedict was the last valid pope and we are in the state of interregnum. So while I will NEVER again attend the Bogus Ordo (I would die first) or ever embrace Bergoglio or prowling Prevost as “popes”(you would also have to kill me. Don’t threaten me with a good time), I would never stop being your friend if you’re doing the opposite. I can only hope the rest of the Church Militant would behave the same way.
My personal story with Pope Benedict XVI:
Many readers already know this, but perhaps it’s worth retelling in honor of today’s anniversary of Benedict’s death. In 2017, the 100 year anniversary of Fatima, I was given a personal inside tour of the Vatican by a generous Monsignor and he drove me straight up to Pope Benedict’s then home inside the enclosure of Saint Peter’s: Mater Ecclesia Monastery.
It was a very VERY large home surrounded by a gate of extra protection, and Monsignor pointed up to Benedict’s open window and told me sometimes one could hear him playing the piano. I was very moved. It was an unforgettable moment in my life. You could say, it was a climax for me personally.
When I returned home to America I was stunned when I found little Jacinta Marto’s prophecy on her vision of a future Holy Father living in… A VERY LARGE HOUSE. It all struck like lightning (literally, since you know, lightning actually struck Saint Peter’s dome). And at that point I knew absolutely nothing about the Canon Laws that would prove Pope Benedict was still the Pope, but I knew it through Our Lord’s Five Senses and the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost through Mary’s guidance.
I didn’t look back. I entered Carmel knowing full well, that Pope Benedict was the Pope and that Bergoglio must be trodden under foot 🦶🏻 as Pope Innocent III said we must do to heretics. I prayed for Pope Benedict ALONE at the Te Igitur of the Mass, and the day that solidified my desire to pray for Pope Benedict even more was when someone left a holy card through the cloister turn of him. A sister left it in the kitchen area, and I randomly decided to flip it over.
I was utterly taken aback when I saw he was elected on my birthday. I had not known that fact. From that point on, I felt I must fight for him, and now be a truth teller for him. The way I want to be a truth teller for Sister Lucia of Fatima. It’s all connected. That is why I ended up writing “Rome’s” Final Pope? Benedict XVI on behalf of Joseph Ratzinger, because while I don’t think he was a heroic pope by any stretch of the means, I believe he suffered immensely.
I did not agree with his stance on Vatican II and the New Mass, and yet I do believe he suffered more than any pope in papal history (besides Peter). Pope Benedict is still the white elephant in the room and Our Lord will not reward us with a valid or courageous Holy Father until the flock stops burying their head in the sand with this topic. The very way the 3rd secret of Fatima has been buried. The real Sister Lucia was right, God WILL chastise the world and it will be terrible.
Who is “the woman” and “the son” in Apocalypse 12?
Father Gruner said once that if the 3rd secret is finally revealed in its entirety, he wouldn’t be surprised if Apocalypse 12 is directly mentioned. One of the most remarkable, and mysterious, aspects about the Book of the Apocalypse is how the “woman” in Apocalypse 12, and of course shown again in Apocalypse 19 and 21 as the “bride” and “The New Jerusalem” is how we Catholics view this “woman” to be according to Douay Rheims footnotes:
A woman. The Church of God. It may also, by allusion, be applied to our Blessed Lady. The Church is clothed with the sun, that is, with Christ: she hath the moon, that is, the changeable things of the world, under her feet: and the twelve stars with which she is crowned, are the twelve apostles: she is in labour and pain, whilst she brings forth her children, and Christ in the midst of affliction and persecution.
Our Lord knew, and specifically Mary knew, that the Church would suffer from the moment of her infancy all the way up until her final passion predicted in the catechism. In her, Our Lord completes His passion; in her He finishes what He began; and in Him, she receives her crown. From the moment the Holy Ghost descended on Mary, She became Mother of the Church: Mater Ecclesiae.
This Title is even more potent for our times, because just as Our Lady stood at the foot of the cross for Her Son’s passion, so too will Mary stand firm alongside Holy Mother Church in all her earthly trials all the way up until her own passion. Notice how at the end of every low Mass, we invoke Mary, Saint Joseph, Peter and Paul and,
For the LIBERTY and EXALTATION of Our Holy Mother the Church.
Doesn’t that remind you of Saint Paul calling Jerusalem on earth a “bondwoman”?Father Herman Kramer, who, wrote the breakdown of the Book of the Apocalypse verse for verse, called The Book of Destiny said this about the “woman”:
The woman of chapter twelve is not the Blessed Virgin Mary. The ancient interpreters beginning with Hippolytus and Methodius understood this to be a figure of the Church. Since Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus who had associated with Polycarp, a friend and companion of St. John, his exposition should have greater authority than that of the later Fathers who identified the woman with the Blessed Virgin. According to the Ancient Fathers, the human nature or character of the Church is here delineated, while in chapters four and five her divine nature and prerogatives were depicted. Heaven in the Apocalypse is the Church as to her divine origin, constitution, endowments, and prerogatives. In this heaven, the Church appears in her human character. The human nature of the Church is clothed with divine authority, because the priesthood is endowed with the light and power of Christ.
Anne Catherine Emmerich’s Marriage at Cana Vision is striking as well which backs up the above excerpt, with how Mary’s mission began when She was called “Woman” rather than Mother and watch what Emmerich says Our Lord tells His bride, the Church:
Mary’s anxiety for the wedding guests was now entirely relieved. She had mentioned the matter to Her Son, therefore She says confidently to the servants: “Do all that He shall tell you.” In like manner does the Church, the Bride of Jesus, say to Him: “Lord, Thy children have no wine.” And Jesus replies: “Church” (not Bride), “be not troubled, be not disquieted! My hour is not yet come.” Then says the Church to her priests: “Hearken to His words, obey all His commands, for He will always help you!”
It’s remarkable how the Douay Rhiem’s Canticle of Canticles footnotes also does not separate Mary from the Church:
The spouse of Christ is the Church: more especially as to the happiest part of it, viz., perfect souls, every one of which is His beloved, but above all others: THE IMMACULATE AND EVER BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER.
The bride, the Church, is NOTHING without Mary’s aid and grace and does not mirror Her in the sense that she was conceived Immaculate like Mary from the moment of her conception, BUT with the miraculous (medal) grace of this Good and Tender Mother, Holy Mother Church will, by being perfectly possessed by Mary, aided by Her grace, strengthened by Her arm and nurtured by Her protection will BECOME Immaculate at the moment of her death, when her passion is complete and Our Lord returns. That is the big difference; Mary was perfect since the beginning, but Holy Mother Church becomes perfect in the moment of her death.
How can she be made immaculate at death, you may ask? Because Saint Louis de Montfort said that TRUE CHILDREN OF MARY are kept hidden throughout their earthly sojourns and not really born until their deaths! And we as Catholics know, the official birthday of a saint is their death, which usually, not always but usually, becomes their feast day, because we see our deaths, as our birthdays into our heavenly home. The heavenly Jerusalem?
Mystical City of God, Mary Agreda depicts the Book of the Apocalypse as something that already happened in the past and the marriage supper of the Lamb already took place, and The New Jerusalem is Mary in the Book of the Apocalypse. That work has been approved as authentic by various popes such as Pope Benedict XVI, but then we have early Church Fathers, most especially those who worked with Saint John personally confirm that the “woman” and this “son” were not Our Lady and Christ but something that was to take place in the future while the death and resurrection were in the past.
Father Paul Kramer also confirmed that the greater an event, the longer the period in advance will Our Lord give the warning. For us, Saint John’s revelation and “warning” was given 2,000 years ago. Can we suspect the event will be something terrible?
Yes, because it is the final passion of Holy Mother Church before her death into the New Jerusalem. How can it be that we have various, and approved, testimony confirming that BOTH the “woman” seem to be Mary as well as the Catholic Church, simultaneously and at the same time? In one version we see Holy Mother Church entering her passion, and her “son” being a specific pope, the successor of Peter (the Katechon, a specific papacy, mentioned by Saint Paul, who restrains the anti-Christ).
But then we have later Church Fathers saying it is indeed Mary, and of course we have Our Lady appearing to Saint Catherine Laboure asking her to have coined Her image “clothed with the sun” (even the readings used for the Mass propers are the glorious Apocalypse 12 readings for the feast of the Miraculous Medal).
You know this can only mean one thing, right? After much studying, the answer is actually relatively simple (in a complex way ironically enough), but it should be obvious to every faithful Catholic reading these histories and proofs of our beloved Church history steeped in revelation. Is not it so obviously BOTH? The “woman” is BOTH Our Lady and Holy Mother Church? What do I mean by this?
Not only do we have both sides of history, apparitions, and Church Fathers (early and later) essentially confirming this, but that is why Douay Rheims in their footnotes did not separate Holy Mother Church from Mary but said “the Church of God” AND “by an allusion our Blessed Lady”. We have two major sides at play here in the Book of the Apocalypse:
1.) Mary and Holy Mother Church
Verses
2.) Satan and the anti-Christ
My point in all of this is that Satan is one with anti-Christ, because he will be perfectly possessed by Satan, but we, the Church, must allow ourselves to be perfectly possessed by the Immaculata. This is why I encourage souls to take Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s “Marian Vow”.
The vow includes a specific daily self-offering as victim of holocaust to bring about the triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. This Marian vow is a concrete response to the message of Our Lady of Fatima who asked the shepherd children to offer themselves as victims and who spoke of Her Son’s burning desire that devotion to Her Heart be spread throughout the world.
Apocalypse 12, through the lens of common sense, seems to be the prophecy of the Katechon being removed from the center. Pope Benedict was removed from the center in 2013 with his “resignation”, and officially leaving the chair vacant (removed) with his death, three years ago, today. Something I often ponder is if the 1,260 days in Apocalyspe 12 is tied to how long the chair would be vacant after “the son is taken out”.
1,260 days would place us sometime at the end of June, early July, 2026. And according to papal history, the longest the chair has been vacant has been up to three years. What makes this time different is if Benedict is indeed THE Katechon. I believe the Katechon represents the papacy in general, but it also would zero in on a SPECIFIC papacy.
1268–1271 (Almost 3 years): The Great Interregnum, the longest ever, caused by cardinal infighting.
IF indeed Pope Benedict XVI is the Katechon than this would also confirm the prophecy of Malachi which lists 111 popes that mysteriously ends with Pope Benedict XVI named “the glory of the olive.” Only time will tell! I’m no expert, but I care and I want to know the truth.
Bernadette and Pope Benedict:
This was so providence and Bernadette’s way of smacking me in the head to not forget about her divine role in the final passion of the Church AND her connection to Pope Benedict, through our dear friend Regina. She said this:
I am also very attached to St. Bernadette, did I ever tell you that? I think she has been forgotten these days with all these other “apparitions”, but to my mind, with the focus on Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, it is of utmost importance in these latter days.
Bernadette is my confirmation saint, and Regina humbled me greatly by reminding me I need to be more devoted to her. My favorite female saints are Therese, Philomena and Bernadette, as pictured above! Bernadette died on April 16th, which is also Pope Benedict’s birthday and her body was exhumed on April 19th and found incorrupt on the day which would later be Pope Benedict’s election to the papacy.
Pope Benedict also announced his “resignation” on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Remember how I said the Church, per the “Law of Jealousy” in my “spirit of Babylon” and the passion of the Church posts, said that the unfaithful wife must drink purifying water? What miraculously sprung up THROUGH Bernadette’s hands? PURIFYING WATER. Bernadette is the Patron of the Katechon, Benedict and of the Passion of the Church. Bernadette, ora pro nobis!
Denying the passion of the bride, the way the apostles denied the passion of the Bridegroom:
Padreperegrino blog wrote two profound posts about Our Lord as Bridegroom:
“Under a Greek altar [in Jerusalem], one can put one’s fist into a hole going to the rocks split asunder and also where tradition tells us the Cross was placed during the crucifixion of the Son of God. Of all the icons that could have been used directly above the hole into the ground of Calvary’s cross, they chose “Christ the Bridegroom.” See the word in Greek, “O Nymphios,” meaning The Bridegroom.”
and
In fact, we know from Our Lady of Fatima that (like St. John the Baptist’s plight) the final battle against the antichrist “will be over marriage and family.” (Notice She didn’t say liturgy) Christ died for her to give her the Faith that no man can change.
and
So, if Mary refrained from both rebellion against the crucifixion and denial of the crucifixion of the Bridegroom, why are we so tempted to both of those against the Bride? Clearly, the only thing worse than the crucifixion of the Bride was the crucifixion of the Bridegroom. Yet we carry something similar in these final days. When we finally see Fatima’s promise of Triumph (be it the end of the world or be it the total restoration of the Catholic Church) it will redeem and outdo this current Church crisis, just as the Resurrection overcame and completed the Passion. Remember the first apostles to experience the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be the very Apostles who refrained from denying the current crucifixion of the Catholic Church.
Indeed, the “wedding” is death (the passion) and yet… many in the Church today want to just gloss and skip over that part and go straight to the resurrection. What I want to add to Father’s thought provoking statement of Our Lady not even having the Mass as the “final attack”, is that the marriage supper of the Lamb IS THE MASS (the sacrifice). I would say that this is EXACTLY why the true Mass of the Apostles is under attack right BEFORE the triumph of Mary’s Heart. Think about it: marriage… MARYage… AGE of Mary.
I will end with the profound meaning of Pope Benedict’s name and his direct link to the passion of the bride and a little hint I think he might have left me a few years ago while on a discernment retreat. This past 2025 my sister martyr princess, Aflavia and I, were explaining to three religious sisters in their early 20s what Pope Benedict’s name meant in relation to the passion and I’ll never forget their reactions.
They were driving us to the airport and I explained that Benedict XVI, according to the prophecy of Malachi symbolizes the passion of the Church because Our Lord’s very own passion began in none other than the garden of olives, the garden of gethsemane and so, in the footsteps of her divine Bridegroom, the Church’s passion likewise mirrors His by starting in none other than the Olive Garden: the garden of gethsemane. The passion of the Church thus was activated by Pope Benedict XVI.
When I said this, those three sisters shouted so loud in the car, “OH MY GOSHHHHH”. I was completely caught off guard and gobsmacked by their shouts of enthusiasm and joy. It felt like I was in a football stadium where we just won the game. I’ll never forget it. And to add the cherry on top to that experience, several years ago I was in a retreat house and seemed to have received a direct confirmation of Benedict’s initiation of the Passion.
I had just completed a novena to Pope Benedict XVI as he had only been dead about a month, and as I was walking around the retreat house hallway I looked up and my eyes landed on a framed photo of Pope Benedict I had never seen before. He was smelling a purple flower in a “garden”. We all know what the color purple symbolizes in the Church:
“Are you the end of the old or the beginning of the new?” Pope Benedict’s answer was swift and sure: “the one and the other.”
Carmelite Sister Martyrs 