TradCatKnight: Warning: Fr. Gruner’s Final Newsletter

 

 

Fr. Gruner’s final newsletter in light of Cardinal Pacelli’s commentary on Our Lady’s warnings
It should be rather clear to anyone who ever had the pleasure of meeting Fr. Nicholas Gruner, or attending one of his conferences, or reading any one of his books or articles, that in no way could it be said that he was like a babe in the woods; a Pollyanna who lived a sheltered and naïve life.
Far from it.
Fr. Gruner knew very well the malice that sometimes fills the hearts of men; even churchmen. In fact, for Fr. Gruner, that malice most often manifested itself in the way he was treated by priests and bishops.
Persecution was his daily fare for decades on end.
In other words, this was a man who came face to face with the diabolical. He understood evil better than most. He wasn’t easily shaken.
And yet, in spite of this, in what would be his final Newsletter of March 2015, Fr. Gruner told of a conversation he recently had with Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the well-known longtime chief exorcist of Rome, writing:

I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to get my attention! Fr. Gruner went on to reveal, and again I quote:

Fr. Gruner continued:

For an article that appeared in the latest issue of the Fatima Crusader, Fr. Amorth was asked about the timeline he mentioned to Fr. Gruner about a coming chastisement. He said :

So, according to Fr. Amorth, we find ourselves in the early stages of the “dark prophecies of Fatima.”
It is early…
It bears mention that when many of us think of a coming chastisement, we imagine an all-at-once event that will make the nightly news. Now, that may well come to pass, but there is a gradualness to the “dark prophecies” of which Our Lady warned.
Among those who had firsthand knowledge of those warnings as written in the Third Secret was Fr. Malachi Martin, who often said of the early days of the chastisement:

How can this be? Well, it certainly does not mean that the Church will cease to exist. Nor does it not mean that grace will no longer be received in the sacraments.
Rather, it means that those who are charged with feeding the Lord’s sheep will be left to their own devices. God will allow them, by their own disobedience, to close themselves off from the graces necessary to persevere in the Faith, to defend the Faith, and to teach the Faith with clarity and conviction.
Elaborating on what that withdrawal of grace might entail is no less a figure than the future Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who wrote of the Fatima message:

That scene sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Cardinal Pacelli continued:

This is no ordinary warning about weak priests, and worldly bishops. Indeed the Church has been saddled with such men at various times throughout her history. No, the future Pope Pius XII goes a step further than this. He’s telling us that Our Lady’s warning of such faithless men as given at Fatima extends even as far as the Bishop of Rome, and the Office of Peter!
How do we know this? Cardinal Pacelli is warning us about what he calls “the suicide of altering the faith.”  It has to include the pope. It must.
What is suicide?  It is death self-imposed  at the hands of the very one who rules over the body. If the head is not willing, the hand cannot act.
In the case of the Church, “suicide” refers to a threat that comes from within; a threat that involves the very head itself , and that is, of course, the occupant of the Office of Peter.
At this, let’s examine Cardinal Pacelli’s warning a bit more closely with the question in mind:
Does it concern future events alone, or are we living through those events right now; just as Fr. Gruner warned in his letter of last year following his conversation with Fr. Amorth?
Now, if we were to attempt to go through Cardinal Pacelli’s commentary on Our Lady’s messages given at Fatima line by line, we would be here until midnight.
Volumes have been written on the matter of altering the liturgy alone. So, in the interest of time, I want to focus on two lines in particular:

Before we move on, we need to be very clear that when Cardinal Pacelli warns us about the Church doubting as Peter doubted, and the Church being tempted to put man in the place of God, properly speaking, he is pointing to those men who speak and teach in the name of the Church, up to and including the pope.
He isn’t speaking of Holy Mother Church herself. She could never so doubt or be so tempted. We know that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. She is, in other words, indefectible.
Many sincere Catholics struggle to reconcile the indefectibility of the Church with the obvious loss of faith witnessed in our day among those who speak in her name; most especially the pope.
On the one hand, this is understandable. We are predisposed to trusting in our shepherds – most especially Peter’s Successor. That’s a good thing. But it can also be the sign of a faith that lacks a firm foundation in Sacred Scripture which tells us very clearly that these two truths are not mutually exclusive. The Church is indeed indefectible and there will come a time when her leaders will lose the faith and have but the appearance of religion or godliness. (2 Tim 3:5)
So, with all of that having been said, let’s consider what it might mean for the Church to doubt as Peter doubted? 
How did Peter – he who made that magnificent proclamation of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” – doubt?