Author Archives: Francis

To Follow Christ or Nietzsche?

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Advent 2025 marks the beginning of a new liturgical year and the celebration of the birth of Christ ~ the true King of the Universe yet who entered into human history not in pomp or splendor but in absolute meekness, a vulnerable swaddling infant born in a humble stable. This same Christ our King would later pronounce as an adult, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. (Mt 5:5) Yet if there is anything that the powers of this world truly despise in this present age of technological sophistication, it would be the very idea of meekness or the meek. We occupy an age of bravado, self-importance, and self congratulation where there seems to be very little appetite for meekness, humility, or quiet contemplation in the mad scramble to make one’s “mark on the world.”

This coming year also represents the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation which, by God’s grace, has grown and developed into an American empire. But in those 250 years many Americans seem to have forgotten a key foundational principle, that this was to be a Christian nation under God. We would needed no earthly sovereign because God was proclaimed to be our sovereign. That notion began to evaporate with the end of the Cold War which left the United States as the sole reigning world power, however. The ensuing 21st century hubris which came to exemplify American ‘elites’ (along with their European globalist allies) has led the entire Western world disastrously away from its former sense of dependence on God. At the same time it has created a very unstable if not outright delusional model of society.

In fact the state of Western society has become so degraded, noticeably accelerating since the Covid debacle, that it becomes a challenge to even comment intelligently on the depraved state of affairs. Where does one even begin when children are being mutilated in the cause of “gender fluidity” or being trafficked under the guise of “immigration rights?” Civility and courtesy in public debate forums has all but collapsed into bare knuckle partisanship signifying a level or polarization unprecedented in this land since the pre-Civil War confrontations over slavery. Our larger cities have degenerated into crime infested, barren wastelands of social-political polarization, wokeism, substance abuse, and massive homelessness. As a case in point America’s urban crown jewel, New York City, just elected an openly and unapologetic Marxist mayor. Climate activists and Green energy advocates distort data and twist the very laws of physics to justify forcing their ideological agendas on a reluctant public which pays the price in lost jobs and skyrocketing energy costs. Social dislocation has become endemic, visible on our very streets.

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Mary, Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix

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The kind of soft apostasy emanating regularly from the Vatican these days by players like the Doctrine of Faith’s prefect, Victor Cardinal Hernandez, who rather than vigorously defending doctrines seems more interested in wearing down resistance from those annoying, orthodox Catholics who stubbornly cling to the Faith of our Fathers. The latest example of this baleful phenomenon is the November 4 release of Mater Populi Fidelis, in which the oily prefect seems willing to denigrate the Mother of God by stripping away her titles as “Mediatrix of all Graces” as well as that of “Co-Redemptrix,” or at least banning their usage in ordinary theological dialogue. In a brazen exercise of faux-pietry the cardinal insists “the title of Co-Redemptrix risks eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ and would not be a true honor to his mother,” declaring it to be “inappropriate and theologically unhelpful.” This is classic Curial doublespeak, an art-form now fine tuned from previous documents such as Amoris Laetitia, Traditionis Custodis, Fratelli Tutti, Fiducia Supplicans and other dubious contributions of the “Francis papacy” designed more to muddy the waters than to contribute real clarity to difficult Church teachings.

Let me put it plainly as my long deceased spiritual mentor Fr. Thomas Kelly, S.J. often said, “Whoever honors the Mother honors the Son,” the obvious corollary being that one can never honor the Son by dishonoring his Mother. Again, Cardinal Fernandez goes on to proclaim that the title “Mediatrix of all Graces suggests a lack of solid grounding in Revelation and carries limits that do not favor a correct understanding of Mary’s unique place.'” So what then is Mary’s unique role in salvation history according to the Church’s teachings and traditions if we may be so bold as to ask the cardinal prefect? Co-Redemptrix after all is a title which goes back at least to the 15th century and has been affirmed by numerous popes and saints including Sts. John Henry Newman and Maxmilian Kolbe. Did these also share an incorrect understanding of Mary’s unique place?

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Suffering – for good or for ill?

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In my last post we investigated the nature of evil to discover that it is not “a thing in itself” but rather the privation or disordering of some particular good. Today we shall look at its close companion, suffering, with which evil is too often equated. At first glance, evil and suffering appear to be but two faces of the same coin mainly due to their sharing certain traits in common. For instance, suffering, like evil, may be described as the privation of a good: the loss of one’s health, liberty, even property or a loved one. All these thing cause one to suffer. Like evil, suffering is dependent upon the agency of persons. In fact, God himself seems to have ordained suffering in Genesis when He sentences Adam to toil “by the sweat of your brow” and for Eve to suffer pain in childbearing. And if suffering is just another manifestation of evil, that would mean that God has directly willed evil to exist, contrary to his nature which is pure goodness. How are we then to resolve such a paradox?

Genesis does give us a clue in resolving it. Notice that suffering did not enter the picture until after our first parent fell into sin. By embracing evil (disobedience to God’s direct command) Adam and Eve invited the baneful effects of suffering into their own lives and the lives of all their future progeny. Suffering, in other words, was an after effect of the sin they first committed. Suffering did not bring on the evil, rather it was their acceptance of evil which introduced suffering (and death) into their previously felicitous existence. Suffering is downstream from evil – it is one of the effects of sin, not its cause. Yet like evil, suffering is not “a thing in itself” but is attached to and inheres only in some conscious creature.

Suffering does not play favorites or take sides, for the righteous suffer alongside the wicked as the Book of Job so clearly illustrates. Suffering stalks its victims with no regard for one’s age, faith, politics, or income level. It is the great social leveler, undoubtedly by God’s design. Unlike evil, which God allows but does not will directly, suffering is not only permitted but at times actively willed by God for his own inscrutable purposes. So one may ask why a good God would will some innocent child, for instance, to suffer from an incurable disease? This is where the mystery of suffering deepens well beyond our limited ability to comprehend, and consequently where many become shaken in their faith. We cannot help but sense a link between suffering and evil and yet we struggle to draw a meaningful distinction between them.

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Charlie Kirk and the State of Evil

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“The mouth of the just man shall meditate wisdom; the law of his God is in his heart, his steps do not falter. (Ps. 37: 30-31)

Within the space of a week or so Americans have witnessed three despicable acts of public violence: one taking the lives of two innocent children in Minneapolis, then a young Ukrainian woman fatally stabbed on a Charlotte bus (both acts indiscriminate and random), and culminating in the deliberate and heinous murder of popular pod-caster Charlie Kirk in Orem, Utah. Kirk was outspoken about his Christianity and fearlessly proclaimed the Kingship of Jesus Christ. Fewer than two months before his death he was urging fellow Evangelical Christians to engage in a deeper understanding of and reverence for Mary, the Mother of God. He is reported to have been attending Mass with his Catholic wife and children at least twice a month. He had become both mentor and role model to millions of millennials and generation Z kids deeply searching for something more than what this superficial hedonistic culture was offering.

Kirk was known for cheerfully engaging his left leaning opponents in honest debate on campuses around the country while convincing many that social conservatism, not the prevailing DEI and transgender madness, represented the real hope for the future of his generation. Just shy of 32 years old, Charlie was ruthlessly slain simply for defending truth as he understood it. What those who continue to despise Charlie Kirk, even after his death, seem unable to grasp is that Kirk genuinely loved the sinner even as he hated the sin. He was the proverbial good shepherd seeking to bring back any lost sheep. In this Kirk was the antithesis of Satan, the ‘accuser,’ who loves the sin yet hates the sinner. Even if one did not agree with everything Charlie expressed, you had to admire the man for his vitality, integrity, and raw courage. Another good shepherd, Bishop Joseph Strickland, has rightly pointed out we must not forget to pray for the repose of Charlie’s soul because he was human just like the rest of us. Likewise we need to pray for a repentant heart and timely conversion of Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, a young man grossly deceived by the demoniacal culture which incessantly radicalizes and alienates the young from truth and common sense.

Of course the predictable and tedious commentary about why a good God did not prevent such a tragedy will be spewing forth from social media ad nauseam. Why does God regularly allow evil to afflict good people? That question continues to mystify modern man, I believe, because our culture has adopted such a shallow understanding of the very meanings of good and evil; truth and falsehood. What is good anyway, and who are the “good people?” In the Gospel our Lord makes a seemingly odd reply to this question, “Why do you call me good? There is only One who is good.” (Mt. 19:17) Did Christ mean that only his Father is good and therefore everything else must be evil? Of course not! It was his way of teaching that goodness emanates not from ourselves but from God alone. So in order to make any sense of evil, one must first understand “the good” in its proper context.

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An Enemy Within – Gnosticism Today

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I take this opportunity to introduce the publication of my latest book titled “An Enemy Within, How Freemasonry Shaped the Church and Modern World.” It’s a topic central to the ongoing cultural disintegration witnessed over the past 60 years, and yet surprisingly few Americans and Christians fully understand the connection. What has been hidden from their eyes is the reality that Masonry is essentially a fashionable, modern day reiteration of the oldest Christian heresy of Gnosticism, going back to the 1st century, an ancient heresy that is no mean threat to human society. I propose that the greatest existential threat to the Church and State today is not Communism, Islam, or terrorism but the globalist Gnostic juggernaut which insists that human knowledge and reason alone can defeat the power of evil and create a worldly utopian paradise.

Yet we see this attitude constantly promoted through today’s public education establishment which, for a century or more, has gradually undergone a paradigm shift from its former Christian basis to a fully Gnostic orientation. In fact one could credibly argue that public education, from the university level downward to the elementary, has now become the de facto state religion in this country. Gnosticism worships knowledge as the ultimate good in human existence; knowledge as an end in itself ~ the key to power and fulfillment; the power to create our own ‘reality.’ But in the Christian perspective knowledge is directed to a very specific goal, to know God. It is a means, not an end, whose intended object must be Truth: the absolute Truth Incarnate who is Jesus Christ.

Gnosticism is antithetical to the pathways of salvation laid out by Christ. It proposes a different pathway through so-called ‘enlightenment’ meaning the acquisition of secretive knowledge in order to attain some higher state of being. It is not Christian humility but human pride of accomplishment which leads one to salvation. Knowledge, not faith; action, not grace, is what one needs to attain happiness. Morality and truth become purely subjective values in the scheme of things because after all it is we who ultimately get to determine what is right or wrong.

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The Garden of Life

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What is the world’s oldest profession? – and it’s not what you are thinking. As an avid gardener, I realized some time ago that it is gardening which can rightfully claim the title of “world’s oldest profession.” In fact, the Book of Genesis makes ii abundantly clear that the garden is a metaphor for the mystery of human life and endeavor when God delegates to the man and woman a responsibility to oversee the various life forms, animal and vegetative, placed in Eden. To phrase it in pun form, man’s first job was guarding the garden. Yet even after the man and woman failed in that original task, thus allowing the invasive weeds of sin and death to mar the beauty of His garden, we see that God already had a ‘Plan B’ in mind.

The woman herself would become the bearer of new life, designated to nurture and bring it to fruition. Man was likewise commanded to “till t he earth” although both of their respective tasks would henceforth be carried out in difficulty and pain. To the woman God promised, “in pain shall you bring forth children” and to the man, “Cursed be the ground because of you. In toil shall you eat its yield… thorns and thistles shall it bring to you as you eat the plants of the field.” (Gen. 3:16-18) The garden then became an image of our human destiny to be played out in each and every human life. When we are born we inherit a symbolic patch of earth to cultivate, but only for a season before it passes on to another generation.

When we are first born, this symbolic ground of our body (“Remember man that thou art dust”) is dormant from the winter frosts but as spring approaches it begins to thaw and sprout new organisms and budding flowers. This represents childhood when everything is new and fresh to our senses. We are filled with discovery and hope. Life seems endless and opportunities are unlimited as the springtime of our life holds out its myriad promises. But as the days lengthen we realize the need to organize the profusion of growth within us into some kind of order. Each person must thus assume the responsibility of planning and ordering his or her garden, meaning one’s personal life, This entails plowing and planting; deciding what flowers or other plants one intends to raise. Depending on variations in climate, different soils, and particular localities, etc. added to the different talents and interests of any given individual there will undoubtedly emerge thousands, even millions, of diverse garden schemes. No two gardens will look exactly alike, for each human life represents a unique and original contribution to the story of mankind.

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The Road to Armageddon

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June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but one would never guess that judging from events unfolding in this present moment. On the contrary, an impious mankind is teetering on the brink of World War III as foreseen in a terrible vision by Sister Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan in 1973. In that vision Our Blessed Mother predicted, “if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priest nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.” The world just inched closer to fulfillment of this terrifying prophecy with the Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber fleet and the unprovoked Israeli attack on an unsuspecting Iran in clear violation of international law. Fire is now falling from the skies over Tel Aviv, Tehran, and even Jerusalem but it could get much worse.

The American/Israeli/NATO Deep State operatives simply cannot tolerate peace, proven once again by last Friday’s treacherous and deceitful sneak attack on the sovereign Iranian nation, even in the midst of ongoing negotiations with the Trump White House. The whole world is fully aware that it was American bombs and missiles which rained down without warning on Iran, unleashed by our Israeli ‘mad dog’ ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose illegal and genocidal policies over the past 21 months have all but turned Israel into an international pariah state. Nonetheless Netanyahu’s reckless acts of aggression appear designed to prolong his own political survival. Bibi, unpopular even among his own people, seems perfectly willing to ignite World War III to maintain his grip on power. He may already have done so with the tacit approval and cooperation of a pliant White House under the malodorous spell of radical Zionism.

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Reflections on Pope Leo XIV

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We’ve had a new pope for exactly two weeks now and from comments I am seeing online, some are elated while others are positively dismayed by the choice of Robert Cardinal Prevost as the new Vicar of Christ. My first reaction was a rather personal one ~ for the first time in my life there is a pope sitting on the throne of St. Peter who is younger than I am! That in itself is a lot to digest. Popes were supposed to be old guys and suddenly this “youngster” (to me) is prancing around in the white robes and skullcap of the Petrine office. It feels like that moment when you meet your new doctor for the first time and you realize, “He looks like a teenager!”

But now that I have overcome the initial unsettling wave of chronological dysphoria, I am ready take a more balanced, objective view of the situation. Leo XIV is not only the first pope younger than myself but he is also the first American pope, Chicago born and bred, something that was considered unthinkable even a year ago. The cardinals in conclave were willing to pursue this pragmatic option in my opinion because the scandal plagued Vatican finances are in such a disheveled state that they needed someone able to tap more easily into our vast national wealth. That is not a criticism but merely an observation. Fiscally, the Vatican has its back to the wall, a problem which the Bergoglian papacy only exacerbated by purposely alienating American Catholics, who also happen to be the Vatican’s largest donor class. The hope is that Leo, as an American, can right the ship.

From the moment he first appeared on the Loggia wearing the traditional papal robes of office Leo appeared to be a conciliator. But what most struck many was his choice in taking the name Leo XIV, a clear sign that he envisions a dramatic change in direction for the Church after 12 chaotic years of “Francis the agitator.” This Leo’s predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, likewise stepped into a supercharged time of crisis for the Church back in 1878, as it came under full frontal assault by Freemasonry. The Industrial Revolution was raging like a wildfire upending Christian civilization wherever it laid down smoke belching factories and massive urban slums. Leo responded with his great encyclical Rerum Novarum which afforded dignity to the workers yet defended the rights of property, threading a common sense course between the excesses of unrestrained corporate capitalism and the equally soul deadening mosh pit of Marxist socialism.

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Pray ‘like never before’ for this Conclave

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Although it has only been four days since my last post (about Theodore McCarrick, see my “The Essential Priesthood” April 17 article), the news of Pope Francis’ demise a mere 18 days after McCarrick’s death should make us all seriously ponder upon that inescapable day when each one of us will be required to render an account for our lives and actions. Tragically, both of these men called to the priesthood became, in the end, sources of grave scandal for Christ’s Church, and we should prayerfully commend them to God’s just mercy.

Their baneful legacy remains, however ~ a Church in greater disarray than perhaps at any time in its 2,000 year history, not that they are solely responsible but each played a singular role in creating the discord and confusion with which loyal Catholics are now contending. That we now need healing and a renewed leadership to begin to repairing and restoring an authentic Catholic voice in our troubled world is undeniable. The forthcoming conclave will be a crucial step in restoring orthodoxy and clarity after 12 years of ambiguity and dogmatic obfuscation. But such needed reform cannot be taken for granted. We must pray without ceasing that our prelates and cardinals will recognize the gravity of the situation and act according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit; not swayed by personal or political agendas in choosing the next Vicar of Christ (a title mysteriously rejected by the Bergoglian papacy.)

There are still many wolves among our shepherds, so do not assume that the ship will right itself. As such I am including a Litany for the Church under Siege which I hope you will share and pray every day until the successful election of our next Pontiff. If possible, to render our petition more powerful, try and pray it before or at the end of daily Mass.

Litany for the Church Under Siege

Lord have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us.
Christ, Divine founder of the Church, Hear us.
Christ, who warned of false prophets, Hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God. Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, Pray for us.
St. Joseph, protector of the universal Church, Pray for us.
St. Michael, our defender in the day of battle, Pray for us.
St. Peter, the rock on which Christ built his Church, Pray for us.
St. Paul, guardian of the faithful remnant, Pray for us.
St. Francis of Assisi, restorer of God’s holy Church, Pray for us.
St. Anthony, gentle hammer of heretics, Pray for us.
St. Pius V, champion of the Mass of the Ages, Pray for us.
St. Pius X, foe of Modernism, Pray for us.
All you holy angels and archangels, Pray that we may resist the snares of the devil.
St. Catherine of Sienna, Pray that Christ will send us a Vicar who will oppose the spirit of the world.
St. John Fisher, Pray that bishops have the courage to combat heresy and irreverence.
St. John Vianney, Pray that zeal for souls will be rekindled in all the clergy.
St. Charles Borromeo, Pray that seminaries will be protected from false teachings.
St. Vincent de Paul, Pray that seminarians may return to a life of prayer and meditation.
St. Therese of Liseux, Pray that religious may rediscover their vocation of love and sacrifice.
St. Thomas More, Pray that the laity may courageously oppose the great apostasy.
St Francis de Sales, Pray that the Catholic press may again become a vehicle of truth.
St. John Bosco, Pray that our children may be protected from immoral and heretical instruction.
St. Pascal Baylon, Pray that profound reverence for the Most Blessed Sacrament may be restored.
St. Dominic, Pray that we may ever treasure the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Let us Pray:
Jesus, Our Lord and God, in these dark hours when Thy Mystical Body is undergoing its own crucifixion, and when it would almost seem to be abandoned by God the Father, have mercy we beg Thee on they suffering Church. Send down upon us the Divine Consoler to enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills.
Thou, O Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived, Who has promised to be with Thy Church until the end of time, grant us a mighty faith that we may not falter; help us to do Thy Holy Will at all times, especially during these hours of grief and uncertainty. May Thy Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Thy Holy Mother be our sure refuge in time and eternity. Amen.

Francis J. Pierson +a.m.d.g.

The Essential Priesthood

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As I once again viewed Mel Gibson’s powerful “The Passion of the Christ” last evening I was impressed with its various images of the priesthood. Today, Holy Thursday, we celebrate the institution of both the Eucharist and the priesthood of the New Covenant, for it was at the Last Supper that Our Lord bestowed that new priesthood upon His twelve apostles. The thing that struck me was how the very first thing those newly ordained priests did was to flee in fear, deserting their Master, the one and true High Priest, as He was being arrested in the Garden of Olives. Only St. John remained somewhat loyal to his Master and would stand with Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross. Judas distinguished himself as the very first apostate priest by actually betraying Our Lord to his enemies who, ironically, were also members of another priestly class. Peter denied that he even knew his Master and the other nine disappear until well after the Resurrection.

And how is it that the Jewish priests, who should have been first to recognize and welcome their Messiah, not only blindly failed to do so but became his active persecutors, arousing the crowds to demand the brutal execution of their true High Priest and king? Yet the Scriptures had long predicted that it must be this way – while those who knew the Scriptures the best utterly failed to recognize their fulfillment, accomplished by virtue of their own wicked malice. The Jewish Aaronic priesthood was to be the prototype and progenitor of a new and more complete priesthood established by Christ, yet at the crucial moment both old and new priesthoods stumbled and failed badly. One suspects that God had a purpose in all this, namely to show the hopeless condition in which sin places all of mankind, even those called to priestly dignity. Our human frailty, selfishness, and perverse natures needed to be clearly demonstrated so that man could see himself as he truly is, and not as he might vainly imagine himself to be.

God needed to humble even the best representatives of mankind, His priests, because exaltation invariably leads to pride, the very thing that had subjected man to Satan in the first place. Only God could purify man from the malignancy of pride and thus free man from his subservience to that ancient ‘father of pride,’ the devil. Christ’s terrible passion and death serves as an object lesson, especially for modern man whose inflated sense of self-sufficiency draws him ever further away from a humble attitude and childlike dependence on God, not only for his material needs but more importantly for his eternal good. It seems that in every generation this basic lesson needs to be reintroduced.

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