The Battle is Being Waged

Keep praying! Though by the time you read this, there may be a new pope…

At any rate, here are a few excerpts from other blogs that I found interesting. Read them in their entirety at the link.

In his “Moynihan Letters”, Dr. Robert Moynihan describes an unexpected conversation he had with a cardinal he knew, just before the Conclave:

“I only wanted to tell you one thing,” I said. “That I loved Pope Benedict.”

He stood still. 

“I did too, and I do love him,” the cardinal said.

… I saw the cardinal’s face grow dark and sad, and he said, forcefully: “I love him, but this should never have happened. He never should have left his office.”

After a few more verbal exchanges, Dr. Moynihan says:

He took a step away from me, then turned again.

“It is a dangerous time. Pray for us.”

I think we should do as he asked.

At “The Eye-Witness” blog, Aged Parent writes:

There is everything to hope for; there is nothing to be optimistic about.  A cursory look at many of the movers and shakers now sitting in the Sistine Chapel should be enough to convince the Catholic realist that we had better be prepared for what may befall us.  Several weeks ago The Eye Witness cautioned its readers that there is no assurance that the Holy Ghost is going to make the final selection of Supreme Pontiff.  The other day the more eminent thinker M.r Robert de Mattei made the same observations much more forcefully.  Brother Andre Marie over at St. Benedict Center enlarges on that  with some thoughtful observations pointing out that while the Holy Ghost showers graces upon the electors there is no guarantee that those men will cooperate with those graces.

Consider.  Some of the Cardinals in that Conclave today are sympathetic to the scourge of homosexuality…. 

There are Cardinals voting who never think about the salvation of non-believers.  There are Cardinals who are so terrified by the media that they daren't speak a word about the mortal sins the world is awash in.  There are Cardinals who promote false ideas like "liberation theology".  There are Cardinals so afraid of the Jews and their considerable influence that they refuse to attempt to lead these tragic people out of the darkness and into the Church.  There are Cardinals whose grasp of Catholic theology is scant at best.  There are some who are Protestants at heart, some who despise the very traditions that have nourished the Faith for twenty centuries.

At “Rorate Caeli”, Dr. John Rao writes:

Only those of us who are believing members of the Mystical Body of Christ can have a realization of what is happening to those cardinals who went through that moving ceremony of entering the Conclave and swearing their oaths on the Gospel, and who now remain in their splendid but temporary tomb. All believers are aware that their consciences, their minds, their hearts, and their souls are right now a tremendous battleground, where the Holy Spirit, St. Michael the Archangel, and all the saints are contending for control of their free wills. These free wills are being strongly tempted by other unhappy forces, human and demonic. We know this to be certain because we contend with the same forces every day. Those among us who have studied the history of the Church know how bitter disputes within Conclaves can be. And yet we also know that cardinals have taken their part in those disputes with the greatest courage, as did that Cardinal Carafa who became Pope Paul IV and told an ambassador promising that his government would do everything in its power to prevent his become Supreme Pontiff by thanking him---for then he would owe his victory only to God.