(Originally penned and posted on May 17, ARSH 2012. The conclusion and warning about the “brutality of totalitarian oligarchy being proportional to the effeminacy and cowardice of the men in a conquered culture” was taken at the time by many people as the ravings of an unhinged spinster, detached from reality and warning of things that could never, ever happen in the U.S.A.

Lee Greenwood, to this day, now a decade later, remains unavailable for comment. -AB)

Today is the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. Forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven in the sight of a rather large crowd of His disciples. It was very dramatic, as the sight of a Man levitating straight up into the sky and passing into the clouds and out of sight would tend to be. Imagine a Saturn V rocket or Space Shuttle launch, except a Man, who was just in front of you, speaking and eating with you, suddenly zoomed straight up into the clouds like a Saturn V. This isn’t a fairy tale. This really happened. Can you imagine how simultaneously terrifying and wonderful such a sight would be? The word for it is the overused-to-the-point-of-being-meaningless word “awesome”. The Ascension was AWESOME.

Anyway, the gospel for today’s Mass in the 1962 Missal is the Markan account of the ascension, and it ties perfectly into what the recent topic has been around here, namely the feminizing and attempted reduction of Our Lord into a brainless, castrated, impotent equivalent of a pet dog who is too stupid to relate to us in any way more sophisticated than “slobbering us with kisses.” In the modernist, post-conciliar milieu WE are the master. WE call the shots. WE are the arbiters of truth. WE are the standards of goodness. Jesus? He’s the the dog. Pat him on the head, put some food in the dish, and let Him out to pee once a week. And if He isn’t all slobbery kisses and if He gets underfoot, or barks, or becomes in any way inconvenient, well, we’ll just put Him down and go find some other dog, and then we’ll name THAT dog “jesus”.

The entire reading is Mark 16:14-20, but let’s just luxuriate in the first verse, verse 14:

 At length He appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen Him after He was risen again.

He UPBRAIDED them. He didn’t “slobber them with kisses.” The Risen Christ, Resurrected and Transfigured in Glory UPBRAIDED them for not believing.

UPBRAIDED.

Here is the Merriam-Webster definition of “upbraid”:

1. To criticize severely : to find fault with
2. To reproach severely : to scold vehemently

He chewed their asses. Up one side and then back down the other.

Think about this. He is minutes away from ascending and instead of “slobbering them with kisses” Jesus Christ, in perfect charity and complete love, in order to make absolutely certain that they got His message and understood exactly what was going on and what they were expected to do so that they and the rest of the world could hear the Gospel, criticized them, found fault with them, reproached them, and scolded them. Vehemently.

And then, after getting their butts chewed by God Almightly, they watched Him ascend to heaven in a terrifying and awesome display, the purpose of which was to put an exclamation point of masculine command on the Great Commission to go forth and spread the Gospel to every corner of the earth. He could have just disappeared. He could have walked off into some trees and vanished without any drama. But He didn’t do that. He went all Saturn V on them.

And you know what? That’s exactly what those people did. They went forth and spread the Gospel, and most of them were executed for doing it. Why? Because masculine strength is inspiring and beautiful and attractive and good – these are Godly qualities. Masculine strength says, “I care enough about you to chew your ass, and I want you to follow me into battle and fight beside me because I think you’re worth it and I believe in you. But you need an ass-chewing, and I’m going to give it to you.” Think Patton. Think Aragorn (fictional). Think Charles Martel. These leaders are mere types that point to the ultimate Man and Leader of Men, Jesus Christ.

YOU GET SQUARED AWAY, AND SQUARED AWAY RIGHT NOW, AND FOLLOW ME!

But, as I said, the Marxist-homosexualist infiltrators have purged all of this from the Liturgy, the priesthood and the Church so that you are primed to be rolled by the State and will refuse to fight for Truth, Goodness, Beauty or Justice. Who are you going to follow? Are you going to follow “superfun girly pacifist jesus”, who is really the non-existent imaginary friend of countless homosexual priests and bishops, and a mere fictional propaganda mascot of the Marxist infiltrators, who could not give any less of a crap about you, or whether you end up in heaven or hell? Imaginary “girly jesus” wants to slobber you with kisses so you’ll LIKE HIM, and who, conveniently enough, ratifies and encourages the sin of COWARDICE.

The brutality of a totalitarian oligarchy is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to the cowardice of the men of the non-oligarch “underclass.”

I am hard-pressed to think of a more cowardly population of men than the men of contemporary Western Christendom.

You do the math.

Now, for your joy and allegorical edification, please enjoy a Saturn V launch with the Cavalry Charge from the Finale of the William Tell Overture, a particularly special piece of music around here.

Lord Jesus Christ, Ascended to the Right Hand of The Father, have mercy on us and on Your Holy Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.

I buy and take Vitamin D3 combined with Vitamin K2 in liquid drop form. Dosing is simple because one drop is 1000 IUs. So you just stand there and count the drops. I do 15 drops per day just normally, and 50 drops per day when I feel any sort of possible bug. I carry a 50mL bottle of Vitamin D drops, and a bottle of Ivermectin that I have dispensed out of the big 500mL bottles I buy, and into a 50mL blue glass dropper bottle in my purse at all times, so that I can take it OR give the bottles away to someone who might need it.

Once again, the dripping malignity of the pharmaceutical industry is on full display, not only in the poisons they push, but in WHAT THEY HAVE CONCEALED. Safe, effective, CHEAP drugs and simple supplements could have saved countless lives, and even lost man-hours and the mild misery of colds, flus and inflammation. But it was all concealed in order to accomplish the largest wealth transfer in human history, with the Deep State operating as the middle man.

I ask the question again: if they’ve hidden this from us, WHAT ELSE ARE THEY HIDING? Do they know that some cheap, safe substance that is hiding in plain sight, like Ivermectin or Vitamin D, cures… cancer? Alzheimer’s? Parkinson’s? Multiple Sclerosis? Lupus? We know that type-2 diabetes is cured by a zero carbohydrate diet, which is precisely why the “food pyramid” pushed 6-8 servings of carbohydrates per day religiously. What will be the next curative to be exposed as having been willfully and maliciously concealed by BigPharma and the Deep State?

Be still, and see that I am God…

Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus…

Psalm 45:11

I’ve been a science geek since pretty much day one, and I’ve always been ESPECIALLY fascinated by anything to do with astronomy and astrophysics.  I consider it a great consolation, and CLEARLY of the Divine Providence that here, now, in what appears to be a massive epochal shift at minimum, or the End of All Things at maximum, that we have the technology to not only SEE the physical universe in ways never before imagined, but that such knowledge can be so easily shared and consumed on YouTube.

When I was a very young sapling, while knowing without a doubt that God existed, was PERSONAL, and that Jesus was God, I would become very frightened as I lay awake in bed at night thinking about the vastness of the universe, and especially about TIME, and whether or not time and space were infinite, and what exactly that meant.  These questions, absent the One True Faith in its fullness, were terrifying to me.  And now, here I am forty years later, and I find that which so shook me as a child to be a massive source of consolation and CONFIDENCE.

A Supernova is when a star exhausts all of its fuel, and since there is no longer the massive OUTWARD pressure of the fusion explosions to offset the massive inward, compacting force of the star’s own gravity, the gravity wins, and the star implodes so violently that it causes shock waves that bounce back out and cause the outer layers of the star to explode.  The amount of energy released in a supernova is simply incomprehensible.

The most well-known Supernova is actually what we now see as the Crab Nebula, the first object listed in the Messier Catalogue.  The Crab Nebula came into existence according to human observation here on earth when its star went Supernova on 4 July, ARSH 1054. It was visible for 642 days, until 6 April, ARSH 1056.  For the first 23 days after the explosion, it was so bright that it was visible in the DAYLIGHT.  The nebula of the remnants of the exploded star were identified first in ARSH 1731 using telescopes, and again in ARSH 1758 by Charles Messier, who tabled it as the first object in his now-famous Catalogue of celestial objects.

There have been EIGHT observable supernovae in recorded history in what we now know is our Milky Way galaxy.  It is now estimated that in our Milky Way galaxy, there is approximately one supernova per century. Current estimates for the number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy now stand at 100 to 400 BILLION stars.  And of those, ONE goes supernova per century.

The Milky Way is BIG, huh?  And supernovae are EXCEPTIONALLY rare events, agreed?

Well, consider this: astronomers now estimate there to be one to two TRILLION galaxies in the universe (and that number keeps climbing as space-based telescopes come online).  Let’s use TWO TRILLION as our number of galaxies, and assume that our Milky Way is an “average sized” galaxy.

So that means that there are TWO TRILLION supernovae per century.
Divide by 100 and you get TWENTY BILLION supernovae per year.
Divide 20,000,000,000 by 365 and you get 54,794,520 supernovae PER DAY.
Divide 54,794,520 by 24 hours and you get 2,283,105 supernovae per hour.
Divide 2,283,105 by 60 minutes and you get 38,051 supernovae per minute.
Divide 38,051 by 60 seconds and you get…

634 supernovae PER SECOND, EVERY SECOND, in the observable universe.

 Take a normal breath. Inhale-exhale. Roughly 1250 stars went supernova as you took that breath.

Folks, the physical universe is BIG. And you know what? God made it EXCLUSIVELY for us. And it can even be said, EXCLUSIVELY for YOU. That’s right. Because God is infinite, it is possible for Him to love each individual as a separate infinity, which contains in it the entire universe. He made the entire physical universe for ME exclusively, and for YOU exclusively. Because each of us subsist in a discrete infinity of His Love, each of us, and every human being that has ever or will ever exist, are the exclusive cause of the physical universe. (When you start doing business with infinities, things get weird, hence my use of the adjective “exclusive” which would be a contradiction outside of the domain of the infinite.)

I even have a proof text of this for you, and it will stop you in your tracks. Our Lord told St. Teresa of Avila, doctor of the Church, the following:

“I would create the universe again, just to hear you say that you love Me.”

So if you’re feeling worried or anxious, just take a breath and say to yourself, “1250 supernovae just happened. And He made it, sustains it, and would make it all again, just to hear me say, ‘I love You.'”

In those two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, He holds EVERY electron in its valence shell orbit, and holds every atomic nucleus together, and holds every quark that makes up every proton and neutron in place. Consciously.

And while He’s doing that, He is in infinite rapturous attention of your every thought and feeling, always respecting your free will as a sovereign being, and coming down on the altar at every Mass to be close to you in the Eucharist, and waiting for you in the confessional to forgive your sins, if you will just only say that you are sorry and mean it. And then, while sustaining the physical universe, clicking off over a thousand supernovae for every breath you take, He also reposes in the Tabernacle of every Catholic church in a ciborium, under the appearance of bread wafer, hoping like a lovestruck youth that you will walk in the door and… acknowledge His existence. Maybe even tell Him you love Him. Or that you will stay and hear Mass and be present at the foot of the Cross in ARSH 30 as He dies in The Eternal Sacrifice for love of you, so that you might be with Him forever – IF you so choose, freely.

Inhale. Exhale. 1250 supernovae.

And you worry? You worry about a bunch of imbecilic perverted criminals? You tell yourself that “God has been beat. His Church has been destroyed.” REALLY? Do you REALLY believe that? You REALLLY believe that Antipope Jorge Bergoglio and his Roman Queeria “beat God”? Or ever could?? That’s a laugh line if ever there was one, folks.

Everything that happens is driving toward a greater good. This Antipope/Antichurch situation WILL resolve. And you should pray and work toward being a part of that resolution, because God put you here in this time and place for exactly that.

The accelerated advances in astrophysics and cosmology have matched EXACTLY the temporary reign of Satan as revealed to Pope Leo XIII in ARSH 1884. Why? Maybe so you could read this post and know that God’s love for you is infinite, and so you could be reassured and edified at any moment, in any place, including a prison cell or concentration camp, simply by taking one breath.

Inhale. Exhale. 1250 stars just went supernova. And He made it and sustains it all for me, and would make it all again just to hear me say that I love Him.

Hang in there, folks.

As always, I hope this helps.

Barnhardt Axiom #1: If you can’t stand in front of it and physically defend it with a rifle, then it isn’t really yours, and probably never was.

Barnhardt Axiom #2: The culture has degraded such that seeking and/or holding office, especially national-level office, is, in and of itself, proof that a given person is psychologically and morally unfit to hold public office.

Barnhardt Axiom #3: If full-on kinetic World War 3 breaks out, the worst possible outcome for humanity would be that the former-US/Washington DC regime win.

We all know this is purely a money-making publicity stunt, but what I simply cannot comprehend is how he could do this to his wife and his children.

Oh, wait, I guess the answer to my own question is clearly stated in Axiom #2. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hi Ann –

Thanks for all you do! I have been perplexed over what I might/should be doing at the Te Igitur during the Mass. Over the last few years, when that moment arrives during the Holy Mass, I just omit praying or even thinking of P.F., [the writer is here referring to Antipope Bergoglio] since I agree with you on his ‘lack of position’, shall we say.

So what should I pray for at that moment, if anything? I guess I never thought too hard about it, but it does seem to me now, as in times past, that perhaps there is a prayer that is appropriate in lieu of the name P.B.?

I just thought I would ask what your thoughts are about this, and what you or others do at the Te Igitur, given the seat is vacant.

Sincerely in Christ,

J

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Quick review for those who aren’t Latin Mass-goers: All of the various fixed prayers of the Mass are referred to by the first two words of the prayer. So when we’re talking about “the Te Igitur”, we are talking about the first prayer of the Canon of the Mass, immediately after the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy…) within which the Pope and the local Bishop are prayed for by name. Here is the text in Latin and English.

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Te ígitur, clementíssime Pater, per Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, Dóminum nostrum, súpplices rogámus, ac pétimus, uti accépta hábeas et benedícas, hæc ✠ dona, hæc ✠ múnera, hæc ✠ sancta sacrifícia illibáta, in primis, quæ tibi offérimus pro Ecclésia tua sancta cathólica: quam pacificáre, custodíre, adunáre et régere dignéris toto orbe terrárum: una cum fámulo tuo Papa nostro N. et Antístite nostro N. et ómnibus orthodóxis, atque cathólicæ et apostólicæ fídei cultóribus. 

We therefore, humbly pray and beseech Thee, most merciful Father, through Jesus Christ; Thy Son, our Lord, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to accept and bless these ✠ gifts, these ✠presents, these ✠ holy unspotted Sacrifices, which in the first place we offer Thee for Thy holy Catholic Church to which vouchsafe to grant peace, as also to preserve, unite, and govern it throughout the world, together with Thy servant our Pope, and our Bishop, and all orthodox believers and professors of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith. 

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Before Pope Benedict died these 132 days ago as of this writing, at the Te Igitur and any other mentions of the name of “The Pope”, such as if the “Pro Pontifice” propers were optionally added, or at the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday wherein the Pope is prayed for by name in the second of the nine prayers of the Great Intercessions…

V. Let us pray for our most holy Father Pope N., that our Lord and God, Who chose him to the order of the Episcopate, may keep him in health and safety for His holy Church to govern the holy people of God.

P. Let us pray.

D. Let us kneel.

R. Arise.

V. Almighty and everlasting God, by Whose judgement all things are established, mercifully regard our prayers, and in Thy goodness preserve the Bishop chosen for us: that the Christian people who are ruled by Thine authority, may under so great a Pontiff, be increased in the merits of faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen.

…I would whisper very quietly at the utterance of ‘Francis’, “He’s not the Pope. Benedict is the Pope. Give it to me.”

Now since Pope Benedict died these 132 days ago, if I am hearing a Mass at which it is either known to me or very likely that ‘Francis’ is mistakenly commemorated, I whisper, “He’s not the Pope. Give it to me.” Because the Te Igitur is for the commemoration of the LIVING Vicar of Christ, and there is no living Pope right now, therefore that clause should be simply omitted, and only the local Bishop is named in the Te Igitur.

What do I mean by, “Give it to me”? I am asking Our Lord to give ME any temporal punishment (such as time in Purgatory) that might be due the priest for his mistaken commemoration of an Antipope. Why do I say “might be due”? Because only Christ can judge the hearts of men, and weigh each man’s conscience, knowledge of the situation, and most importantly it seems to me, the intense fear and coercion that priests are under with regards to the wretched apostate tyrant Bergoglio. Any priest who were to publicly announce that he was morally certain that Bergoglio is an Antipope would probably be the unjustly “canceled” and probably invalidly laicized. But he would be immediately functionally incapable of administering the Sacraments and living his priestly vocation, not to mention jobless, homeless, and stripped of his retirement benefits (we’ll leave the question of ANYONE under the age of 55 getting any retirement benefits for another conversation) and health insurance.

Should a priest be willing to suffer persecution? Of course. But at the same time, you’d have to be a sociopath utterly devoid of human empathy to not appreciate the pressure that priests are under. So if I can appreciate from the comfort of my armchair the pressure they are under, how much more does Our Lord? So, we pray for priests, and even ask to bear some of their burden if it will help. This has the effect of letting Our Lord know that we’re serious – really, really serious – about getting this Antipapacy mess resolved, AND it has the effect of INCREASING filial charity towards priests who are mistaken on the identity of the Vicar of Christ, instead of causing one to descend into resentment and even hatred of them.

Should they know by now, after ten years of near-daily proof that Bergoglio is a raging apostate at total war with Jesus Christ and His Holy Church, observably in violation of the infallibly defined dogma of Papal Infallibility, and thus pointing backwards to February of ARSH 2013 and Pope Benedict’s obviously invalid, substantially erroneous attempt to only partially resign and thus “fundamentally transform the Papacy into a collegial, synodal shared Office”?

Yes. Yes they should. They really, really should. But, how many of us have done things that we SHOULD have known (and deep down maybe DID know) were wrong, but we did them anyway? Probably the best example of this that has touched everyone reading this is entering into a bad marriage. It’s hard these days to not have civil divorce be within one degree of separation of oneself. Bad signs are almost always present before a trainwreck marriage is entered into, to the spouses themselves and outwardly to observers. But the human capacity for denial and self-delusion, especially in the attempt to avoid or delay suffering, or to maintain a false happiness, is gargantuan.

Having said that, let me remind the readership, both lay and clerical, that for a priest, bishop or cardinal to “get right” in terms of the Bergoglian Antipapacy would require about forty-five seconds in the confessional booth, whereas sacramental marriage is indissoluble.

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been one week since my last confession. I am a priest. I have come to the realization with moral certainty that I have mistakenly commemorated an Antipope at the Te Igitur and in public speech for the past ten years and failed to commemorate the true Pope for the last decade of his papacy. I was deceived. It was an honest mistake, which I now clearly see and greatly regret. I meant no harm to Our Lord and His Holy Church to whom I am forever espoused and love with all my heart….”

“…Ego te absolvo….”

Done. Finished. Over.

But, I, Ann Barnhardt should have probably done more. I have done a lot, but I could have done, and could still be doing more. This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

In direct answer to the original question, what to pray at the Te Igitur? In addition to praying for the local ordinary, I always pray the Matthew 17:20 Intention:

That Bergoglio be publicly recognized and removed as Antipope and the whole thing be nullified, that Pope Benedict be publicly recognized as having been the one and only living Pope from April ARSH 2005 until his death and for the Petrine See in se, that Bergoglio repent, revert to Catholicism, die in the state of grace in the fullness of time and someday achieve the Beatific Vision, and for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict Ratzinger.

Let me leave you with an absolutely outstanding essay that Supernerd sent to me a few months ago. It was written by an SSPXer who has been browbeaten for years from his 1958 Sedevacantist friends for attending Mass in which “Francis” is erroneously commemorated. The 1958 Sedevacantists argue that to even attend such a Mass is to proclaim oneself in union with Bergoglio and his heresies. (As if Our Lord doesn’t know and understand your mind and is confused by your presence at Mass. Facepalm.) But what I’m about to block quote below is a simply masterful logical explanation of the dynamics of the Te Igitur as a whole and how it logically relates to the “una cum”. It is exactly this kind of irrefutable logical COMMON SENSE that makes the world go ’round. THIS thoroughly irrefutable consilience is why “unlettered laynothings” can go toe-to-toe with Ph.Ds, canon lawyers and Cardinal Princes of the Church. If what any such people are saying is internally contradictory, irrational, illogical or simply not observable reality, then they are wrong – period. And not only CAN they be refuted, they MUST be refuted, with credentialism being nothing more than a laughable distraction to be dismissed with a chuckle.

Click over and bookmark this post. I’ll block quote the meat of it so that it cannot be erased.

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Assuming, for sake of the argument, that the una cum does what sedevecantists say that it does, who does the paragraph claim to be in union with? “Pope Francis.” But there is no such person. He’s not a pope. His name isn’t Francis. He’s a villainous heretic named Jorge Bergoglio wearing a costume. So, at worst, the paragraph places the Mass in union with a fiction. 

If we’re going to precise, strict, and legalistic, we should follow those principals to the extreme – especially if it means doing otherwise causes us to accuse millions of faithful traditional Catholics of being schismatic heretics …. A little restraint is in order. 

But, let’s continue to some things that won’t cause people to roll their eyes at me. There are a number of canons that one must employ when discerning the intention and meaning of a writing. Some of these are:

• Ordinary-Meaning Canon: Words are to be understood in their ordinary, everyday meanings—unless the context indicates otherwise.
• Fixed-Meaning Canon: Words must be given the meaning they had when the text was adopted.
• Omitted-Case Canon: Nothing is to be added to what the text states or reasonably implies (casus omissus pro omisso habendus est). That is, a matter not covered is to be treated as not covered.
• Negative-Implication Canon: The expression of one thing implies the exclusion of others (expressio unius est exclusio alterius).
• Unintelligibility Canon: An unintelligible text is inoperative.
• Series-Qualifier Canon: When there is a straightforward, parallel construction that involves all nouns or verbs in a series, a prepositive or postpositive modifier normally applies to the entire series.
• Proviso Canon. A proviso conditions the principal matter that it qualifies—almost always the matter immediately preceding.
• Whole-Text Canon. The text must be construed as a whole.
• Presumption of Consistent Usage: A word or phrase is presumed to bear the same meaning throughout a text; a material variation in terms suggests a variation in meaning.
• Harmonious-Reading Canon: The provisions of a text should be interpreted in a way that renders them compatible, not contradictory.
• Irreconcilability Canon: If a text contains truly irreconcilable provisions at the same level of generality, and they have been simultaneously adopted, neither provision should be given effect.
• Ejusdem Generis Canon. Where general words follow an enumeration of two or more things, they apply only to persons or things of the same general kind or classspecifically mentioned (ejusdem generis).
• Prefatory-Materials Canon: A preamble, purpose clause, or recital is a permissible indicator of meaning.
• Absurdity Doctrine. A provision may be either disregarded or corrected as an error (when the correction is textually simple) if failing to do so would result in a disposition that no reasonable person could approve.

Let’s apply each of these to the relevant phrase: “unite, and govern her throughout the world; as also for Thy servant {“Francis”} . . . our Pope, and N . . . our Bishop, AND FOR ALL ORTHODOX BELIEVERS AND ALL WHO PROFESS THE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH.”

1. Ordinary-Meaning Canon: Words are to be understood in their ordinary, everyday meanings—unless the context indicates otherwise.

Ordinarily, a pope is Catholic. A non Catholic pope is impossible. Consequently, that phrase applies to “all orthodox believers who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith,” including the [Catholic] pope. Nothing in the ordinary meaning implies that it unites one with an anticatholic, apostate, who happens to be an idolatrous antipope.  

2. Fixed-Meaning Canon: Words must be given the meaning they had when the text was adopted.

At the time the text was adopted, everybody knew that one must be Catholic to be pope. Furthermore, the authors of the text intended it to apply only to ALL ORTHODOX BELIEVERS AND ALL WHO PROFESS THE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH,” which necessarily excludes heretics. 

3. Omitted-Case Canon: Nothing is to be added to what the text states or reasonably implies (casus omissus pro omisso habendus est). That is, a matter not covered is to be treated as not covered.

Antipopes and heretics are omitted from the text, but “orthodox believers who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith” are specifically included, as the ultimate qualifier. Therefore, we can assume that the text does not intend to unify the Mass to heretics and schismatics. 

4. Negative-Implication Canon: The expression of one thing implies the exclusion of others (expressio unius est exclusio alterius).

The specific expression of “orthodox believers who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith” necessarily implies the exclusion of heretics, antipopes, and schismatics. 

5.  Unintelligibility Canon: An unintelligible text is inoperative.

The notion that the paragraph intends to unite “all orthodox believers who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith” with heretics, schismatics, and antipopes is nonsensical. The authors surely did not intend such a perverse result. Forcing that interpretation renders the entire paragraph unintelligible, and therefore inoperative, and not illicit or schismatic. 

6. Series-Qualifier Canon: When there is a straightforward, parallel construction that involves all nouns or verbs in a series, a prepositive or postpositive modifier normally applies to the entire series. 

The phrase: “thy servant {“Francis”} . . . our Pope, and N . . . our Bishop, AND FOR ALL ORTHODOX BELIEVERS AND ALL WHO PROFESS THE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC FAITH” is a series that ends with a modifier “who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith.” Consequently, that modifier applies to the entire series. In other words, applying Canons 1-6 to the phrase causes the unavoidable conclusion that it a) assumes the “pope” is Catholic, and b) EXCLUDES HIM IF HE’S NOT.

7. Proviso Canon: A proviso conditions the principal matter that it qualifies—almost always the matter immediately preceding.

The application of proviso canon is the same as the series qualifier canon. In other words, “in union with Francis” PROVIDED he is Catholic.

8. Whole-Text Canon. The text must be construed as a whole.

Reviewed as a whole, it is manifestly obvious that the intent of the text is to unite the Mass with “orthodox believers and all who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith” and only “orthodox believers and all who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith.” 

9. Presumption of Consistent Usage: A word or phrase is presumed to bear the same meaning throughout a text; a material variation in terms suggests a variation in meaning.

It is consistently presumed that the pope is Catholic. If he’s not Catholic, he’s not pope, and therefore he’s not in the Canon. 

10. Harmonious-Reading Canon: The provisions of a text should be interpreted in a way that renders them compatible, not contradictory.

The only way to read the Te Igitur harmoniously is to presume that it naturally excludes non-Catholics and antipopes, for all of the reasons above. Otherwise, the sentence would literally contradict itself.  

11. Irreconcilability Canon: If a text contains truly irreconcilable provisions at the same level of generality, and they have been simultaneously adopted, neither provision should be given effect.

If the Te Igitur both united the Mass with a) nonCatholics, schismatics, heretics, and antipopes, while also using the ultimate universal qualifier “and all orthodox believers and all who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith,” then it would be truly irreconcilable and neither provision would be given effect. 

12.  Ejusdem Generis Canon. Where general words follow an enumeration of two or more things, they apply only to persons or things of the same general kind or classspecifically mentioned (ejusdem generis). 

There is one class of people that is specifically mentioned “orthodox believers and all who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith.” Therefore, those general words only apply to the specific enumeration of the “pope” and “bishop” immediately preceding them, if they are of same kind or class that was specifically mentioned – Catholic. 

13. Prefatory-Materials Canon: A preamble, purpose clause, or recital is a permissible indicator of meaning.

The phrase “all orthodox believers and all who profess the Catholic and Apostolic faith” is the purpose clause of the paragraph. Consequently, it is a permissible indicator of meaning for the entire paragraph. 

14. Absurdity Doctrine: A provision may be either disregarded or corrected as an error (when the correction is textually simple) if failing to do so would result in a disposition that no reasonable person could approve.

No reasonable Catholic would interpret the Te Igitur as intentionally uniting the Mass and those assisting it with a heretic and/or antipope, because the paragraph is specifically limited to Catholics. In other words, the sedevecantist position on the una cum violates the absurdity doctrine.

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I would add in conclusion that an otherwise solid and orthodox priest erroneously uttering the name “Francis” at the Te Igitur is a clear sign that said priest wishes to be in union with the Petrine See, even though he is mistaken in identifying Antipope Bergoglio as the Pope, just as St. Vincent Ferrer’s mistaken utterance of the name of an Antipope for a time was manifestation of his total unity with Rome. Now, if I can understand this precision with regards to the many priests I know and have heard Mass celebrated by, and even call friends, in which I know for a fact that “Francis” is commemorated, and I have zero doubt as to their desire for and unity with Holy Mother Church, how much more can Our Lord comprehend it – He who knows their hearts and minds better than they themselves do?

And so I return to the question of whether I have and will do everything I can to help resolve this horrific situation. Believe me when I say…

I HOPE THIS HELPS.

St. Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

St. Peter, pray for us.

Our Lady of Copacabana, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and on your Holy Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.

Over the transom…