This is a long one, but I think it’s worth the read. Before getting into the recent news in the Vatican, we need to go through a few definitions. Apostasy is the denial of Christ by a person who once claimed to be Christian. Heresy is the denial of one or several dogmas of the Catholic Church. Schism is to break ties with the Pope in Rome and/or the Holy See.
However, the last definition requires some qualification. A Catholic cannot be called “a schismatic” for failure to join his heart and mind to a heretic. A Christian cannot be called “a schismatic” for failure to unite to a heretic.
When St. Catherine of Siena saw that the Cardinals chose an obvious antipope to call “the Pope in Rome,” she wrote them these exact words, among many others: “That evil which you have in yourselves you wish to infect us with, withdrawing us from obedience to Christ on earth, and leading us into obedience to antichrist, a member of the devil, as you are too, so long as you shall abide in this heresy.”
As far as the man the Cardinals labeled “the Pope,” well, she called him “an antichrist.” And she accused the Cardinals of leading the entire Catholic world into obedience to that very antichrist who she insisted was an anti-pope. The Catholic Church eventually sided with her.
But we don’t have a St. Catherine of Siena now, nor do we have a St. Bernard of Clairvaux to name for us who is an antipope. Therefore, schism in 2025 is harder to define. I think it’s now safer to say that the only schism dangerous to one’s soul today would be refraining from union with Eternal Rome as Archbishop Lefebvre labeled it. There is no chance that failure to unify with an apostate-Vatican could be dangerous to one’s soul.
For example, an Eastern Orthodox man’s salvation might be in danger for being torn from Eternal Rome. But if you think a quiet monk on Mount Athos has his salvation in danger for not being in union with a Pachamama-worshipper like Bergoglio, well, then you’re not even a common-sense based Christian, much less a Catholic.
There is no way we can say Christians’ failure to unite with the last two globalist-leftist, universalist-unitarian, liberation-theologian is a danger to anyone’s salvation. If that were the case, then union with a heretic would be necessary to go to heaven, which would make the entire Gospel false. That would make all of Divine Revelation a lie, which obviously must be rejected.
Therefore, we need to be clear that schism is a break from Eternal Rome, not a break from Modernist-Rome.
We will now see how God turns the evil of heresy into good. Of course, God never wills evil, but He is the sovereign master of turning evil into good. The renowned Fr. Michael Muller wrote a book in the 19th century about the Holy Mass titled The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Mystery of Christ’s Love. In it, the devout priest explained why God allowed the Protestant revolt. I know most people skip over long quotes of other authors in blog posts, but I would encourage you to read this whole paragraph closely:
To rid [Christ] of these sheep and to prevent their communicating their contagion to others; or, to rouse them from their fatal state of lethargy, and make them become better Christians, our divine Shepherd had recourse, as it were, to amputation. If one member of the body endangers the others, the physician, if he may, amputates it in order to save the whole. Jesus Christ, our divine physician, often acts thus. Especially was this the case in the sixteenth century. He permitted Protestantism, one of the greatest evils in the world, to arise. But as the Lord is Infinite Wisdom itself, He knows how to draw good from evil. One good, fervent Catholic is dearer to His Heart than a thousand who are lukewarm and indifferent. Protestantism was the instrument of amputation to separate the lukewarm and dead of the mystic body of Christ from the living members. The former followed Luther, the apostate-monk and great heresiarch of the sixteenth century.
This means that although God certainly wills all men to be saved, a group within the body of Christ that purposely becomes gangrenous must be amputated for the sake of the more innocent sheep. This is exactly what happened in 16th century England, as Catholics became the purified and tiny minority.
So also today, we can say that God certainly wills all “modernist Catholics” and traditional Catholics to be saved. But we have two faiths occupying one Church building. And this is detrimental to the salvation of both groups, if for no other reason than it leads to ecclesiastical dishonesty. And dishonesty is an offense against the Eternal Logos—Christ who is Truth Itself. This is why Satan does not want a schism in the Catholic Church today. Yes, you read that correctly.
Of course, my opponents will read that and cry, “Of course Fr. Nix has no problem with schism because he is a schismatic himself!” Well, it’s an old accusation I have endured for a while. I yawn now. But the fact is, as I stated earlier, that it’s impossible to be schismatic (torn) from a heretic. That is an impossible “rip” by every definition of the Magisterium and Canon Law for 2,000 years.
In and of itself, schism is not a bad word. It just means to rip or to tear away. For example, in Greek, the heavens “schismed” when Christ was baptized by St. John the Baptist. In Mark 1:10 this word “torn” is in the past-participle, σχιζομένους, or in the Latin alphabet: schizomenos. Or, consider how the Apostles ripped-away from the Jewish Sanhedrin at the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.
Actually, the Church Fathers all insist the Sanhedrin themselves schismed from the one true religion of not only the New Testament but even the Old Testament (which clearly foretold Christ as the only Messiah) when the Temple Veil was torn in Mark’s Gospel. St. Mark again used the word schism in the past-passive verb, ἐσχίσθη, in regards to the Temple Veil in Mk 15:38.
What is unique in the 21st century compared to past schisms is that the heretics have captured the Vatican. And they know real Catholics are [rightfully] afraid to break from it. In fact, a few years ago, Bergoglio basically dared real Catholics to break from him as he stated: “There always is the schismatic option in the Church. It’s a choice that the Lord leaves to human freedom. I am not afraid of schism.”
Then, his wicked cabal chose another liberation-theologian this Spring of 2025. It seems the “leftist Catholics” have interpreted this throbbing ecclesiastical Overton Window even better than most Traditional Catholics on social media today, for even the secular press in Italy admitted the following:
Because Bergoglio was very clear that after his pushback, a ‘normalizer’ was needed, someone who could reassure the Curia, even though he wasn’t a member of the Curia; someone who could reassure the progressives, even though he wasn’t a traditionalist; and finally, someone who could reassure the traditionalists, because he saw himself as a moderate. This last thing was what worried the old Pope most; he had a clear sense that, at a certain point in his pontificate, schism had actually come close. In short, someone was needed to unite, even a little gray, if you like, but after the fireworks, a little silence is good.
But Leo’s fence-ride didn’t last long. The Overton Window quickly shifted this last weekend. Michael Haynes, an official member of the Holy See Press Corps, showed a video on X of an “LGBT Jubilee pilgrimage” at the Vatican with many acts of sacrilege, like a rainbow cross seen above. This wasn’t an intrusion. Haynes accurately stated in his tweet that “Bishop Franceseco Savino (Vice-President of Italian Bishops) said Mass for the group & reportedly with Pope Leo’s express approval.” (emphasis mine.)
Mrs. Liz Yore wrote about this event: “Ponder the vile abomination in St. Peter’s Basilica, as they marched over the tomb of the martyr Peter, waving rainbow flags, carrying a large rainbow cross, adorned with ‘F*** [the] Rules’ t-shirts, clerics draped in rainbow paraphernalia, men dressed in drag, announcing that political gender ideology now trumps Catholic dogma.”
Liz Yore may be our Catherine of Siena. I am again reminded of the harsh words of St. Catherine of Siena to the Cardinals for picking an anti-pope that I already quoted above: “That evil which you have in yourselves you wish to infect us with, withdrawing us from obedience to Christ on earth, and leading us into obedience to antichrist, a member of the devil, as you are too, so long as you shall abide in this heresy.”
Therefore, recognizing an obvious antipope does not make you a schismatic. Otherwise, that would make both St. Catherine of Siena and St. Bernard of Clairvaux both “schismatics.”
The real problem in 2025 is that even our “best Cardinals” are not listening to the St. Catherine of Siena today. Cardinal Burke will celebrate a Pontifical Solemn High Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage during the last weekend of October 2025. Trad. Inc. is telling us to pay attention to that future event instead of the gay sacrilege in the Vatican that took place just last weekend.
But wait a minute. Is Cardinal Burke going to go into the same location as the sacrilegious protest without prior re-consecration of that desecrated Basilica? Is he going to offer Holy Mass there without reparation or exorcism first? What about all the sacrilegious communions that took place in the Gesù as those with moral disorders were not called to confession before Holy Communion?
Is Cardinal Burke going to refrain from yet another formal-correction following a First Commandment violation like the Pachamama event? Would His Eminence even get to keep his Solemn High Mass if he were to publicly criticize the diabolical pilgrimage? Yes, sadly, I believe the Solemn High Mass would be pulled if Cardinal Burke did the right thing.
And, yet, like good cult-members under the highest levels of Stockholm-Syndrome seen yet since 2013, Trad. Inc. was immediately pacified by the news that Cardinal Burke will do something pretty in the exact same location as the LGBT pilgrimage without an apparent word of protest (at least to my knowledge, but please correct me in the comments or an email if I am wrong.)
The fact is that if I had sat down to write a script 20 years ago for a Catholic dystopian movie of brainwashing of all the faithful with this exact plot-line of Cardinal Burke offering a TLM less than two months after an LGBT pilgrimage into the Vatican, all my friends would tell me to stop exaggerating. “No one would believe that,” they might scoff.
So where do we go from here? Well, either Christ returns in glory to end the world soon, or we get what Our Lady of Good Success promised 500 years ago for the period after the 20th century: The Prelate (bishop or Cardinal) “who will restore the spirit of its priests.”
However, from all of the evidence above, that courageous Prelate is not Cardinal Burke or anyone who we currently know by name. (In fact, the current silence from the Cardinals over the LGBT invasion into the Vatican reminds me of a very different line from Our Lady of Good Success: “He who should speak seasonably will remain silent.“)
But when we have the Great Prelate, schism will be the pressure-release valve to heresy. The modernist Catholics will probably be 95% of the world and keep the Church buildings. The traditional Catholics will probably be 5% of the world and not have many Church buildings. Actually, from the recent defection of Trad. Inc. from the eternal truths of our faith (by defending an obvious heretic) I fear that breakdown might be more like 99% vs. 1%.
But numbers mean nothing to God. As Jonathan of the Old Testament said, It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.—1 Sam 14:6. Therefore, you’re not going to see me follow any so-called “Catholic” opinion polls, regardless of how many “traditional influencers” tell me to start ignoring heretics in the Vatican. Rather, the 1917 Code of Canon Law says that you defending a heretic makes you yourself “suspect of heresy.”
Stay faithful, even when it seems like the true Church be “paralyzed” as Our Lady of Good Success stated she would be. Consider Church history: The Arians maintained the Churches…for a while. Then God blessed the courage of the Athanasian Trinitarians who would not reach across the aisle with the heretics, even when they controlled the Churches they wanted for pretty liturgies.
When the next schism happens, the real Catholics will out-produce the fake Catholics biologically within just one generation (due to leftists’ use of contraception.) The real priests will out-produce the weeny modernist priests spiritually in just one generation, mainly due to their celibacy and the use of Apostolic dogma and ancient sacraments (all seven old sacraments, not just one.)
But unfortunately, the good guys don’t have the godly zeal right now that the bad guys have when it comes to their diabolical zeal. So, unfortunately, ripping the good guys away from the bad guys is no real danger to Satan’s kingdom currently. Do you see why I opened this article with the words of the 19th century Fr. Michael Muller? We really must understand that God lets the heretics split from the orthodox for the sake of the orthodox.
The above picture is currently circulating on X with a lot of commentary. They rightly point out that there are two faiths occupying one Church building. While it is true that Fr. James Martin wants a liberal implementation of Vatican II, and while it is true that Cardinal Burke wants a conservative implementation of Vatican II, the problem is this: All three fully accept Vatican II.
Archbishop Viganò wrote on X about that picture: “In reality, there is something that unites Burke with Martin, and in the name of which both can look to Leo as their ‘father in faith’: All three acknowledge their Council, the only one in two thousand years of history (and this alone is enough to qualify its disastrous scope) that allows Burke to criticize Amoris Lætitia and Martin to bless gay-couples.”
Do you see what Viganò is saying? He is saying that Prevost will happily collaborate with both Burke and Martin, provided both pinch incense to the 1960s heretical-council. No, I’m not afraid to use the word heretical council. Look at Nostra Aetate chapter three stating Muslims “adore the one living God.” Yes, that line is literally found in the actual documents of Vatican II, not just in the low-hanging fruit that conservatives love to attack, namely, the “spirit of the Council.”
The Prelate to restore the Catholic Church according to Our Lady of Good Success will certainly reject this heresy of religious indifferentism. Until we have a Cardinal ready to do that, the Catholic Church will not schism like she needs to. Therefore, the heretics will stay, and grow in power in Rome.
Where have all the heroes in Rome gone? Archbishop Viganò wrote on his site: “The path of being persecuted, ostracized, and excommunicated do not seem to be among the options for my brothers: It seems they are already resigned to a fate of tolerance, in which they can neither be truly Catholic nor fully synodal.”
What a sad accusation he makes against those “conservative” Cardinals, bishops and priests who can never fully stand against the religious indifferentism errors of Vatican II: They can never be “truly Catholic nor fully synodal.” Of course, when we hear these words from Archbishop Viganò, one is clearly reminded of the words of Our Lord in the Apocalypse: Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.—Apocalypse 3:16.
Towards the beginning of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, Pilate hears from his bedroom window the Jews about to riot over the forthcoming judgment of Christ. With Claudia at his side, Pilate says to his main centurion Abenader: “I don’t want a sedition.” With cool Romanitas, Abenader then replies in Latin: Seditio iam est. Literally, “There already is a sedition.” (The word seditio in Latin also means a going apart or an uprising.)
Again, thousands of traditional Catholics (many of them seen as much less extreme than me) admit there are now two faiths occupying one Church building. There already is a schism. There already is a sedition. But you holding to the True Catholic Faith cannot make you a schismatic. Again, according to the Magisterium and every version of Canon Law, it’s absolutely impossible to be a schismatic by rejecting a heretic, regardless of his putative-office in the Church.
And if you aren’t sure if you can recognize a heretic according to all the saints, see my last Substack where you are not only allowed, but even obliged to recognize a heretic in the apparent hierarchy.
Nevertheless, don’t go about telling anyone you are schismatic from the counterfeit church! Why not? Because no one will understand you. I am simply asserting here that there already is a internal schism in the Catholic Church. And you will side with God Himself by siding with the ancient faith and living it fully.
The rip or tear within the ecclesial fabric already happened over the past 60 or 70 years. It just became fully-open in 2013. Now more than ever, I simply admonish you to side with God Himself via His own Divine Revelation given to the Apostles. If you defend a heretic, you become one.
So now what must you do? All you need to do is keep the ancient faith and attend the ancient sacraments and refrain from denying the full-extent of the Church crisis which is even being denied by many laymen and clergy who claim to love the TLM.
When this internal schism becomes an external schism, it will be the pressure-release valve to kick out the heretics and allow the true, tiny Church to grow and flourish like never before, even if we’re only 1% of the originally-baptized Catholics on the good-guys team by the time it’s all shaken out. Evangelical Protestants and pious Eastern Orthodox will finally desire a unity with Eternal Rome (not the modernist Rome as many liberal Protestants are apparently flooding towards today.)
So, how will we actually get a Catholic Pope? I have no idea. But that’s not my job or yours. We must just keep the faith. Maybe just keep producing children and maybe one of them will be a Pope who not only loves the TLM but refrains from compromise on the Gospel claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.—Jn 14:6.
When this Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary happens, unbelievers will flood into the Catholic Church as they see Apostolic priests preaching Christ-crucified and beautiful Catholic families following God’s original commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.”—Genesis 1:28. And many of you are already doing this. May God bless you abundantly for your faith and courage.
So, don’t be afraid of the external-schism when it grows out of this obvious internal-schism. When Apostolic Catholics can finally see the sloughing-off of the gangrenous modernist Catholics (even if they maintain the Church buildings) then this will truly be the beginning of the restoration of the Catholic Church, aka Fatima’s age of peace and La Salette’s prophesied days of the great harvest of unbelievers into the Catholic Church.
Pray that we finally get Cardinals and bishops courageous enough to reject the hijacking imposters of our Churches and seats who have nothing Catholic about them except their vestments. Come Lord Jesus, Maranatha!
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