Robert Bellarmine

Yeah.

Well, I can also say that, I mean, you know, we know that... you know that there's a lot to mourn about in the world in the church today but even that's sort of treated as psychologically unhealthy there's a good new book coming out by the way uh newly translated it's never been translated from the latin by saint robert bellarmine i'm writing a forward to it now um on the gift of tears and the gift of weeping for our sins And this is treated by kind of the mainstream church as sort of like, well, that's sort of unhealthy spiritually and emotionally, don't you think? I mean, isn't that kind of negative? And yet, again, I think that what we have to accept is, let's put it this way.

If you don't know the bad news, the good news is no news.

And so we as a church have sort of decided to jettison any serious talk about right and wrong and moral doctrine and clarity just so everyone can kind of feel good.

And then Pius X said, all the strength of Satan's reign is due to easygoing weakness of Catholics.

Okay? I mean, like, all the evil in the world, all the strength of Satan's reign, vomit you out of my mouth? I mean...

They know, Jesus and these saints know, this is Satan's most powerful, most effective weapon is to deaden our hearts, okay?

Right.

He'll say, well, I haven't done that.

This is ipso facto, automatically has been done according to Saint Robert Bellarmine.

Now, they take Robert Bellarmine out of context, number one.

But either which way, what this amounts to is private judgment.

And here is the scary thing.

That is very difficult issue.

which many of us are struggling with, and St. Robert Bellarmine, great philosophers, Cajetan, Suarez, and later canonists, canon law, they all differed on the answer to this.

So I want to show you everything I just told you.

I was like, okay, Lord, help me here.

Another link, it's interesting.

I- I'm not sure it's right, but Jefferson certainly had Robert Bellarmine in his library.

Sure.

Robert Bellarmine, great Catholic, you know, theologian, would have mediated to our founders something of that scholastic vision.

I think unmistakably in our constitution when you have the president, who's something like a monarch.

Mm-hmm.

I don't believe that at all.

I think St. Robert Bellarmine's work on that is more excellent.

St. Robert Bellarmine, doctor of the church, fantastic work on the Antichrist.

I would recommend that.

Instead, it is my firm belief, and this was one of the points I made today on the Antichrist, especially when I brought up Father Jason Sharon in his video.

What St. Peter Canisius and St. Lawrence of Brindisi had done for Germany, St. Francis de Sales did for Switzerland, which, in spite of John Calvin, ended up more Catholic than Protestant.

On the other hand, you may remember that in our episodes on St. Robert Bellarmine that Bellarmine wrote on the so-called separation of powers, saying that kings, as representatives of the people such as they are, should have power over temporal matters like government, and the pope should have power over spiritual matters only.

And what he wrote likely influenced the founding fathers of the United States, but it didn't make the pope happy.

Well, it turns out that St. Francis de Sales wasn't happy either.

He liked St. Robert Bellarmine in general, but disagreed with him on this point.

St. Francis de Sales thought that the pope should be the ultimate authority over both spiritual and temporal matters.

St. Francis thought that since the Church had so many enemies, it wasn't smart to hand over authority to secular rulers, especially in any place where the Church might be persecuted, because he knew from experience that it would be.

Part one is an overview of the Christian devotional life, including how to avoid sin, and it includes sections on the four last things, heaven, hell, death, and judgment, and there are also instructions on how to make a good confession.

We know only that souls must remain there until they are perfectly purified, either by their pains or by the suffrages of the faithful upon earth.

it is evident therefore that some must suffer a longer and others a shorter time according to the amount of punishment to be expiated according to venerable marina of escobar some souls are sentenced to punishment for twenty thirty forty fifty or sixty years and even longer numerous souls who have been in purgatory for twenty forty and fifty years appeared to the venerable sister frances of the blessed sacrament and implored her assistance the venerable anna catherine emmerich had a vision of a soul that had been in purgatory for centuries the learned st robert bellarmine and others held the opinion that there are some souls who will have to suffer in purgatory until the end of time intensified pain will probably supply the want of time for souls who have not rendered full satisfaction at the time of the last judgment in purgatory however the passage of time is not reckoned as it is by us here upon earth to the suffering souls hours seem as years and years as centuries this has been revealed by the apparitions of many souls a religious who appeared after death to one of his brethren said that three days in purgatory had seemed to him longer than a thousand years another having experienced the sufferings of purgatory for only a few hours was convinced that he had suffered a hundred and fifty years A certain priest who had lived a very holy and penitential life was warned of his approaching death and informed that he would have to suffer in purgatory until a holy Mass had been offered up in his behalf.

He told an intimate friend of the warning, and the latter promised to offer a Mass for him as soon as possible after his death.

no sooner had the good priest breathed his last than his friend hastened to fulfil his promise with utmost fervour he offered up the holy sacrifice beseeching god in the name of the victim of the altar to have pity on the soul of his departed friend while the priest was making his thanksgiving after mass the soul of the deceased appeared to him radiant with holy joy but with a sad voice reproached him saying o brother how badly you kept your promise you left me in purgatory a whole year and during all that time neither you nor any of the fathers said a holy mass for me astounded by these words the father replied that he had just finished the mass which he had commenced directly after the priest's death and that the remains were still awaiting burial the soul exclaimed in astonishment oh how dreadful are the sufferings of purgatory that such a short time should appear to be a year he then thanked god for his mercy and goodness in shortening the time of his purgation and with inexpressible joy took his flight to heaven the poor souls aided through the communion of saints we know from the consoling doctrine of the communion of saints that the members of the church triumphant in heaven are given power to assist the members of the church militant on earth as well as the members of the church suffering in purgatory and that the members of the church militant are likewise enabled to assist their suffering brethren in purgatory the lives of nearly all the saints reveal that they practised great charity towards the poor souls but how much greater must be their sympathy for these poor sufferers now that they look down upon them from the realms of glory having themselves in many instances experienced the rigours of divine justice in the flames of purgatory they exercise this ardent charity in behalf of the poor souls by interceding for them at the throne of god and imploring divine mercy to shorten the time of their purgation the souls in purgatory can expiate their sins only through excruciating sufferings but the church militant can take their place in the work of atonement and offer up suffrages to the merciful and just judge imploring him to accept such works in expiation of the poor soul's delinquencies The justice of God demands the payment of their debts, but His mercy is appeased by the atonement and intercession made by the living in their behalf.

Parents also, whose sons are preparing for the priesthood, should be most charitable toward the souls of deceased priests.

Thus they will obtain aid for their sons to become good priests, worthy ministers of the altar.

three motives relating to ourselves st alphonsus ligori and st robert bellarmine are of the opinion that the poor souls may be invoked to be convinced of their intercessory power we need but read the numberless instances recorded of aid received through the poor souls one person for instance is delivered from the passion of gambling on account of his charity for the souls in purgatory another from drink a third from impure temptations and another obtains through the holy souls the grace of receiving the last sacraments c because god loves the souls in purgatory so much and longs for their deliverance and because their sufferings are so dreadful he bestows special graces on those who come to their assistance it was revealed to a saintly person that god answers with exceptional promptness the prayers of those who in distress and misery have recourse to the suffering souls they receive graces for soul and body temporal favors which they could not have expected had they not been merciful to the poor souls st catherine of bologna declared expressly that she had obtained more graces through the mediation of the poor souls in purgatory than through the intercession of the saints frequently she petitioned the saints in heaven for graces which were not granted but no sooner did she appeal to the poor souls than she obtained what she desired a devout person declared that when all her prayers and petitions for a certain grace had proved fruitless she turned to the souls in purgatory and her request was granted our lord himself appeared to st catherine of siena and revealed to her that she had obtained hundreds of great graces through the intercession of the holy souls a certain poor soul said to blessed francis of the blessed sacrament we too recommend your needs to god whenever a person remembers us we all remember him before god and obtain graces for him especially the grace to serve god faithfully to avoid sin and to die a happy death st bridget relates that she once heard many poor souls praying o god reward those who help us in our misery the blessed virgin herself recommends charity toward the souls in purgatory to her servants rev alphonse corsetti s j had been annoyed by violent temptations against holy chastity as he had vainly employed every means to banish them he took refuge in mary the blessed virgin appeared to him and admonished him to pray much for the poor souls he did so and was relieved let us then pray with confidence for the poor souls in all our necessities and we will soon experience that through them many great graces can be obtained thirty three days devotion for the poor souls An efficacious means of obtaining favors from heaven is to assist at Holy Mass and to pray the Way of the Cross daily for thirty-three consecutive days for the poor souls.

Many persons have by this means obtained favors which they did not receive even through the intercession of the saints.

So it just gives you a sense of that.

We talk about St. Robert Bellarmine's dictum, which is very important.

that an interpretation of Scripture should never contradict a demonstrated scientific fact.

And that's an extremely important one.

It basically goes back to St. Augustine, honestly.

And so St. Robert Bellarmine, of course, reiterates it in a scientific age.

St. Augustine was talking about natural philosophy, where a scriptural interpretation obviously disregards a naturalistic philosophical demonstrated fact, which there were many of, even, you know, in the times of Rome, because you could see mathematically, you know, the spherical, you know, dimensions of the earth.

So, you know, the whole idea of interpreting the scriptures, flat earth, just couldn't even abide in Augustine's day.