Nota Bene, President Trump: Forgivness of Others is Not Optional

Much is still being written about the life and the work of the late Charlie Kirk.

As I noted in Another Victim of the Anti-Incarnational Errors of Modernity, part two, as tragic as Mr. Kirk’s assassination was he was not a “martyr” for Christianity as there is no such things as a generic Christianity. To remind readers of this simple fact, it is enough to call to mind that Father Frederick William Faber wrote, “Where there is no Mass, there is no Christianity.” This should not be hard for a Catholic to understand or accept, and the fact that many Catholics in the United States of America do not understand or accept this immutable truth is the consequence of living in a land of Pelagianism (self-redemption) and religious indifferentism (one religion is as good as another).

William Thomas Walsh noted the dangerous consequences that must occur when Catholics live in a country where non-Catholics constitute a majority and where social pressures to conform to “agree to disagree” makes many Catholics indistinguishable from their non-Catholic neighbors:

Now, either the Catholic body will come into sharp conflict with those about them, or they will not.

Within a generation we have seen our Liberal politicians denounce the Soviet, cultivate friendly relations with it, and denounce it again – this time more coyly. As the world grows smaller in time, may not all the forms of Socialism be gathered together by skillful hands into a World Sate, such as many Masonic writers have advocated, and the League of Nations sought to achieve? It is not only conceivable,  but probable; for all forms of Socialism (even if some still call themselves Democracies) will be animated by a single obscure but powerful principle: the worship of the material, which is and always must be the negation of Christianity. Here, then, by a masterly anithesis, Pius XI has cast a strong light upon the shapes of things to come. It is all the more revealing when it shows us only the recurrence upon a larger stage of a deathless drama that happened long ago. Christ still lives in His Mystical Body, the Church, as truly as in the human body he took from Our Lady; and when the time comes for Him to be crucified again in His Church, depend upon it, Pilate and Herod that day will find a way to patch up their differences, some Caiaphas will cry, “Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!” and there will always be found some Judas to give the kiss of death.

Admittedly (perhaps my wish is father to this thought) we may by some miracle escape that fate, here in America. Perhaps despite their affiliations, Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Wilkie, as political Catholic admirers of each will tell us, will be led in the right direction by a divine hand. Again, perhaps not. Only the future can reveal this. Meanwhile this much is certain: the United States, in a very few years, will be either a Catholic country (and therefore a free country) or a Socialist country, (and therefore a slave country). “He who is not with Me is against Me.” History demonstrates the unfailing truth of this dilemma.

Here on the last edge and in the twilight of the world, the stage is set for the reenactment of an ancient tragedy – or can it this time be a comedy? Here are all the actors who have appeared over and over again in that tragedy in Europe. Here we have most of the Freemasons of the world, the Jews, most of the gold and its masters; Parthians and Medes and Elamites – men gathered together from all nations under the sun, speaking one language, leading a common life; and among them heirs of all the isms and heresies that the Catholic Church has denounced throughout the centuries, and some millions of good bewildered folk who have ceased to believe much in anything, and do not know what they believe, or whether anything be worth believing; and, scattered among these millions with their roots in such movements of the past, some twenty-five millions of Catholics.

If they do not [oppose socialism and liberalism as two sides of the same Protestant and Judeo-Masonic coin], it will be the first time in history that the Mystical Body of Christ (and American Catholics, like all others, are “cells” of that Body) has not aroused violent and unreasoning antagonism. This has been so uniformly a characteristic of the life of Christ and the life of the Catholic Church, that when persons calling themselves Christian or Catholic do not meet with oppositions, and strong opposition, one may well begin to wonder whether they are profoundly Christian and truly Catholic. Perhaps then it is a reflection upon us American Catholics that we have inspired so little antagonism (comparatively) thus far. Perhaps we have not been telling our neighbors the truth, the strong truth, the hard saying they will not like: that the real test of our republican experiment here must ultimately be whether it accepts or opposes the Church of Christ; that it must become either a Catholic state, or a slave state. (William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, New York, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1940 pp. 188-189.)

William Thomas Walsh summarized in a few paragraphs the theme that I have tried to hammer home in hundreds upon hundreds of lengthy commentaries on this site—and in countless hours of lectures around the country and online.

Yes, the United States of America has become a slave state controlled by the same set of forces that the Inquisition sought to eliminate from within Holy Mother Church. This is because the United States of America was founded on false principles, including those of “religious liberty” and “religious indifferentism” that contributed to the rise of counterfeit church of conciliarism—and thus to the efforts on the part of its supposedly “pro-life” “bishops” to oppose surgical baby-killing under cover of the civil law. It is impossible to oppose the evil of willful murder using the very false premises that led to its receiving the sanction of the civil law.

As well-meaning as Charlie Kirk was on some matters, he was wrong about many others, including on the fact that it is not enough to profess Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on our lips, we must belong to Him through His Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order within nations or a just peace among them. It is furthermore the case that Mr. Kirk’s “memorial service” on Sunday, September 21, 2025, the Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and the Commemoration of the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, was a spectacle of Protestantism, Judeo-Masonic religious indifferentism, Americanism, and Pelagianism all rolled in role that was without benefit to his immortal soul.

False religious services are not only displeasing in the sight of the true God of Divine Revelation, but they are also loathsome to Him as abject violations of the First Commandment. Such services become even more loathsome to God when known serial blasphemers boast of hating their enemies and their opponents.

Yes, of course, the narcissistic Donald John Trump, forty-fifth and forty-seventh President of the United States of America, sends out blistering messages to anyone who opposes him, including those who agree with him on many issues but express disagreement, say, about his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files or about the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza or about the “Big, Beautiful Spending Bill,” in the most vile terms imaginable, going so far as to term those who generally agree with him as his “former supporters.” Perhaps President Trump was not joking when he posted an artificial intelligence generated image of him in papal regalia as he certainly believes he is infallible and beyond question.

Possessing no true self-knowledge nor even the slightest hint of humility, Trump boasted that, unlike his friend Charlie Kirk, he does indeed hate enemies and opponents:

President Trump (24:00):

A lot of it was based on common sense, by the way. Charlie wrote back to the staff member saying, "I'm not here to fight them. I want to know them and love them, and I want to reach them and try and lead them into a great way of life in our country." In that private moment on his dying day, we find everything we need to know about who Charlie Kirk truly was. He was a missionary with a noble srpirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them.

(24:38)
That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.

(24:59)  (Donald Trump Charlie Kirk Memorial Service.)

The worst part of this is that the crowd of over 90,000, which is 20,000 more than the seating capacity at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (police estimated that as many as 200,000 people may have shown up for Roman spectacle), cheered with approval when Trump said he hated his opponent. This just goes to show once again the cult of the “infallible” Trump trumps the following words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:

You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have; do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 43-48.)

We must be perfect as Our Heavenly Father is perfect. We must forgive others. We cannot go about exacting vengeance or engaging in petty acts of vindictiveness against others. We must forgive as we are forgiven. It is that simple. Each of us deserves to be chastised for our sins. We should be grateful to the ever-merciful God that He sends us others to calumniate us and to speak ill of us just moments after they may have spoken feigned words of greetings to us through gritted teeth and pretended smiles that betrayed a spirit of inner contempt.

So what?

So what?

Our Lord also taught us that we must forgive those who hurt or offend us in one way or another seventy times seven times, meaning an infinite number of times in imitation of His own ready willingness to forgive us in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance if we approach Him with a true contrition for our sins and a firm purpose of amendment:

"Then Peter came unto Him and said: 'Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times.'

"Jesus saith to him: 'I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times.'

" 'Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewithal to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children all that he had, and payment to be made.

" 'But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

" 'But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying: "Pay what thou owest." And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

" 'Now his fellow servants seeing what was done were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: "Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou then have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?" And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt.

" 'So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.'" (Lk. 18:21-35)

That's right, ladies and gentlemen: we will not be forgiven our sins unless we forgive others from our hearts without any trace of bitterness at all! We recite the Pater Noster many times during a day, praying "Et dimmite nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimmitimus debitoribus nostris." "And forgive us our trespasses we forgive those who trespass against us." The martyrs, following the example of Our Lord and His Protomartyr, Saint Stephen, forgave their persecutors. We must do the same.

True, we may not be reconciled fully in this life with those in whose life we may have caused pain or with those who have caused us to suffer. We must, though, seek out forgiveness from others and to give it freely even if it turns out to be the case that there will not be a full restoration of friendship until the glories of Heaven, when all of those who have persevered to their dying breaths will be reconciled one unto the other. An absolute precondition of that happy reunion in Heaven, however, is to have at all times the spirit of forgiveness and prayer that Our Lord Himself taught us many times in His Public Ministry and ratified on the wood of the Holy Cross, the spirit of forgiveness and prayer that Saint Stephen demonstrated at the moment of his own martyrdom.

Consider this example of forgiveness that was offered by the legitimate Queen of England, Catherine of Aragon, to her debauched husband, King Henry VIII, written shortly before Queen Catherine's death on January 7, 1536, at the age of fifty:

My most dear lord, King and husband,

The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.

Katharine the Queen  (Letter of Katharine of Aragon to her husband.)

And you can't forgive the brother who hasn't written to you in ten years? Think again. Forgive as you have been given. Saint Stephen did. Why can't you?

Our sins deserve far, far worse than anything we are asked to suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears. None of us or our supposed “reputations,” which exist more in our own imaginations than they do in the objective order of things, are so important as to become arrogant and full of self-righteous sanctimony when our “pride” is wounded and especially when things we would rather not hear about ourselves become more widely known in this life as a preparation for the revelation of each of our private thoughts, words and actions on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the living and the dead. It will only be on that Last Day that the totality of our lives will be seen by others as we saw it at the Particular Judgment, which is ratified and made known to all at the General Judgment to manifest both the justice and mercy of God.

So many people plot and scheme and whisper behind closed doors (or endlessly on their cellular phones) to “protect” their nonexistent “reputations,” fearful that some ill word, whether true or not, will be spoken against them. Meetings are held where tales full of half-truth and lots of positivism are spun to seek reaffirmation from others for a “plan of action” to proactively attack those who know the truth about them and their constant self-seeking.

To what end?

To what good end?

Doesn’t everything get revealed on the Last Day? Why all of the efforts to avoid a little chastisement in this life?

Indeed, much of the chastisement that comes our way could be avoided entirely if we only had more humility to say, “You know what? Boy, I’ve messed up a whole lot. I’ve done some very bad things. I’ve treated people badly. I’ve attempted to make others look guilty in a given situation when I’m the one at fault. You know what? I’m a stinker. Please forgive me.”

Yes, even though Donald John Trump does not believe this, our persecutors and calumniators are really our best friends as they are being used by the good God as instruments to help us to be so purified of self and disordered self-love that we thank Him for helping us to be ground into nothing in the eyes of the "numbers," praying for a good and happy reconciliation for all eternity with Heaven with as those who have sought to persecute and/or speak ill of us even they, not realizing what it is they are doing, are just flat out wrong in their accusations. Everything does indeed get revealed on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the living and the dead. That's all that matters. Nothing else.

After all, Our Lord also said the following when discussing on the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount:

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[11] Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: [12] Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. (Matthew 5: 10-12.)

What a joy it is be counted worthy despite one’s own sins to have others speak ill against us for the sake of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is both humbling and encouraging to be the beneficiary of being so reviled.

In today’s world, though, forgiveness has become as difficult was it was before the Incarnation of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of His Most Blessed Mother by the power of God the Holy Ghost:

With the exception of that comparatively small number of heroic men and women who have, from the dawn of consciousness, pursued unfalteringly the path of perfection, Christians as a rule belie the promises of their baptism and continually present obstacles to the increase of divine grace in their souls. Differing in many respects, we are alike in this, that we are all sinners, and that we have not only once, but perhaps several times in our lives disappointed God.

Under the reign of Satan men were hard and unfeeling, without pity or tenderness. The one thing they looked up to was the physical power to dominate, and the one thing they feared was the helplessness of poverty. Their life was divided between pleasure and cruelty. Pride and haughtiness instead of being regarded as defects were regarded as manly virtues. Weakness was almost synonymous with vice, and all this tended to fashion hearts imperverious to the grace of God and to every human feeling. Conversion of heart was for them extremely difficult. What God required on the part of man as a necessary condition of their friendship with Him was to them abhorrent, for the practice of the Christian virtues of submission, humility, and patience would be regarded by them as degrading. They had to learn that what was not degrading to God–since nothing could degrade Him in reality–could not be degrading to them. Turning to God postulated on their part not only a change of heart, but also a change of mentality. Their human values were almost all wrong. In the terse words of St. Ignatius describing the pagan world” “They smite, they slay and they go down to Hell”.

In other words, it is the law of things as they actually are that we must continually suffer from others; it is the condition of our being that we shall be the victims of others’ abuse of their free wills; it belongs to our position that our desires and inclinations should be continually thwarted and that we should be at the mercy of circumstances. And it is our duty to bear that without resentment and without rebellion. To rebel is to assert practically that such things are not our due, that they do not belong to our position. It is to refuse to recognize that we are fallen members of a fallen race. The moment we feel resentment at anything painful that happens to us through the activity of men or things, at that moment we are resentful against God’s Providence.

We are in this really protesting against His eternal determination to create free beings; for these sufferings which we endure are a consequence of the carrying into effect of that free determination. If we expect or look for a mode of existence in which we shall not endure harshness, unkindness, misunderstanding, and injustice, we are actually rebelling against God’s Providence, we are claiming a position that does not belong to us as creatures. This is to sin against humility. It is pride. (Father Edward Leen, In The Likeness of Christ, Sheed and Ward, 1936, pp, 17-18; 182-183.)

Donald John Trump does not realize this, of course, but why is that we think that we are exception to having to suffer from others?

We must be content to be humiliated before men and to rejoice in this fact, recognizing that the good, the bad and the ugly of each of our lives will be revealed for all men to see on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the living and the dead.

No Catholic who takes the Cross of the Divine Redeemer broods over injuries, gets depressed or scours the internet the find out who is saying what about him.

Who cares?

It is enough to try to please Christ the King as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His true Church. It is enough to beg Our Lady, she who is the Queen of Mercy, to pray for us now, and at the hour of death. We should pray to be humiliated before men as this is truly the imitation of Christ the King, Who was humiliated by us, His own creatures, as He was about to redeem us by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is so merciful to us erring sinners. He gives us just the number of years of life to make it possible for us to “get it” insofar as the interior life of the soul is concerned.

We pray to Our Lady, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, to help us, whose bodies are destined temporarily for the corruption of the grave until the General Resurrection of the dead on the Last Day, to be serious about this particular Lent, aiming for the glories of an unending Easter Sunday of glory in Paradise that await us if we remain faithful to end as we pray for our own conversion and for that of all others, including President Donald John Trump and all those who are looking for someone follow, such as the late Charlie Kirk, as everyone on this earth must come to believe and then follow Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through the Church He Himself created upon the Rock of Peter the Pope, and none other.

May God have mercy on us all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Remigius, pray for us.