The Spiritual Downfall of Many: Human Respect

One of the chief means by which the adversary has keep Catholics, both clergy and laity alike, from seeking the conversion of non-Catholics here in the United Staes of America has been human respect, that is, the desire to “go along, to get along” in order to avoid any conflicts, controversies, disagreements, or arguments with non-Catholics and/or fallen away Catholics. The anti-Incarnational, Pelagian, and pluralistic civil state of Modernity, of which the United States of America was the first to have ever existed in the world, has been used by the adversary to keep Catholics comfortable materially and to engage with others in a religiously indifferentist manner.  The religious indifferentism born of the pluralistic state provides a seedbed for all manner of sins, starting with the public worship that is due the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Holy Trinity, reverence for His Holy Name and to keep Our Lord’s day, Sunday, holy, and from there to the most vile sins against the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Commandments:

Pope Pius XII noted this in Sertum Laetitiae, November 1, 1941:

Not with the conquest of material space does one approach to God, separation from Whom is death, conversion to Whom is life, to be established in Whom is glory; but under the guidance of Christ with the fullness of sincere faith, with unsullied conscience and upright will, with holy works, with the achievement and the employment of that genuine liberty whose sacred rules are found proclaimed in the Gospel. If, instead, the Commandments of God are spurned, not only is it impossible to attain that happiness which has place beyond the brief span of time which is allotted to earthly existence, but the very basis upon which rests true civilization is shaken and naught is to be expected but ruins over which belated tears must be shed. How, in fact, can the public weal and the glory of civilized life have any guarantee of stability when right is subverted and virtue despised and decried? Is not God the Source and the Giver of law? Is He not the inspiration and the reward of virtue with none like unto Him among lawgivers (Cf. Job xxxvi:22)? This, according to the admission of all reasonable men, is everywhere the bitter and prolific root of evils: the refusal to recognize the Divine Majesty, the neglect of the moral law, the origin of which is from Heaven, or that regrettable inconstancy which makes its victims waver between the lawful and the forbidden, between justice and iniquity.

19. Thence arise immoderate and blind egoists, that thirst for pleasure, the vice of drunkenness, immodest and costly styles in dress, the prevalence of crime even among minors, the lust for power, neglect of the poor, base craving for ill-gotten wealth, the flight from the land, levity in entering into marriage, divorce, the break-up of the family, the cooling of mutual affection between parents and children, birth control, the enfeeblement of the race, the weakening of respect for authority, or obsequiousness, or rebellion, neglect of duty towards one’s country and towards mankind. (Pope Pius XII, Sertum Laetitiae, November 1, 1941.)

Our last true pope thus far reiterated the warnings that Pope Leo XIII had given to the American bishops in Longiqua Oceani, January 6, 1895, and Testem Benvolentiae Nostrae, January 22, 1899, concerning the inconstancy that makes men who know nothing of First and Last Things waver between “the lawful and the forbidden” and between “justice and iniquity, something that is even more apt for our times eighty-four years later.

Longtime readers of this site know that one of the themes I have repeated endless is that the religious indifferentism of the American founding can only wind up with the triumph of totalitarianism over time, an over trial run of which occurred during the plandemic in 2020 and 2021 after years of creeping totalitarianism from the time of World War II, the Cold War, and the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Although there is no need to go down the rabbit hole of details involved in the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Kamala Harris Emhoff to silence, discredit, surveil, intimidate, investigate, prosecute, and persecute political dissenters from its totalitarianism (the entire plandemic agenda, which included draconian vaccine mandates, open borders, the unrestrained use of executive orders and presidential directives about which the hapless old pro-abort from Delaware probably knew nothing). The Biden-Harris administration’s operatives engaged in a four-year long effort to imprison the forty-fifth president of the United States of America, who is not the forty-seventh president of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, and they used the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate traditional Catholics, including me, and, as has been revealed recently, to spy upon over four hundred Republicans, including members of both Houses of the Congress of the United States of America:

The revelation that the FBI snooped on the phone records of Republican members of Congress during its January 6 investigation is bringing greater scrutiny to then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, during whose tenure the bureau effort occurred, and to then-Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was leading the Biden Justice Department’s investigation into Donald Trump.

Smith and the FBI reportedly collected the private phone records of eight Republican senators and one GOP House member as part of his investigation into the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

Biden's FBI targeted Republicans for communications snooping

An unearthed FBI record from 2023 indicated that investigators at the bureau had “conducted preliminary toll analysis on limited toll records” tied to phone calls related to GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Ron Johnson R-Wisc.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.

“This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into ‘election conspiracy’ Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a Monday afternoon tweet as he shared the FBI record that had been provided to him by current FBI Director Kash Patel: “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”

 source familiar with the matter who declined to be named told Just the News that the phone record search was conducted pursuant to a grand jury subpoena.

Chris Piehota, a former Executive Assistant Director of the FBI, told Just the News, No Noise on Monday night that “absolutely” Wray must have been involved in approving the move to collect information on the phone records of members of Congress, saying that “he would have been briefed on it, and he would have given his concurrence, no doubt.”

The once-secret FBI record, dated late September 2023, has the title of "CAST Assistance" — a likely reference to the bureau’s cellular analysis survey team. The case ID for the record is "ARCTIC FROST — Election Law Matters — SENSITIVE INVESTIGATIVE MATTER — CAST."

Biden-era DOJ, FBI used as political weapons

Patel tweeted on Monday that “we recently uncovered proof that phone records of U.S. lawmakers were seized for political purposes” and “that abuse of power ends now.”

Just the News confirmed in August that the Hatch Act Unit of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), led by Trump-appointed Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, had opened an investigation into Smith related to the cases he had pursued against Trump. The OSC says that “the Hatch Act Unit enforces compliance with the Act by investigating alleged Hatch Act violations.” The OSC further says that the Hatch Act “limits certain political activities of federal employees … to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.”

Grassley's office said Monday that "the FBI in 2023 sought and obtained data about the senators’ phone use" from January 4, 2021 through January 7, 2021 (the day after the Capitol riot). The senator's office said that "that data shows when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call" although not the contents of the calls themselves.

Grassley: "Worse than Watergate"

The Senate chairman's office revealed that the FBI document "was found in a Prohibited Access file in response to Grassley’s oversight requests."

“Based on the evidence to-date, Arctic Frost and related weaponization by federal law enforcement under Biden was arguably worse than Watergate,” Grassley said in a Monday evening statement. “What I’ve uncovered today is disturbing and outrageous political conduct by the Biden FBI. The FBI’s actions were an unconstitutional breach, and Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel need to hold accountable those involved in this serious wrongdoing.”

Bassem Youssef, a retired unit chief for the FBI’s counterterrorism division, told "Just the News, No Noise" on Monday night that the targeting of members of the House and Senate was highly unusual.

“You’re talking about members of the Congress and the Senate. Those are protected entities. … When you talk about members of Congress… those are highly sensitive targets that demand a higher level of predication for getting the authority,” Youssef said. “And so to me, the fact that this was done on just the GOP side of the House is already a big flag.”

Youssef added: “Now, the window between January 4 and January 7 would be the window when Congress was preparing to certify the election, which is clearly a function of Congress, it's actually protected by the Constitution.”

Grassley and Johnson released records in January which his office said showed now-former FBI assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault “authored the initial language for what ultimately became Jack Smith’s federal case against Trump regarding the 2020 presidential election.” The senators said that "records show Thibault essentially opened and approved his own investigation” — which was dubbed “Arctic Frost.”

Thibault retired from the bureau in 2022 after his anti-Trump social media postings were revealed.

The senators further revealed in March that the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation also “acquired the government cell phones of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other government officials.”

Merrick Garland, then-Attorney General in January 2022 declared “there is no higher priority for us at the Department of Justice” than going after those involved with January 6, calling the DOJ’s inquiry “one of the largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in our history.”

Garland announced in early January of this year, before being replaced by Pam Bondi, that “We have now charged more than 1,500 individuals for crimes that occurred on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack," on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.

Wray claimed in a February 2022 speech that the FBI was working just as hard to punish those involved in the 2020 George Floyd riots as it was to prosecute those tied to the Capitol riot.

The FBI raided Trump’s Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 with the authorization of Garland. He appointed Smith to be special counsel in November 2022.

Request to investigate Smith

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., urged the Office of Special Counsel – led by Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer – to investigate Smith in a letter sent in July, arguing Smith had improperly attempted to influence the 2024 election.

“I write requesting the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith, Special Counsel for Attorney General Merrick Garland, unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election to harm then-candidate President Donald Trump,” Cotton wrote. 

“As the Office of the Special Counsel is tasked with ensuring federal employees aren't conducting partisan political activity under the guise of their federal employment, you're well situated to determine whether Smith broke the law. Many of Smith's legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results-actions that would violate federal law.”

Cotton argued that Smith’s “actions were not standard, necessary, or justified—unless Smith's real purpose was to influence the election” and contended that the former special counsel “regularly used farfetched and aggressive legal theories to prosecute the Republican nominee for president.” The Arkansas Republican said that “Trump's astounding victory doesn't excuse Smith of responsibility for his unlawful election interference” and said he wanted the Office of Special Counsel “to investigate whether Jack Smith or any members of his team unlawfully acted for political purposes.”

Smith’s lawyers from the Covington & Burling law firm sent their own letter to Greer in August defending their client, arguing that “Smith’s actions as special counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences, not because of them.”

The former special counsel’s attorneys argued that “Mr. Smith was fiercely committed to making prosecutorial decisions based solely on the evidence, he steadfastly followed Department of Justice guidelines and the Principles of Federal Prosecution, and he did not let the pending election influence his investigative or prosecutorial decision-making.”

Smith’s team added that they believed that the basis for an OSC inquiry into their client was “imaginary and unfounded.”

Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him by Just the News through his lawyers.

Who approved spying and on what basis?

The action by Wray’s FBI and by Smith’s special counsel team to snoop on the phone records of GOP members of the Senate and House is likely to factor into the OSC inquiry.

“This matter is going to be approved and reviewed and scrutinized at the highest levels of the FBI and the Department of Justice when you're looking at conducting electronic surveillance on our national leaders,” Piehota told "Just the News, No Noise" on Monday night. “So you have to look at that level of review and scrutiny. As far as where Jack Smith comes in, he had to probably show adequate predication with his investigative work that he was able to convince the FBI and Department of Justice to go and obtain these records. So I'd love to see what the predication was, and I'd love to see how it was presented, and who approved and knew of these actions prior to the implementation.”

Smith and the Biden DOJ charged Trump in June 2023 over allegations related to the improper retention of classified documents, followed by a superseding indictment the next month. The then-special counsel then indicted Trump in August 2023 related to the then-former president’s alleged actions surrounding the 2020 election, with superseding charges in August 2024.

Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s classified documents case against Trump in July 2024, ruling that Smith had been unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith attempted to appeal the ruling but soon dropped it after Trump won the 2024 election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the January 6-related case against Trump in November 2024 after Trump’s win, pointing to the Office of Legal Counsel’s position that a sitting president could not be prosecuted by his own DOJ. Smith released his report on his January 6-related effort against Trump in January of this year, a couple of weeks before Trump’s second inauguration.

Trump issued pardons and commutations in January of this year to the hundreds of defendants who had been charged by the DOJ for their involvement in the Capitol riot. Some were sentenced to as long as 18 years behind bars. By contrast, Nicholas Roske, a 29-year-old from Simi Valley, California, was sentenced last week to eight years for attempting to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Bombshell document showing FBI snooped on Congress renews scrutiny on Jack Smith, Chris Wray. Also see: Jack Smith showed ‘no restraint’ in GOP lawmakers’ probe, legal expert says, and Sen. Hawley calls FBI surveillance of GOP senators 'worse than Watergate'.)

There is no naturalistic means by which such totalitarianism can be turned back, and it is the refusal of most of the American bishops in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries to recognize the dangers posed by pluralism and religious indifferentism that lulled ordinary Catholics into a false sense of security about how the American system was either perfectly compatible with the Holy Faith or, at the very least, left them alone to practice the Faith without state interference.

Such interference, however, is precisely what the administration former President in Name Only Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Vice President and Secretary of the Department of Word Salads Kamala Harris Emhoff attempted and is actually being done in Canada and many countries throughout the European Union, and this has happened because ordinary citizens accept the creeping advance of unjust powers of a civil state untethered from the Social Reign of Christ the King as they have never known anything else.

If one thinks about this, it is part of our human nature to seek an authority figure even though men are rebellious because of Original Sin. Men of all ages seek role models (“entertainers,” celebrities, “social influencers,” politicians, physicians, psychologists, social workers, television “doctors,” etc.) and, ultimately, they are prone to render unto the civil state a spirit of humility and obedience that should be rendered to Holy Mother Church in all that pertains to the good of their immortal souls.

Most of those who govern the world today are unconcerned about First and Last Things and they are ignorant about the fact that they are going to be judged by Christ the King when they die for the many ways they lorded over it others in a secular system of government and a pluralistic society, whose educational system, having no reference to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and existing within the “narrow limits of materialism or of rationalism” cannot but produce a “sorrowful harvest in the intellectual and moral life of the nation.”

As Pope Pius XII noted in Sertum Laetitiae:

20. We raise Our voice in strong, albeit paternal, complaint that in so many schools of your land Christ often is despised or ignored, the explanation of the universe and mankind is forced within the narrow limits of materialism or of rationalism, and new educational systems are sought after which cannot but produce a sorrowful harvest in the intellectual and moral life of the nation.

21. Likewise, just as home life, when the law of Christ is observed, flowers in true felicity, so, when the Gospel is cast aside, does it perish miserably and become desolated by vice: “He that seeketh the law, shall be filled with it: and he that dealeth deceitfully, shall meet with a stumbling block therein” (Ecclesiasticus xxxii: 19). What can there be on earth more serene and joyful than the Christian family? Taking its origin at the Altar of the Lord, where love has been proclaimed a holy and indissoluble bond, the Christian family in the same love nourished by supernal grace is consolidated and receives increase.

22. There is “marriage honorable in all, and the [nuptial] bed undefiled” (Cf. Hebrews xiii: 4). Tranquil walls resound with no quarreling voices nor do they witness the secret martyrdom which comes when hidden infidelity is laid bare; unquestioning trust turns aside the slings of suspicion; sorrow is assuaged and joy is heightened by mutual affection. Within those sacred precincts children are considered not heavy burdens but sweet pledges of love; no reprehensible motive of convenience, no seeking after sterile pleasure, brings about the frustration of the gift of life nor causes to fall into disuse the sweet names of brother and sister. With what solicitude do the parents take care that the children not only grow in physical vigor but also that, following in the footsteps of their forbears whose memory is often recalled to them, they may shine with the light which profession of the pure faith and moral goodness impart to them. Moved by the numerous benefits received, such children consider it their paramount duty to honor their parents, to be attentive to their desires, to be the staff of their old age, to rejoice their gray hairs with an affection which, unquenched by death, will be made more glorious and more complete in the mansion of Heaven. The members of the Christian family, neither querulous in adversity nor ungrateful in prosperity, are ever filled with confidence in God to Whose sway they yield willing obedience, in Whose will they acquiesce and upon Whose help they wait not in vain.

23. That the family may be established and maintained according to the wise teachings of the Gospel, therefore, the faithful should be frequently exhorted by those who have the directive and teaching functions in the churches, and these are to strive with unremitting care to present to the Lord a perfect people. For the same reason it is also supremely necessary to see to it that the dogma of the unity and indissolubility of matrimony is known in all its religious importance and sacredly respected by those who are to marry. (Pope Pius XII, Sertum Laetitiae, November 1, 1939.)

Alas, there is so much chaos, violence, unhappiness, and tumult in the world today because men seek to please other each other rather than God as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His true Church. Even many baptized and confirmed Catholics are afraid to speak the truth about contraception, abortion, and sodomy to their family members, no less friends and neighbors, and are thus prone to maintain a cowardly silence rather than be considered “odd” and thus fail to discharge their obligations of the Spiritual Works of Mercy to instruct the ignorant and admonish the sinner. Thus, human respect is the downfall of many Catholics who fail to recognize that they will be held to account when they die for failing to speak the truth out of love of God and their neighbor so as to help others correct the errors of their ways.

Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., explained this in his first sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost (which was commemorated on Sunday, November 9, 2025, the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Saviour):

There are two principal reasons why the Word of God has so little influence upon the life of man, two great obstacles which particularly stand in the way of the fulfillment of the duties which, as children of God, we are bound to comply with. The first is that an inherent love of truth is wanting in our fallen nature. Members of the Catholic Church, indeed, confess the truth, and their belief in it, but frequently it is a confession which cometh from the lips alone; for their hearts are closed against its influence, and their lives, therefore, continually contradict the professions they make. Too often men are deterred from opening their hearts to the divine influence of God's blessed Word by human respect, by a sinful, slavish fear of poor, weak mortals like themselves. This is one of the greatest obstacles to salvation! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.)

Although admittedly a difficult subject that requires delicacy and not bluntness in many circumstances, the state of the Church Militant in this time of apostasy and betrayal is one that those who know the truth have an obligation to at least mention to their family members, if only by recommending some sources for study, leaving it to the graces sent to those others by Our Lady for the seeds of truth to take root.

However, what is really inexcusable for any Catholic is to be silent about the Holy Faith in “mixed” company to the point of not even making the Sign of the Cross when praying before and after meals when dining with non-Catholics.

Father Weninger explained the folly of refusing to speak the truth out of fear of human respect:

Can there be greater or more consummate blindness and folly than to refrain from living according to the spirit and direction of that which you know to be the truth, which you openly acknowledge to be the truth, merely from a despicable slavish fear of those who, while they seem to applaud, laugh you to scorn in their hearts for being afraid to practise what you profess to believe? The reason why this human respect rides with despotic sway over the hearts of mankind, is the little love they bear the truth.

O Mary, as mother of Christ, you stood beneath the cross, in presence of the executioners of your divine Son, obtain for us courage, not only to acknowledge our faith upon all occasions, but to practise it openly also, victoriously overcoming the promptings of human respect! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, for the greater honor and glory of God!

"Master, we know that Thou art a true speaker." Even the enemies of our divine Lord acknowledged this! Oh, what rare qualities are sincerity and integrity of purpose among the children of men! and how comparatively few among them can be said to give testimony to the truth, regardless of the world and its opinion! By this assertion I do no injustice to the human race; for the Holy Ghost, who knows and searches the heart of man, assures us, through the lips of the Apostle of love, that "men love darkness better than light;" and, loving darkness, they love evil also. It was the spirit of falsehood who caused our first parents to fall, and it is the same spirit who causes the Divine Word,-- that Word which should bring peace and salvation to man,--to fall unheeded upon the rocky ground of his heart!

Had mankind really loved and sought after the truth, the entire world would have been converted to Christianity at the time of the Apostles; but such a happy result of their labors was not permitted. And why? Paganism allowed men to give themselves up to the lusts of the flesh,--the Apostles, on the contrary, preached penance and self-denial, and of these the people, buried in their sinful pleasures, cared not to hear! Had they come to inform the world of some speedy method of becoming rich, or of prolonging life, so that for centuries men might revel in one uninterrupted course of sinful pleasure, with what demonstrations of welcome would they not have been met, and countless disciples would have followed in their train. But the reward which was meted out to those followers of the crucified One, who preached truth to a people who were held in the thrall of the most degrading superstition, was persecution and death! In the very same spirit did the chosen people of God proceed in the old law. Recall the reproach of Christ to the Jews, that the warning words of truth from the lips of the prophets were unwelcome to their ears.

Relentless and bitter persecution still pursues,--yes, even at the present day,--in many instances all those who seek to spread the word of God, and dispose the hearts of His creatures to live as true children of the Church according to the principles of the Gospel. (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.)

This is a point that deserves a bit of elaboration as the martyrs loved Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the truths of the Holy Father to prefer imprisonment, torture, and death to either being silent or to make any compromise with error or idolatry.

To wit, it was a few weeks ago that a reader who is very conversant with the situation with the suffering underground Catholics in Red China informed me about the death of Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, who was consecrated in 1990 in the traditional rite of the Catholic Church before Jaime “Cardinal” Zen introduced the Novus Ordo books to the underground in the 1990s.

Bishop Jia had suffered much at the hands of the Red Chinese and its so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association with which the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Pietro the Red Parolin made their “reconciliation in 2018 (see (A Betrayal Worthy of the AntichristBergoglio the Red Surrenders Faithful Catholics to Their Persecutors, Neville Bergoglio's Appeasement of the Chicom Monsters, and Doubly Betrayed by Jorge and His False Church.)

Here is a report from 2010 about Bishop Jia’s release from prison a year after being taken into custody by the Chicoms:

BEIJING, JULY 8, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Chinese Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, who was arrested and imprisoned in March 2009, was released by the authorities Wednesday.

The prelate was arrested on the first day of a three-day meeting in the Vatican of a commission established by Benedict XVI in 2007 to study the most important issues of the life of the Church in China. The abduction was seen as an affront to the efforts of that commission.

Bishop Jia, 75, is a member of the "underground" Church but has worked for reconciliation of the Church in China, where the government permits religious practice only with recognized personnel and in places registered with the Religious Affairs Office and under the control of the Patriotic Association.

This explains the difference between the "national" or "official" Church, and the faithful who oppose such control and who wish to obey the Pope directly. The latter constitute the non-official, or underground, Church.

Bishop Jia has been repeatedly refusing to become part of the Patriotic Association.

Instead, he has been attempting to collaborate with Bishop Jang Taoran of Shijiazhuang, a member of the national Church recently reconciled with Rome, on a joint pastoral plan for the Hebei region where they are both stationed. Yet the authorities attempted to end this collaboration, and this latest arrest was Bishop Jia's 13th since 2004.

Soon after his release, Bishop Jia celebrated a Mass at the cathedral where he serves.

He made a point of declaring that he did not join the Patriotic Association during his imprisonment, nor did he accept the authority of the government-approved bishops' conference, AsiaNews reported.

An anonymous source told the news agency that the goal of this latest arrest was to undermine the reconciliation effort between the official and underground Church in Hebei, the Chinese region with the largest Catholic population.

Two other bishops of Hebei are still missing. Bishop James Su Zhimin, 76, the ordinary of Baoding, disappeared in 1996. Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang, 87, of Yixian disappeared in 2001. (Chinese Authorities Release Bishop Jia Zhiguo.)

Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo suffered very much at the hands of the Chicoms, but Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has even acknowledged about his death for fear of offending the ongoing “reconciliation” with the totalitarian regime of Xi Jinping that is nothing other than a total capitulation to a rump church that supports the Communist state’s population control policies, including never opposing its former one child per family mandate:

The death last week of one of the most prominent leaders of China’s underground Catholic Church, Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, was met with curious silence from the Vatican.

Bishop Jia, of Zhengding diocese, in China’s northern Hebei province, died on Oct. 29 at the age of 91, after years of enduring torture in prison for his resistance to pressure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to join the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA). His death was reported by Catholic outlets in Asia, such as UCANews and Asia News, but ignored by the Vatican and other  Catholic media close to the Vatican.

Bishop Jia was first imprisoned by the regime in Beijing in 1963, and spent 15 years in jail for his refusal to renounce his allegiance to the pope. He was able to be ordained as a priest in 1980, and was clandestinely consecrated as a bishop a year later. His region of Hebei is home to an estimated 1.5 million Catholics, one of the largest concentrations of the Church in China.

After his release from jail in 1978, the bishop subsequently faced repeated further arrests and detentions and was under constant surveillance. Altogether, he was detained more than ten times, including in 2004 when he went missing after his arrest in Hebei province. He was detained again in 2008, 2009, and most recently in 2020, just before the Feast of the Assumption. It is believed he endured torture — on one occasion, the authorities reportedly flooded his prison cell with water, causing bone spurs that left him in pain for the rest of his life.

In addition to his priestly ministry, Bishop Jia founded an orphanage in Hebei for abandoned children, which authorities demolished in 2020 because it lacked government approval. His diocese of Zhengding remained outside the state-controlled institutions, even after the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops.

n a statement sent to AsiaNews, the Catholic community in Hebei said: “Bishop Jia’s life was marked by suffering and repeated arrests and imprisonment, but his heart as a pastor never changed.”

They paid tribute to Bishop Jia, saying: “We are grateful to you for your extraordinary courage in founding and leading multiple dioceses, transmitting the flame of the Church; we are grateful because, even when you were repeatedly arrested and imprisoned, you continued to care for the flock, preserving the flame of hope in the darkest nights.”

Their statement continued: “The Lord said: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few’. You responded to this call your entire life, to the point of being completely worn out. Now you have arrived in the heavenly homeland, where there is no more pain nor oppression. We pray to you: before the Father, intercede for us and for the Church in China.”

One might have thought that a bishop who had suffered so much for his loyalty to Rome, was clearly loved and respected by his flock, and had devoted so much of his life to serving the Church and society, would deserve a tribute from the Vatican upon his death. But the Vatican has so far been silent. Why? Could it be a deliberate move, designed to ignore the underground Church in China in the hope that it dies out, combined with a nervousness about offending the CCP regime?

Only Vatican insiders know the answers to these questions. But if it is not a deliberate conspiracy of silence, Pope Leo XIV should lead public tributes to Bishop Jia. He has already taken some small, tentative, positive steps to chart a slightly different direction on China policy from that of his predecessor — including meeting recently the wife and daughter of Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic political prisoner Jimmy Lai at a General Audience, and hinting in an interview at an openness to rethinking Sino-Vatican relations after dialogue with persecuted Chinese Catholics.

With these welcome steps in mind, in recognition of a great Chinese bishop and in solidarity with his flock in China, the pope should publicly mourn Bishop Jia at the earliest opportunity. (Vatican Acts As If China’s Underground Church Doesn’t Exist – OpEd – Eurasia Review.)

LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a leader of China’s underground Catholic Church who endured decades of persecution under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has died at 90 years old. Yet his passing has drawn no official response from the Vatican. Bishop Jia, long targeted for his pastoral ministry, was repeatedly arrested by the Communist Party.

Starting in 1962, Bishop Jia endured multiple prison terms, ranging from periods of house arrest to as long as 15 years in confinement, for refusing to submit to the regime’s state-sanctioned church. His arrests marked significant stoppages in negotiations between Rome and China.

In 2009, Jia’s arrest led to a stalemate in negotiations between the Vatican and China’s state-approved Catholic Patriotic Association. Under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, Rome expressed caution in its relations with Chinese prelates, as persecution of the underground Church loyal to the Vatican intensified.

“Situations of this kind create obstacles to that constructive dialogue with the competent authorities.… This is not, unfortunately, an isolated case,” stated the Vatican commission.

After the Sino-Vatican agreement, overseen by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, this tone changed. As tensions grow within the Vatican regarding the Provisional Agreement with China, which grants the CCP authority in the appointment of bishops, many members of China’s underground Catholic Church feel abandoned by Rome.

The Vatican insisted in L’Osservatore Romano that the agreement was in the name of “unity.”

“The main purpose of the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops in China is to support and promote the proclamation of the Gospel in those lands, reconstituting the full and visible unity of the Church,” stated the Vatican.

The unity the Vatican sought to achieve has yet to materialize, as persecution of Catholics in China continues.

Jia operated an orphanage in China for 30 years, enduring constant pressure from the Chinese government to remove the children from his care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP reportedly attempted to make him sign an agreement allowing his church to remain open only if he promised that no children under 18 would attend.

In an interview with La Stampa in 2016, Bishop Jia explained how he was able to undergo such intense persecution.

“All we needed was to have God in our heart,” stated Jia.

“This is what sustained and protected me all that time. So it is His doing, not mine. There were many difficulties along the way but God stood by my side and that was enough for me. Our minds were at rest because we placed all our trust in the Lord. Sometimes difficulties can also help us grow, trusting and loving Jesus.” (Rome remains silent on death of heroic underground Chinese bishop.)

Such silence is par for the course on the part of the conciliar revolutionaries, who have never met a Communist official that they did not want to appease during the eras of Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII, Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria/ Paul VI, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV now. Karol Jozsef Wojtyla/John Paul II did denounce the Communist crackdown on Solidarity in 1981 and forcefully condemned Polish dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski to his face in 1983 in Poland the latter’s hands trembled, and knees knocked during the “pope’s” address. Jaruzelski went to confession and had a so-called “Mass of Christian Burial” after he died on May 25, 2014. Even with this, though, it was Wojtyla/John Paul II who started the process of “reconciliation” with Red Chinese authorities in 1999 see Jorge's Expendables.)

The conciliar authorities never want to offend the Red Chinese, Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus, Protestants, or any other propagator of religious error without a thought of offending God or mocking the holy example of the martyrs who eschewed human respect to be faithful to Our Lord and His true Church He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, the Catholic Church. Thus, the conciliar authorities are one in darkened mind and perverted heart with the enemies of our salvation.

Father Weninger’s sermon about human respect continues:                                                                                                    

The perversity of the human heart is manifested in this persecution, yet it stands forth in bolder relief in the lives of those Catholics who, with the lips, confess to believe in the Church, but whose lives are diametrically opposed to the same; who live sunk in sensual pleasures, even as the heathens; yes, some among them are more given to carnal lust than those who know not Christ. They give not a thought to the great affair of salvation. "With desolation is the whole land made desolate, because there is none that thinketh in his heart," says the Prophet. And yet the teachings of faith refer directly to questions of most vital interest to man. Take, for example, the following: Who am I? What do I possess? What will become of me? How long can I expect this prosperity to smile upon me? and is it not fraught with danger to my immortal soul? Our holy faith supplies the answers, to which Catholics often care not to listen. And why? Because a love for truth is wanting in their hearts. If this virtue were more deeply implanted therein, what lives of holiness would result! What firmness in the pursuit of piety! what self-sacrifice and fidelity would characterize the Catholic then! Let us dwell for a few moments on the answers to those questions. (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.)

We know full well that the conciliar revolutionaries do not have the truth in their hearts, no less having a love of truth therein as Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has told us that “no one possesses the truth,” which means that truth is “sought” by means of “dialogue” and not revealed directly by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We, though, must have the virtue of the love of truth “more deeply implanted in our hearts” so that we may exhibit “self-sacrifice and fidelity” in the midst of errors, both supernatural and natural, of the day.

Returning now to the Father Weninger:

Faith teaches, child of humanity, that poor and miserable as you are in this world, you are still a child of God, and your soul is made to His image and likeness. As a child of the Church, you are a fellow-citizen of the angels, a brother, a sister, of the saints, a child of Mary, queen of heaven, a brother of Christ! What glorious titles! You recognize your right to them! why, then, do you live according to the spirit of the world? Because you love not truth in your heart!

Faith teaches that, as a true child of the Church, you are in the state of sanctifying grace, a state which exalts you above all earthly dignities, and enables you, with every breath you draw, to gain new merits for life eternal, and lay up a precious treasure in the kingdom of heaven, the glories of which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived! Man believes this, and yet he can live only to heap up riches for this world! In his heart the love of truth is lacking, therefore this solemn lesson is passed unheeded.

Faith teaches that all we gain for heaven by serving God remains forever; and yet, until the last hour of life, man is solicitous about those things which so quickly pass away, a fact most difficult to understand, yet it is so!

Faith teaches that no man is sure of his salvation, and we are told to labor for it with fear and trembling; and oh, how terrible are the eternal consequences of sin! What misery awaits us if we die in sin, and are lost for all eternity! And yet man lives as if he were well assured that grace and time would be given him to repent and be saved. How strange and sad is not this prevalent indifference to the truth!

Christ applied the epithet "blessed" to the virtue of zeal in striving after protection. The lovers of the world, and even members of the Church among them, on the contrary, cry out: Blessed are the rich; blessed are they whom no one dare offend; blessed are they who, unmolested by the poor, enjoy their wealth, flattered and esteemed by all; blessed are they whose lives know naught but pleasure, and who, without a thought of self-denial, enjoy the delights of earth! Sometimes, perchance, conscience calls loudly to these "blessed" ones of the world to give active testimony to that faith which, but too often, they disgrace and despise, but human respect steps in, and drowns the warning voice. That terrible, "What will be said of me?" is in the way. They have no time to go to church, to read spiritual books, to receive the Sacraments, to labor for the conversion of sinners, or the salvation of souls, to bring souls from the darkness of error into the light of our holy faith, and all through human respect! What would my husband, my wife, my friends, the world say? What would be said by those who move in a circle of society where it is my aim to be admitted and who despise Christ and the religion He founded?

There, alas! is the rock against which the noblest souls have suffered shipwreck! Who can deny the power which the torrent and whirlpool of public opinion exercises over man? Human respect! It is but another name for that want of truth which forbids the Catholic to live consistently with the faith he daily professes. Through human respect Pilate delivered Christ into the hands of His enemies! He asks: "What is truth?" and then leaves the judgment-hall before Christ has time to inform him!

Thrice happy are all to whom can be applied the words of Christ in regard to Nathanael: " Behold an Israelite, in whom there is no guile?! Behold a true child of the Church, in whom there; is no falsehood, sincere, candid, and truth-loving soul, who will persevere to the end, and reach the abode of eternal truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.)

The following paragraph quoted immediately above summarizes the sorry state of the world in which we live:

There, alas! is the rock against which the noblest souls have suffered shipwreck! Who can deny the power which the torrent and whirlpool of public opinion exercises over man? Human respect! It is but another name for that want of truth which forbids the Catholic to live consistently with the faith he daily professes. Through human respect Pilate delivered Christ into the hands of His enemies! He asks: "What is truth?" and then leaves the judgment-hall before Christ has time to inform him! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.)

We must despise the totalitarianism of public opinion and how we are viewed by others. It is never easy to be rejected, despised, ridiculed, mocked, and reviled for our refusal to “go along to get along,” but we must remember that our sins, having transcended time, rejected, despised, ridiculed, mocked, and reviled Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ throughout His holy life hear on earth and most especially during the events of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

The graces He won for us on Good Friday and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces despite what Victor Manuel Fernandez says with Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s full approval, are more than sufficient to accept whatever we must suffer here below in this passing, mortal vale of tears as members of the Church Militant. Our sins deserve far, far worse than we are allowed in the ineffable Providence of God to suffer, and we must thus rejoice when we are rejected, reviled, despised, mocked and ridiculed as we pray for a happy reconciliation in eternity with those from who we may be estranged because of the circumstances in which we live.

We fly as always to the loving maternal intercession and protection of Our Lady by using the shield of her Brown Scapular and the weapon that is her Most Holy Rosary to cooperate with the gifts and fruits of God the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament of Confirmation to be good soldiers in the Army of Christ as we are ready with loving hearts to suffer everything for love of the Most Holy Trinity as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Viva Cristo Rey!

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.

Pope Saint Martin I, pray for us.