TIA,

I like your site a lot and respect your academic and scientific approach to proving stuff you publish. The prophecy of St. Nilus concerns me though. Is it for real or just another internet hype? It would be helpful if you could weigh in on this matter.

     Thanks,

     D.L.

TIA,

Thank you for your information on St. Nilus. Could you provide me with the source of your information?

Much obliged,

     F.M.



TIA responds:

D.L. and F.M.,

We contacted the priest who had forwarded the prophecy of St. Nilus to us, but he did not have a source for it. However, a reader from Brazil, Mr. P.H.M., who had sent us the same prophecy in Portuguese was able to provide the due source. According to Mr. P.H.M. the original source is:

Biblioteca Sanctorum, volume IX, page 1008.

We checked the texts in both English and Portuguese and they match in almost everything with only some few differences, which is understandable given that both texts seem to be translations from Latin.

Since we do not have the leisure right now to search for this work to check the original, we pass the information on to you and to our other readers so that you may check for yourselves.

Cordially,

TIA correspondence desk.

Dear TIA,

Traditional Catholics have been taking their lumps recently. I suppose that it will only get worse until the Lord intervenes.

Anyway, I read the book We Resist You to the Face several years ago, and I thought that it made various important points. Although JPII (RIP) was apparently very well-meaning, he made a number of what you could call objectively serious errors in judgment.

Not too long ago I read Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich's The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations and I was surprised to find that it was revealed to her that the Cephas in Galatians, chapter two, was not Peter the apostle, but only a disciple. I had mostly forgotten about it when just recently I was reading Eusebius' The History of the Church (Penguin Classics) and discovered that he was of the same opinion.

I went back and read the Bible passage myself, and verses seven and eight clearly refer to the apostle Peter and use that name. However, verses nine and eleven use the name Cephas which opens up the possibility that Paul is writing about a different person.

I was just wondering what you think of that and if you had heard of it before. It seems like some manner of reconciliation among traditional Catholics is in the offing so I thought that we could get all nicey-nicey.

     E.B.



TIA responds:

Dear E.B.,

Our Lord used the name Cephas for St. Peter: 'And Jesus looking upon him said: Thou art Simon, the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter' (John 1:42).

The commentary of this verse by the College of Rheims edition tells us that Cephas is simply the Syriac for Peter, and that both names mean precisely the same thing: Stone. The commentator also adds that St. Paul often referred to St. Peter as Cephas.

Therefore, your insinuation that when St. Paul said that he resisted Cephas he would be resisting not St. Peter but another person reveals itself to be without any base in reality.

We believe that our resistance position could not be more timely. Any reconciliation that will not take into consideration all the points of Catholic doctrine and Tradition that have been systematically attacked by the last five conciliar Popes will be a defeat. Openness to a dialogue is only possible from the perspective of resisting the errors of Vatican II and its consequences. Any other solution necessarily leads either to betrayal or to sede-vacantism.

The nice reconciliation, which you long for, will be perfectly possible when one of the conciliar Popes will ask forgiveness ' publicly and unequivocally' for all the errors of Vatican II and the reforms that followed it, and take the necessary steps to undo all of them.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

TIA,

Many years ago, on an internet page, I found the Masonic papers from a Paris lodge which Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) signed showing his membership and brotherhood name dated 1933 or 1935. Would you have this in your files as I cannot locate mine?

     B.R.



TIA responds:

B.R.,

We believe that in 1935 Msgr. Roncalli was serving in Turkey, not in Paris, where he was sent only in 1944.

We have seen references many times to the supposed affiliation of Angelo Roncalli with Freemasonry either in France, as you mentioned, or in Turkey. We even know of some detailed descriptions of the supposed Masonic illuminations he would have recorded in a diary while serving in Constantinople as an Apostolic Delegate. But nothing we have seen is based on solid documentation. So, we do not endorse these data and do not encourage anyone to do so.

Notwithstanding, if you have serious sources, we would be interested in knowing them.

      Cordially,

      TIA correspondence desk.

TIA,

THANKS so much for the article on Children not Kids. I was wondering if I was the only one that it bothered to hear everyone calling children KIDS. It grates on my ears, it jangles my nerves. What is wrong with this world? If you want children to act well, give them an appropriate title, as we did in the past. Why should we call children little goats? It is demeaning, it sends the wrong message, it is all wrong.

Once a priest pointed out to me that in Matthew 25:31, Christ said that "when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his throne of glory." The peoples will stand before him, "and he will put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left." Is there some kind of underlying malice in the push to call children kids? I surely have wondered about that, and after the priest pointed that out, I never called children kids.

I wish every priest and teacher would receive a copy of this article. When my priest (VERY traditionalist) says "kids" on the pulpit, I just cringe. He generally preaches that we should improve our customs, try not to follow the modern world, etc. So why does he follow the modern world in using this slang term that was not, as you pointed out, acceptable 40 years ago. It is the cultural revolution reflecting in the customs, but as good Catholics, we are supposed to fight in the spiritual and temporal spheres. That is clear after I read many of your good articles on the topic.

BTW, I check TIA every day - it has reaffirmed so many of my beliefs, and taught me so much else I never knew.

     Thanks.

     B.J.

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  The Prophecy of St. Nilus

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  Benedict's Unprecedented Ecumenical Synod

  Where Is the Catholic Resistance?

  Please Say Children, Not Kids