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Chapter 6

While Lady Bridget was living continuously in Rome, she was one day at prayer and her mind was lifted up. Christ then appeared to her and spoke to her, saying this: ”Prepare yourselves now to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit my sepulchre and the other holy places that are to be found there. You will leave Rome when I tell you.”

In Rome before Lady Bridget went overseas a certain devout Friar Minor consulted the said lady concerning some doubts in his conscience. As this lady prayed, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and gave her complete answers to those doubts and, moreover, said that no matter how sinful the pope or the priests might be - provided that they are not heretics - the pope has the keys of the Church and the true power of binding and loosing and that at the altar the priests fully confect and handle the Blessed Sacrament of the Body of Christ even though they are unworthy of heavenly glory.

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Honor and thanks be given to almighty God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, his most worthy Mother! It seemed to me, unworthy person that I am, that while I was absorbed in prayer, the Mother of God spoke to me, a sinner, these following words: ”Say to my friend the friar, who through you sent his supplication to me, that it is the true faith and the perfect truth that if a person, at the devil's instigation, had committed every sin against God and then, with true contrition and the purpose of amendment, truly repented these sins and humbly, with burning love, asked God for mercy, there is no doubt that the kind and merciful God himself would immediately be as ready to receive that person back into his grace with great joy and happiness as would be a loving father who saw returning to him his only, dearly beloved son, now freed from a great scandal and a most shameful death.

Yes, much more willingly than any fleshly father, the loving God himself forgives his servants all their sins if they assiduously repent and humbly ask him for mercy and they fear to go on committing sins, and, with all the longing of their hearts, desire God's friendship above all things.
Therefore say to that same friar, on my behalf, that because of his good will and my prayer, God in his goodness has already forgiven him all the sins that he ever committed in all the days of his life. Tell him also that because of my prayer the love that he has for God will always increase in him right up to his death and will in no way diminish.
Likewise, say to him that it pleases God my Son that he stay in Rome, preaching, giving good advice to those who ask, hearing confessions, and imposing salutary penances, unless his superior should send him sometimes out of the city for some lawful necessity. For their transgressions, the same friar should charitably reprove his other brothers with good words, with salutary teachings, and, when he might be able to correct them, even with just rebukes, to the end that they may keep the rule and humbly amend their lives.
Furthermore, I now make known to him that his Masses and his reading and his prayers are acceptable and pleasing to God. And therefore tell him that, just as he guards himself against any excess in food and drink and sleep, so he must diligently guard himself against too much abstinence, in order that he may not suffer any faintness in performing divine labors and services. Also, he is not to have an overabundance of clothing but only necessary things, according to the Rule of Saint Francis, so that pride and cupidity may not ensue; for the less costly and valuable his clothes have been, the more lavish shall be his reward. And let him humbly obey all of his superior's instructions that are not contrary to God and that the friar's own ability permits him to perform.
Tell him also, on my behalf, what he will answer to those who say that the pope is not the true pope and that it is not the true Body of Jesus Christ my Son that the priests confect on the altar. He should answer those heretics in this way: 'You have turned the backs of your heads to God, and thus you do not see him. Turn therefore to him your faces, and then you will be able to see him.'
For it is the true and Catholic faith that a pope who is without heresy is - no matter how stained he be with other sins - never so wicked as a result of these sins and his other bad deeds that there would not always be in him full authority and complete power to bind and loose souls. He possesses this authority through blessed Peter and has acquired it from God. For before Pope John, there were many supreme pontiffs who are now in hell. Nevertheless, the just and reasonable judgments that they made in the world are standing and approved in God's sight.
For a similar reason, I also say that all those priests who are not heretical - although otherwise full of many other sins - are true priests and truly confect the Body of Christ my Son and that truly they touch God in their hands on the altar and administer the other sacraments even though, because of their sins and evil deeds, they are unworthy of heavenly glory in God's sight.”

After the abovesaid friar had received from Lady Bridget the last revelation above, he asked her to pray to God concerning the matter of Christ's private property, and also concerning the authority of the supreme pontiff and of the celebrating priests. As the lady was praying, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and answered all these points as follows.

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“Say to my friend the friar that it is not licit for you to know whether the soul of Pope John XXII is in hell or in heaven. Nor indeed is it licit for you to know anything about the sins that the same pope took with him when, after his death, he came before God's judgment. But tell the same friar that those decretals that the same Pope John made or established concerning Christ's private property contain no error in the Catholic faith nor any heresy.

I, indeed, who gave birth to the true God himself, bear witness to the fact that the same Jesus Christ, my Son, had one personal possession and that he alone possessed it. This was that tunic that I made with my own hands. And the prophet witnesses to this fact, saying in the person of my Son: 'Over my garment, they cast lots.' Behold and be attentive to the fact that he did not say 'our garment' but 'my garment.'
Know too that, as often as I dressed him in that tunic for the use of his most holy body, my eyes then filled at once with tears and my whole heart was wrung with trouble and grief and was afflicted with intense bitterness. For I well knew the manner in which that tunic would in future be separated from my Son, namely, at the time of his passion when, naked and innocent, he would be crucified by the Jews. And this tunic was that garment over which his crucifiers cast lots. No one had that same tunic while he lived, but only he alone.
Know too that all those who say that the pope is not the true pope and that the priests are not true priests or rightly ordained and that what is consecrated by the priests in the celebration of Masses is not the true Body of my blessed Son, yes, all those who assert such errors are puffed up with the spirit of the devil in hell.
For truly these same heretics have committed such serious acts of malice and frightful sins against God that, because of their very great demerits, they are damnably filled with diabolic wickedness, and, through their heresy, they are cut off and cast out from the number of the whole flock of Christianity in the just judgment of the divine majesty, just as Judas was shut out and cut off from the sacred number of the apostles because of his wicked demerits: for he betrayed Christ my Son. Know that, even so, all those who want to amend their lives will obtain mercy from God.”

How Christ, speaking to Lady Bridget during prayer, instructs her to go now to Jerusalem and promises to her bodily strength and the necessary expenses.

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