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Volume XXIX, Number 12
June 6, 2025

Two Signs About the Pope

Please forgive me for going to so long between messages. I was knocked sideways by a three-week flu, extra work, travel for a wedding and a conference—all behind me now.

And, you know what? Sometimes it takes me a few weeks to digest what I believe Our Lady wants me to write. The following might be my longest message in twenty-nine years, and I hope it will be worthy of your time.

We have an arm-surgery update, more podcasts featuring yours truly, childhood reflections, our group prayer, and of course, the two unmistakable signs from heaven connecting the Mary Foundation to the papal election.

So let's get the skinny on those podcasts before we all enjoy the Two Signs...

More Bud Podcasts: Sports & Sanctity

Jose Pulido, author of our new How to Evangelize Anyone book, and myself have recently been on three podcasts.

First, I was on an exciting O Crux Ave panel discussion with Monique T and French prophecy expert Xavier Ayral just after Pope Leo's election. Then, Jose and I were interviewed separately on Catholic Sports Radio with the talented Bruce Wawrzyniak.

My sports radio appearance might be particularly intriguing for two reasons. First, starting my sports career as the worst athlete in town had a huge impact on how I serve Our Lady as an adult. Bruce and I then dive into how the false stories we tell about ourselves can be a huge barrier to becoming saints.

And for the first time, during Jose Pulido's broadcast with Bruce, Jose goes into details about his mystical conversation with the Holy Family that formed the foundation of his mission to help you evangelize in an effective, easy, and enjoyable way.

• Bud on O Crux Ave
• Bud on Catholic Sports Radio
• Jose on Catholic Sports Radio

Those Nearby Souls Need You

Please, everyone, right now or while reading this message, consider taking a quick break to order or restock our books, medals, and scapulars for the unsuspecting folks in your nearby parishes and groups.

I just got an email from a grateful reader whose brother suddenly and completely converted after reading The Warning!

The book or medal you make available in your unique circle of influence can transform entire families. Only you can do it. Please overwhelm our shipping guys with your love for souls!

• Stock up For Nearby Souls

The Pope: Two Clear Signs

When the first American pope was elected, did it cross your mind that the penances, alms, and prayers we offered through Operation True Cross may have played a pivotal role?

I asked God to send a confirmation in a very clear manner. Before getting into the two signs, here the briefest backstory I can offer:

A Promise: God Would Change History

I boldly predicted to you before we set out together on our aggressive frontal attack on the demons oppressing America that I believed God would use our sacrifices through Operation True Cross to change the history of the United States.

Before we started walking in 2022, our initial plan was to "connect" the four "beams" of the geographical crucifix in four liesurely pilgrimages spread out over the two year period leading up to the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024.

Our Lady: "As Soon as Possible!"

Yet immediately after we first started walking from northern Wisconsin in August 2022, you might remember me sharing with you how Our Lady interiorly compelled me to drastically move up the schedule to "as soon as possible."

"As soon as possible" meant two Cyrenes, each walking alone up to twenty miles a day, seven days a week, through winter, and covering all 4,500 miles in under nine months in one van without running water and no "backup" crew—making it much more penitential and dangerous.

In terms of health, the project now included risking permanent negative consequences—despite consulting a professional medical advisor almost daily.

And given my age, because I had to cover the entire journey, I also had to accept that what Our Lady was asking of us would probably be physically impossible for me personally.

God the Father: "The whole world."

Next, while I was walking in New Mexico during the California "beam," I had an overwhelmingly powerful mystical experience which revealed that Operation True Cross's purpose was divinely designed to impact the entire world. Here's what I wrote just after it happened:

The First Sign

Yes or No?

Thus, after Pope Leo was elevated, invoking my authority as the leader of Operation True Cross, I prayerfully framed my request to God in a very precise manner:

"Eternal Father, please send me a clear sign that Pope Leo would not have been elected unless Operation True Cross had been accomplished."

Here was the first sign:

Pope Leo Replaces Archbishop Paglia

This first confirmation is a little mind-blowing. On May 19th, news broke worldwide about Pope Leo XIV's first major public executive decision as the Vicar of Christ on Earth. The pope fired the notorious pervert and scandalous Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia as head of the John Paul II Institute in Rome.

Yes, Pope Leo fired the same Archbishop Paglia we ran into at the end of the second "beam" from our nation's capital. Walking directly into Paglia's path on the campus of Notre Dame just moments before completing the beam—and him formally blessing Operation True Cross—was beyond impossible—it was a trillion-gazillion-to-one shot.

The meaning of Paglia being replaced was crystal clear, at least to me:

Without Operation True Cross, Pope Leo XIV would not have been elected.

You can read my entire account of the Operation True Cross encounter with Paglia here, but this was my reaction at the time:

The Second Sign

The Chicago Pope Meets the Chicago Cyrene

After Paglia was replaced, following the sage advice of a mystic I trust, I asked God for a second sign. It came last week. It was direct and joyful, exuding a similar perfume of being preordained by God the Father.

And it was very personal, as you shall learn.

My friend Will McNamara, a Chicago native, was perhaps the most unlikely Cyrene to walk with me. I met Will in late 2022 during a life-changing retreat led by the world-renowned exorcist, Father Chad Ripperger.

(This retreat directly inspired the Mary Foundation to introduce Ripperger's powerful exorcism devotion, The Three Angelus Cure, to hundreds of thousands of people.)

Will, who played college football and is built like an Olympian, shares my baptismal name, William, a deep devotion to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and an American warrior's sunny yet aggressive mental disposition.

The retreat we met at occurred just after completing the Washington DC beam where I crossed paths with Paglia and just before starting the daunting California beam.

A New Friendship Deepens

While I was out walking in California, Will starting calling me to encourage me while I crossed the mountains and deserts during that beautifully miserable ordeal—which as plagued by injuries, horrific weather, logistical barriers, one attempted carjacking, and serious illness.

During our calls, I immensely enjoyed hearing about how the Little Flower arranged for Will to meet a beautiful young woman named Kailey. In real time I heard how they fell in love and overcame many obstacles on their way to becoming engaged.

(I got to meet this virtuous woman in person later that year at another retreat with Father Ripperger—the retreat that led to the Mary Foundation releasing this amazing book.)

Two long months after departing from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in northern California, and roughly three thousand miles after taking my first steps in Wisconsin, freezing and soaked by downpours, sick as a dog yet still walking all day long to the point of collapse, in desperate straits, with my fellow Cyrene out sick and injured, I urged all of you to storm heaven to send us "emergency" Cyrenes and divine strength.

In direct answer to your prayers, Will, despite a demanding career, dropped everything to "bridge" us from Missouri into Illinois. He showed up when no one else could and chewed up miles like a bull charging through a fire. He literally ran across the massive bridge spanning the Mississippi River into Illinois—bringing us closer to the Lourdes Grotto at Notre Dame, Indiana.

Our days devouring miles and nights in the van were a blast. I caught my second wind. The sickness passed. Our friendship deepened. More emergency Cyrenes answered your call.

My "Francis de Sales" Partner

Last year, long after the Operation True Pilgrimage was completed, Will enthusiastically joined me in closing what Father Ripperger told us was "the gate many devout Catholics leave open to Satan" by undertaking the mortification of daily meditative prayer as taught by Saint Francis de Sales.

Almost every morning Will and I exchange texts recounting our Topic of Meditation and the Resolution that comes as of result of the time we spend learning directly from Christ.

Every day, as friends, Jesus teaches us to be saints.

Thus, in accord with God's holy and unfathomable plans, Will eventually became "the Cyrene who prays with me."

He is a personal Operation True Cross gift to me, and by extension, because his example and faithfulness inspire me in holiness, he is a priceless gift to you to whatever degree God's grace works through me in the Mystical Body of Christ to help you.

Wedding Bellwether

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of attending Will and Kailey's wedding at the profoundly stunning Saint John Cantius Church in Chicago—the same church where I have physically delivered your intentions every year on December 8th for the culmination of the Mary Foundation's annual 9-day Mass Novena.

Last week—and I had no idea this was coming—Will sent me a video of him and Kailey receiving a marriage blessing, in person, from Pope Leo XIV himself, on a sunny day in front Saint Peters Church!

It was almost surreal listening to Pope Leo and Will converse in easy midwestern English—including the pope asking him where he went to school.

In short, our brand-new Chicago Pope personally blessed our Chicago Cyrene's brand-new marriage!

Will Never Planned to Be a Cyrene

At the very least, this signifies that God the Father foresaw this marriage blessing in salvation history before Operation True Cross was conceived, before I met Will at the retreat, before Will became the "unlikely" Cyrene, before Will met Kailey, before they set a wedding date, before they decided to go to Italy for their honeymoon, before Bishop Prevost was even appointed to the College of Cardinals, and before any of us knew Will would become my "Close the Gate" prayer partner.

Along with the Paglia sign, the Wedding sign also confirms that your justifiable fears for America, and the world, were in fact justified. It confirms that heaven received and still receives your prayers, the sacrifice of your alms, the reparations we all endured, and that our Triune God is going to deliver America and other places on earth from evil.

Pope Leo XIV will play his role. He is the one who replaced Paglia—a living symbol of corruption who was "set up" by God to formally bless Operation True Cross—a spiritual warfare campaign explicitly designed to deliver the world from that same corruption.

This pope is the one who was providentially destined to bless his fellow hometown Cyrene's sacramental marriage—the sacramental sign of Salvation—because marriage is what Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition teach is the ultimate archetype of salvation.

The Church is the Bride of Christ.

A Pope Born on the Triumph of the Cross

Seventy years ago, Pope Leo was born on the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, in the United States, on September 14, 1955. On the day he was elected, I noted this was "profoundly significant."

In light of these two clear signs, which connect him to Operation True Cross personally and in the exercise of his ecclesiastical authority, his birthday and his age takes on an even deeper meaning.

He is the pope from the first country in salvation history to petition heaven for deliverance through the penitential carrying of a relic of the True Cross, followed by our bishop's amazing 2024 geographical cruciform Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress.

Additionally, Pope Leo will turn 70 this year. As a combination of two perfect numbers (7 x 10), the number seventy is a very big deal in Biblical symbolism—representing "perfect spiritual order carried out with all divine power." It can also represent "a period of judgment."

The Israelites spent 70 years Babylonian captivity. Psalm 70 is King David's desperate, striking plea for rescue. Jesus used it to signify forgiveness and infinite mercy.

A Perfect Pope?

For me, this does not have to mean that Pope Leo will be a perfect pope, or that he will always rule in such a way that aligns with God's divine will. Or that he does not come into his role without some "liberal" baggage.

Whatever the case, I am consoled that Pope Leo is a midwesterner. Midwesterners are humble and hard-working. (As are many of you.)

It might suffice for now that our new pope seems to be a decent, intelligent, experienced, and competent man—a living "bridge" to the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, just like Will McNamara was for Operation True Cross.

Reading the Signs of the Times

Jesus told us "to read the signs of the times." Doing so is an essential part of my responsibilities as I serve Our Lady.

It has been both consoling and disorienting to watch spiritual, world-spanning developments "in the course of human events" that I was provided the grace to anticipate years ago as they play out in real time.

A More Terrible Fate

My initial reaction, however, after weeks of pondering these two clear signs, is that we, our country, and parts of the world were delivered from a more terrible fate, to a significant degree, as a result of Operation True Cross, and that it would be a grave error to abandon our zeal for this ongoing prayer movement.

High-level demons were cast down by the power of God. But not all of them. Not yet.

In our world and in the Church, incredible diabolical evil continues to manifest. Billions of souls, who otherwise of their own free will could choose heaven, remain on the wide, easy, and well-traveled path to eternal damnation.

Child-killing and perversion continue worldwide, unabated. Lies and corruption are the rule in secular politics, culture, and finance.

The Great Silence

It is frustratingly rare that such an obvious reality is directly acknowledged, not even in the sphere of faithful Catholic media, much less from pulpits—or even in the X postings of church leaders corporately read by tens of millions.

When it comes to saying out loud that souls are "falling into hell like snowflakes" (to quote the Mother of God at Fatima), the Church at the highest levels, and just about everywhere else, remains predominantly silent.

My father always taught me that the doctrine of the Four Last Things, especially the reality of hell, is a gift. If the Great Silence ever changes, that will be its own sign.

I have spent years "deep diving" the complex mesh of macro-economics, financial markets, mass psychological warfare—and now AI—all around us. The darkest scenarios, if they come to pass, are terrifying, and still very much in play.

Divine Intervention: the Only Solution

Only divine intervention will deliver us from evil. Our Lady ardently needs us, her hidden remnant, to endure. It is natural, even appropriate, after so many years or decades of oppression, personally and as a society of believers, to breath a sigh of relief at hopeful changes.

I have. Have you? Every day can't be Friday. We need Sunday. I get it.

Your Crucial Vocation

Nevertheless, bolstered by the positive signs of the times, please keep offering Father Ripperger's daily exorcism Prayers to Save America—or accept my warm invitation to begin today. Join me. Join the others.

Promise to give yourself the gift of daily morning meditative prayer—pray the DeSales Way with me, Will McNamara, and so many others.

Try adopting the Three Angelus devotion to ward off unnecessary demonic influence. It takes just a few minutes a day. My son Xavier explained so well why and how it works—after he delayed giving it a chance for months.

And of course, continue all the devotions and holy works according to your state in life—serving the needy, caring for loved ones, Adoration, daily Mass, the Holy Rosary, sacrificing to raise your children, offering your interior pain and physical suffering in union with Christ Crucified, and all the other wonderful private devotions you tell me about—all those particular things God has called you to bear with joy and love.

Please keep carrying the True Cross with me.

More battles are yet to come.

Bud's Bicep Surgery Update

You may recall I underwent major surgery in February to repair a fully-severed bicep tendon, which was marked by a few minor miracles in answer to your prayers. With physical therapy going gangbusters, when I meet with my surgeon next week, she will confirm my full recovery, ahead of schedule.

My lifelong dream of playing Major League Baseball will resume.

The Flag on the Moon

Bear with me—this is not really about nostalgia—it is ultimately about your history, the place where you are from, the plan God prepared for you before the universe was created, and your steps on the path to holiness on this very day.

Please accept my invitation to ponder your own background as I write about mine...

I grew up in the relatively small town of Verona, New Jersey, which borders on the first jutting mountain of the Appalachians precisely twenty miles directly west of New York City. Our apt town mascot was a drunken Hillbilly. Two square miles. Settled in 1702. Population 8,000.

Thomas Edison, whose early laboratory was on the bottom of the hill, filmed the very first theatrical movie, The Great Train Robbery, in the Eagle Rock Reservation at the end of my street (which had a truly beautiful name, Afterglow Avenue). It was also the first town in all of America to get fully wired up for cable television in the mid-1970s.

My nine sisters, one brother, and I grew up in a giant house on half an acre which my dad bought for a mere $33,000 because it was considered a "white elephant." It was built in 1912 for the owner or president of the B&O Railroad—yes, the one on the Monopoly board.

My street was populated with several other large Catholic families. Kids were everywhere after school. (I joke that even the Jewish and Protestant families on our street had at least three or four kids.) In accord with English tradition, fences are frowned upon in New Jersey, so there were "shortcuts" through backyards between all the nearby streets—indeed, all over town.

Humor was prized. It seemed like every one of us was hilarious, crude, and sarcastic—or failing at the effort. There were two religions, "Catholic" and "Public."

It was mostly a lot of fun growing up there, but it had its dark side, even back in the 1960s and 1970s. I was bullied constantly, and was a coward all through grammar school until I made myself fight back. Maybe that's why I despise demons so much—they prey on the weak, the ignorant, the innocent, and they never fight fair, ever. Only God stops them.

I always believed deeply in the True Faith, before I could even reason (which is why baptism is so crucial), but was not prayerful or devoted to Our Lady. Went to church because that's what Catholic families did. Until fourth grade, my school had solid Dominican nuns. The whole school observed First Friday devotions. I remember the New Ice Age scare propaganda. I remember a Democratic party that was against abortion. I remember virtually no traditional catechesis after the Dominicans were replaced.

Early on, I was known as an introverted daydreamer to teachers and friends alike. I received well-deserved average grades because I didn't understand their significance, and even my indifference itself was not special. I was a creative writer from day one because, well, I was entertaining myself and didn't care. I watched as much television as possible. I learned more from sports, playing with friends, watching television, and eventually, reading Science Fiction.

My day-in-day-out world was school (boring), my friends, my little brother and his friends, and playing every kind of outdoor sandlot and street sport imaginable. I was not a good athlete. Just another kid, mediocre in every way. My older sisters and their drama dominated our massive dinner table—along with the awesome, authentic Italian food.

Socially, I was awkward—utterly confused about how people knew what to say or do—but I had a best friend, a lively family, and I was treated well by my parents, teachers, and coaches. I started to listen carefully and keenly observe to "solve" my confusion. It was good preparation for writing novels.

Verona was where I learned how to be sinner early on, and how to be almost completely focused on myself—and paradoxically, also where God granted me great certainty of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist.

Despite its small footprint, Verona had a distinctly east-coast, almost Darwinian vibe that transformed most nice little boys into tough men, for ill or for good.

The Flagmakers of the World

Because it was less than a mile away from our homes, my best friend Jimmy Duffy's mom walked to work at the Annin Flagmakers factory. The company was founded in 1847 and is still family-owned.

Annin workers sewed the American flag that's still on the moon—as well as the flags that were draped over Lincoln's casket, raised on Iwo Jima, carried to the North and South Poles, and spanned bridges and buildings all over the world. They probably made the flag flying on this day over your state capitol.

Annin manufacturers flags only in the United States, including in my adopted state of Ohio. They moved out of Verona years ago, but are still headquartered in Roseland, a couple of towns over (where I was baptized).

Like many who grew up in Verona, this hidden connection between my hometown and American history, focused on the ultimate physical symbol of any nation, was always a source of pride for me, especially after I went off to the University of Notre Dame to formally study the past.

My hometown is not really famous for much else—and most current locals don't know about the quiet little company that moved away. Verona remains a sleepy (and nowadays, painfully expensive) suburb with a beautiful lake between two little mountains. The big families are gone.

It seems an unlikely place for the hidden yet important company that will surely manufacture the first flag that flies over Mars.

Lately, I have been pondering the web of my family, Verona, Annin, my college, and Operation True Cross. Before I was born, I was designed to carry the True Cross and lead the other Cyrenes, that much was revealed to me, right down to my particular genetic muscular-skeletal composition, neural-spatial cognition, and unusually high-pain-tolerance nervous system—all required to help keep me injury-free at my advanced age during those millions upon millions of steps.

In Verona, God gave me all those sports, the bullying, the friendships, the family, and my ruthless focus on winning the contest as preparation. And then Marine Corps training at Notre Dame.

From Verona, I went to a college that I never desired to attend. I only applied because my dad sent for the application after my Uncle Joe convinced me to apply for a military scholarship I never thought I would use. I filled out the ND application using essays from other colleges and forgot about it. I was rejected at most of the Ivy League schools I couldn't afford anyway, and then I got the Marine Corps scholarship.

I ended up where God wanted me to go—so I could write to you today.

Before the seed that grew into the tree Jesus was crucified upon fell into the soil outside Jerusalem, our outside-of-time God earmarked a particular fragment from that wood to be carried—now soaked in divine blood—during Operation True Cross to crisscross (literally, Christ-Across) America in our era.

All of it planned before Columbus sailed the deep blue sea. How easy for us to forget that God's plans are holy.

Operation True Cross is now a permanent fixture of the hidden Christian history of the the United States, the most powerful country the world has ever seen. It is the also country which has more Catholic apostolates, more vocations, expanding millions of converts and reverts, and more Eucharistic adoration than any other. Pope Francis tried to crush the Latin Mass that started growing and keeps growing here.

It is the country that planted a flag from my hometown on the Moon. It is the only country where Catholics are faithful enough to attempt a lunacy such as Operation True Cross—believing it would work.

And you are a part of it all.

Now think about this idea itself: God therefore had a detailed holy plan for you before you were born—before the seed that grew into the tree that became the True Cross was planted.

Why did He place you were you were placed to grow up?

Suffering. Love. Work. Family. Preparation.

Next, what is His plan for you for tonight and for tomorrow morning?

How is His very particular design for who you are connected to the destiny of your country?

I will tell you: God's plan for you is profoundly, deeply, and intimately connected with the destiny of America. I assure you of this, solemnly, peacefully, and with an impish New Jersey grin.

My Catholic forebears were drawn by God across a vast ocean from Italy (where they probably trace back to the first apostles) so He could begin mixing in ornery Scotsmen and family-loving Irishmen in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. And then, He dropped Macfarlanes into Verona.

Echoing Jesus, I can say that when you see me, you see my father, the great Marian apostle, father of twelve, a recovered alcoholic who loved being Catholic since before he could remember. And you also see my mother, the great saint who I doubt ever contemplated, much less committed, a mortal sin.

In the early 1960s God placed into Verona plain-speaking, sentimental, screwed-up, faithful, tough, broken, fearless, and hidden Macfarlanes right next to Annin, the flagmakers of modern history.

Likewise, God drew your forebears across vast oceans or landmasses (if you have American Indian blood). Along that mysterious grace-adorned story-road, He made them—and you, and me—Catholics, not just for a small reasons, but for big, world-spanning, mind-blowing, Lucifer-confounding, glorious Triumph of Fatima reasons.

God is the God of small things—and He loves small things, because He made them, down to the hairs on your head—so don't get me wrong. Yes, all those trillions of little, seemingly small influences and decisions from your childhood are ever-vortexing into a bigger plan for the entire world.

Like me, most of you (but not all), also learned how to be sinners in childhood, and in very particular places and ways. According to Jesus, since "before the foundations of the world," you were also designed to be the saint you are always becoming, in order to "see the glory" the Father and the Son shared before the universe was created (John 17). Divinity also guided you through the satanic nightmare of recent generations.

No matter where you grew up, the Father was surely "toughening you up" for the battles, so when you turned from your wicked ways, no matter how small or petty, you would not look down upon sinners, but have empathy for them, be patient with them, be willing to sacrifice with Jesus for them, to envision the bright shining saints that they could become, and to desire to be with them—all of them—for eternity.

Pray with Tens of Thousands

Join me and your fellow readers, all over the world, in these are distinctly twentieth century prayers mandated by Our Lady and her Merciful Son, which they convey the paradox of your singular divinely-planned existence and your connection to participating in the divine intervention that will change human history, beginning in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

Eternal Father, for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.

Send forth your Spirit, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Amen.

Amen! If you actually read that whole thing, well, it's probably dinner time (and you're the best).

Smile and wave, boys.

Love everybody.

Fear nothing.

Grab your cross, and then, because Our Lady brought you to the Mary Foundation, head (on foot, if ya gotta) for the front lines.

With Saint Boniface,

Bud Macfarlane
Daydream Believer

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